Estate agency trainer Richard Rawlings is about to launch the latest version of his acclaimed ‘Raising Fees Instantly’ morning seminars at 18 venues across the UK, starting with Brighton, Maidstone and Cheadle next week.
He said: “I was prompted to re-present these seminars following dozens of emails from agents who have in some cases more than doubled their commission rates overnight, or in the case of one larger firm, added £2.25m to their bottom line as a result of implementing the one hundred ideas and dialogues presented in the seminar.”
He said his new series now also features an additional afternoon seminar focusing on ‘Persuasive Valuation and Instruction-Gaining Skills’.
Paul Ainsworth-Lord, of Ainsworth-Lord estate agents in Lancashire, said: “I was sceptical before attending the course a few months ago, but our fees have since doubled from 1% to 2%.
“Our conversion ratio is now nearly 100% (eight instructions from eight valuations this week) so we are thinking of moving this to 2.5% or even 3% as our market share has also increased dramatically and we are now the top agent in town!
“We have also raised our management fee from 10% to 15% without any issues, using the methods we learnt on the course.”
Details of the course are at:
www.EstateAgencyInsight.co.uk
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Comments
Losing instuctions can be a good thing in a slow market. The likes of Cheap Fees & co does what is says on their tin cheap fees and allowing the vendor's high expectations of value to run away with them. Do you really need that particular instruction? I wouldn't! Nah best you sit back and work out who is going to buy it in 6 weeks when it comes on your books at a realistic price and hopefully a nice multiple agency commision too. The odd 3% always helps with commission averages.
It is when you get the call to say you have not won the instruction is the time to haggele your competition's fee onto the floor.
Oh I am sorry to hear we were unsucessful, would it have helped if our fee was 0.6% inclusive of VAT, I understand that is what Cheap Fees and Co were charging the lady down the road with a house just like yours? We lost that instruction initially too but we have a buyer for it now, that is why we suggested the asking price we did.
A touchy subject with me at the moment as I lost one yesterday to a one man (non Vat registered) band with a dislike for EPC’s who was able to just upload to rightmove for half the fee I quoted. Irritating, but I’ll get it in 16 weeks.
There was an excellent post on here the other day about letting the dregs race to the bottom which I thought was superb.
It’s true, a cheap agent unable to negotiate isn’t out to earn his vendor as much as possible. A cheap agent won’t have motivated staff earning good money thus being good at their job. The cheaper the fee the less marketing budget they have to promote your home
Chappy knows this because he is a sensible chappy (I think). I think had yesterdays vendor been him I would of won the instruction. Chappy also knows you need more than an RM subscription and a Burton suit to sell houses.
So the upshot of my principles are this: I lost the instruction….lol
'Confused.com' - VERY good!
'Big Ted' - Hear, hear! If the vendor can out-negotiate the Agent on Fees; then the Agent is surplus to the vendor's requirements.
FBA: "All we need is words and mindset". Absolutely true!
Unfortunately, so many lose these attributes pre-puberty and struggle through the rest of their lives without them.
Saying 'No' is the most effective weapon in a negotiator's armoury - but the hardest to get out of the box.
Happy Chappy -
Firstly, I would like to say to both you and Fun Boy Agent that your difference of opinions does not have to spill over into cheap jibes and insults towards each other. From what I read, both of you are - or at least should be - above that kind of behaviour. The only thing that is suffering from these exchanges is the quality and reputation of this website.
That over (and it's probably left me wide open to someone having a pop at me for the long and tedious battle I wage with a certain poster on this very site... so be it.), I'll answer your point and add a couple of my own.
Firstly, I never said that your previous post contained those words. However, you have posted many times on this site about your wish for 'value' from Estate Agents; your desire to reduce their fee in order to give "your clients" (whether they be friends, family - or even those that would pay you for your efforts I would label them as such...) a less costly sale process; and changing the way that agents structure their fee in order that it be less reliant on a success element and more on fixed cost plus, if I remember rightly your previous words, "an element of reasonable profit". That's nice of you! Whichjever way you read these words and motives, you want Estate Agency fees lower than they are now - if only for your payiong and non-paying clients.
(Hmmm... thought on the above. Maybe you DON'T. The higher the better - on the basis that when you come storming into "Mr 3.5%"s office and 'negotiate' a value proposition for your client at, say, 2.5%, then you look good (and may even earn a few bob...; Agent still gets a canny crack - and customer thinks he's got a bargain! If that be the case, sir - I like your style!! ;o) )
Now to the NSNF bit. Part of me agrees with you.; part of me doesn't. It's a bit like chips, you see. Every year, farmers say there's a potato famine. What happens? - a bag of chips goes up by twenty pence the same day. A month later - potatoes are stacked up six pallets high in Tesco and they are selling a five-pound bag for tenpence. Does the price of chips come back down? Not even maybe! It would be the same with NSNF. If everyone stops doing it - then there is nothing to compare price with between the two; like you can with famine and glut. And no reason for the price to come down, either.
With NSNF, you may not appreciate it, but the Agent takes all the risk. The 'premium' I would suggest is minimal due to competition already... and Agents happiness to work for less than a) they are worth; and b) less than they CAN ask and achieve, as Mr Rawlings proves by showing them otherwise.
Higher fees will allow Agents to work harder, on behalf of less clients. The winners will be the bill-payers.
SO - to your question (at last...). What justification is required? None. If a shop realises it is underselling goods, it simply puts the price up to the correct price. Those who benefitted by paying the cheaper price score. There is nothing different with the scenario you paint.
And the Agent has obviously ALREADY won your approval the previous month - so you have more justification to your client to use them, as I assume you would not go back unless they were already performing to what I have no doubt would be a tough scale of requirements you set...!
(For what it's worth, I'd appoint FBA in a heartbeat. I reckon he's one Hell of an Estate Agent - and I'm sure that there are plenty of vendors AND purchasers that would attest to that on his behalf.
He's gotta be good at his day job... cos as a comedian he consistently fails to tickle me in the slightest - and I laugh at pretty much anything!)
Anyway - both enjoy your weekends and may the battles recommence on Monday! ;o)
So Rightmove raising fees is bad but agents raising fees is good?
I know where Richard and Paul are coming from. Plenty of agents think that the only way to be competitive is to be cheap. It isn't.
If vendors see you as all the same, then yes, they will pick the cheapest. Fair enough, there is a market for that and you are welcome to it. Netto is never going to attract very many Sainsburys customers and vice versa. If you don't have the skills to differentiate yourself from your competitors, then that's your market, Netto.
When I'm hiring someone to negotiate the sale of my most valuable asset, me personally, I'm not very impressed by someone who is not even capable of negotiating his own fee or expenses. So, yes stay cheap fees. It's fine by me. Knock yourself out.
Police are warning all men who frequent clubs, parties & local pubs to be alert and stay cautious when offered a drink from any woman. Many females use a date rape drug on the market called "Beer."
The drug is found in liquid form and is available anywhere. It comes in bottles, cans, or from taps and in large "kegs". Beer is used by female sexual predators at parties and bars to persuade their male victims to go home and sleep with them. A woman needs only to get a guy to consume a few units of Beer and then simply ask him home for no strings attached nookie. !!!
See this, be warned.
http://www.brackenspub.com/beer.swf
If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons like Happy Chappy?
...
speaking to?
If you are going to quote me then qoute me correctly
"I have never claimed to be an expert on anything i leave that to you" yes that was me
"I don't claim to be an expert at anything that is quite differents from I am an expert at nothing." again me
you should give up being an EA and a reporter
Funboy. I wont even bother with you I am sure others as well as I are bored of you displaying what a pillock you are.
Peebee your responses are always appreciated, I welcome constructive criticism. I have no problem with an EA earning a profitable fee none whatsoever.
I did not mention lowering fees anywhere in my post.
However, If (as a vendor) you want lower fees to sell your property you should not instruct an agent an agent on sale no fee basis.....if this is the only way you can then you will have to pay for it.
"* What I DON'T 'get' is that the likes of Mr Ainsworth-Lord, who has obviously run his business for some time, suddenly waking up to the concept that "Hey - this week I doubled my fees - next week let's do it again!"" EXACTLY
So please review this scenario, In April I agree to instruct a property with a.n.other agent @ 1.5%., In May I go back to the same agent in May and he wants 2.5% fee to sell the property next door. What is his justification for the increase....are they doing something different or is there another reason for the increase.
My amazing what?
I typed a response to this a couple of hours ago - then deleted it all before posting. Thought it came across as smart@$$ - still do, in fact. Then I read Happy Chappy's post. So - I will bullet points my first thoughts in order to then respond to the man himself:
First things first:
* I'm all in favour of you Estate Agents ladies earning a decent living.
* The idea of any Estate Agent charging ridiculously low fees for ANY reason is both alien and insane to me.
* If you're not worth the money then don't offer to do the job - simple as.
* I'm in favour of Mr Rawlings (and that doesn't happen often - the amount of times we've crossed swords on here...) taking this roadshow out and about.
* I'm sure wardy is being his usual ironic self but I think it is money well spent if he delivers whet he preaches.
* What I DON'T 'get' is that the likes of Mr Ainsworth-Lord, who has obviously run his business for some time, suddenly waking up to the concept that "Hey - this week I doubled my fees - next week let's do it again!"
* Those who run their own businesses should be financially aware of their worth to customers - and then ask it! The alternative is disaster - both for themselves and for the profession.
So - Happy jumped in with his input. Now I've had a lot of previous with this chap(py) - and usually give him plenty of rope for his opinions.
This time - sorry HC - you're miles off base. On the wrong planet, actually. WHY should Agents offer "extra value for this increase"?
The 'extra value' you refer to will come at extra cost - which will increase the fee further again, will it not?
I thought you wanted LOWER fees - not to push them higher again...
I ain't going to ridicule you, HC - I simply want you to justify to me why Agents should not charge a Fee which will, ON PRODUCTION OF THE REQUIRED RESULT FOR THEIR CUSTOMER, secure them a profitable income that will allow them to continue offering the service to others?
Over to you, Sir...
wow. Your amazing.
Oh dearie me!
The idiot who calls himself 'Happy Chappy' is back again, being an internet troll, and obviously intending to hijack yet another EAT thread to perpetuate vitriolic bile for no-ones benefit but his own.
The best quote from his previous posts is as follows:
Happy Chappy confesses "I am professional parasite who works in the best interest of his clients" .. priceless.
I refer to him as 'Nipple Nut' now.
As in his head is about 5 pounds of spongy useless fat, so what can he put on it to make it look good?... yeah! ........ A nipple.
Listed are copy and pastes from Happy Chappy posts. You need to bolt a few of the various posts together to get the whole picture of him
OUOTES FRON HAPPY BELOW
I said "I don't claim to be an expert at anything"
"I am an expert at nothing"
"I have also quite openly stated i do not make a living from the housing market"
"Most vendors have no idea of what is for there own good"
"i do know what i am talking about"
Paul Ainsworth-Lord, of Ainsworth-Lord estate agents in Lancashire, said: “I was sceptical before attending the course a few months ago, but our fees have since doubled from 1% to 2%.
I hope this seminar is open to potential vendors they should attend, are the getting any extra vaule for this increase?
“Our conversion ratio is now nearly 100% (eight instructions from eight valuations this week) so we are thinking of moving this to 2.5% or even 3% as our market share has also increased dramatically and we are now the top agent in town!
Tut Tut Paul....they were not valuations not market appraisals ask Fun Boy Agent he knows."If you ever took note of anything I have said you would be clear on that one thing alone. I have told you before, I will tell you again, just for clarity, just to hammer home into your thick, uneducated, idiotic skull, what an Estate Agent does at 'initial meeting'. We do not provide valuations. ARE YOU CLEAR NOW? We provide marketing appraisals" Fun Boy Agent
Given that I worked out how to maximise my fees a very long time ago and did rather well from doing so, no. But if I were an agent that has redundant negotiators setting up online agencies in my back yard and had the newspaper group or portal that I advertise with giving me a blatent commercial shafting yes I would.
P.S the little box is only there for people who want to use it for their internet name, it is far more useful to me as a searchable catalogue so I use it as such. Please don’t send the little box on the internet police round to my house.
@Read this bit first
So you will be attending will you? Need to get your fees up?
The top story about Zoopla's antics is not attracting the comments it should yet here is some numpty obviously a bit peeved that EAT have run a story for a bloke who is helping traditional agency.
Instead of bitching about Richard, how about you sit down and work out why what he is doing is important and why EAT is right to support him, paid or otherwise?
spell check malfunction, Sorry!
Zoopla can see no problem providing the technology for Evening Standard to power for Private Landlords a site that will be in direct competition with Traditional Agents. While claiming to only allow Agents onto Zoopla it is blatantly obvious that they are also condoning and possibly powering Online Agents to the detriment of traditional Agency. The whole industry was up in arms over Tesco and Google trying to enter the market but seem oblivious to the Trojan that is being dragged into the industry.
IF you Ladies and Gentlemen want to become effectively franchisees feeding Rightmove and Zoopfindaprime stick your heads back in the sand and ignore what is happening in your own front room. Here is Richard offering a positive service to the industry, he and EAT gets sniped at yet the parasitic invasion of the industry gets ignored.
@Wardy run some calculations and then work out if Richard's training is expensive; if your average commission is 1.5% and that includes a typical 20% profit margin, 0.3% is your profit. In the course of the year you can get your average commission up to 1.8% you will double your profits. I think if someone was offering to show me how to get my average fee up I would at least compare the cost with the possible gains before making comment that it is expensive.
No I'm not Richard, never met him, never been on one of his courses, but I do understand what he is trying to do.
Can Mr Rawlings sort out the Greeks problem and the Euro problems too?
Looks easy peasy.
All we need is words and mindset
I'd go but they seem a bit expensive.
I hope that Mr Rawlings is paying EAT the proper rate for this advertisement because it certainly isn't editorial.