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Charlie Lamdin
Charlie Lamdin
Founder
5392  Profile Views

About Me

Residential property technology and marketing services provider since 1998. Industry commentator, speaker and writer.

my expertise in the industry

Designed and built the industry's first ever web based CRM software system. Original inventor of the one-stop digital marketing service of professional photos, floor plans, brochures and virtual tours (1998). Have counted almost all major corporate brands as clients at some point, but have ended up focusing on helping the independent agent sector.

Charlie's Recent Activity

Charlie Lamdin

From: Charlie Lamdin 27 March 2024 13:42 PM

Charlie Lamdin

From: Charlie Lamdin 06 March 2024 16:44 PM

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From: Charlie Lamdin 25 January 2024 07:04 AM

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From: Charlie Lamdin 16 June 2023 05:27 AM

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From: Charlie Lamdin 14 March 2023 22:41 PM

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From: Charlie Lamdin 26 January 2023 11:28 AM

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From: Charlie Lamdin 15 December 2022 00:41 AM

Charlie Lamdin

From: Charlie Lamdin 03 November 2022 08:57 AM

Charlie Lamdin
Always happy to be called out Mike, especially constructively, which you always do. 1. No press release was sent out. Marc picked this up from a blog post I did on Wednesday evening (which he links to). I merely published the blog and tweeted it. I didn't expect any press from it (it's actually also been partially referred to in The Times 2) 2. Yes, exactly! I don't know if you read my blog in full or not (if not please do as it provides context to this article) this is my whole point. We do use automation to gather all listings (this saves the insane software and data feed costs currently borne by agents feeding to other sites) hence the problem you outline is encountered, which we are a long way from solving. We are planning to solve it by allowing agents and registered movers to take 'bad' properties down, pending the listing agent's review. They will be able to repost them if they wish, if they confirm it is a genuine, available, home on which they are accepting viewings. A community-managed dataset if you like, with obvious safety measures in place. It will solve the time-wasting problem movers face on all other sites, of enquiring on misleading listings and either receiving no reply (40% by RMs own admission) or being registered despite that property not being available, then being spammed to death. So far we have not had any complaints about the way properties are being listed. This is a new approach to helping movers find homes and better agents, where for the first time, the site is designed around movers' priorities first, (and we are doing as much to eliminate time wasting movers as we are properties) and good agents second. We want agents who deserve more business to get it. We want to stop everyone's time being wasted. Solving this bad data problem, which is a deliberate policy by many agents, is a priority. One final point, by not showing agent brands, we remove the motive of appearing to have lots of listings, which causes so many agents to post and leave misleading properties. This will result in genuine listings getting more, better quality enquiries. There will be an option in future for agents to display their brands on the full property pages if they wish. I fully expected some jumping up and down and arm waving from some agents, but BestAgent is taking a whole new approach to this sector, with a determination to solve decades-old problems that disadvantage movers and honest agents alike.

From: Charlie Lamdin 07 October 2022 10:17 AM

Charlie Lamdin

From: Charlie Lamdin 18 July 2022 11:01 AM

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From: Charlie Lamdin 21 April 2021 06:51 AM

Charlie Lamdin

From: Charlie Lamdin 08 March 2021 08:33 AM

Charlie Lamdin

From: Charlie Lamdin 23 February 2021 19:36 PM

Charlie Lamdin

From: Charlie Lamdin 11 December 2020 06:16 AM

Charlie Lamdin

From: Charlie Lamdin 02 December 2020 11:40 AM

Charlie Lamdin
1. “Boomin is fair in its charging model and will provide a revenue stream to agents longer term”; ***although it will take the majority of that additional revenue for itself. 2. “It’s credible, [in your opinion Iain] well backed [please define that, eg more money than OTM?] and well organised [surely too early to tell] and can bring much needed competition to the portal space which in turn will reduce costs, increase customer service and force innovation” *** Can it? Why? How will it reduce costs? Did OTM reduce costs? What does "increased customer service" mean? Who are its customers, movers, or agents? 3. “It’s innovative and opens up the passive market which I believe will bring additional movers through old fashioned serendipity transactions which largely died with the newspapers”; *** magic sauce that will make people who weren't going to move, move? That would be impressive. 4. “It takes away the barrier between agent and client and promotes deeper more personal contact, putting the skill and relationships back into the estate agency. The best agent wins not the cheapest one”; *** I agree this would be good, if it happens. 5. “I dislike Purplebricks and have been very noisy about the model and its effect on agency. However I can’t deny what it achieved in terms of brand awareness and it is now the largest lister of property in the UK. I believe the Bruce Brothers will achieve the same with Boomin and if they do they give agents agency back”; *** Anyone spending £20m+ per year on misleading TV ads can achieve brand awareness. Largest lister perhaps, but largest seller? We don't know, and they still take millions off consumers for properties they never sell. 6. “I have checked double checked and checked again and grilled Michael and Kenny at length but I can’t find a single reason not to get involved and I believe their intentions are genuine. They are not taking possession of your database, controlling your customers or seeking to do anything other than support great agents”; *** there intentions are genuine, to siphon off as much value for themselves as they can, without solving any new problems. Anyone who thinks the Bruce's aren't in this first and foremost for themselves has been snake-charmed. 7. “The no tie in free period creates a no lose scenario, if Boomin fail to deliver on any level you simply don’t opt to move forward onto the paid period”; - *** agreed, but RM said the same when they launched. 8. “Doing nothing in the current portal space simply isn’t an option for estate agents.” *** Nonsense, of course it is. Thousands of agents are doing precisely that, staying as they are, and continuing to do fine. Until/unless someone solves a major pain point for the consumer, all these ventures are simply more and more lead-gen middle-men, taking value without creating value.

From: Charlie Lamdin 27 November 2020 10:57 AM

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From: Charlie Lamdin 02 June 2020 09:21 AM

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From: Charlie Lamdin 13 March 2020 08:14 AM

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From: Charlie Lamdin 05 March 2020 20:39 PM

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From: Charlie Lamdin 27 June 2019 08:23 AM

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From: Charlie Lamdin 08 May 2019 00:04 AM

Charlie Lamdin

From: Charlie Lamdin 01 April 2019 08:47 AM

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From: Charlie Lamdin 03 October 2018 00:10 AM

Charlie Lamdin

From: Charlie Lamdin 24 September 2018 00:03 AM

Charlie Lamdin

From: Charlie Lamdin 07 September 2018 16:44 PM

Charlie Lamdin

From: Charlie Lamdin 29 August 2018 08:04 AM

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From: Charlie Lamdin 06 August 2018 16:21 PM

Charlie Lamdin
There are a large number of good conventional high st agents who do no possess the desire to be self-appointed market leaders, who do not have the time to invest in gimmicks nor award ceremonies. It is these agents who actually make up the majority of the industry. My view is that, without taking anything away from the dynamic forward thinking agents, it is silly, futile and irritating to tell all agents to rise above the average. If they all did that, they’d all still be average. There will always be those who invest more in marketing and tech and do well from it, but no matter how much marketing and tech you have, there is one asset more valuable than all the rest combined when it comes to any agent’s future prospects, and it is this: Your reputation. There are agents with strong long standing local reputations who do very well from that alone, and have no need for marketing and tech gimmicks. I’m not saying that these gimmicks don’t have some value, of course they do, but it is merely add-on value. Nothing will give a better return on investment than building a reputation as a trustworthy, reliable, friendly, accessible local individual known for getting the job done. Too many of us industry suppliers have been pitching our wares as the revolutionary be all and end all silver bullet for too long, and there is fatigue among agents. Resi agency has never been tougher than now. Agents need real, tangible value from the supplier industry. Help to streamline without losing the human touch. Help to cut costs and become more visible if good. We must stop the scaremongering that this sort of article peddles, recognise that agents are being ruthlessly exploited by the portals, and come together to find a way to help the best agents, ie all the ones who get the job done well and quickly, get more value out of tech than they currently do.

From: Charlie Lamdin 15 May 2018 00:32 AM

Charlie Lamdin

From: Charlie Lamdin 04 April 2018 20:54 PM

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