Inspiration

Raise Your Estate Agency Commission Today

RAT 89 (Rawlings Agency Tip)

Estate Agency fees percentages have spiralled downwards over the years and we only have ourselves to blame. Now is the time to reverse this trend – and it’s easier than you might think!

Increasing agency fee percentages is my passion. Anyone who has attended any of my courses will tell you that avoiding commission cutting is an aspect of estate agency training that really excites me.

I once asked agent to value my house and asked him what his firm charges. He said usually 2% but he would do it for 1.25%. I was just about to ask him why he so readily wanted to throw away 33% of his revenue when I realised I should actually keep quiet and take advantage of his generous offer.

But his attitude and his weakness over the fee issue are rife. We charge the lowest agency fees in the world and we don’t seem to care. Instead, we allow ourselves the think that because some or all of our competitors are cheaper, then we cannot charge much more than them. YES YOU CAN! Much more!

The trap that many agents fall into is to let our service become a commodity. It doesn’t matter which agent you choose, the red one, the green one, the blue one – they all apparently do about the same thing and would probably sell your house within a few weeks. And with so little differentiation between agents, the only question a client can think to ask is, “How low can you go?” There are no other distinguishing factors from which prospects can discern value. We have made it too easy for people to judge us on price!

With competitor pressure, bullying by clients and our inability and unwillingness to protect ourselves, we have allowed fees to spiral down to virtually nothing in some cases. For the untrained agent, fee cutting is the line of least resistance - and the (apparently) easiest way to get an unprofitable instruction. Except that it doesn't work! I don't know any town where the cheapest agent has overwhelming market share simply because they are cheap - quite the opposite!

We have allowed our public to walk all over us, and now is precisely the right time to get our fee rate up again for two reasons. 1, a tougher market means the seller needs a good estate agent more than ever before, and 2, you can no longer rely on volume sales, so you have to generate more profit from each of the relatively few sales that you do generate.

“But if we don’t drop our fees, the agent over the road will get the instruction”. This is utterly untrue and much of it is in the mind. All the research suggests that people overwhelmingly choose the agent they prefer! They might try to negotiate, but this does not mean that they can't be convinced. Your ability to persuade is paramount, but you do need to learn the specialist techniques that top performing agents use to secure their reassuringly expensive fee percentage.

When it comes to securing high quality, saleable instructions, at the highest fee level, ideally nudging up towards the 3% mark (some of my clients charge more than this) it certainly helps if you are the obvious agency of choice as you will have already gone some way towards having earned the right to the business. After all - they did invite you to pitch! If Starbucks can charge £3.50 for a cup of coffee in Leeds, when you can still buy one across the road for 70p, then there’s hope for us all!

If you'd like to make a major impact on your own bottom line, I can help - irrespective of where you are or what your competitors charge - GUARANTEED!

I have just relaunched a new series of “Raising Fees Instantly” seminars, which include over 100 highly persuasive techniques and actual client dialogues that WILL improve both your fee and your conversion ratio of valuations to instructions.This half day seminar will make you both ATTRACTIVE and PERSUASIVE - the two major components of effective fee raising.

The results from previous seminars have been staggering with some agencies having doubled (yes doubled) their turnover as a result. One £6m fee turnover agency added 37% to its bottom line and another now charges 2.3% in a 1% area - and they have subsequently gained a a 43% market share! Even small independent firms have reported a substantial rise in their market share which tends to accompany a fee increase.

SO BY POPULAR DEMAND I AM NOW PRESENTING THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS SEMINAR AT VENUES AROUND THE UK and can confidently offer you a 200% money back guarantee if you don't raise your commission significantly as a result of using the material I share with you during this seminar.

Places are filling up fast so please check your nearest venue/date and book your places today at Raising Fees Instantly Seminar bookings page or check out Testimonials here. I look forward to seeing you.