Inspiration

Managing Local Relationships in Estate Agency

The RAT (Rawlings Agency Tip) No. 20. The cheapest way to secure instructions

I had lunch with a long-standing client a few days ago, Martin Gibbs of Mansbridge and Balment (whose Tavistock branch incidentally arranged 11 sales last week!). My main reason for seeing him was to introduce him to his local Homebuyers’ Agency representative. However, whilst Martin was impressed with our proposition, I was impressed with Martin! This was not just because of his weird shirt routine (he tells clients on an instruction that “I bet my staff that they wouldn’t do ten sales this week, and I lost – so I had to wear this stupid shirt!” It works every time!).

What impressed me and my colleague about Martin was the influence he has at local level. During our short walk to the restaurant and during our meal, Martin made a point of greeting at least six local people, asking after them or sharing an in-joke. “Good morning Mrs Jones – how’s the baby?”, “Hi Pete, did you manage to sort that problem out?”, “Hi Jenny, I read that article you recommended”, “Nice to see you Mr Gibbon –how’s the extension coming along?”

Martin’s casual conviviality was a great reminder about three commonly neglected aspects of estate agency that many of us would do well to revisit:

The first is to be thoroughly involved at local level. I can think of few other service industries where your target market surrounds you, and includes almost everyone within a short distance of your office. Yet many estate agents only work with the here and now of the deals, clients and applicants they currently have. We have the opportunity to be a catalyst in the community, yet many estate agents fail to do anything about managing their reputation proactively, even when the opportunity is right there outside your office every day of the week.

Secondly, over the years you will have come into contact with hundreds if not thousands of buyers, sellers and “timewasters” – all of whom have some interest in property in your area. You did something to earn the right to some form of relationship with them initially, no matter how cursory. Yet so many agents look this gift horse in the mouth and throw that relationship away by failing to maintain it. It costs a lot to attract an applicant/client, but keeping them for life can be virtually cost-free when you apply the Martin Gibbs technique!

Thirdly, and I don’t want to sound too fluffy, but it is really important simply to be “nice”! No matter how many property portals you subscribe to, how fast your HIPS are, how well you floorplans are drawn, how long your opening hours are, how cheap your fees are or how funky your website is, if people are not attracted to the individual, then these investments are wasted. In fact, an estate agent who is known and liked is, in my opinion, more likely to gain the instruction than an agent who simply bangs on about all the stuff his agency actually does.

So let’s take a lesson from Martin and ramp up the social bit. I can’t help you be nice, although you could follow the example of the many agents who use my series of professionally–written property-related articles to help you kick-start your reputation as the credible voice of authority in your area. These weekly articles offer your local public friendly, good advice in your ads, mailers, website and window display on an exclusive territory basis. Please feel free to email me personally if you are interested and I’ll send you some samples. In the meantime, do say hello to Mrs Jones.

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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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