Introductory Article - Edition 1
‘Start with Why’, is the often-quoted title of Simon Sinek’s best selling book and most-viewed TED talk, so if its good enough for him its good enough for me!
Why create this newsletter then?
My mission is to encourage more agents to move up-market. It is why I co-founded By Design, an exclusive licence-based marketing vehicle for agents to use to win more premium business. Its why Matt Giggs and I started the Property-Porn Stars podcast, interviewing the best in the premium market to share their insights with the industry. And its why I started this newsletter, bringing together some incredibly knowledgeable co-authors to share insight for agents considering the premium market.
But why should they consider the premium market, why should you?
Having worked in the premium property market for many years I have seen the business-changing, even the life-changing difference it makes to businesses to move upmarket.
These businesses, independent estate agency organisations, range in size from 1 office (or 0 ‘offices’!) up to 20. Moving into a lower quantity, higher quality (in terms of house price AND fee percentage), creates a virtuous circle of higher levels of income and of lower overheads, as fewer staff are required for, say, 15 listings as there are for 40, and resulting in significant profit margins.
It is the opposite of the rat-race many agents find themselves competing in now, with 10.6% more estate agency businesses in existence now than there were a year ago according to Companies House, a downward pressure on fees, and therefore a need for larger market share to keep income levels up and higher overhead costs with staff members to serve more vendors…
Many agents perceive the premium market as niche. It is not.
In fact, combining Land Registry data with the results of a survey of over 500 estate agents (Voice of the Agent Survey ’23), shows that in fact more than half of all the fees in the entire estate agency industry are from properties in excess of £500,000… so, from the perspective of an estate agent’s potential income, an instruction at an average house price of, say, £250,000 is actually more of a ‘niche’ market!
So, what market are you in? What market should you be in?
Low value, high quantity, high costs, high stress?
Or high value, high fees, low quantities, low overheads and high margins…
Encouraging agents to move into this market is why we created this newsletter, and in that sense, is my ‘why’… Maybe I need a hobby.
