Sam's Word 10: Doing anything for a sale

Sam's word

Some people will do anything for a sale. You may have heard that saying before. It is usually associated with traditional product sales and sales techniques.

Door to door salesmen. Big feet in the front door, wearing vulnerable people down over hours in their homes.

Used car salesmen. 'Clocked' cars that show a gentle 20,000 mileage where the true mileage is 100,000 plus. Claims of the superior reliability of the vehicle that barely groaned its way into the premises the day before. Have you ever seen the splendid Ealing comedy School For Scoundrels? You should. One of the high points is the sale of a terrible car by two of the shadiest salesmen you could ever meet, Dudley and Dunstan, resulting in Ian Carmichael losing out to Terry-Thomas with a young lady (temporarily, as it happens).

There are many more examples of people who will do anything, and often bad things, for a sale.

Well, we will join some of those people. The better ones. We will do anything for a sale. If it is within reason and if it is within our values and ethics. You may not hear the word ethics around estate agency too often, so here it is again. Ethics.

So, what is the 'sale' I am talking about? What do I mean by 'anything'?

The sale I am talking about isn't selling ourselves to get people's business, important though that is.

No, the sales I am talking about are the ones that we do on others behalf. So selling a property we've been instructed to sell for the best price and in the best interests of a home owner. Or having a property let for a landlord to the right tenants and not ones who will provide an unpleasant experience for that landlord.

The 'anything' that we will do starts with working hard. My staff and I put ourselves out, big time, to make a sale. We work a lot of hours and take calls round the clock. We take a proper look at a property we're to present. No five minutes in and out and a scrawl on the back of an envelope before someone types up some crude property details sheet and considers the job done. No unaccompanied viewings. No amateur photography, we use professionals.

The market for sales is strong as I write, so you can be lazy and sell properties. We don't like that at all. We're not like that at all. Our approach is the same, is as reliable, whether the market is hot or cold.

As a smaller, but very determined agency, we can't do everything at once. Yet here are some things we have done as part of our journey. We are the result of the bringing together of two agencies to form Edward Ashdale. That meant re-branding and merging IT resources, not a cheap or easy start. Since then, one of our offices, Bromley, has moved (not very far) to a better office where we can welcome people better.

We've developed a new website, and the one we have now will be replaced when we're ready with something even better. We've been blogging interesting writing (we hope) about our industry and our locality, and more. We've taken to the airwaves by appearing on Meridian Radio - thank you, DJ Alan King. We've taken a presence on social media sites Facebook and Twitter, and more unusually for estate agents, Tumblr. Why? Because we need to be heard, and if we're heard, so are the properties we have for sale or let. Certainly we network and leaflet and have good property details in our windows like many other agents. That is where many other estate agents give up, job done. Believe me, far fewer go the extra mile into these social media platforms, or onto You Tube, which we use and we are going to be using more and more from now on as well.

The anything we won't do for a sale is to exaggerate, lie, deceive or pretend that things are one way when they're another. I wrote in an earlier blog post about "the agencies who have a drive to fleece consumers unfairly". They do exist and we will never be one of them. So we work hard, we innovate, and we build our reputation that we are twenty first century estate agents with traditional values who are good to work with.

That way, we get to sleep at night.

Sam Samuel, MNAEA CRLM,  January 2015

You can view our earlier posts in our Index here.

Stripes and Strypes



It doesn't do to get into issues of décor if you're an estate agent. It isn't for us to offer an opinion if a homeowner or landlord decides on an all-purple colour scheme or to take up a parquet floor in favour of some ugly lino.

Of course, these things can affect the saleability, or chances of letting, a property. How often do you see on TV or in print more obvious and basic tips for property owners, like ensure the property when viewed is clean and tidy? Or de-clutter. Or fix things that need to be fixed. Or get some fresh coffee on to create a nice smell (or do a bit of bread baking, which is that bit more extreme).

That said, we do have our own and private tastes, so we would, yes, it has to be admitted, probably prefer professionally to see good old bland magnolia painted on walls rather than anything more adventurous. A, dare we say it, bland, impersonal décor allows the viewer to not be challenged by another person's personal vision, and to be able to imagine minimal changes that could make the property a potential home to them.

Recently, we saw a very public and eyebrow-raising reinforcement to the bland is best message. Thank you, the London Evening Standard. Someone in a dispute painted their property frontage in red and white stripes. It caused a rumpus, one person commenting, "it's not very Kensington and Chelsea." Full story here. There's even a hint of video in the story, which makes us smile.

Other kinds of stripes are important too. One very serious, and one entertaining. The entertaining one first. A few days ago one of our team saw the Irish Rock band, The Strypes, in Tunbridge Wells, a place which would doubtless say of stripe-painted houses, "it's not very Tunbridge Wells." The Strypes started as a school band when the members were eight years old and one wore a striped shirt. That generated a name and the Y went in as it was fashionable. They're a great band and though some people might think estate agents (and teachers) don't have a personal life and passion for things outside of property, we do, of course Ask Sam in our Bromley office about Milwall FC or Derrick in Tulse Hill about Arsenal FC, for instance. On reflection, perhaps it is for the best that they're in different offices.  

The serious stripes are in Tulse Hill. Near our office is, for pedestrians, a dangerous road junction, a gyratory. Moves are afoot to plan out a new and better and safer layout. We hope that works, as we want the stripes on that road to be good and safe for our staff and the local public. We wish the planners the best with their work, and we look back to our earlier blog where someone danced on the stripes in the road, and no harm done. You can view it here.

It is interesting how things can be tied together from a single word. We don't use many to describe the values we work to. Passion. Professionalism. Innovation. Friendliness.

Edward Ashdale, your thoughtful estate agent. 

You can view our earlier posts in our Index here.

The Great British Bake-On

In the news



Most of this blog post concerns food, so please bear with us in this introductory paragraph, where we talk about ourselves. It is relevant. You see, we're estate agents, and proud of it. We enjoy giving our clients a great experience: minimal stress (this is property purchasing, letting and management we're talking about, after all), tlc - tender loving care -, and our old fashioned values including friendliness and professionalism.
 
We also enjoy experiencing that kind of service from others, and we enjoy cakes. We went the whole hog (or perhaps loaf) a while ago with our recipe flyer which shared a recipe from the fantastic South London-based Blackbird Bakery, and it got us in the news. 

However, it is good to reflect on baking as a lively sector in Britain's economy and on the fact that some high street bakeries are thriving despite the fairly comprehensive range of baked items in supermarkets these days.Shows like The TV show The Great British Bake Off must have helped boost Britain's appreciation of bakers. Ours was already high to start with.

This didn't last long

The smallest example is our Director, Sam Samuel. Not that, as an ex-Navy boxer, Sam is all that small, but he likes to bake. Not so dissimilar to that Will Smith line in the movie Enemy of the State (with Gene Hackman and a cat), "Some people meditate, some people get massages. I blend." See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0O9H0O8gko.

The staff of life

Then, near our Tulse Hill office, there is Creative Aroma. A coffee shop, but one that produces lovely ciabatta, mouth-watering fancies, and beautiful cakes. It is amazing what amounts to a business within a business can do.

On a bigger scale, the Blackbird Bakery has a number of cafe's, and one product to look out for in any of them is a particularly fine granola.

Not too far from our Bromley office, in Orpington, there is another new baker, Hank's (named after Cockney Rhyming slang - Hank Marvin - Starvin' - or so rumour has it). Hank's is on a parade of shops where a previous bakers, Plaxtol, had closed down. Too many do. Hank's was set up by the former head baker of the local Tesco, but now he does nicer bread and the cakes are great. Peanut butter cupcakes, just one of several kinds, stand out. Well worth dropping in if you're nearby - 23, Carlton Parade, Orpington BR6 0JB.

Much further afield, on a recent holiday (we have those) in Dunbar, Scotland, we found a remarkable bakery. The Bakery, Dunbar serves really excellent bread, brownies, cakes, and - outstandingly - sausage rolls. It is a community bakery, has local (and wider) shareholders, and is award-winning. It isn't too common to find a bakery website with an Our Ethos page, but there is one, just as we publish our Values.

We enjoy it when what we do and the quality of our service is appreciated. To the bakers mentioned in this post, we hope you enjoy our words. We'll be seeing you again.

You can view our earlier posts in our Index here.

Estate Agent On The Radio

DJ Alan King with Sam Samuel 

As a former sonar operator, Edward Ashdale's Sam Samuel is used to electronic transmissions. However, on Friday 8th March 2015 he was on the airwaves himself, with DJ Alan King of Meridian Radio in London.

Fresh from a game of golf (lost, Sam claims, owing to the distraction of his upcoming radio appearance), Sam chatted with Alan on air and filled listeners in on the life and times of a London estate agent. Those times included a Royal Navy career, a stint in an estate agents before having his own company, and the merger that created Edward Ashdale, the estate agents where he is now one of three directors.

Sam's time on air included Alan playing a The Happy Mondays track on his behalf, and a separate tricky five minutes. This was the time Alan gave Sam, 'our resident estate agent', to prepare a description of the Meridian Radio studio for sale (not that it will be listed any time soon). A rapid think and write later, Sam had his words, and he read them out on air:

"A well-equipped self contained studio flat with large window providing views to the front. Fitted cupboards and drawer units providing plenty of storage space. Ample electric points and connections for broadband. The flat also provides a store cupboard to the rear. An adequately spaced flat ideal for the first time buyer or investment purchase."

Considering that Alan's show is listened to by actor John Challis, car-dealer Boycie in TV's Only Fools And Horses, Sam might be able to call on additional help with selling the property. Certainly Alan and the DJ coming on air after him, Dominique, enjoyed the property description.  

At the mike

One listener messaged DJ Alan in shock at hearing an estate agent on the show. He (or she) might have to get used to it, as Sam will be back. Watch this space for the date and time. Ahead of that appearance, Sam and Alan King on Meridian will take any property related questions that Sam can help with. Or maybe even golf ones.

Contact: sam@edwardashdale.com. 

You can view our earlier posts in our Index here.

On The Market.com is on the market

We are founder members, gold members in fact, of the new homes portal, On The Market.com. What does this mean? That we get a key to the Executive Washroom? Well, yes, but more than this, it shows we have thrown ourselves, heart, soul, and wallet, into the new platform.

Here is a link to a description of On The Market that it posted on its launch day on 23^rd January 2015 – http://blog.onthemarket.com/content/welcome-onthemarket-com-new-simple-way-search-property/.

Many estate agents have stayed out of On The Market.com for a variety of reasons, including waiting to see how it does before taking the plunge. Of course, if too may did that it would be unsustainable. Yet if you go around London you will see other estate agents, others as ambitious and forward-looking as Edward Ashdale (well, almost), with their windows plastered with On The Market.com stickers.

So, what has the reception been since the launch? We embraced it, obviously, so much so that we have a video telling people about it – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v4vpcM9tac.

Talking of videos, you can see On The Market.com's 30 second TV advert here - http://youtu.be/21BRn5dfupc – and we've added it to our own You Tube playlist, appropriately named Friends Videos.

Once On The Market.com went live, Zoopla experienced an early 11% reduction in advertising from estate agents, but commented that the real test for On The Market.com is interest from consumers – http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/zoopla-affected-by-onthemarket-launch-as-advertising-members-fall-10040861.html. Of course, consumers need something to consume and not only is the On The Market.com website customer-friendly, it has interesting news and blog pages, a draw by themselves. It took just three weeks to clock up one million unique visitors to the site – http://www.cityam.com/209726/estate-agent-wars-onthemarket-hits-one-million-mark-unique-users-its-battle-against-rivals.

An early Guardian newspaper report compared availablity of properties on Rightmove, Zoopla and On The Market.com, and even at that early stage, the site was a contender with significant listings – http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jan/26/property-site-onthemarket-rightmove-zoopla-selling-houses.

Another early report, this time from City A.M., warned that On The Market.com was lagging behind its rivals in Google local property searches. However, we believe that On The Market.com, itself run by Agents Mutual, is there for the long term and in the long term becoming a bigger player on property searches is a very strong likelihood. Article here - http://www.cityam.com/208155/onthemarket-will-need-win-google-battle-it-can-really-challenge-zoopla-and-rightmove.

So, almost a month in and the jury is out on the impact of On The Market.com. Certainly, there is already an impact. What is most surprising is that those early reports seem to want to conclude on the success or failure of On The Market.com when it has hardly begun. Give it twelve months and then the judge can don his or her black cap, or not.

You can view our earlier posts in our Index here.

Rolling Stone magazine says it will be a great 2015... so do we

Rolling Stone magazine says 2015 Will Rule and offers 68 reasons why. You can read them here. Their perspective is, of course, American, so they cite things like the new Fall Out Boy album American Beauty, American Psycho (out today, 19th January), a video of which is here:

We published our own debut video a few days ago as well. OK, it's not likely to become as famous as Patrick Stump and co, but perhaps a later one will be. If  we can partner with Take That or those Fall Out Boys.

Rolling Stone also looks forward to American Football's Super Bowl XLIX on 1st February. UK's Gridiron fans can be assured a tense time in the small hours.

Meanwhile, Bob Dylan is to publish a new album. The man is such a living legend and hopefully Shadows Of The Night will be well received. Something else we hope to be well received, and we very much like it, is On The Market, a new online property portal launching on 26th January. In its on words:

"OnTheMarket.com will be a new place to view hundreds of thousands of properties to buy or rent all over the UK. Every property will be on offer from locally based estate or letting  agents. So whether you're looking to buy, rent, sell or let a property, you know that you'll be dealing with local experts who you can meet face-to-face.  With a simple, uncluttered search function and exclusive content, we hope you'll agree: if you're in the market, you'll need to visit OnTheMarket.com."

Many in our estate agency business would argue that a new property portal that is as friendly to estate agents as to the public is overdue. Something in 2015 that is perhaps more inevitable is that literary smash hit 50 Shades of Grey has been made into a film, and this is out on February 14th. Yes, Valentine's Day:

For those of more unearthly tastes, the raft of superhero movies continues, with, among others, Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron being released in April:

In music, Taylor Swift begins a tour, that does take in Europe, on May 20th. Perhaps if we can see her backstage at a concert we can ask her for her thoughts about On The Market. Or perhaps not. But we're sure she'd like it. Patrick Stump and Iron Man too.

As 21st century estate agents with traditional values, we're hardly dinosaurs, but these will be on view from June 12th as a new Jurassic Park movie growls onto the big screen:

November 6th sees James Bond back in action in new movie 'Spectre', and in December a new Star Wars film - The Force Awakens - seeks to fill the gap left by the end of the run of movies featuring hobbits and people with beards even longer than is currently fashionable.

So, we have mentioned only nine of the sixty-eight things Rolling Stone is looking forward to, and without mentioning British highlights like Wimbledon, the FA Cup Final, and, er, the General Election. So it the year ahead should be great indeed.

So, enjoy 2015 and do join us on On The Market. That Force, too, is about to awaken....

You can view our earlier posts in our Index here.

Sam's Word 9 - OTM and the Estate Agents Markets

Sam's Word

I feel compelled to write in direct response to an article published by Anna White of The Telegraph 
yesterday. A number of points riled me, but compelled because having read her articles previously, it would appear she is anti-Estate Agency in her writing. I'm not sure if this was to fire up house sellers given the headline in an attempt to batter estate agents, but I stopped short of writing to her directly and decided instead to pen this.

We got involved with Agents Mutual at the very outset 18 months ago in a meeting at Savills head office in the West End of London. Undoubtedly the time had arrived to restrict the two mainline portals from their charging policy, to protect us 'a consumer' in this context from exorbitant pricing. I am pleased Ian Springett, Savills, Douglas Gordon et al conjured up such a plan and proud to be a part of it. Zoopla to be fair were not primarily at fault. Rightmove's charges  however were increased annually and unfairly in my opinion. After the first meeting we held our own discussions and decided to join up with Agents Mutual. We also did some research choosing not to delay and banish one of the portals. Our research found we got more traffic and better quality leads from Zoopla, so we allowed the contract to expire. This has made no difference to our customers in achieving the best possible price, in the quickest possible time frame. We have been running with Rightmove as main portal now for about 12 months. Only one customer over this period has demanded we use Zoopla as well. A one bed flat where the value was dictated to us. Fortunately we have a good relationship with our competitiors locally and another independent who is not involved with OTM, but cannot afford to list with Rightmove listed the property for us on Zoopla. We have not received any leads from Zoopla against four from RM. So to suggest consumers property marketing 'will be halved' is totally incorrect. If you consider also consumers will look at both Rightmove and Zoopla and most of the time the listing is just duplicated. In fact buyers will go to any lengths to find the property that suits them. It therefore is not 'a rotten deal for consumers. In response to Angela Kerr's comments of the Homeowners Alliance it is not 'about protecting estate agents' market share and profits.' As high street Estate Agents we are already subject to ridiculous costs. How about the portals that are allowed to charge in effect what they like unfettered? It's about gaining control, which is what consumers want isn't it? No one body should be allowed to gain a monopoly and in this case a duopoly had to be stopped.

The reporter writes that the largest property and lettings agency Countrywide, including Connells and LSL has rejected OTM. Actually these large groups have links with RM and therefore are not allowed to join as there will be a conflict of interests. Actually from my experience and in my opinion these are the agencies who have a drive to fleece consumers unfairly. Fees at 1.25%+. Employing aggressive tactics to win instructions and to win mortgage business. The latter which is vital for their model. These offices in the area I have worked for 17 years have a high staff churn rate and they're only interested one thing. Profits for their share holders. This leads me to the consumer and online agencies. A good few years back we positioned ourselves as a cross between the traditional high street estate agent and an online estate agency. Recognising the charges consumers faced by Estate Agents as unfair, particularly at the high end, we introduced a modern pricing strategy, which was very well received by the consumer. Only now however are we beginning to establish ourselves amongst the sea of traditional High Street estate agents, who have enjoyed years of high fees from the days of print advertising. The introduction of the internet 15 years ago was the embryonic change to our industry, but for some reason it's taken a while to fully evolve.

Simon Hughes of Conran Estate Agents has done a seemingly admirable thing in allowing his advertising space of a page in a highly regarded local magazine to be used for OTM. Albeit at a small cost. Usually agents who compete with each other, will come together planting their brand logos on a back drop of OTM branding demonstrating their support for OTM. Simon's passionate support of OTM comes from his fear of online estate agencies, who have been barred from joining OTM. Whether we like it or not online agencies are here to stay. I do not believe barring them is of any benefit at all to OTM. In fact it could be detrimental. I do believe, from experience they are not able to deliver the same high quality services a High Street Estate Agency can. We've competed with these online agents before. It really is down to how you can demonstrate how you will achieve the best possible price for a consumer and most importantly what the consumer wants. If they choose to use an online agent purely based on low cost and suffer the low quality service then that's fine. Some consumers are robust characters and able to deal with the house selling process. I would say that most aren't and want the guarantee of a start to finish service, with a person they can connect with and are comfortable paying a fair price for that service. Property like most industries is about people and there is enough of the pie to go around for everyone.

Ultimately our industry is changing and it has been a long time coming. I've always said it will sort out the men from the boys and put us on a level playing field. The consumer remains protected and will get a better deal as a result. A property being listed on one portal a couple of days before going on a main portal is unlikely to be detrimental to the consumer. OTM has to employ some sort of strategy to help their portal catch up to the years Z and RM have got away with fleecing agents. If you cannot adjust to the revolution then this industry is not for you.

Now that's off my chest I wish you all a good day and best wishes for 2015. It's going to be interesting!

Sam Samuel, MNAEA CRLM,  January 2015


You can view our earlier posts in our Index here.