This week’s Agents MVMT podcast ‘Pass the Syrup’, presented by Ben Madden, features Harry Trueman of Andrews, Steph Walker of The Agency UK and Megan Eighteen of Location Location.
The guests give their views on whether estate agents are really as bad as their reputation would have you believe. The consumer doesn’t trust agents, but is it fair to tar an entire industry with the same brush?
In this week’s social hand grenade, the guests discuss cheesy sales techniques. The you can’t make it up segment provides more of the off-piste antics agents face week in week out.
Waffle of the week features some interesting data presented as a sales pitch, and as always, Sam Offley of Agents Together, and Chris Watkins make an appearance.
If you would like to take part in the Agents MVMT initiative, provide a feature or be a guest on the podcast, contact Ben Madden directly at ben.madden@fineandcountry.com.
Properties sold to friends and acquaintance’s that are spun give the business a terrible image.
Secret commissions for Estate and Letting Agents should be given larger fines.
Once you reach a certain age people with hair cream and cheap suits are off putting.
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Maybe I just tend to look for the good in people, but I don’t think people generally get into estate agency to be dodgy.
For whatever reason, estate agency is still perceived to be glamorous and an upmarket career to have. However – probably due to low pay and low morale, particularly in the corporates – the industry has trouble attracting the best people. Combine that with the later realisation that estate agency is not particularly glamorous, then standards start to fall and corners start to be cut, leading to a cowboy service.
If agents set expectations of the job better, paid and nurtured their staff better, then the results delivered will rise exponentially.
I experienced the former as an employee and now deliver the latter as an employer, and I can tell you it absolutely works.
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Over the year fees have been driven down, mostly by agents just to get the instruction. Lower fees means less money to hire quality people. The UK has probably the lowest fees for selling and I wouldn’t be surprised if that applies to lettings as well. Countries like South Africa, Australia have fees of around 8 – 10% and their fall out rates are virtually non existent, reform the buying process to something similar to theirs and then there will be more money in the pot to hire more mature and better qualified people.
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No one is going to pay those sort of fees
The problem is EA is no longer a sales job it has become an admin job
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What?!???!!
Of course it’s a sales job. But moreover than that, it’s a customer service job.
At the valuation, and well before it actually, you have to justify your fees against agents who would rather simply cut theirs – that takes an enormous amount of salesmanship and rapport building – and that’s AFTER you’ve gained trust in your local audience, before you’ve even met them.
It’s only an admin job if you shortcut the job by pulling your pants down on fees. If more agents understood that, then standards would rise immediately and exponentially.
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I do find these podcasts mildly amusing. It’s a bit like being locked in a Daily Mail echo chamber! Clearly, if all the guests are close to estate agency, then the views are likely to agree. If you want a proper discussion, you need a counter-opinion.
There are “cowboys” (depending on your definition of cowboys) in most industries and institutions, however, estate agency does seem to have carried this scar for decades. It’s akin to if you have a reputation as being an early riser, you can spend all day in bed! i.e. There is a mismatch between perception and reality.
My personal view is that the educational bar to entry is set too low/zero. Yes, there are degrees available in real estate but what proportion of estate agents are 1. Educated to a degree level and 2. Have a relevant property-related degree. The idea that experience (good or bad) is the arbitrator of quality is inherently flawed. To underpin this, looking at LinkedIn, none of the participants list having attended a university.
In part, the lack of an educated workforce makes recruiting into estate agency difficult. Will parents be happy that after four years at university for their little angel to become an estate agent?
The main point is that estate agency isn’t perceived as a credible professional career in the same way law, finance or medicine is. Analysis of business sectors by salary have estate agency closer to retail than any of the above. A manager at B&Q has a similar salary to a manager of an estate agency.
As for it being “…glamorous and an upmarket career…”, Neil has clearly never spent the afternoon door knocking in Great Hollands, Bracknell…
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Here we go again. Recently Trump has more than proved beyond doubt, speak long enough on a subject no matter what lies or misinformation ….. ill informed people believe, those that want to believe, will and those with an axe to grind, whole heartedly love to stick the knife in and this has been happening in estate agency and many other professions for decades.
Just because someone does something wrong and more often an insinuation from what they heard from another ….. we all must be at it. Get real.
There will always be a bad egg in the nest but the majority grow into beautiful swans.
In all my decades as an estate agent I saw some pretty horrid behaviour, but when you take into account it was isolated events in comparison to the vast majority …. its a blip but with media reporting and gossip, doesn’t take long to demonise the industry, which everyone will have witnessed at some time or other and said to themselves …. “why am I being tared with the same brush, I work hard, often long hours, staff go beyond that’s expected, good effects and awesome service …… why do I bother?” I know having spent so many years all over the UK agents offices, big and small.
One of the route causes a few decades ago, which has never gone away is the perception on fee’s. The customer today is no different than decades ago, many begrudge paying £k’s ….. enter the drop in fees = service levels drop. You pay for what you get (OK some are horrendous fee’s but you get the underlying picture). Lets not mention those that say we should be charging more, that’s another story!
In all my years I’ve seen more than a few bad eggs in the industry, most are developers thinking its easy to be an estate agent. I don’t know one that lasted and always popped up in a boom time. Unless you are in the industry, you cannot comprehend the work that is involved. Enter the lazy bedroom boys and girls! I’m sure there must be some good ones but you are hiding and that ‘fee and service’, comes back in the customers mind.
There will be many agents who can recount so many “thank you”, so many horrid clients (never wrong), the list goes on but importantly the ‘not knowing what they have had to do or put up with’ to get the customers home sold. Easy sales, are easy sales. Its the difficult ones that the customer often recognises agent help, but is the scapegoat when it goes pear shaped. Customers that are Ken’s & Karen’s are never wrong!
Estate Agency is hard work for business owners and staff (or they don’t last). Many see it as a vocation, proud and rewarding when they have done a good job. The majority of customers see this. Every town has a high street agent or more, that have a very good standing in their local community and you know who they are. You may know one that isn’t ‘up there’ …… but are they in the majority and how did you come to that conclusion …….. gossip of one sort or another?
Demonising the industry over the decades has lead to perception, an inaccurate perception. Today social media and podcasts are full of gossip, some are not but when averaging over 1 million transactions per year something is bound to go wrong but 3,326 accepted complaints by TPO 2022 (not validated) ….. do the maths on %.
Unless you can change, make a difference this ‘Pass the syrup’ podcast does nothing but keep the cog going on misinformation, perception and really nothing more than gossip. You will have a jolly good natter, but will you have changed anything?
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