Skip to main content

Losing Listings to Competitor Agents

Why is the pain of losing a new instruction to that joy of getting the new instruction incomparable. Valuers and Listers take it personally when a landlord or vendor chooses another agent over them … but losing the  listing is just as much a part of the game as a “getting the new instruction.

So, if you love the part of the lettings/estate agency game when your dream landlord/vendor says ‘yes’ to your sales-pitch at the market appraisal, so I say you must also love the part of the lettings/estate agency game when your dream landlord/vendor tells you ‘no’. It’s all part of the game .. because in the history of UK Lettings and Estate Agency no letting or estate agent has ever been undefeated.



Doing the Free Val is as big a part of the game is nailing the listing. Your love for Free Val has to be every bit as deep as your love of listing that you have created. If you don’t love Free Val, if you don’t love the chase, the hunt, you don’t love the game.

Asking for time is as important as the final ask, when you ask your dream client for their property on the market. The sexy part of estate and lettings is when you get signature on sole agency or terms of business and move your landlord/vendor into the listings column.

Everything before that is the real game being played though, the asking for the free Val, the walking round with the brochures, the mock up window card, getting decent comps, the back and forth, the risks. You have to love everything between target and close.

Being a lister/valuer - the listings you don’t get are all part of the same game as the deals that end up in the listings column, because the listings that are lost on the way to your wins are part of the game, not separate from it.

You aren’t supposed to like to lose a listing – You are also not supposed to like the word no,


 You do, however, need to love the lettings (or estate agency) game enough to play it hard, and to learn to play it well. Win or lose.