A number of agents could shift permanently to working from home much of the time, new research suggests.
Analysis by economists at KPMG suggests a move towards home working – across a number of sectors – will become permanent after the pandemic with some businesses taking the opportunity to reduce their rent bills by cutting back on office space.
The study suggests that offices will largely become “collaboration hubs” where many workers come to meet rather than sit at desks and performs tasks individually which can be effectively completed at home.
Home-based agency, Meyers Estate Agents, set up in 2014, is among those that expects to see a growing trend toward a more flexible working policy in the near term, with significantly more agents looking to shift to working from home permanently.
“Our family-friendly business model offers the opportunity to achieve a healthy work-life balance, as well as enriching the lives of those in the community,” said Mark Meyer, principal, Meyers Estate Agents.
The company has recently recruited three new franchisees as it rolls out a new national recruitment drive, designed to increase market share and help property owners sell fast with more affordable costs.
Meyer said: “Despite the Covid chaos of the past 12 months, the market remains strong and prices continues to rise, proving property is a stable environment regardless of what else is going on in the world.
“Currently, many are reconsidering career choices or for those already in the sector, some are looking for a more modern model or are ready to take up the challenge and rewards of becoming self-employed. As a result, during the Pandemic, we have taken on three new franchisees based in the Axe Valley and Lyme Regis, Blandford, and Wimborne & Broadstone plus a self-employed associate and are now expanding further.
“For many years, we have recognised how the benefits of reduced overheads achieved by moving away from the high street and taking advantage of the latest technology can be passed onto our customers. Our business is about how local agents build close relationships with their communities and become the go-to property expert in their region for sales and lettings. They expand at their own pace by working with other self-employed staff as necessary to grow within their territory.”
Myers is currently on the lookout for the right personalities to join and grow his brand as franchisees.
He continued: “Experience of the property market is not always necessary as our system is so easy to learn. However, our highly personalised approach is tailored to individual clients and so we are looking for people, people.
“Our team’s professionalism goes above and beyond to ensure our customers always come first and their transaction is as stress free and speedy as possible.”
There is an important part of that article that adds a slightly different spin or viewpoint that needs to be considered, its the picture of Mark and Claire. That’s two people who go off, do estate agency and come back and talk about what they’ve been doing. They are doing what other agents do but their office is their home.
Estate agents are people people, they have to be. An important part of that is the interaction with colleagues. Without that interaction estate agency doesn’t have the bit that makes it more than a job for a lot of people and becomes listing property that’s uploaded to a portal. It becomes passive.
There is no doubt agency can be done efficiently, effectively and well without an office, “it can be done from the car just me and someone to do the admin”. That’s solitary and devoid of the banter that breaks up the day. What is important to note about lifestyle agency is when the agent stops so does the agency- there is no succession plan and it’s hard to put one in place, expanding the business is more difficult too.
Passive intermediary agency can be done from home, some people can do estate agency from home but estate agency is best done where people can mix and work together. The office doesn’t have to be on the high street any more but what has to be considered is that a window display is a 24/365 physical presence of a brand that apart from boards is otherwise all on line.
I spoke to an agent recently who’s gone car based, they sounded lonely, almost bereaved. “The money has been fantastic but something is missing and this isn’t fun. I am never not at work”
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Robert-May “I spoke to an agent recently who’s gone car based, they sounded lonely, almost bereaved. “The money has been fantastic but something is missing and this isn’t fun. I am never not at work”
Probably explains why so many of the self employed agents post endlessly on social media sites trying to recruit to the 80’s style pyramid selling agency model. They are lonely. Anybody who does not work with you in your agency will always be your competitor, no matter how frequently they smile at you and call you “mate”. The office allows us to feel part of a team, with colleagues to support us and help spread the burden of heavy workload first hand. A shared responsibility in even making a brew for the team goes some way to helping you feel included. Without a Team to sound off to, share a joke with and to even take a call for you, the job could become a lonely place.
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bestandfinal51 “Without a Team to sound off to, share a joke with and to even take a call for you, the job could become a lonely place.”
Thats so true – we presently run three weekly sessions and two further monthly sessions with industry leaders to keep our network connected – also, and more importantly, most of the business owners have developed their own team of 3/4/5 team members who are all working together daily for market share – they don’t all sit in the same room every day that all – they do get a lot done and in some cases are dramatic market leaders.
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I think it is down to the person really. WFH will suit some and not others.
EG
– a married employee with kids = WFH win
– a mid 20’s negotiator = mingling and banter may be more important
The world has changed whether you like it or not and WFH is now proven to be effective. Tarring everyone with the same brush is short sighted and could lose you good staff members in the long run. The old world has gone and we all know what happened to the dinosaurs right?
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The work from home model does away with an agency having staff- good staff will have agencies of their own and compete with other good staff who are doing the same, that creates a lot of competition at one level of the industry.
There is no doubt the industry is changing but as for dinosaurs that’s a weak contradicting analogy, the best ones evolved and are still here today, dominating what they do.
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Yes you are right, some dinosaurs evolved and are still here today. In fact chickens are the most populous bird on the planet. The mighty chicken. Food.
To me this sounds like car drivers and cyclists, snow boarders and skiers, meat eaters and vegetarians. Both sides rant about the other but when you’ve done both you have the full picture.
I know you have more time than me so we can speak again in 5 years and see how the evolution is coming along 🙂
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I’ve been posting my thoughts about things for a very long time and remember first predicting a reduced reliance on ITZA offices in 2010/2011. I cited a local agent who’d sold £17,000,000 of property at full commission working from her kitchen.
It might be a real struggle for people’s ego to accept but full service agency ‘works’ in only a few ways, outside that the ‘agents’ are passive intermediaries who list properties on the portals
The office doesn’t have to be on the high street but a window display is a very cost effective reinforcement of a brand identity.
I’m not knocking any business model but I do understand the differences between them.
5 years ago we were told by 2020 the industry would have evolved so 50% of all business would be done by online agents, I’m happy to see how things evolve and will be happy watching what works and what doesn’t.
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Hey Robert
Thanks for your comments, it is clear the Jeff Bezos had critics too when he started his not on the high street model has done ok – i giuess that it is all about the support on offer, the netowrk involvement, the training, the experience and the processes, do they work and can they work well together – we feel it has been an awesome journey, at times working on the beach and trips abroad with plenty of free time and income –
But its not easy to have built the network – but the system is working really really well for our team
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I’m not being critical Mark, as always I am providing a helicopter view for people to consider and debate.
Making the leap from a secure job in a branch to what you’re achieving is not achievable to everyone. If I point out the requirement to be able to cope with solitude and that prevents someone making a mistake, I’ve helped someone.
What works for you doesn’t work for everyone so all I’m doing is providing a balance.
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Thanks Robert – you are right this is NOT for everyone only bright self starters who know what they want and why –
Drifters will perish here very quickly-
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It’s hasn’t been proven to be effective by anyone. That’s simply not true.
WFH seems to be attractive to lifestylers and those looking to earn a basic wage without the hassle of running a business. Dare I say it, the worst performers will work from home as a last resort as they are not capable of running a real business.
Scraping a basic wage from home is not a business.
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AlwaysAnAgent ‘Scraping a basic wage from home is not a business.’
Too true – some of our team are already very financially secure and they don’t need market domination to make ends meet – these agents in the network are happy with great queality interactions and of gaining trust from the people they deal with rather than trading blows at the top end of their markets – this business works well for them as they are able to earn quite well with not much effort.
For those seeking better incomes targets of £500,000, £550,000 and £750,000 have been set for for three of our agencies this year – and most are plus £200,000 . i’m sure they will earn very handsomely for those numbers with not much overhead to cointend with, lets say a few thousand each month.
We only launched the franchise opportunity to the national network after 5 years of pilots so that we are able to connect all the elements that are needed for a world class agency from home and securing well over £1.1 Billion of instructions in the network as pilots – we are ahead of course to be a high earning alternative where in several areas our fees are higher than our high street competitors.
We are in this for profit and people.
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Exactly what I mean, it’s a lifestyle choice and not a business. And businesses usually quote fee income or number exchanges rather than house values. House values are a bizarre measure to use.
When you say targets have been set, these are dreams and not reality. What is the average actual income per franchisee or per pilot in the their first 12 months of trading? And of the pilots how many crashed and how many survived?
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Yes 100% have succeeded – not one failure either franchise or at the self employed level- not all ex agents either
income per franchisee – a good example is a recent startup who within three months has a £50k pipeline and will have paid back her franchise fee and costs by month 5 easily – that’s not the best performer just the most recent –
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Agents jumping on this bandwagon may live to regret this idea and forgetting what our industry is about = Service. I know many who have tried this from home based business and failed over the years. The service includes more than just taking a few photos and shoving the information on the web, which is precisely what most on-line only do and why that part of the industry cannot get passed the 5% of market or gone bankrupt over the last decade.
Yes, it can save you office overheads. Please tell me what the other savings are!
You become hidden from your customers, less presence = less market share = failure.
Whatever happened to the idea that public buys into an agent because of their personality, reputation, local brand awareness and access. Its a People Buy People Industry. Estate agency is a sales environment and those that are successful deliver a service that is better than their competitors. Far too much new generation are looking for less effort and being sold the idea that new tech is the way forward. Tech is only a part of an agents business operations, its is still a peoples business.
To be a true success working from home to be the norm, the public need to be willing to permanently switch over. Show me one agent working from home who is not at or near the bottom of the local agents pile.
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Russell, Ewemove Barnstaple, Jane Taylor Taylor Underwood both do a very good job and are respected locally for doing the job well
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Woodentop – Agents jumping on this bandwagon may live to regret this idea
7 years in 100% success rate so far….
He he, thats quite easy for us.. moist of us are market leaders.
Most of our agents are leading agents in our locations (as long as estatblished more than 1 year ago) or getting there. With the top 5% BEAG award over all offices in the brand for market performance and capbilty. We have multiple awards for performance.
Yes, it can save you office overheads. Please tell me what the other savings are!
We use social media for our marketing and community networks and so we have hardly any marketing costs bar port6als either, but you’ll have to sign up to know all the secrets about devloping maximum profit 😀
i think we can see how well home based agency works when done well but we also agree without the structure experiece and support it is often prone to failure. I can assure you with no shop fronts – the system is simple and powerful and fun to do
“Show me one agent working from home who is not at or near the bottom of the local agents pile.”
How about Nick Neill from Ewemove who started from his house with no experience and is now MD of his company –
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You miss the point but then that was to be expected as this really is an advert for a franchise, who’s agents have offices! Does that not contradict the story?
The story leads with A number of agents could shift permanently to working from home much of the time and then goes onto to say this could be permanent to reduce office costs.
My observation to that is that the public is not ready to switch over totally to no office contact as proven by e.g. PB 3.6% market and all those on-liners who have gone bankrupt. As to social media being the way forward, just about all agents are doing it, so has nothing to do with being an advantage working from home.
What you are actually creating is call centres syndrome in a people to people business. We all know what the consume thinks of ‘call centres’! My observation is agents who loose their local presence from where they are expected, lag behind their competitors. You are not offering anything better than your competitors, your are visibly offering less. So saving on office costs (not cheap) which frankly is your only advantage is a double edge sword …. loss of business if your customers are not happy and so far 95% of market, after all the so called tech revolution is still with the High Street?
Show me an agent that has the market share in their locality ….. it has a high street office. Interesting to note RightMove shows that the agent in the story in Bournmouth, 72% showing SSTC many as far back as 12 months ago, which raised an eyebrow on genuine stock?
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He’s deluded. No facts, all hype and bluster.
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15% market share over three postcode sectors of Bournemouth from one home based agent is just one stat i can happily share with you. No high street branches – only home based business. BH20 – most sold in the area for the last year – no previous experience . Voted top 3% agency in the Best Estate Agency guide 2020 and top 5% 2021 (all off high street businesses) for speed and quality of sale and market share.
16 poor quality High street branches closed down in one location trying to compete on service and capability of that branch in DT1.
Over £1 Billion pounds of instructions put on market since we opened in our home based office…
Is it not possible that in this digital world an agent can be the best in the area and not on the high street?
Its not very hard do this and it seems unlikely the idea wouldn’t work surely if the standards are the best in the area and the service better than competitors.? It’s just HOW WE DO IT that hard to work out.
MM
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Did you right Donald’s farewell speech!
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