Self-employed agency network eXp UK’s Adam Day has admitted he shoulders some blame for low fees in the sector.
Speaking on the latest Agents MVMT Pass the Syrup podcast Day said low fees are deterring agents and suggested commissions should be closer to 2% or more as in other countries.
Day said he takes some of the blame for this due to his former online agency Hatched and others, which many blame for bringing down fees.
He said: “Everyone goes well you scaled up a low fee business, you were part of the problem.
“Hands up, I was wrong.
“I should have been charging 2% for my services because it was way better than the high street at that time.”
Ben Madden, director of Fine & Country Turnham Green Terrace, who has started the podcast as part of his Agent MVMT initiative for firms to interact, said those demanding low fees are often the worst clients.
He said: “The 1% clients are the worst to deal with. They make your life a living hell.”
Madden added that while mental and emotional support in the workplace is important, what people need is more money in their bank account.
He said: “Mental health is always a bit better when I can afford to buy what I need to.
“The issue is we don’t charge appropriate fees.”
Watch the full podcast below:
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Not going to say “I told you so”! Yet there are still agents who come out fighting saying “but you can’t get 2% in my area!” NONSENSE - it’s just that they don’t have either the confidence, pride in their work or (learned) skills to charge what they are worth! Experience does not enable you to instantly charge higher fees - but TRAINING does! Have a great day.
Total b o ++o cks and I have been on some of your courses when I was an agent
No way on this planet will I ever pay 2% when I am selling my developments
My last site I had 4 agency to value
The one who I used valued the houses higher than any other of the agency and achieved asking price on all
The other agents were all quoting 1.5%
The agent I used who quoted the higher valuation charged me 1%
They have been the market leader in Egham for 10 years.
|For sure some people will pay2% but not many
EA sued to be a sales job
Now it is a low skill admin job
The idea that you have to pay 2% to get a good agents is total BS
I would respectfully point out that 99.99% of people have never heard of either Adam, the company, nor the offer he makes of 1% Commission.
There are PLENTY of people charing 1% - he didnt 'invent' this phenomena. Plenty of (low) 'fixed fee' selling offers also.
I think he over estimates his own contribution. Massively.
Hi Rob, perhaps 99.99% will do their research on Adam now :- )
A great podcast, us self employed agents are definately worth more than 1%.
“I should have been charging 2% for my services because it was way better than the high street at that time.”
remind me, what happened to hatched again?
I think Adam sold it for £Ms to Connells.
As it goes Adam day was not only the first to the online party but back in 2017 when I took a snapshot of the onliners, it was the most effective, with a conversion rate of sstc far higher than its rivals.
And when the Connells group bought the company, it only stopped the service due to the huge cost of acquistion of the client. The multi-million pound toxic factor that Purplebricks and all the other onliners have baked into the model.
Also Adam is right, he should have charged more - 3% or 5%, improving through tech the UX for the customer, instead online agents have the tiniest veneer of tech, which makes for a very bumpy ride. Here is the snapshot analysis from 2017, together with some familiar names.
In Oct 2017 - Purplebricks listed 28,576, sstc 12,132, 42.45% conversion rate (Now insolvent). YOPA listed 2,785, sstc 1,177, 42.2% conversion rate (87M of funding). Tepilo listed 1,739, sstc 600, 34.5% conversion rate (Ceased trading). Emoov listed 1,872, sstc 683, 36.4% conversion rate (Ceased trading).
Easyproperty listed 101, sstc 23, 22.7% conversion rate (30M funding). Housesimple (Now Strike) listed 3,045, sstc 1,092, 35.8% conversion rate (Burnt £76M). Hatched listed 1,086, sstc 678, 62.2% conversion rate (Connells took a commercial decision and quitely shuttered the operations). Totals 39,204 16,385 42.0%.
Looking at the above will YOPA now stop funding YOPA, it begs the question, maybe the nation is another 10 years away from online agency. If it is that is a very expensive vanity project, maybe Charles Dunstone should think long and hard about 'adoption' it is all very good having a vision what the world wants but as a certain person who has crashed facebook due to his conviction that the metaverse is just around the corner ... the public are a fickle crowd, and having tonnes of cash does not move the herd.
For me with where property values are an agent doesn't need to charge 2%. That is just greed and I question how professional that is. 1.25/1.5% is adequate and 1% by no means cheap.
This online nonsense has lost millions and has been a disaster whereby good high street agents have ridden the storm and can bow hope to become stronger.
Did I just read Strike are delisting PB, distributing the cash in the bank ( what was it £5.5M) to its shareholders and then what, gently pushing it to the liquidator!
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