Whilst scrolling through my LinkedIn posts this morning, two caught my eye. They are at the bottom of the page.
Originally, it made me smile because of the placing of the two updates on my 'newsfeed'. In case my screenshot skills are somewhat sub-par, and for ease of reference, the first of the two updates is an 'online' agent posting that they 'SOLD' a property (sale agreed? Sold?) at 21.13 'tonight' (Sunday night) when all other high street estate agents are closed. Fantastic no? Yes - but I'll come to that later. Closed, but should still be working, so a moot point.
The second of the two updates, immediately following this, showed a traditional, high-street agent agreeing three properties before being released to the open market. Also brilliant, undoubtedly.
However, high street agencies can perform both of these accolades, but not online agencies.
Let me expand. We have done both examples recently, and I'm not blowing my own trumpet. Poole, BH13 AND BH14 is filled with several very good estate agents and I'm sure many of my contemporaries have similar examples.
On the top example, agreeing a sale out of working hours really shouldn't be shouted from the rooftops as much as it is. Why? Because, the way I see it, that's my job. I've agreed sales before on Sundays, Bank Holidays, and even on New Year's Eve (an asking price offer a couple of years ago!). And, as I said above, this isn't an 'I'm so great at my job' post. Any decent high-street agent you invite to value your home should be able to give good examples of when they went above and beyond to sell your home. That's simply part-and-parcel of agency; we work harder to sell your home, estate agents have to work for their fee, especially in the face of competition. We're not idiots, we know that, but equally, the 'competition' really does not work as hard as a good high-street agent will in selling your home. But it's a complicated job, and don't believe otherwise. You really do get the service you pay for; I'm afraid that's just how market forces and economics work. But, I digress. On to the bottom example!
The bottom example is a high-street agency, represented across the UK, selling 'all three properties' (perhaps a new development?) before being exposed to the market. Again, well done, unnamed agent. Again, ultimately what we're all in the industry to do, so no great shakes there, but it's nice when it happens, isn't it?
Well, I say we're all in the industry to do it, but would high-street agencies struggle at this?
To give a relevant example - I recently agreed a sale that fell into both camps. It was a property that had not been released onto the open market, and agreed on a Sunday evening. It doesn't matter that our agency office was 'closed', it really didn't. I'd formed a rapport with our potential purchasers, known to us, and led them on a journey in the local market, showing them suitable properties that fit their criteria. They also had my mobile number (again, it's just part of the job). So when I originally made the call to them out of working hours about a property (this one!) that hadn't yet come onto the open market, they were pleasantly surprised, and I mentioned it fit their criteria and what they were looking for well. Therefore, when they returned my call after viewing it on a weekend evening, I was understandably pleased but not overly surprised!
A call then went out to my vendor-client, and after some to-ing and fro-ing, as often happens in the situation, a satisfactory figure was reached that both sides were happy with. The property hadn't yet been released onto the open market, and was agreed out of working hours on a weekend. So we had fallen into both camps.
Now, think about it. We can sell your property out-of-hours. We know the local market innately, know the properties on the market, how they compare to each other, know our buyers, motives, reasons for purchase and for sale, can match up buyers with suitable properties, can suggest off-market sales to suitable buyers, and any good agent worth their salt can 'create' business by putting together someone potentially moving house with their dream property that has just become available. Not to mention dealing out of office hours. We do all of this as a matter of course (and as said, most GOOD agents in BH13/BH14 should do the same).
Would an online estate agent do the same?
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