Charlie Lamdin, founder of property platform BestAgent, is launching a membership scheme for estate agents, with subscriptions starting at £100 a month.
BestAgent Club launches in November, initially offering 99 founder memberships. The company will cap total membership at 1,000 agents.
The scheme will assess applicants against criteria covering working practices, service standards and transaction performance. BestAgent may withdraw membership if agents fail to maintain the required standards.
Individual membership will cost £100 per month, while business membership starts at £250 per month.
The scheme will offer training and coaching, with the aim of helping agents achieve transaction completion rates of at least 90% and charge fees of 2% or more.
Business members will also qualify for discounted leads.
Revenue-sharing scheme
Qualifying business members could receive a share of BestAgent’s revenues if they meet performance benchmarks.
Under the proposed arrangement, selected members would receive what the company calls an investment chip. Each chip would entitle its holder to 0.01% of BestAgent’s revenues over ten years.
BestAgent estimates that each chip could generate up to £100,000 during that period. However, the company does not guarantee returns and has not disclosed the revenue projections behind the estimate.
Performance benchmarks
The club plans to introduce benchmarks based on transaction completion rates and the time agents take to complete sales.
Lamdin said agents must meet the club’s criteria rather than simply pay a membership fee.
“This isn’t a Club that agents can simply pay to join.”
However, BestAgent has yet to publish its detailed performance criteria or explain how it intends to assess compliance independently.
The company’s advisory board includes Daniel Daggers, founder of DDRE Global; Verona Frankish, chief executive of Yopa; and Rory Sutherland, vice-chairman of Ogilvy UK.
Sutherland questioned how the industry measures success.
“One of the strangest things about the property market is that we reward people for starting transactions, rather than successfully finishing them.”
The club will launch next month.
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Comments (1)
I’ve read this twice and I’m still struggling with it.
Charlie told the public that 2022 would be the peak and house prices would fall 35% by 2025. The market has softened a little this year, but prices are nowhere near 35% down. In fact, the average home hit a record high earlier this year.
He ran a survey through his YouTube channel that led to headlines saying nearly half of buyers felt deliberately misled by agents. Agents said at the time the questions were leading. This year he’s been putting out videos on “the end of bad estate agency” and telling sellers how to pick which agents not to use.
Now he wants those same agents to pay £100 a month, or £250 for a business, to join his club. We’re told members could earn up to £100,000, but there’s no guarantee and no figures to show how that’s been worked out. And a BestAgent Club at £100 a month was already on his website back in 2024, so I’m not sure what’s new.
He says it isn’t a club you can simply pay to join. From where I’m sitting, the payment is the only part that’s guaranteed.
Most agents I know have spent the last few years doing the hard yards in a tough market, holding chains together and looking after their teams. They deserve people who back them, not people who talk them down to the public and then send them a monthly bill.
Before anyone signs up, look back at what’s been said about agents and the market. Then decide if that’s who you want to pay.