Thoughts from our Property Experts

Future of Estate Agency - Improved Service, Higher Individual Earnings And Lower Fees Paid By Vendors

In this blog I explain how estate agency will be rearchitected resulting in the delivery of an Improved Service, Higher Earnings for Individuals and Lower Fees paid by vendors. The impossible is now possible.

We all know that vendors want to receive the best service and achieve the best price for their property - the challenge for agents is how to deliver it. Let's not get hung up by classifications of hybrid, online or traditional - let's focus on what will drive change to satisfy client needs better.

Technology can and will enrich service delivery and does reduce operating costs.

Agency has legacy overheads which have increased costs over time, high street offices, previously a magnet for buyers but who now operate online.

Lots of downtime - staff - add up the time required to do the activities to sell a Prime Central London home - 20 to 40 hours ? admittedly over 3 to 6 months elapsed time. With a few exceptions time productivity in the industry is low.

Fees that can be charged largely depends on competition, the more agents in a location the more competition and usually the lower the fee.

So to prosper the best agents need to use technology to enrich service delivery and lower the cost of that delivery, to remove unnecessary overheads as quickly as possible (easier said than done when committed to long leases) and adopt a high productivity and motivating staff engagement model where time is used productively and delivery of great service and results receives fabulous rewards.

Lots of change coming in the industry and probably much faster than currently thought.