‘Traditional estate agents’ Category

At the first sign of positive sentiment in the property market, the agents are busy spending your money moving into bigger offices or refurbishing the ones they already occupy. It won’t be long before the ‘10 ‘plated BMW’s hit the streets – all for the benefit of you, the customer, of course…

David Cameron is urging us all to tighten our belts and look to save money wherever we can. Has this message not appeared in the Estate Agency trade press at all?

How is it that at a time when retail shop after retail shop is closing down on the high … Continue Reading

A good question and I might just have the answer.

A customer called me today to complement Jade, one of our lovely team. (if you have ever called our office you will know jade just by her laugh) Anyway he let slip in the conversation that he knew how difficult the housing market is right now because he was an estate agent.!

Sorry, rewind…. So to clarify, your a High Street estate agent using House Revolution?

This shocked me. Every day we battle against the High Street agents who try lots of tactics to try and convince customers that their high fees constitute … Continue Reading

When I talk about House Revolution being an online estate agent, this can be perceived as a negative thing, but the reality is that, whether they like it or not, most estate agents in the land are now online agents.

Why do I say that? Well, as we’ve said many times before, more than 80% of property searches now begin online and 90% of those are on Rightmove. Therefore one of the key selection criteria when choosing your estate agent is do they list their properties on Rightmove?

Rightmove is the biggest online property portal in the UK. Estate agents normally list … Continue Reading

You know, you can get so used to the way an industry works that you start to assume other people see things the way you do.  Then a customer questions something and a light bulb goes on… This is important to understand…

When you decide to sell your property, the process traditionally begins by you asking a few agents round to give their opinion of its value.

First point to note – don’t be swayed by offers of a ‘free valuation’. They’re all free!

Agents will give their opinion of what your home is worth. You will find that these may vary significantly.

Second … Continue Reading

If I said ‘touting’ what image would it conjure up? A shifty, dishonest person outside a concert venue peddling tickets? How about an estate agent knocking on the doors of home sellers trying to persuading them to ditch their chosen agent in favour of them?

Whilst it’s interesting watching estate agents fight it out and send complaints about each other to the governing ombudsman I do wonder what it says about the agents involved. Are they so desperate for business that they try and ‘steal’ it from another and feel its good business?

Ok, let’s say you’re in a car showroom chatting … Continue Reading

Do you feel that life has become overly protective ? Everybody telling us what we ought to be doing and how we should behave – ‘Warning, this coffee might be hot’ or ‘Warning these peanuts contain nuts’, that sort of craziness. The worst part is that, in reality, these messages are not aimed at helping us. No, they are designed to protect the backs of the company.

Estate agency, I’m afraid to tell you, can be exactly the same. My favourite this week, “To make sure people know your house is for sale you must have a for sale board outside”.

Now … Continue Reading