Agents .. are you working your way to the bottom?

November 14, 2014

We don’t usually use that proverb, but it’s true.

Trading in your principles in order to gain short term listings by cheap fees is not as easy as it looks. Once great and respected brands, like C&A, Ratners, Comet and Woolworth’s that rushed to deliver low price at all costs had to figure out which corners to cut, and in the process, fooled themselves into thinking they could get away with it forever.

Fellow agents, if you drop your fee, what corners are you going to cut? Yes, you can have cheaper paper, cheaper staff and cheaper cars .. but there comes a point where if you get any cheaper, your brochures will be tissue paper and you can’t run an agency on apprentices alone.
As the bottom gets more and more crowded, it’s harder than ever to be more myopic or shortsighted than every other agent. .. and that will get even harder and harder as time goes on.

If it’s going to be hard work as time goes on, you might as well put the effort into racing to the top instead…. become your town’s local property guru and then you can charge top dollar!

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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