A firm which stays open until midnight during the week and until 10pm at weekends has been crowned Estate Agent of the Year.
McEwan Fraser, which covers the Edinburgh, Glasgow and mid-Scotland markets, was founded just four years ago.
The firm also has linguists and solicitors to work alongside estate agents.
The firm beat off very strong competition, including previous winners Romans and the likes of London agents Marsh & Parsons, to pick up the title on Friday.
The firm was founded by Ken McEwan, who took a look at what other agents were not offering and used this as the starting point for his business plan.
With property searches happening 24/7, offices are open long hours – something apparently well received by clients. The hours mean staff can work flexibly and can choose to work evenings and weekends around family commitments.
Because a large part of the firm’s business comes from abroad, a number of translators have been recruited, covering 12 languages between them.
The firm also won the gongs for best agent in Scotland and for innovation.
Michael Robson, the group chief executive of Andrews, won the award for Outstanding Contribution to Estate Agency.
Robson, who joined Andrews as a trainee negotiator in 1976, was praised for his leadership and for championing the company’s philanthropic ethos. He also co-founded the Estate Agency Foundation, a charity dedicated to helping homeless people.
Peter Knight, managing director at Estate Agency Events, said: “Michael lives and breathes the award-winning Andrews ethos, steering the company from a philanthropic viewpoint and growing the work of the Andrews Charitable Trust.
“His desire to contribute and give something back is evident in everything he does, including his role as an ambassador for promoting standards within the industry.”
Our warm congratulations to all the winners.
For a full list of winners, and the judges’ reports, go to:
https://estateagencyoftheyear.com/winners_a-z/index.html
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Comments
t seems as though all the negativity is around our opening hours, no-one is asking you to do the same! It is a different and more tougher market where we are therefore to meet the needs of our clients and stick to our moto 'Doing Things Differently' we have to do just that because it is 'Doing Things Differently'! If you were ill and needed medical attention would you call a doctor at 11pm? ofcourse you would! If you lost a bank card/money oversees on holiday etc and needed emergency money would you call 24 hour banking? ofcourse you would! If your car broke down late at night and you needed assistance from a garage, would you call if it was open? Ofcourse you would!!!! in reply to the most recent comment - If someone was looking to BUY a car out of USUAL working hours (most people tend to look when they get a chance - evenings and weekends) and knowing that garage was open, they would make that call! Lets just see how many of our competitors follow in our footsteps with the opening hours, it is clearly working for us because the company would not pay the staff in the office to sit and twiddle their thumbs.
We do not say that all our 'extra services' work for all our clients, they may work for some and not others and we do not say we make ALL our clients happy, we are only human afterall - but we try!! Some of the comments on 'All Agents' as mentioned by user hmmm on 9th Dec are infact false and have been posted by competitors which is currently being looked into. We are not asking you to congratulate us by all means - there would be more chance of your agents being open til 12am by the sounds of it, but allow us to enjoy our awards!!
oh and in response to the comment made by 'Paul' on 10th Dec, No Ronnie Barker does not work with us, as you probably read in the blog it states - McEwan Fraser, which covers the Edinburgh, Glasgow and mid-Scotland markets, was set up four years ago' he died in 2005, McEwan Fraser Legal were not even thought of then! To think that an agent that only set up only FOUR years ago won the overall award! A pround moment for us all!
Diane Kerr
Property Surveyor
McEwan Fraser Legal
It seems as though all the negativity is around our opening hours, no-one is asking you to do the same! It is a different and more tougher market where we are therefore to meet the needs of our clients and stick to our moto 'Doing Things Differently' we have to do just that because it is 'Doing Things Differently'! If you were ill and needed medical attention would you call a doctor at 11pm? ofcourse you would! If you lost a bank card/money oversees on holiday etc and needed emergency money would you call 24 hour banking? ofcourse you would! If your car broke down late at night and you needed assistance from a garage, would you call if it was open? Ofcourse you would!!!! in reply to the most recent comment - If someone was looking to BUY a car out of USUAL working hours (most people tend to look when they get a chance - evenings and weekends) and knowing that garage was open, they would make that call! Lets just see how many of our competitors follow in our footsteps with the opening hours, it is clearly working for us because the company would not pay the staff in the office to sit and twiddle their thumbs.
We do not say that all our 'extra services' work for all our clients, they may work for some and not others and we do not say we make ALL our clients happy, we are only human afterall - but we try!! Some of the comments on 'All Agents' as mentioned by user hmmm on 9th Dec are infact false and have been posted by competitors which is currently being looked into. We are not asking you to congratulate us by all means - there would be more chance of your agents being open til 12am by the sounds of it, but allow us to enjoy our awards!!
oh and in response to the comment made by 'Paul' on 10th Dec, No Ronnie Barker does not work with us, as you probably read in the blog it states - McEwan Fraser, which covers the Edinburgh, Glasgow and mid-Scotland markets, was set up four years ago' he died in 2005, McEwan Fraser Legal were not even thought of then! To think that an agent that only set up only FOUR years ago won the overall award! A pround moment for us all!
@ Anna Devine
A very very small proportion of our clients work shifts, maybe a geographical difference?
You are of course correct that selling (and buying) is an important business, and I would question the motivation of someone who did not make themselves available for either during conventional hours.
Do your clients expect to visit the local garage to buy a new car at 9.00pm? I very much doubt it!
Do you really do enough extra business to justify the extra expense, Open all hours may impress a few vendors, but I'm sure the quality of your service is such that you would still be the best agent in the area without the gimmick.
http://www.youtube.com/user/McEwanFraserLegal
The link above proves why they won! Excellent Company!
To all the negative 'experts' above please allow me to extend a warm invite to our Edinburgh head office after hours.
Being open until Midnight does not mean 'disturbing clients' but it does mean being available for shift workers and others who have proven there is a demand for late and weekend opening hours. Selling your home is hugely important and our evening teams are kept extremely busy.
Understandably late opening is a new concept for some agents, or for those who find change an inconvenience, but for McEwan Fraser Legal it's the norm. It's not our competitors negative comments that drive us to deliver above and beyond, it's our clients needs.
Please check out our client video testimonials and the mystery shop results available from legal organisations such as the ESPC. We won this award through great customer service, developing technology and innovation and hard work and real expertise from all our staff.
McEwan Fraser Legal raises the standard in estate agency practice - please come and see for yourself.
Like it or not, that's why we won the most coveted award in the estate agency industry in the UK and we're immensely proud of that achievement.
Kind regards
Anna Devine, Marketing Manager, McEwan Fraser Legal
@ Hard work pays...........
There is a huge difference between being available all hours and working hard!
Most of our vendors probably work hard as well, and probably don't want to be disturbed in the middle of the evening after a hard day at work.
So, we can't chase sales as solicitors are not open, we may well just annoy vendors by disturbing their relaxation, so I'm wondering just what we should be doing at 9.00pm!
Lazy agents will copy anything they can, I rather suspect not many would copy working this hard but many will knock it of course.
So how many of the great British public really expect OR WANT to be able to contact their estate agent at 11.00 at night?
We know folks can browse the portals 24/7 but I really don't think that any reasonable person expects to be able to do anything else out of office hours.
We do love in this industry to make a rod for our own backs!
Does Ronnie Barker work there?
i think it helps if you enter 10 sections at £250 a pop.
They win this award yet they are one of they worst rated firms on Allagents.
So what?
My firm is open from 9am to 6.00pm, then a professional answer service (manned call centre) takes over until 9.00pm and then same call centre provides an out of hours answer and message service until 9am the following morning.
so my phones are manned and answered 24hours!!
They also offer an amazing part exchange scheme.. we all know how great this is for a vendor and not their investment team...
Yeah they have 1 member of staff sitting at home answering the phone !!!