Will online agents take over the world of estate / lettings agents?

October 12, 2015

Be honest, nobody really knows the right answer, nobody knows exactly what will happen, nobody, not even EasyProp, eMoov or House Simple with their millions can produce the future they want, on demand.

Now I know some people are better at speculating than others … but not by much.

The people who are supposed to know rejected James Dyson when he peddled his vacuum cleaner, Hewlett-Packard and Atari both rejected a couple of chaps called Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak when they presented their home computer to them. Decca rejected the Beatles and just about every record company rejected Ed Sheeran because he was slightly chubby and ginger.

Even Warren Buffet, the billionaire entrepreneur made a $100 billion mistake in the late 1960’s by buying his insurance business through the publically listed Berkshire Hathaway instead of his own investment partnership hedge fund. Had he bought it the other way, he would be worth $170 billion not the $70 billion he is worth today.

I am of the opinion that if you mistakenly believe that there is someone who knows, you are prone to decide that whoever that person it is, it is probably not you.

And if it’s not you, what a great reason to dither to dilly dally and hold one’s horse .. to wait and see.

I set up my company with my wife (and dog .. Joey) because I believed there was a different way for letting and estate agents to market themselves, to attract new business, get landlords to swap letting agents and vendors to use one agency over another. I didn’t invent the system, I just saw a handful of agents doing something different (that appeared to work) , and I thought, what they were doing could be systemised. I could have sat on it and wondered for the rest of life, or just gone for it. The hardest step is the first.

So, if you are thinking of starting your own agency, and you believe you have what I takes to be successful, to be different, then I say go for it…. no one knows if it will work or not.. nobody knows if you will be the CEO of the UK’s largest agency in 10 years or saddled with bankruptcy . You see the gap isn’t between the people who know and those that don’t. It is really between the people who turn up day after day, month after month, year after year, with their very best work OR those people that hold back.

What are you going to do?

Your choice.

PS .. my thoughts on the title of the blog post …. no they wont, well not ntil they they stop selling themselves cheaply with bargain basement fees and start to add value

 

 

 

 

Christopher Watkin

I teach, guide, support, mentor, consult, counsel, partner many hundreds of UK Estate and Letting Agents in their quest to grow their estate and lettings agencies business. Old school techniques of touting, landlords wanted leaflets, ring us for a free valuation, we have sold this in your street leaflets don't work anymore. There are too many competitor agents .. meaning cheap fees are epidemic, overvaluing is almost a norm to get the stock and don’t even mention about the online/hybrid threat. So a few years ago, I set about looking around the UK and spotted that certain agents (not many mind you) in certain towns were still seen as the ‘go to person on property’, the person the newspaper editor rang up every week for a comment and I looked at what they did and they were doing some thing quite remarkable…. Only one thing but they were doing it so well .. and reaping the reward in terms of decent listings and decent fees, happy staff, decent sales pipeline and exchange income, managed lettings portfolios in the many hundreds .. but more importantly, they really enjoyed the job… they enjoyed getting up in the morning and people looked up to them Over 400 agents around the UK are on a mission to change the way our Estate and Lettings agency profession is perceived and looked upon, doing it town by town, city by city. I guide these 400 agents, teach them, mentor them and support them to be seen in a different light, to be seen as the ‘go to person for property’, actually be the ‘local property expert’ and prove it. Christopher Watkin 07950 147 572 christopher@christopherwatkin.co.uk

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