Inspiration

Specialise and Prosper

Finding the niches in your market can be profitable

I was fortunate enough to spend Christmas in Colorado, where I was able to combine time with estate agents with the best skiing ever (not my skiing ability you understand, but the quality of the snow!).

Here you can experience frozen lakes with ice-hole fishing, dog-sledding, sleigh riding, etc., and we even came face to face with a moose! In fact if you want to become an estate agent in Colorado, you may well have to get yourself a snowmobile to take buyers on viewings! Seriously!

But think twice before becoming an estate agent in the US, despite the lure of average 6% commission rates. You think you have competition here! In the US there is one estate agent per 226 head of population, which is over 7 times your current competition level! In fact, in the State of California alone, there are more registered estate agents than there are properties for sale!

Yet some estate agents do very well indeed - and not just because of the higher commission levels. Despite what we often think about Americans, one thing they are very good at is spotting and embracing opportunity in a very up-beat, positive and proactive way. Our British reserve can significantly stifle our progress, and I often hear agents say “Oh, that wouldn’t work in Scarborough” or “We couldn’t do that in Torquay” or “People would laugh if we tried that in Leicester”.

Yet those agent who actively seek to adopt and harness those things which might be regarded as unusual, tend to be the agents who make the greatest inroads into securing a higher proportion of market share, because they become distinctive.

One obvious example is the use of photographs on business cards, letterheads, websites, property details and window displays. Very American! Yet increasing numbers of progressive British Estate Agents are doing this right now. Why? Because it helps people to relate!

When you see who you are dealing with, it’s much more than a name – it’s a real person. And what an important message in estate agency, when the public regard agencies as all the same. We desperately need to create points of distinction which relate to the customer. And the most attractive photo, the more appealing you become (subject to your face of course!) But a smiling face speaks volumes about how enjoyable it could be dealing with you. A photo demonstrates a degree of openness, hence integrity, which is an important component in the development of trust. And we all know ho w critical it is to create an environment of trust. (congratulations to James Ryan of Ellis and Co whose photo even appears on the sides of bus shelters and telephone boxes throughout Golders Green).

In addition to trust, if we are to become really appealing to our public, then we also need to demonstrate relevance, and surely the most appealing agent will be the one to whom a prospective vendor can most closely and easily relate.

An obvious example would be that if a vendor is selling a country house, they list their property with an agency known to specialise in the rural market, not town flats.

I believe there is huge potential to develop this further, yet only a few agents in the UK have really investigated the opportunity. You see many agents believe that by stating that they sell flats and houses in their area they will be appealing to the widest possible market. Yet I think the opposite could be true!

As Shakespeare said “He who loves everyone, loves no-one”. By apparently being master of everything you are effectively master of nothing, and you become like all the rest – “we’ll take what we can get!” How does this make the potential customer feel? Surely they would be much more comfortable working with an agent they know to specialise in their specific property sector?

In the US I know of agents who specialise so intensely that you would think they would not survive, yet they tend to corner the market in their field. Take the agent who only sells log-cabin style homes or who only sells to ex-military buyers, or the agent who only acts for accountants, or, brilliantly, the lady agent who only works with divorced/divorcing women! If you were in one of these unique categories, why would you NOT list your house with such a specialist agent, because they clearly understand your needs and circumstances precisely? Who compromise by using a generalist?

Hudson Moody, an exceptionally visionary client of mine in York, has adopted this principle very successfully. From their blue/pink branded middle/upper market livery they created a pink/blue sister company known as Pink which only specialises in properties up to £150,000. Pink is the only agency in York known to specialise in lower priced properties and they have captured substantial additional market share that might otherwise have been difficult to crack. If you were selling a cheaper property, why would you not list it with Pink?

Hudson Moody then expanded the principle and created a third brand “City Living” which specialises in executive urban apartments in York. If you were selling a city-centre apartments, why would you not list your property with them?

Marchant Petit in South Devon extensively features waterside images, yachting photos, etc in their marketing. They have captured this lucrative English Riviera market simply by creating the assumption that they are the only agent worth talking to in this field! Self-fulfilling prophesy?

Reid and Dean in East Sussex created Mobilityfriendlyhomes.com to capture the substantial elderly/disabled market in their area. Any appraisal on a property with easy access becomes a dead-cert instruction! (By the way, any agent can subscribe to their site so it might be worth checking out.)

You get the picture? Would you marry someone average, or someone special? Think about it! Make your business distinctive and special and reap the rewards of becoming unique!

PS: I would like to thank all the agents who have emailed or phoned with such a positive response to my “Raising Fees Instantly” audioseminar CD set. It is extremely gratifying that so many of you are now making decent commission levels, many over 2% in 1% areas and others moving towards 3%. Well done!

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© Richard Rawlings 2010
Richard Rawlings is the founding director of Estate Agency Insight, which specialises in helping estate agencies harness opportunity through innovative method, marketing, publicity, and training. He can be contacted at or on 0845 838 1354.

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