The future of estate agency now
Ok here we go deep breath, here’s something you don’t hear often, an estate agent saying I was wrong ! Let me explain, back in June of last year I wrote a blog called Goodbye High Street (look it up and have a read). This was about how in my opinion (at the time) estate agency had changed, moved onto the internet and that there was no need for agents to continue habiting expensive High Street offices. Well 10 months on, I have to say that I have gone full circle and changed my opinion – estate agents DO still need offices !
So why the change, after all don’t we all look for houses online now using websites like www.rightmove.co.uk ? Yes that’s right, the vast majority of people now do use the internet for their initial search, and the ways we interact have changed since I first took up estate agency over 25 years ago, we now email 10 times more details than we post, and use technology to enhance the moving process. What hasn’t changed is that there still needs to be face to face interaction between agent and customer. Last year I thought that this could be done by having an office on a business park, and that this was the way forward and a breakthrough for estate agency, but I know now I was wrong. So we ourselves are on the move, upping sticks from the serviced office and going back to a “traditional estate agents office” on a main road with plenty of passing trade !
Maybe the business of buying, selling and letting property will eventually go fully online, and maybe in 5/10 years time ALL agents will have deserted the High Street for serviced offices on out of town business parks. Maybe I was ahead of my time in trying to introduce this concept to the local area, well time will tell. For now though in 2011, one thing is certain that sellers in particular like to know that you have an office that is prominent and visible, somewhere they can come and talk to you about their move. Even though it’s accepted that the potential buyers and tenants all search online, sellers still want to know that the agent has an office presence, and more importantly that their house is in the window !
But, one can always meet face to face with the client in their own home, or even locally in a hotel lounge over coffee etc.
Business meetings are much more common in public places now, and far more acceptable than they ever used to be. Yes I accept you need a ‘private/quiet area’ to talk money/offers etc, but this is easily achievable too.
Buying a few coffees throughout the year is cheaper than High Street leases!
I’d be interested to see how you get on. Being a new ‘online’ agent myself, I’m still not convinced the office is everything.
I read statistics recently that just 6% of buyers visit offices nowadays. This indicates to me that estate agents whom use offices are convincing their sellers that you simply MUST have your property in a window to sell it. That is just not the case.
We’ve just sold STC 2 properties both in matter of days. We never met either seller, however we have built a great relationship over the phone and using mail. they trust us, because of the way we are as agents and as human beings.
Both sold quickly because, and this is our secret: 1. The marketing was s*$t hot – we used a professional and boy do they look great and, 2. The Price was right (Many local agents properties that were on the market when we first marketed the property are still there- and never in a million years will some of them get an offer let alone have a RICS surveyor agree with the current price).
In fact one of the properties we sold was down valued by £5000 from our ‘realistic valuation’. A local agent had valued his property at £25,000 more than our assessment. What planet is this agent on? Its not 2007 still, for crying out loud!
Agents will always tell vendors they need to be in their prominently located window-frontage and in the local papers and fancy glossy magazines, but statistics show that for the average property in the average town this type of advertising just doesn’t work very well.
Once the public understand fully that quality marketing and the getting the price correct – something agents local to me cannot do well on either count – then I think more of the public might take the plunge and try an alternative to paying the local agent fee of well over £5000 where we are based. Obviously this doesn’t apply everywhere!
I think the main reason for agents existence is that the core age-group of sellers and landlords is the older generation, and this generation is obviously slower to adopt and embrace technology shifts.
That will change in time. I do my shopping on the internet and almost everything else too.
Agents continually state that a property is the biggest asset you have and it is and this is why the public continues to use agents. What about when technology improves and you can talk using the computer in real time in HD. Will that improve the ability to conduce trust, without actually seeing the person?
I think there’s a place for the internet agent. I don’t think they’ll take over the world anytime soon, but the better ones will get increasing levels of business. Just like the poorer high street agents will go out of business because offering a 2-bit service and trying to charge 1.75% simply for accompanying a few viewings is simply not on. The public will see to that.
At the moment the state of the UK economy has made it really difficult for this business. It is survival of the fittest!