A former estate agent who now runs a buying consultancy says the growth of online firms will help rid the industry of poor quality traditional estate agents delivering poor levels of customer service.
Henry Sherwood - who started in estate agency back in 1991 before setting up his own buying consultancy called The Buying Agents in 2001 - says old-school estate agents delivering poor levels of customer service will be forced out of business by 2020 thanks to what he calls the growing number of quality, online based agencies.
There's an emerging trend in the growing number of sellers who opt for an online agent as a result of their own buying experience with high street agents.. Many feel they could do better themselves at a fraction of the cost by only paying for the services they actually require. As a result, agencies not meeting client expectations when they are looking to buy will quickly become a dying breed over the next five years claims Sherwood.
He also claims more than 90 per cent of his clients would decide which agency they sold with based on the service they received when they were buying. Consequently, he says high street agencies failing to apply standards of good practice will be forced out.
And he describes online agents as a kind of filter for ensuring that only quality agencies survive on the high street.
His buying agency has seven offices providing search and acquisition services to owner-occupier buyers, investors and corporate clients across London and the Home Counties.
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Comments
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How about an experienced local estate agent, working from home, advertising on all the portals and local paper and charging 0.75%......create a brand that franchise's this model.....www.redhomes.co.uk 10 years on outsold all local high st agents!....Estate Agents wake up, earning potential of 100k be your own boss!
It's the "Old School" estate agents that will survive. They are the ones that provide traditional customer service, spend time with their clients and applicants and put a priority on professional service and customer satisfaction. it's the new look Flash Harrys with their aggressive stance, 'phoning up potential clients and applicants to the point of harassment, valuing properties as high as possible to gain instructions and reducing their fees to near zero who will be the first to go.
Oh well if 'Henry Sherwood' (never heard of him) says so then it must be true.
Unfortunately the worst high street agents are usually the ones with the lowest fees as well, ensuring that they will stay in business for the foreseeable future.
You would think so, Mr Davies... but the same ones we were saying exactly this about two or even three decades ago are still there... on a High Street near you also, no doubt!
Other than that - this guy probably LOVES the Onlinies - let's face it... they can't negotiate themselves a Fee worth working for so the last thing they're going to do is argue the toss with the likes of him to get their client best price...
I think he has a point, albeit made in a very heavy-handed way, but surely those estate agents offering poor customer service will die out anyway, regardless of whether online models are there or not.
In many ways (especially B2B) estate agency service wise was superior pre the web to now.
Buyer agents can give better understanding between buyers and sellers.
But be it buyer or seller agents. Online or traditional poor avents as always won't survive.
The most likely agents to go first will be the budget online models who often cost clients more than they claim they can save. Many are inexperienced thus have to be cheap. But unfortunately costly for clients