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Why most agents are not intelligent

'The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.' Albert Einstein 

Let’s face it, the estate and letting agency business has changed. Now people can search for property without having to step foot into agencies anymore (with the advent of the tinterweb and the portals).  Hardly anyone puts themselves on mailing lists now (paper ones) .. and thus, agents haven’t got people they can get listings off.  The work of estate and letting agents has changed. People used go into agents offices for brochures .. info on the property .. but now they don’t need to. The number of face-to-face interactions with our potential customers (house sellers and landlords) has declined.


 As a result, to be more successful, you agents will need to step outside your usual agency circles to be more visible to those who matter. Raising your visibility and developing a reputation in your town will be vital if you want to grow your business .... i.e. getting more people to ask you to market their property for let or sell.


This can bring estate and letting agents outside their natural comfort zone, and therein lies the challenge. Agents and the work we do has to change rapidly with a changing world, but are we, letting and estate agents willing to adapt to those changes as well and quickly enough to remain relevant?


So how can we become part of the community, to make ourselves the agent of choice, the agent everyone thinks of when it comes to buying, selling and renting property?  The answer is to become involved  in the community and become your town’s guru of property. .. and here is the best bit .. the British love property! I am not asking you to be the guru of accountancy in your town (that’s boring), and I am not asking you to be the guru of shopping trolley design (dullsville) ... I am asking you to become the guru of your local property market.


.. but being a guru isn’t talking about what you have sold, being a guru isn’t talking home staging or that you need scatter cushions on a viewing, being a guru isn’t talking about how long it take to sell or let a property, being a guru isn’t talking about changes in property law (s8 vs s21- awesome ..not!), being a guru isn’t telling people how many awards you have won, being a guru isn’t gimmicky market with high heel shoes next to for sale boards, a guru isn’t saying look at our new for sale board or business cards, and guru’s don’t ask for the business by saying ‘Need help with the successful Letting & Management of your property?’


Being a property guru is all about giving. It’s also about how giving will come back to you many times over. Trust me on this, there is nothing loopyloo or funnyfarm about this snizzle. This giving lark is based on universal laws and principles that have stood the test of time. Everyone has heard of the saying, “Give and you shall receive.” Many have seen this principle operating in their lives .. so why not in lettings and estate agency? The give and receive stuff is simply one manifestation of the law of cause and effect.


Sometimes this rule shows itself almost straight away; other times, it takes months and years. Sometimes the result comes directly from the cause, and other times indirectly. Some people seem to experience the results of this law more tangibly and in ways easier to understand than do others. But we all know intuitively that this law works.


Why does this law work? Why do we receive so abundantly when we give? You see when you sell your lettings or agency service, although you would go out of business if your service cost you more than you took in financially, you can actually provide a service that adds more value to those landlords or house sellers lives than the fees they paid for it, while making a profit at the same time.


.. but the principle works even better when someone isn’t a client. All of you want more properties to sell or manage... an awful lot of you read this blog. It costs you nothing to visit the blog bar a  few pennies in electricity and an internet connection, but, if the ideas in this blog enable to list a few more properties, you will gain thousands of pounds in fees and you personally will earn more commission. Many of you read this blog and don’t use my services ... I can see some doing it very well, some not so well... but either way, I give advice for free - why?.. because many of you have contacted me and asked me to work for you or train you in the techniques.  


...and that is how you should do it. You should set up a blog about the local property market. I can tell you how to get hundreds of visitors to your blog on a daily basis and I can tell you how to convert those visitors into landlords and vendors ringing you to ask for opinion, advice and free valuations. 


Now a lot of you are doing it .. good for you I say. Some of you are brilliant at doing it ... really brilliant and some of you .. well let’s say no more. Like I always say, pick up the phone and talk to me... here is my number 07950 147 572 if you want me to give you my honest opinion. I will tell you if you are any good... in fact there is on guy in Oxfordshire and another in Buckinghamshire who now give me ideas .. I use their ideas for my clients – a true example of the “give to receive” principle  -and we are all in this business together.


That aside,  if you want me to do this for you, make you the property Guru of your town, make landlords ring you up, make homeowners want you to sell their house, then we really need to speak. .. the number is above.