A reference to Arun Estates’ new hub business Hadleys London as an online agent on its own website was a “massive mistake”, the group’s managing director David Lench has admitted.
He said it was a proof reader’s mistake, joking that as punishment they will now be seconded to the firm’s anti-money laundering department for the next five years.
Yesterday’s announcement of the launch of Hadleys London, in Keston near Croydon, and charges from £1,000 upfront, sowed confusion among EYE readers.
One poster, Shaun77, pointed out that the brand’s new website said “We’re the best online agent”.
The launch came less than a week after EYE reported that Arun Estates has rejected offering any online strategy on the basis that Lench cannot see how it can make any money.
Lench has now intervened to clarify and started by thanking our reader who had pointed out the discrepancy.
He said: “Let me make Arun’s position perfectly clear.
“As I said last week, we have – after looking long and hard at the issues – completely rejected the concept of online and so-called hybrid agents (who aren’t really anything of the sort). We still stand by that.
“Nevertheless, it is undeniable that their appearance on the scene has substantially altered the terms of the debate about the future of estate agency, and this demands a considered response from the rest of us.
“So, what should that response be? As I also said last week, for conventional high street agents, we believe that the race to the bottom on fees can only end badly.
“That’s why, in order to defend our existing high street brands, and the investment we have made in them over nearly three decades, we are very much following a strategy of developing premium brands and providing a premium service.
“We have always held out for a higher commission rate in order to provide the higher level of service which we believe customers want.
“However, when it comes to expanding into areas where we currently have no presence, we have chosen to use a parallel – but different – approach. Hence the hub-based model we have adopted for Hadleys London.
“Hadleys has office premises within the Bromley catchment area that we are covering. It will be traditionally staffed with listers and sales negotiators and is supported by a sales progressor, mortgage advisor and administrator.
“Because it covers a larger area, our costs are proportionately less. This enables us to trial different commission structures – including the traditional ‘no sale, no fee’ arrangement. However, in every other respect, Hadleys will operate just like any other full-service agent.
“Time will tell, of course, but here at Arun we are confident that we’re on the right track.”
Or of course they could have launched Hadley’s at a normal fee level instead of actually starting at the bottom of this race David seems to think everybody is in.
That would have been a true test of this model of business.
Shame really, a wasted opportunity and a clear example of you can’t have your cake and eat it.
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“We believe the race to the bottom on fees can only end badly”…..So we have chosen to join that race!
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Shambles
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plus VAT? Pretty sure thats not allowed?
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This is like Waitrose opening an Aldi franchise I guess
The corporates own shares in the on-liners too
Does anybody believe in their strategy these days?
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I believe in MY strategy if that’s the answer you’re looking for, J1…
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By the way, they cannot make this work with the overheads involved.
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You are undermining your own brand by offering a cheaper service.
People either want cheap online agent, or full service agent. You offer neither.
Their branch local to me charges 1.5% plus VAT and a 20 week sole agency, whereas most of the rest of the High Street offers 1%-1.25% plus VAT and 6-8 week agreement. Maybe start sorting that side of your business out first rather than setting up yet another online company. There are so many its inevitable 90% will fail or merge.
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Arun Estates aka Ward and Partners, Douglas Allen and Cubitt and West can now truly add Hadleys as a hybrid online agency to their trading names.
Shame they can’t admit it and want to wrap it up in different packaging but lets face it if it looks like an online agent, values properties like an online agent and covers huge territories like an online agent then I think it fair to say it is an online agent.
The nearest office they have to Hadleys base office in Bromley is in Welling South London and has never generated much in the way of profit for them so it is unsurprising they need to adopt a different strategy. Arun have always been and remain an aggressive sales agent with huge staff turnover and little concern other than for the bottom line and this is unlikely to change as it is something they do so well, will they do as well with their online offering that even their own staff believe to be an online offering only time will tell but if you combine this with their recent reduction in office opening hours, increased salary packages, an exodus of quality staff to other online agents and declining market share across the group Arun Estates looks like it’s in trouble waters, (just as well it has no share holders) as DL said no one can predict what Estate Agency will look like in 10 years time but it will certainly look different to today!
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