How is Estate Agency Changing? The agents view.

HOW IS ESTATE AGENCY CHANGING?

The world of estate agency has changed massively over the past ten years. From a business dominated by established high street branches and newspaper adverts to a sector that is increasingly online and lead by starts ups and challenger brands. The change has been rapid and fast; from Rightmove, to Purple Bricks to the self employed agency model. I also anticipate that change will continue over the next ten years.

How does this impact the customer?

To start with, let’s be honest, estate agents have not always had the best reputation with customers. Traditionally agents were seen as slick suit wearing and BMW driving fast talkers who couldn’t be trusted. Kind like the guys in White Gold, if you watched that series. Some of that reputation was certainly well earned. But that has changed. Why? Two primary reasons:

1. Because of the sheer volume of information the new agency model provides. A quick search on Rightmove or OnTheMarket provides the seller or buyer with a huge amount of market information that just wouldn’t have been available ten years ago. The same information is available agents commission; this is no longer a mystery and a quick Google search can tell a seller all they need to know about different agent commissions. This has created a much more transparent environment and has empowered consumers massively and pushed agents who have been unable to change out of the market.

2. The move away from corporate agencies toward the self employed model has changed the mindset of many agents. The agency business model now is very much about long term relationship building with business won via referrals rather than high street drop ins and newspaper ads. The grown of online reviews has made excellent customer service the absolute key to growing an estate agency business.

Along with the above, estate agency has become increasingly regulated with bodies such as the Property Ombudsman and Property Redress Scheme giving clear best practice guides. This is likely to further develop with the rumoured introduction of a required estate agent license, much like that used in the US and Canada. This again will increase professionalism and service to the customer.

For my part I’m enthusiastic about these changes. I think they create a market which is much more customer focused with many options for the customer in terms of how to buy and sell a house. The business is also far more appealing as an agent. I now have more autonomy than ever to grow my business my way within an established brand and model. So there will no doubt be more change over the next ten years, but we are moving further and further away from the slick suit wearing and BMW driving fast talkers of the 1980’s and 1990’s. The way things are going, my next car might not even be a BMW!