Flourishing independent agent the Acorn Group has expanded its high street presence, emphatically rejecting an online model, and saying that it is agents that generate business for the portals, and not the other way around.
In the last few days, Acorn has added three more high street branches to its network, bringing its outlets to 30 across south-east London and Kent.
It has bought the former estate agency offices owned by T G Baynes Solicitors in Welling, Bexleyheath and Dartford. The offices have all been swiftly rebranded and all staff retained.
Acorn boss Robert Sargent said that the law firm wanted to exit the estate agency market, and that it had sold its managed lettings portfolio to LSL.
Acorn has rebranded its new offices within days, and at the weekend, Sargent and his team were working to integrate them into their systems.
Sargent told EYE of his robust stance towards having a high street presence, and said that his motives for buying new branches was about having a good business, not about simply purchasing to add to turnover.
He said: “My board have watched as many larger businesses prey on the perceived ‘good bits’ of the estate agency businesses they target for acquisition, often looking to buy in turnover in an effort to appease shareholders.
“Though we fully embrace and are on the cutting edge of all digital media, our business model is still firmly rooted in delivering a local and personal service, via a traditional branch network.
“For our industry to sustain its existing form, the public need quality advice delivered by well trained personnel, working from relevant and well-located premises.
“Every client’s home is unique and their circumstances different.
“Consequently the need for our team to provide a bespoke, tailored service has never been more highly valued by vendors, purchasers, landlords and tenants than right now.
“Whilst many of our larger competitors, portal providers and online only competitors seek to reinvent the proverbial wheel, we will continue to go about our business in the way that has served our client base so well for the last 30 years.”
Sargent, whose firm was named by the London Stock Exchange as one of the most inspirational unlisted companies in the country, told EYE that high street independents should be proud of what they do and not be afraid to stand up for themselves.
He said: “We operate a people to people business. It’s not just about portals and IT.
“Portals don’t generate business for me. I generate business for portals.”
Acorn is a founder member of OnTheMarket, and Sargent said: “Since we dropped Zoopla, the growth of our business has accelerated.
“We’re not dependent on the portals. They are not the air that we breathe.
“Put a decent property on our own website, and that works just as well.
“The public want the traditional service we offer, albeit delivered with the speed and functionality of all the IT that goes with it.
“Online is part of what we do, but in isolation it doesn’t work: our clients appreciate more support, not less.
“Nor can people value their homes simply by using an online matrix.
“The public are savvy enough to work out what they are getting for their money. We are not online operators who never meet their clients: we meet the families, get to know them, and live their experiences with them as they go through the whole moving process.”
Sargent said he would never launch an online-only offering: “Definitely not, but high street branches, yes please.”
He said he hoped other agents would not risk the departures of quality people. He said: “Don’t simply chuck it online. Our competitors are getting it wrong.”
He said he will continue to expand Acorn with further acquisitions, and has a couple more deals in the pipeline. He is particularly looking to grow a presence in north London and believes that by the end of next year the business will have grown by another 25%.
He added that Acorn, which now employs nearly 400 people, is not contemplating a stock market launch.
Comments (15)
Big or small if you are able to offer exeptional service, good honest advice, understand your clients and get your teams to buy into that, you can thrive.
With a High Street office or network sitting behind you, you are able to offer maximum choice to your clients. High Street is on-line and so clients are able to get the best of both worlds or choose whichever version they want from their High Street agent.
In reality the cost of taking commercial premises, is a fraction of your running costs, especially when you factor in the brand awareness and built in advertising return you get. It keeps your brand in the public eye and when added to good PR, boards and word of mouth recommendation, it becomes a powerful package.
On-liners use office costs as a weapon, but in reality it’s a red hearing, because of their lack of presence on the High Street, they have to look for ways to combat that and the you can do it cheaper angle is all they have. To get heard, they need to shout loud or spend big on advertising, which is difficult to sustain, just look at the cash burn of PB and the percentage of their market share.
Most on-liners do not run the same model, their models prosper from not actually performing for their clients. PB know this so offer something different, but still have to spend millions to get the message out there and convince the public to use the, which the majority are not doing as yet.
Rob Sargent’s article highlights what a lot of people already know, people sell houses, portals don’t, a business that dropped Zoopla over a year ago, yet continues to grow unabated.
The public want what he is offering and yes their are some people out there that want the £599 option as well, but that’s much the same as there are people that only want to pay 0.75-1% rather that 1.5 -2% from a High Streey agent.
Foxtons, the agent that everyone love to hate seems to be bucking the same trend and charging a lot more than most for it?…….
If you differentiate yourselve it’s easy to win, Sargent knows that and is able to tap into the public’s mind set.
What we need is a few more Rob Sargent’s to stand up and tell it how it is and help move the industry in the right direction. We need to counter the falsehoods and myths that are out there and we need to stand together.
You don’t need the Zooplas and RM’s of this works and the High Street was way ahead with on-line already and making cups of tea and coffee a long time ago!
Paul
Is this Paul Smith of TMD/Spicer ?
No makes too much sense. 😉
apart from saying works instead of worlds, yes all makes sense!
The original Paul, no Spicer!
Portals don’t sell houses, people do
TV adverts don’t sell toothpaste. Supermarkets do.
Not sure what you are getting at when you say “Portals don’t sell houses, people do ”
People buy from people, yes. But how the buyer was made aware the property was for sale is either due to agency communicating via phone, email or advert.
So in part the portal did help in the selling process.
You can have all the leads in the world but it’s the person that controls what happens.
In respect of the portals the majority of people that contact you via a portal already know you, in fact may even be registered with you and have done nothing with them, save the initial enquiry.
Very few sales occur as a direct result of a portal enquiry. Any decent agent will know their top buyers and what they want and will have them lined up before the valuation has taken place.
Buyer will and already do find you.
Agents have created a situation where they have convinced the public they have to be on RM. They people that need to be on RM are the on-liners.
Have a proper conversation with your clients about what makes you good and RM won’t come into it.
If you have nothing to say and can’t differentiate yourself, the conversation turns to RM.
As for your supermarket analogy when I turn up at the supermarket to buy toothpaste, there isn’t someone there to meet who walks through the different options and changes my mind on what I first thought I was going to buy.
I go to the supermarket to get what I went there for.
Moreover advertising your brand isn’t the same as sticking your properties on with everyone else onto a portal.
We already advertise our brand by way of our own website, boards, newspapers, magazines, glossy marketing, e-shots, business cards, word of mouth etc etc
Thats why the public already know us.
Yes a high street position is essential you can walk to Gregs for your lunchtime bap, the pub and even Iceland. Cant do that on an industrial estate.
We have been the ‘Hybrid’ model working for around 5 years from a serviced office until just over a year ago. We then purchased a High Street Office and have seen our business grow substantially.
I think the public appreciate the High Street presence and just as importantly our staff do and staff morale is much higher than when we were in our serviced office.
Great article.
Never met Robert Sargent before but no wonder Acorn are doing well with him at the helm, sounds like an owner who understands agency and the commercial world.
Good luck to him and his group.
Great article. I’m glad someone with a successful multi branch agency has stepped up to say what we are all thinking.
Truth is, if you have an estate agency in the true sense or in the playing at it sense you need an office. Whilst it may cost slightly more to have it in the high street, the public like to see it. It doesn’t in reality cost that much more. The real point is of service. Online receptionists don’t offer a service. It’s a button pressing exercise.
High Street offices do bring profile and you need a descent environment for descent staff. I agree with Robert ,there is real value in High Street locations
Its a myth it costs more to have a High Street Office. Rents are low. You can pick up offices well below 5k per annum, yes you can also spend 30k per annum but you do not need to.
The savings the onliners make is on staff, they have less staff per property compared to a high street, plus they are not paid as well, usually just minimum wage and little if any commission.
So when they are saying its costs them less to run, the reason is in the quality and levels of staff. This is what full service agents need to be educating the public in.
I agree with most of what Robert Sargent says. All the stuff about local presence and service etc etc – great!
Why he seems to think you need the operating cost expense of high street offices to achieve this I’m not sure. OK the high street office is brand advertising but it’s a very expensive way to advertise.
Off-high street or what is becoming known as hybrid agency delivering all the local support and expertise but operating from a low-cost serviced office or even home offices gives clients the best of both worlds: the local personal face-to-face service of the traditional high street office and the lower cost of the purely online agents.
This guy is clearly no mug and has a good business, but I am really not sure that having a High Street office is vital for delivering top quality service. Surely the opportunity is for someone to offer the service that Mr Sergeant describes but not with the ‘rubber stamp’ formula of a ‘traditional high street’ agent
Plus any decent agent should not consider portals to be anything other than what they are = a marketing channel. If you get worked up into a lather and let emotion guide your decisions, you end up making bad decisions.