Horts Estate Agents, Northampton
The Trusted Agent with the New Ideas!
The way estate agencies operate around the U.K is finally beginning to change. These changes are being forced on our industry and I believe that it will leave us with a business model that will benefit both the consumer and those working within the profession. The forces that will revolutionise the way people buy and sell homes in this country are:
The internet
Market Conditions
Professionalism
Over recent years less and less buyers and sellers have walked through the doors of estate agency branches as people’s lives have become busier. Searching ‘on-line’ has become the convenient way to look for property. This in isolation would indicate that estate agents should web-base their entire operation and trim their staffing to a minimum. However, this can not be looked at in isolation as it is not the only factor forcing change.
We only need to turn on the news or pick up a paper to realise that the housing market has toughened. Confidence amongst buyers is low, banks and building societies are not lending money as freely and prices are unstable. Those wishing to sell their home under these diverse conditions require sound advice and professional guidance. Help has to be on hand from the moment a property is placed on the market to the moment the sale completes and it must be supplied by one person, a person that has built up a rapport and understanding of the clients needs.
Finally, we need to sharpen up our act! The Office of Fair Trading is pushing the Government for further regulation of estate agents. Not only are they insisting that we should all be members of the Ombudsman for Estate Agents, they are also insisting that we should sit exams. I couldn’t agree more. We deal with people’s largest financial investment and yet many estate agents let their staff loose on the public with only minimum training.
Horts Estate Agents is changing the way it does business and it is doing so now. It will operate from a centralised office and it will allow only the best and most experienced sales people from the estate agency industry to work under its banner. They will live locally and be experts in their area. Working for themselves but not by themselves our team of ‘self employed’ property consultants will earn their money by pure volition and dedication. They will deal with a clients needs, personally, from the moment they meet them to the moment they move them. This has been the way of our industry across Europe, The Americas and Australia for decades. It’s time we caught up.
Change the way you buy and sell property today.