That grouping is now the largest concentration of agency brands within the UK operating some 1,200 branches and holding a 10% market share. But there is a new player in this corporate market, which has been on the acquisition trail since 2020 armed with City money and hoping to become a significant holder of market share within the sales, lettings and property management sector.

Lomond Group has acquired 50 or so estate agencies since launching, spending millions on the purchase of both small, medium and large firms across the UK from Aberdeen to Brighton, with almost monthly announcements of new acquisitions.

Perhaps its biggest coup was the purchase of Scottish sales and lettings agency giant DJ Alexander, making it the biggest industry operator north of the border.

Steering the Lomond Group ship, which has its headquarters in central London, is Ed Phillips who joined as CEO in July last year after a long stint at Foxtons.

The Neg sat down with him for a candid chat about his career, the group’s acquisition strategy and its future.

Have you taken the ‘Foxtons model’ to Lomond with you?

“Definitely because it’s become part of my DNA over the past 20 years or so. That includes working hard and going that extra mile and having a culture of reward and recognition, trying to always be one step ahead of the competition, always finding reasons to do things rather than not to, looking forward, dealing with bumps in the road effectively and ensuring you’re always relevant to the customer.

“I don’t think what Foxtons did was unique – the company just created a platform for certain traits, characteristics, and behaviours to be successful and people have been able to mirror that across the industry and the competition has to a certain extent, caught up.

“It’s about the evolution of our industry as a whole and not just in London anymore.”

LOMOND Brighton and South East team

How was Lomond created?

“At the end of 2020 Lomond was just 2,000 properties under management and a couple of PRS hubs plus the Yorkshire Linley & Simpson business already backed by LDC.

“And then, financed by them as our debt partner, we’ve been on a huge acquisition journey and we now employ over 1,100 people and operate across five regions managing 40,000 properties.”

What makes Lomond different from the other competing firms that ambitious estate agents have to choose from when looking to develop their career?

“That’s a good question, the answer to which I’m working hard to articulate both internally and externally because I feel that we are very different in our approach to estate agency. For example, if you take the franchise model [eg Belvoir] they offer a pre-packaged centralised support platform but once it’s handed over to the franchisee, it’s very much down to them to make it a success, and that’s why you tend to get performance inconsistencies from one branch or market to another.

“If you look at Connells/Countrywide it was always all about capturing as much high street market share as possible via brands like Bairstow Eves at the lower end and Hamptons at the top end.

“But with that model it’s not joined up and one danger of it is that lots of opportunities slip through the gaps because each brand operates independently. And there’s Leaders Romans Group as well, which, like us is looking to grow via acquisition – but there is not necessarily a distinct LRG blueprint that those agencies that are bought must adopt. “But what we’re trying to do is have all the single practices and systems in place as if we were a single brand across the UK but without losing the DNA and geographical nuances of why those businesses have been successful.

I want people to be excited to be part of the Lomond Group.”

“I often say our greatest strength is our centralised and decentralised model, but it can also be a challenge. I want all of our regions to have the autonomy and the understanding that what works in Scotland, for example, is very different and may not work in their region, but unite them all via a centralised CRM system. We also encourage people to share their knowledge and experience with colleagues from across the group. I want people to be proud to work for their brand, but also excited to be part of Lomond and have the two sit very comfortably together.”

How are you going to strike the balance between ‘corporate’ and ‘local’ that Countrywide arguable got wrong?

“The key bit is to ensure that we have a premium regional hub business and that when we acquire an estate agency it is integrated into that business – rather than having five or six acquisitions all competing against each other on their patch, and ensuring that each region has one or maybe two strong and powerful brands. Therefore, when we go and look for a new region to enter, we will identify the best available business that we can acquire, other than any clearly unavailable existing alternatives like say Knight Frank or Connells/Countrywide brands, and then see which is the best privately owned business with the best practices and a good lettings book. We will then make that agency the hub brand and use it to make the ‘spoke’ acquisitions of smaller agencies or lettings books – and ensure that the customer interaction is with just one brand.

“Lomond wants to avoid that issue of having a very fragmented regional collection of people and brands where no one understands what it means to be part of the larger group. That’s why across our six regions we only have nine or ten main brands.”

‘Spoke’ acquisitions will be business owners looking to exit the industry or retire?

“Yes, someone with one or two branches who wants to sell their business for personal reasons or offload their lettings book.”

Dexters famously doesn’t have a huge HQ – so will you be keeping yours slim? And where will talented/ambitious potential joiners fit into the structure?

“Either or really – if they want to start off in lettings or sales it will be in the regions and the same with our client accounting and property management functions Anything customer-facing is being kept in the regions – I don’t want to have what Countrywide had and have a huge call centre in Birmingham where staff tended to forget who they were answering the phone to.

“The perception that local knowledge and capability is key is important to our customers when deciding which agency to use but what we do have national marketing, finance, operations and HR hubs in London and Edinburgh and that’s how we power those regions. I want to take as much of the non-customer facing operational administration from the regions so they can focus on interacting with their clients and customers.”

You don’t appear to have operations or a regional hub, etc in London – why is that?

It’s part of the plan to move into the Capital – it’s where 30% of all transaction are in the UK. We have a Lomond investment team that we set up 18 months ago which is managing the 3,000 properties we already manage for Build to Rent clients, largely in London, but in terms of a hub in London we’re actively looking for the right business/brand to acquire that will sit best with the rest of our model in the UK. In London it’s about doing the right thing at the right time rather than just having a footprint for the sake of it.”

It’s about the evolution of our industry as a whole and not just in London anymore.”

You are owned by a finance business – the assumption would be that their overall aim is to build a big estate agency and then sell it?

“My role is to build the business and steer it in the right way for the long term but also deal with the direction of the board and shareholders – sometimes that can be at odds with one anther but yes, we are owned by a private equity firm.

“Anyone who understands about the private equity journey knows their aim is to realise shareholder return but also help the company find the next set of investors to take it on the next journey.

“But LDC is unusual because they are the Lloyds Bank private equity arm and don’t have such hard time limits to exit businesses because of the way they’re set up. We’re on the runway but there’s a long way to go.”

Ed Phillips – biography

After a BA degree in Law & Economics at Leicester University, Phillips joined Daimler-Chrysler UK (i.e. Mercedes Benz) as a graduate trainee in 1999 as part of a two-year graduate development programme, which saw him also do three months in different departments within the UK arm of the German car manufacturing giant. “That gave me the taste for customer-service and at the end of the graduate scheme I wanted to go into its sales operation but a lot of the established figures there were quite old compared to me and I wanted to try something fresh,” he says. 

So In 2001 Phillips switched industries, joining London estate agent Foxtons as a lettings negotiator, working his way up over the next 17 years to Chief Sales Officer in 2018. 

“Like many people who joined Foxtons back in the naughties I had seen the adverts and thought ‘why not give this a go’ and the rest, in my case, is history,” he adds. “I then left Foxtons for Lomond, which I thought was a pretty good stint but remember Foxtons was three very distinct companies during my time.That included the Jon Hunt, private equity ownership and publicly-listed company eras all of which were very distinct in terms of focus, behaviours and the way that the business operated.” 

Phillips ran the lettings side of the business for over a decade before he left, saying he eventually decided he wanted to tackle something different but not another London lettings operation. 

“I wanted something that was a [growth] journey, which Foxtons had embarked on many years ago in terms of development and sophistication, so Lomond felt like a fantastic opportunity,” he adds. 

He has also completed several London Business School courses.

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STATS: Market Share 2023 (The Roseland Peninsula): 43.56% Average House Price 2023 (H Tiddy sold properties): £996,139 for all properties sold and £1,341,996 in St Mawes. Average Pounds Per Square Feet 2023: £672/sq.ft (£8162/sq.m) for all properties sold and £883/sq ft (9507/sq.m) in St Mawes.

H TIDDY
Mark Willson, Director

H Tiddy Independent Estate Agents are based in the exclusive Cornish coastal village of St Mawes. We have been established for over 100 years and we are recognised specialists in a niche market. For over 16 years, we have been proud members of The Guild of Property Professionals with exclusivity to cover The Roseland Peninsula, near Truro, in South Cornwall.

For the first eight months of this year, we successfully sold nearly £21 Million worth of properties in our beautiful coastal Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This result is particularly pleasing for us as this exceeds our sales figures in the more buoyant market during the same period last year. From 1st January to 1st September 2022, we sold and completed on just under £19 Million worth of properties with an average house price of £899,784 at £692/sq.ft (7448/sq.m). This equates to an unprecedented 10.71% increase in localised annual average house price growth. So far this year we have sold a broad and varied range of properties in all price categories from a detached cliff top hobbies hut, which fetched considerably more than its £50,000 marketing price after a competitive bidding situation with interest shown and offers from multiple buyers.

Pleasant surprise

Our sales figures so far in 2023 are a pleasant surprise given the state of the economy and increasing interest rates. The Nationwide announced in August and The Halifax in July that Annual House Prices in the UK had declined by 5.3% and 2.4% respectively. Both predict ongoing monthly house price decreases whilst the gap between average wages and mortgage rates plus lending criteria remain relatively broad. Even though we are not complacent enough to believe that our area in Cornwall can be isolated from national housing market conditions, we are delighted that our hard work, local knowledge, and experience has reaped rewards where, we hope, the sun will continue to shine, both metaphorically and literally on The Roseland Peninsula.

Featured property: Crossways, St Mawes, Cornwall – Guide Price £2,975,000. 

ILKLEY, WEST YORKSHIRE

STATS: Time on Market: 99 properties average 127 Days Average Sale Price: £683,000 (last 49 Sales) Under Offer- June 2023: 14 Sales (SSTC)

HARRISON ROBINSON ESTATE AGENTS
Greg Harrison

As voted by the Sunday Times the Yorkshire Spa town Ilkley, took home the prize of best place to live in 2022. Standing firm at the top of the list, with one reviewer writing: “Ilkley continues to dazzle with its enviable shops, schools, stunning scenery, and transport links.

Following the pandemic, many people made the choice to move from cities to the more rural existence that Ilkley and the Wharfe Valley have to offer. Strong train and air links to the Capital are on hand for those who wish to split their time working from home and the office providing access to the best of both worlds.

We are pleased to confirm that strong sales continue, despite changes in the mortgage market, many clients identify property in the Wharfe Valley as a long-term investment and hope they will receive the benefit and enjoyment out of a new home now, with interest rates adjusting in the medium to longer term. Growth in sales is aided by families helping each other join the property ladder with private finances, those looking to move because of a growing family and clients downsizing to release capitol for family property purchases.

Sales are also bolstered by the time-honoured tradition of developing a strong pipeline, customer referrals, trust and great service which is the bedrock of Harrison Robinson’s success in the local marketplace.

Working from homers

We have many clients looking for a home with a spacious dedicated workspace, a garden office, or the opportunity to build one, therefore it certainly looks like working from home is here to stay.

We were honoured to receive an invite to join The Guild of Property Professionals recently. This has certainly helped our reputation and the help and services offered can only be a positive addition.

We at Harrison Robinson bespoke our service to suit each client, to create a stress-free environment from start to finish, whether downsizing or looking for that dream family home, we give our clients the time and space to come to the right decision on a property. Evidence suggests that often people spend less time choosing the right home than they do buying a car. Our team support our clients throughout and much handholding is available to find the right one.

Featured property: The Gables, Hag Farm Road – £3,750,000

NORTHERN IRELAND

STATS: Average House price in East Antrim: £178,025 Hunter Campbell have seen a modest increase in house prices over the course of the year of around 0.5% but with slowing momentum At end Q2, N. I House market had been bucking the trend with total transactions (2879 in total) – higher than in three previous quarters but indications that there is some slowing – await Q3 results (source university of Ulster Quarterly House price index)

HUNTER CAMPBELL ESTATE AGENTS
Nick White, Partner/Director

Although the past few months have been challenging there are certainly reasons to be cautiously optimistic as far as the housing market in East Antrim is concerned. Of course, recent month on month rises in interest rates has had a sobering effect on purchasers but this is on the back of an unexpectedly buoyant two years during Covid, so a bit of softening in the market was not unexpected and truthfully, neither were the interest rate rises.

Now with time to adjust, purchasers are coming to terms with the changes in mortgage rates but more importantly are beginning to see them level off and even a bit of competition for fixed-rate deals amongst lenders – and this coupled with a shortage of stock levels has managed to keep prices relatively static and augurs well for the future.

Demand from villages

All three branches situated in Ballyclare, Carrickfergus and Larne, report the same – we are seeing an increase in demand for properties in the outlying provincial towns and villages. This is in no small measure due to the trend of working from home and this trend is not confined solely to residents of Northern Ireland, as we have seen many purchasers either moving to, or back to, the province where a wide choice of homes in the country on a generous site yet coupled with convenience to all amenities is readily accessible. As to the rental market, on the lettings side of the business there continues to be a shortage of good quality homes and rental values have been rising. With the changes to tax relief available to landlords over recent years coupled with the increase in mortgage interest rates, many landlords have decided to sell up, placing an even greater strain on the private rental market. If, however you are a landlord looking to increase your portfolio, I honestly believe there is no better time. There is still good demand.

Featured property: Blackhead Path, Whitehead, Carrickfergus – offers around £495,000

The post Regional report appeared first on The Negotiator.

It’s never a good idea to rush things with a client.”

Nelly Berova, MD, Art Division

For many industries, conversion equals a sale, it’s that simple. But for real estate it can be more nuanced. Yes, ultimately conversion for your estate agency business means turning prospective vendors and landlords into instructions. However, there are steps along the way that are important too – getting your prospect to book a call back, arrange a valuation or join your mailing list could be considered conversions too. As we’ve said in many of our previous articles, it’s never a good idea to rush things with a client. Building up slowly generally produces a richer and more productive relationship. Based on our recent experience, there are three things you can do now to boost your conversions.

1 Improve your CTAs

The last vital step in getting customers to convert, your Calls To Action are probably the most crucial part of your messaging. Here’s how you can up the impact:

• Size – if you’re using buttons, flashes or banners on your website for your CTAs, make them visible for anyone scanning the page, but not so big that they overwhelm the reader, making your site look cheap and spammy.
• Frequency – think about more than one CTA per page to attract attention through repetition. Again, don’t over-egg it, but give people plenty of opportunities to interact. Include one CTA ‘above the fold’ or high up the page for people who won’t read the whole thing.
• Colour – use this carefully. You want your CTA to stand out while blending with your brand. Make sure there is enough contrast for it to be readable.
• Voice – be clear about what you want people to do. Use active sentences not vague or passive suggestions. Make it sound urgent and appealing but not desperate.
• Be consistent – use the same messaging, images and colours across your platforms so the CTA is easily recognised, processed and understood by your audience.
• Links – check your links are working, taking people straight to your CTA page. Be careful to make sure the page is quick to load. You can link to the page from places other than your CTA button too – images, headlines, your logo, for example.
• Make it mobile friendly; with so much property interaction taking place on phones and tablets, having your CTA display property on all devices is a must. Check your website has the right plugins to do this.

2 Use technology to automate the process

To some extent, AI and other new tech has made it easier for agents to speed up the conversion funnel. By automating some of your functions you can respond to customer queries or book calls and appointments instantly, meaning people don’t need to wait for you to get back to them. Instant scheduling software for booking viewings and valuations is especially useful, meaning potential customers can move themselves down the sales funnel without having to pick up a phone.

3 Use YouTube remarketing

Remarketing is about getting your content in front of people who have previously shown some interest in your brand. While we all know about remarking via Google, YouTube is a great but often overlooked alternative.

YouTube is the world’s second biggest search engine and a platform loved by billions worldwide, but it also allows to you to remarket your business in your area, based on location and the type of content viewed. This means you can target your ads to your niche audience, whether second stepper sellers or portfolio landlords looking to expand.

There are many benefits to YouTube retargeting including good return on investment rates. However, the main thing to consider is that video’s star is still rising when it comes to digital marketing. Statistically, viewers spend more time on sites with video, meaning YouTube content consistently boosts engagement rates, and increases brand awareness. YouTube ads also give you more time and scope to get your message across.

Finally, always remember the last stage of the customer relationships journey. It’s not just about one time conversion but creating loyal customers, who will stay on your books or sell with you again, as well as enthusing about you via word of mouth. Post-conversion follow-up emails and incentives can all help with this.

Got a question? Visit www.artdivision.co.uk

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There are rumbles that more Material Information may disturb any equilibrium in an already fractious market, while moving agents further away from their stock-in-trade of sales and negotiation. Anti-money laundering laws have already led some agents to question whether they actually work for the National Crime Agency, while others feel like they’re doing the job of Border Force when completing Right to Rent checks. Are agents now being pushed too far into conveyancing territory?

Carl Brignell at Elite Conveyancing thinks so and is full of sympathy. “Having read through The National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team (NTSELAT) requirements, I have absolute sympathy. Trading Standards is effectively asking agents to report on technicalities for which they have no experience, and without any provision for training or a guiding regulator. This is akin to asking a dentist to report on a patient’s eyesight!”

Trading Standards is effectively asking agents to report on technicalities for which they have no experience.”

“The sad irony is that Material Information is a misguided quest and is likely to result in a significant increase in misinformation. It also raises the question of who is held liable for mistakes,” adds Carl, who believes below-average fall-through rates can be achieved with the due diligence of a proficient mortgage broker and a good agent correctly pricing a property.

The general consensus, however, is that more upfront information, together with revised expectations of what happens and when, will positively affect conveyancers, agents and movers. Peter Joseph at The Moving Hub says those involved are not being asked to produce anything new but are merely being asked to produce it earlier in the process. “If a conveyancer is competent, the Material Information required would emerge during the conveyancing process anyway. So let’s be upfront about it.”

If a conveyancer is competent, the Material Information required would emerge during the conveyancing process anyway.”

Upfront adoption is already here

Many conveyancers are already on-board with the idea of front loading. Vicky Quinn- Campbell at Simply Conveyancing recognises that the more information a vendor gives before the marketing of a property starts, the more streamlined the sales process will be. She also says that information should be digitised so it can be shared in real time.

Our clients are asked to fill in a Property Information Form early in the process which gives us important information about the sale and provides the vendor with guidance.”

Like many firms, Simply Conveyancing has already taken a stand to gather information from vendors as quickly as possible. “Our clients are asked to fill in a Property Information Form early in the process,” comments Vicky. “This gives us important information about the sale and provides the vendor with guidance on the kind of documents that will be required during the transaction.” Vicky adds that getting started early gives the vendor more time to find the warranties, guarantees and the paperwork vendors “have a habit of putting somewhere ‘safe’ and then forget where that ‘safe’ place is.”

Forget forms, think digital

Maria Harris, the Chair of the Open Property Data Association and a director of Digital Cat Consultancy Ltd, has been working closely with HBSG and shares Vicky’s views. “Ideally, everyone should stop thinking, talking and working with forms – it’s one of the biggest barriers to digitising the transactional process. To truly reform home buying and selling, everyone needs to move to a data-led and digital way of working.”

The HBSG wants to make digital property logbooks compulsory for sellers.”

The digital nirvana will be for data, such as titles, deeds, searches and EPC ratings, to be collected then stored in a FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) format via the Property Data Trust Framework. This would become the global standard for data and provide the ‘real time’ access for all stakeholders that Vicky craves. On the matter of warranties, guarantees and other documents that sellers are asked to provide – the ones that are often lost, misfiled or stuffed in a kitchen drawer – the HBSG wants to make digital property logbooks (ongoing information about a property) compulsory for sellers, so information is instantly available.

The work of The Residential Logbook Association (RLBA) is admirable and is supported by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Described as a ‘digital property companion’, a logbook provided by a RLBA member will not only have useful, relevant information about a home in a secure and standardised way, it will also have a copy of the title deeds and any documents referred to in the title document.

The HBSG also wants a greater adoption of property packs (the collation of upfront information prior to a sale), which would see vendors complete IDV and supply BASPI/ TA6-compliant information early in the sales process to reduce duplication and doubling up.

Changing the order of events

Agents might question their role in any future information gathering, especially as they adjust to obtaining Material Information Parts A, B and C, so now is a good time to talk about timing. The idea is not to make estate agents work any harder. The HBSG’s aim is to shift the emphasis to the pre-marketing stage, involving conveyancers much earlier, and finding new time and cost efficiencies between memorandum of sales and completion.

One of the HBSG’s key recommendations is for sellers to instruct a conveyancer before they contact an agent – or at least on day one of marketing. The conveyancer would collate all the legally-required paperwork, would ask the vendors to supply mandated information and would assimilate aspects, including the BASPI, property log book and property pack, prior to an agent’s instruction.

The result would be a complete picture of a property for sale and the compilation of all the Material Information required, without the agent having to gather technical information.

Kate Faulkner OBE, the chair of the HBSG, says that when agents insist their clients complete property logbooks, fill in property packs and instruct a solicitor before they take on the property, the administrative burden is reduced and the resulting sale is speedy and secure.

“Being an agent isn’t easy and neither is making a profit,” comments Kate. “The two big problems for agents at the moment are the length of time it takes to sell a property and the 30% fall throughs. Both are costing agents dearly. One of the causes of these issues is not having enough information upfront, which can lead to overpricing.” Overpricing is one of the concerns expressed by Carl. Often a dwelling’s true value is only found out several weeks after a property has had an offer accepted, usually when something detrimental is uncovered by the searches or in the title deeds.

The two big problems for agents at the moment are the length of time it takes to sell a property and the 30% fall throughs. One of the causes is not having enough information upfront.”

Another issue that can derail a transaction further down the line – and can be avoided by having upfront information available – is a lease. “The information provided by even good agents is rarely enough or correct,” adds Kate. “Rushing to get a property to market without all the answers an agent is required to have – lease length, service charges, ground rent and sinking funds, for example – can end in disaster, especially if this information isn’t understood by the buyers.”

A new money mindset is needed

And now for the prickly point of Pounds Sterling and who will pay conveyancers for their advance work if a new way of buying and selling is adopted. We have to add into the mix that more upfront information may put buyers off and jeopardise the ‘no completion, no fee’ offering of some legal firms. Someone has to cover the conveyancing expense bearing in mind a sale may fail to materialise.

It was a question that hung over the HIP but Glynis Frew at The Property Franchise Group has an opinion on the matter. “What’s really interesting is the push-back that we get that the seller ‘will not pay’ and yet anyone wanting to rent their property pays for an EPC (approx £75), a Gas Safety Certificate (approx £150) and an electrical test report (approx £250), plus the fee to market and find a tenant. Letting agents have no qualms about telling a landlord to commission and pay for these documents.”

Now it’s more than just talking. We had a meeting recently where different protagonists in the industry exchanged examples of how they are making changes happen.”

Glynis’s thoughts tap into a wider mind shift that needs to take place – one where sellers have to be super-serious about their intent to sell. If a vendor is committed to selling, surely they will be invested enough to pay a conveyancer to start work before they instruct an agent?

Equilibrium

We’re returning to the earlier point of disturbing any equilibrium in the current market. After all, the proposals require wholesale changes across numerous industries and also a buy-in from the general public. Will upfront fees put sellers off? “

If a good conveyancer or agent explains to vendors what they are paying for before they market their home and how it will help them, it shouldn’t deter sellers,” comments Kate. She adds that those who are put off are perhaps not the clients an agent needs. “Upfront fees means agents get committed sellers.”

We only have to look to Scotland to see that upfront information can change the buying and selling process for the better. “When a Home Report became a legal requirement in Scotland, the view was people wouldn’t put their properties on the market,” says Kate. “In reality, it didn’t have any negative effects.”

On the contrary. Data obtained by HBSG found transaction times are 4 weeks quicker in Scotland, on average, and the average fall-through rates are 66% less than England and Wales. The upfront cost? RICS puts the average price of a Scottish Home Report at between £585 and £820.

It’s now, as more conveyancers, agents, lenders and providers buy into the HSBG’s recommendations that more objective – and creative – conversations around cost can take place. It’s possible that some agents will be able to absorb the expense of upfront information so it’s a carrot to dangle in front of sellers. Others may explore deferred payments options, as seen in Scotland, where the Home Report can be paid for upon completion or withdrawal. Perhaps it’s as simple as telling sellers they must pay for upfront information and the start, rather than at the end. After all, it won’t be a new expense but a cost that comes earlier.

Kate agrees that there are various ways of covering costs.” There are agents working closely with legal companies to provide the information for free – they’re finding it saves both parties enough time and hassle that it pays for itself. Other agents are buying in property packs to provide the information – they find it reduces time to sell and fall throughs, again, paying for itself.”

Time for progress, not procrastination

There is no question that those involved with the HBSG – the list is impressive and extensive – want change but there’s an elephant in the room. How can we stop the repeated discussions regarding reforms from internalising further? How can we take the discussions away from trade platforms and out into the real world? How can we draw the consumer into the conversation to such a degree that they demand a streamlined, simple conveyancing process?

“Now, it’s more than just talking,” comments Glynis. “We had a meeting recently where different protagonists in the industry exchanged examples of how they are actually making changes happen. The focus is on different agents, conveyancers and service providers working together to enact change. Once we get a swell of activity, this will provide the platform to educate the consumer on what is possible.”

The consumer is at the heart of the HBSG’s proposals. Its discussion paper repeatedly calls for consistent information to be shared with the general public, requesting the Government and the media to communicate changes and revised expectations. It’s a sensible approach as success stems from awareness and a degree of opt in.

It is suggested a leaf be taken out of the lettings book, where the ‘How to Rent’ guide has become the legislative backbone of compliant tenancies. The HBSG wants revised ‘How to Sell’ and ‘How to Buy’ guides to be mandated in the same way as their renting equivalent, and the contents to clearly state what is expected of buyers and sellers. The guides – sent to home movers at the initial point of contact with an agent –should also outline what home movers should expect from the professionals involved.

Regulating agents for mass adoption

Defining the service expected from agents goes hand-in-hand with the HBSG’s key proposal for the regulation of property agents. It feels regulation would ensure all agents make the changes required to improve the transactional process, compelling them to comply with any new legislation and issue mandated information.

With the guides issued, home movers would also be prepared for the checks and verification ahead, such as making it explicit that financial prequalification will take place before a purchaser can view properties and make an offer. There are also notes on a move towards one digital ID certificate, a greater adoption of open banking when it comes to AML, risk assessment and proof of funds, and recommendations on the release of mortgage funds so moves are concluded by 13:00 on completion day.

Everything mentioned above is possible and much of it is already taking place. Now the HBSG wants even more professionals involved in the transactional process to follow its roadmap, test, pilot and feed back its findings.

The tools are available – the BASPI, property packs, property logbooks and conveyancers who are onboard. What’s needed are more agents willing to stick their head above the parapet and only take on sellers who are committed to upfront information and who have been financially prequalified.

Collective change from within

There’s not going to be a sweeping law that alters every aspect of buying and selling. Instead, transformation will come from increasing amounts of mandated information, self-initiative, a collaborative desire for change within the industry, a willingness to adopt fresh ways of operation and a commitment to educating consumers.

In the end, the difference will be agents who can offer faster completion times and lower fall-through rates, versus those who over-promise, under-deliver and lose the trust of the home mover.

The post Who’s making the moves in conveyancing? appeared first on The Negotiator.

What else does this agent have to sell – this time, within my budget? And if the agent’s videos are this good, I had better line them up to sell my home, too… Welcome to the world of social media videos, which are rapidly becoming the mainstay for canny estate agents looking to hook new buyers – and sellers. Short, professionally produced video clips of high-end properties on platforms like Instagram and TikTok catch the eye, and lure people in – and if you’re not using them, you probably should be.

Doing it in an authentic way and not trying to ‘sell’ people all the time is the way to go. Social media is quite hard to quantify – you won’t always know if it’s worth your time. Jack Holman, Co-founder, Agent Extra.

“Video walkthroughs of new instructions are really catching on and the quality is really rising,” says Jack Holman, co-founder of digital marketing agency, Agent Extra. “If you can get lots of potential buyers and you are marketing properties at a slightly higher price range than what a first-time buyer might be interested in, then you are also likely to uncover vendor leads by doing that.”

Property ‘suited to video’

Pernilla Tweddle, Marketing Director of marketers Property Stream, agrees. “Property is a sector that goes very well with video content. Things like property tours, virtual tours are obviously great for use on social media, as opposed to just placing them on your property listing, on your website and on the main portals, which is where they would traditionally be used.

“There has been a huge increase in video usage across all channels. People like to see property, they like to view photos and even more so they like to see videos. That is hitting the buyers. What agents have to do is be a little bit clever with their video and property posts to hit the vendors.” TikTok has been one of the main drivers in the adoption of video content by agents, she says.

TikTok has very quickly evolved to become almost an all-age platform. It’s not just capturing the young audiences … it is quite quickly capturing audiences of all ages. Pernilla Tweddle, Property Stream.

“TikTok has very quickly evolved to become almost an all-age platform. It’s not just capturing the young audiences. No doubt it will be primarily young people but it is quite quickly capturing audiences of all ages. I’ve been quite surprised to see agents jumping on that, which is quite interesting. TikTok is the platform that has spurted that need for video. Because that’s become so popular, video is now being used across the main platforms.”

Nelly Berova, Managing Director of digital marketing agency Art Division, has seen a big rise in the number of people in their 30s and 40s using TikTok, which used to be seen as the home of Gen-Zers.

“On Facebook, to post something on your page and for it to be seen [organically] by lots of people is almost impossible, whereas on TikTok it is actually easier for your free content to become viral and to reach more people without you having to pay,” she explains. “This is why a lot of people have migrated to TikTok from Facebook, because they can find it easier to reach more people.”

If you don’t have a follow-up system driving people from Facebook to your website, it is like trying to fill a bucket with a hole – everything is going to escape the other end. Nelly Berova, Managing Director, Art Division.

Despite the rise in the age of TikTok users, it is still a sub-40 demographic, but Berova says you can’t expect to hit all age groups with just one marketing tool. “You are only ever going to reach a percentage of your prospects on any given channel,” she emphasises. “The main difference is that on TikTok you have to start producing video content, and that’s harder for a lot of agents because you have to put yourself in front of the camera, have something to say, and film it in an engaging way. This is why I am seeing the slightly bigger agents doing that, because they have the ability to buy the equipment or have a full-time, in-house marketing person that does those videos for them.

Facebook gets more leads than Instagram, but we still run ads on both because it’s very good brand awareness.

“That’s the biggest hurdle – anyone can benefit from having TikTok channel if they can invest the time and effort and money to create that kind of content.”

Social media content

Video content might be the most glamorous tool in an agent’s marketing armoury, but to get the best results, you need a fully-fledged social media campaign to cover every base. Jack Holman points out that some of the best content doesn’t cost a penny. “With the free stuff it’s about posting content which are gentle reminders about who you are and what you do to people who follow you,” he says. “If you’ve got 2,000 homeowners following your social media account and you post regular content which reminds you that you are an estate agent, you are a nice person and you’re trustworthy, hopefully when the time comes to choose an estate agent to come and do a valuation you are one of the people that pop into your head.

“Doing it in an authentic way and not trying to ‘sell’ people all the time is the way to go. Social media is quite hard to quantify – you won’t always know if it’s worth your time, you won’t know because a phone call came because someone followed you on social media. Some people don’t see the benefit of investing in it, but I invest time and resource on it for my own business.”

Free tools

Holman points out that one of the best free tools on the internet, while not strictly social media, is Google my Business, which is the organic listing that pops up when people search for something online. You, as the business owner, have to provide all the information and content. The key is getting into the top three that appear in the initial search box, before you click on the ‘More businesses’ button.

Take a tour around the properties that have been marketed and sold successfully.

“Being in that top three spot is key,” he stresses. “There are various different weightings Google puts on various things, but the biggest one is reviews. How long you’ve been in business is another; the other one is keeping your profile updated regularly. It’s a little bit like a social media profile.

“The other thing you can do on there which you can’t do on social media is you can see how many phone calls you’ve had, how many people have clicked on your link. You can see tangible results, whereas on social media you can’t.”

Tracking campaigns

Tracking the success of social media campaigns got much more difficult a couple of years ago, when Apple created a tracking opt-out option that has seen a huge take-up by users. “Facebook used to track stuff on income and job title; you could target particular roads in your area – you can’t do any of that any more,” says Holman. “You have to draw a big nine-mile wide circle in your area, you can’t go smaller than that and you can’t target people in the way you used to. Three years ago you could get sometimes over 100 leads in a month spending £5 a day; today it’s more like 15 or 20.”

Nelly Berova says that when planning a social media campaign, you first need to ask who you are trying to attract. “This is genuinely where most agents fail, because instead of asking ‘Who am I looking to attract to my business?’, they start with ‘What channel should I be using and what should I be posting?’, but you can’t answer that question unless you have answered the first one. If I am looking to attract people approaching retirement because they are looking to downsize, posting things on TikTok might not be as efficient or impactful as it might be on Facebook.

“Our starting point is always the ‘who’ – who are we looking to attract. What is it that matters to this person, where does it hurt the most? Is it a vendor? If a vendor, who is the vendor – is it a family selling because they want something bigger, landlords selling because they have had enough of the lettings market? Depending on the ‘who’ we dig further into their pain point and then we produce content that appeals to them.”

Making posts interesting

Pernilla Tweddle says it’s important to make social media posts interesting and engaging. “Take a tour around the properties that have been marketed and sold successfully,” she explains. “Create little reels or videos around how successfully they have sold. Maybe include things like text or audio; have some talk about how quickly something sold – sold in three weeks, had four buyers, sold at 97% if asking price – that kind of content is great to include. You are demonstrating success, just as with your ‘Sold in your street’ cards.”

However, she emphasises that your campaign should go much further than just advertising properties.

“You need to nurture potential vendors with relevant and engaging and personalised content that they are far more likely to engage with. They are in a position that they are going to sell, they are going to think about instructing an agent, they want to get to know that agent a little bit. More personalised content about your team, your office, videos interviewing customers – that is probably what they are going to find of more interest.

“It’s having a balanced content mix that is going to be the key to any social media marketing success. By ‘balanced’ I mean mixing up your properties with your sales messages, mixing it with local messages about things that are happing with you and the team and the local area, and also including things like property knowledge and data that you know as an estate agent. Being able to present yourself as the go-to agent, the voice of reason if you like, a thought leader in your market, is critical.”

Tweddle believes agents should not be shy about what is happening in the market, because ultimately that is what their customers are interested in. “Not spinning those stories, but posting a really decent realistic and honest piece around what’s happening in the market,” she says.

“The best way to do that is to get up-to-date market information from people like Dataloft which you can share on social media. You can also write blogs, which are a great way to get the message out and should be a key part of your content marketing strategy. Talk about what’s happening in the market, give the pros and cons, and ultimately your customers will value you for that.”

Paying for content

However, Nelly Berova stresses that ‘organic’ use of social media doesn’t work in isolation. “If you look at estate agents posting organically on those channels, they have very low levels of engagement, very few likes, very few comments, very few shares. It isn’t an industry that will get a lot of traction and go viral.

“Facebook doesn’t show organic content to more than five per cent of followers. So, if your page has 100 followers, only five will actually be shown your post. You need to have quite a lot of followers for your posts to be seen by a decent number to have any impact, so you have to put your hand in your pocket and pay for it – and that’s what Facebook wants you to do.”

Because Meta owns both Facebook and Instagram, advertising on both is as easy as clicking on a button – the two platforms are tightly integrated. “You don’t have to choose between the platforms,” explains Jack Holman. “When you are doing social media posts or running ads, the default is that they will run on Facebook and Instagram at the same time.

“What you find is – and you can see this from the stats – most leads come from Facebook and mobile. People use Instagram more for watching videos and looking at pictures, where Facebook is treated more like a website, and people are more inclined to submit leads and go on to do things like filling in online valuation forms than they are on Instagram.

“Facebook without question gets more leads than Instagram, but we still run ads on both because it’s very good brand awareness.”

Google Ads should not be overlooked in the marketing mix, he adds. “The behaviour of someone going to Google, thinking about something they want to choose, typing it in, going to the website, sending an enquiry – that series of actions leads to a much more motivated and receptive phone call with that person as opposed to getting instant online valuation leads and trying to call them up from a Facebook advert. “You can run ad-word campaigns on Google for £10 that will get you decent results.”

All of these campaign ideas will be pointless, however, if when someone lands on your website they don’t know where to go or what to do, as Nelly Berova explains.

“When you drive traffic to your website you need to maximise your conversions. Not everyone is ready to book a valuation – some might just want to have a chat, some might want to consume something.

“Social media is just the cherry on the cake. It’s not the core. If your website is rubbish, if it’s call to actions are rubbish, if you don’t have a follow-up system driving people from Facebook to your website, it is going to be like trying to fill a bucket with a hole – everything is going to escape the other end.”

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We have all heard about the opportunities and threats posed by the arrival of AI. Even those with the slightest interest in technology will have heard about Chat GPT. And yet for all its hype, Chat GPT’s spotlight seems to have lasted about the same length of time as the average property transaction.

Whilst Chat GPT is only a tiny segment of an AI industry that will be intrinsic in making the property sector more efficient, there is no substitute for a handshake, no replacement for the reassurance of human interaction. Done properly, the world of estate agency is one of the few sectors that can capitalise on the opportunities that AI will present, without having to worry about being replaced.

Embracing technology

For all of the opportunities that AI will present in the future, there are challenges that agents face today that can be solved by embracing technology. Ever growing transaction times, uncertainty and a lack of information parity between buyer and seller create frustration and poor customer experiences. For the most part it is the agent that bears the brunt and blame for issues that are often not of their creation (before everyone points at conveyancers, it’s often not the conveyancer’s fault either!).

AI is likely to augment the role of estate agents and enhance the services they provide.

Robin Rathore

Agents can use technology to solve these challenges. Whether it’s video tours and viewings, taking or creating better photos, streamlined vendor onboarding, better chain visibility, digital legal packs or offering alternative sale methods, the best technologies in the property sector have one thing in common. They complement and improve the estate agent’s job, give agents more control and keep agency at the heart of the transaction. Greater collaboration between suppliers can also help to create a more embracing attitude towards technology adoption.

Alto integration

Last month, Bamboo celebrated its integration with Alto, along with the launch of a brand new auction dashboard for agents. Our integration identifies properties that are appropriate for auction and gives agents the control and ability to list those properties for sale by online auction without having to duplicate data entry. This integration has been built with one purpose in mind – to help our agents sell more properties.

Everything we do at Bamboo is centred around this purpose; if there’s a feature on our tech roadmap or a project in our customer success team that doesn’t have this purpose at its heart, we don’t pursue it. By focussing on our single purpose, we have become experts in our field, concentrating on delivering the best possible online auction technology and customer service to our agent partners and opening the door to innovation and development when there is a need and a challenge to solve. In this way, as we continue to launch new and ever more complex technologies, we’re always keeping agents at the heart of the transaction and helping them sell more properties.

Postscript

After I wrote this article, I asked Chat GPT what it ‘thought’ about the future of estate agency and whether AI would replace estate agents. Here’s what it said:

“It’s important to note that while technology is playing a significant role in the evolution of estate agencies, the industry is also built on personal relationships and trust. Successful estate agents will likely find ways to balance technology with the personalised service and expertise that clients expect.

“AI and technology are transforming the real estate industry, but it’s unlikely that they will completely replace estate agents in the foreseeable future. Instead, AI is more likely to augment the role of estate agents and enhance the services they provide.”

Turns out, Chat GPT agrees with me!

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Adam Walker

Until now I have always thought of cyberattacks as something that affected other people but last month one affected me. We had agreed the sale of a letting business with over 700 properties under management that had been trading for over 30 years without any serious problems. However just two weeks before completion was due to take place they suffered a serious cyber – attack. A hacker got into their system and asked all 700 hundred of their tenants to pay their rent into a different bank account. Fortunately one of their tenants called them immediately to check that this was correct and within an hour of the e mail being sent they were able to e mail of their tenants to warn them that it was a scam. The attack was thwarted and not one penny was paid into the hackers account. They thought the issue had been deal with but in fact their problems had only just begun.

£1m potential liabilities

They had to disclose what had happened to their buyer and their solicitors went ballistic. What would happen if someone paid their rent into the wrong account next month they asked. What would happen if their tenants bank details had been stolen and they suffered other losses as a result. What would happen if there was a GDPR complaint that triggered a huge fine. They totalled up the potential liabilities and they came to over £1 million. Fortunately they had cyber insurance but the attack still caused the sale to be delayed for over a month and the shareholders still had to give additional warranties and indemnities in case the total claim exceeded their insurance cover .

It is madness for any business to trade without cyber-attack insurance in place.

As a result of this incident I thought that I should check our own cyber security precautions so I asked our insurance broker for a quote for a new policy with a higher level of cover and an increased sum insured. The first thing they did was to run a test of our systems. I didn’t expect them to find any problems but it turned out that I was quite wrong about this.

The audit revealed some critical weaknesses in our systems which could have left us open to an attack. For example, we had a facility to book and pay for a place on our how to prepare a business for sale course. We have not run this course since the Covid lockdown and we had made the page invisible on our website three years ago. Nevertheless, it still existed and was a security risk. Several other weaknesses were identified and over the next two weeks we paid out IT company several thousand pounds to address each of them. Our site is now much more secure and the new cyber insurance policy is in place. However, I understand that this puts us in the minority.

Get insured

I understand that less than 20% of UK companies currently have a cyber insurance policy in place. Now that I better understand the risks and the potential liabilities that can follow cyber-attack I think it is madness for any business to trade without a suitable policy in place. Many companies cyber defences are so poor that it is like the business owner leaving their expensive car out on the street at night with the keys in the ignition and a big sign on the windscreen saying steal me.

If you are a business owner I would urge you to arrange a policy and an audit of your systems immediately. In many of the American states cyber insurance is now compulsory for every business. It should probably be made a statutory requirement in the UK too. However until this happens I would urge you to take out this essential cover as a matter of urgency as the consequences of trading without insurance could be so serious that they could cost you your business.

Adam Walker is a management consultant and business sales broker who has worked in the property sector for over 40 years.

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And there the Minister was, looming large on a huge screen overlooking a hot chandeliered ballroom in a quiet corner of Birmingham Airport. ‘The Minister’ was Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up and of course housing too, peering out bemused over delegates like an all-seeing Orwellian Big Brother.

Nigel Lewis

The 1,000-odd people in the hall had bristled with anticipation before his virtual arrival while NRLA boss Ben Beadle sweated quietly on the podium, having clearly been less than certain Gove would log on.

I gather that it was a close-run thing – Rishi’s Cabinet meeting had overrun that morning and a meeting with Jewish leaders had taken its toll on his diary too – unsurprising given the horrors in Israel and Gaza unfolding at the moment.

Renters red tape

But now Gove had something more mundane to discuss – the belief that his nearing and much-debated Renters (Reform) Act, which will make life more difficult for both landlords and letting agents once it gets Royal Assent sometime next year, was a good thing.

Overall, most of the delegates didn’t seem too bothered by the extra red tape they would face. This includes national registration in England via the Property Portal; signing up to and paying for a redress scheme to deal with tenant complaints (something agents already have to, of course) and at some point (following a delay announced by Gove earlier that week) the abolition of Section 21 no-fault evictions.

This will make evicting bad tenants more difficult and expensive.

This will make evicting bad tenants more difficult and expensive going forward, whatever Gove says.

What really got the audience going, which is something the Housing Secretary didn’t mention until prompted by Beadle from the podium, was the issue of taxation. It’s clear most landlords are still hopping mad about George Osborne’s 2015 decision to phase out allowing landlords to claim their mortgage interest payments against personal tax, and the only time Gove got heckled was when he tried to defend it.

His was a familiar but odd argument – that it’s unfair to give landlords tax incentives when home buyers and in particular first-time buyers don’t get tax breaks.

And yet they already get help; many first-time buyers have purchased their homes through Help to Buy, which by any yardstick is a Government subsidy, and a significant proportion of home buyers don’t pay stamp duty at all on their property purchases, while landlords have to pay an additional 3%.

Shouty landlords

But despite the shouty landlords in the audience, Gove overall proved his prowess as a politician; unlike Sunak he has the common touch and can be self-deprecating when necessary but unlike piffle-paffle Boris, he talks well-argued sense on most subjects.

It’s easy to see why some people at the conference thought he might become the next Tory leader, assuming the party’s likely decimation at the next General Election. Remember Labour remains 20 points ahead in the polls.

But as one industry leader pointed out to me after Gove’s speech, he’s also good at talking the talk in front of audiences and editing his politics to suit them, as all politicians do.

Whether his mood music about giving landlords tax breaks and his soothing talk about the Renters (Reform) Bill being a bulwark against bad landlords and not something good landlords and letting agents need worry about, is true or not remains to be seen.

Just £10 extra

Recent research by his department claimed the legislation will cost landlords or letting agents just £10 a year more in additional administration, something most within the property industry consider to be more wishful thinking given that the extra cost of all evictions going to court will be considerable for many property managers.

And so Gove wished the conference farewell and, one assumes, some young parliamentary private secretary gopher hit the Leave button on his laptop.

“Well, that was fun, wasn’t it,” said Beadle, still grasping the podium. I guess it was, if the fine detail of crafting private rented sector legislation is your bag.

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