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Mark Treagust
Mark Treagust
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my expertise in the industry

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Mark Treagust
Hi Richard. I'll have a go at answering your question..... I started a similar company to yours back in 2013. I did a year working from home and was market leader in my town within 3/4 months. 25% share out of 10+ agents. At this point it was myself and two others so we took on an office in an old farm type complex, just out of town. This worked well for a couple of years and we continued to grow steadily. The business grew to a point where a high street rent became negligible in the grand scheme of things. There was still a premises cost as we needed to work somewhere. Two and a bit years ago we moved to a high street shop. This has cemented our business in the town and has created a nice place for the team to work and meet clients etc. It's also simplified our sales pitch not having to explain that we are different but the same and all that. The pictures in the window don't sell the houses and I'd agree that you do not need a high street office to sell a property, however we do get walk-in instructions and valuation requests from clients that quite possibly would have just gone elsewhere if we didn't fit their view of what an estate agency should look like. I see it as a sign of our success and a marketing tool to attract clients. So to pass a question back to you Richard... 'Do you spend any money on marketing?' My high street rent is approx 2.5% of my turnover which is less than I spend on flyers and facebook each month. My personal experience is that a high street shop is good for business if everything else is going well. Just for interests sake we have also charged 0.9 % (0.75%+VAT) since day one.

From: Mark Treagust 01 November 2018 10:43 AM

Mark Treagust
I agree with Simon in that cost is not necessarily the issue here - if the money is spent wisely a decent office can have many benefits that enhance a business and it's growth. I have recently done the complete opposite with my company. I started a local non-high street, full service agency just over 3 years ago and built the company naturally offering a transparent fee structure along with a decent team offering good service, and quickly became the leading agent in my town without the 'need' for a high street premises. As the team grew, we moved from my home office to a non high street office, which was a converted farm building on a mini trading estate 1 mile out of town, which worked exactly the same as a standard agency, just without the window, so buyers and sellers could visit us when they liked without an appointment etc. The issue in my town was the availability of high street premises so when one become available it felt like the right thing to do... not to enable us to sell our clients homes more effectively, but to create a permanent base for the business, market our brand, create a nice environment for the staff to work in, and of course attract more sellers. We have taken the opportunity to start from scratch and create an office that not only assists with marketing our clients homes, but promotes the area in which we operate, our commitment to this area, whilst at the same time being almost a show piece for our brand demonstrating quality and attention to detail. I still firmly believe that a picture in a window doesn't sell a house these days, but since opening the high street office in April, I have advertised the company on and offline, and to date, the buzz surrounding the new office has generated more market appraisal leads/general enquiries than any of the other forms of advertising. I note with interest that Vogue are with OntheMarket and Zoopla. Does this mean that they will no longer be able to list with OTM (as now non high street), and may have to go back to Rightmove to ensure that their clients receive sufficient exposure to reach buyers, especially now with no high street premises therefore possibly incurring extra costs?

From: Mark Treagust 21 June 2016 09:18 AM

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