Agents at a crossroads in survival: You must decide on the services you offer, warns Scarff

Industry veteran Bob Scarff has warned that agents must offer a range of services.

Scarff, who believes that within the next five years 25% of all house sales will be by vendors opting for some form of self-service, said that agents of all sizes “have big decisions to make about where they’ll stand in the new world.

“An agent deciding to offer only full-service will be cutting themselves off from 25% of the market.

“An agent deciding to offer only self-service will be cutting themselves off from 75%. Big decisions!”

Scarff, who formerly ran estate agency services at Countrywide, said that there is a lot of muddled thinking in the market, with some agents refusing to believe there has been a permanent shift in vendor and landlord expectations.

Other agents recognise the need to change but cannot make a decision as to how to.

The biggest group, said Scarff, do see the need to change, and have a clear plan of action: they will have one foot in the full service camp and the other in self-service.

The question for them is whether the self-service proposition is offered under the same brand as the full-service one.

According to Scarff, agents like Countrywide have decided it is possible to offer both under the same brand and with the same people.

“I see the apparent economic attractions to this approach, but it sounds like trying to push water uphill to me.”

His comments are here

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12 Comments

  1. PERCY

    A very broad generalisation of what could / could not happen in the next 5 years. There has always been some customers who will prefer a level of self service and this will remain. Will it increase, yes. To the levels suggested – very questionable. Do all agents need to provide a range of service options – no. They cant be all things to all people. ‘Stick to the knitting’ do what you do but do it better. Understand the differentiation between service and price of product

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  2. Mark Walker

    Online agents, 17+ years counting, 4% market share?  Tick tock.

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    1. AgentPink92

      PB two years of major advaertising and currently 20,000 properties for sale.

      All previous online agents were like tadpoles in the ocean and that’s why the market share was insignificant.
       
       
       

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  3. Bless You

    You cant be both online model and honest model or the no profit vs profit model.

    By offering the online model you are misleading people.

    I would never charge somebody upfront. Its enethical .

    And for a few hundred quid more you get staff …wow remember those.

     

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    1. AgentPink92

      How is charging an up front fee unethical??

      We offer sellers a choice of lower cost up front ofee or no sale no fee and the service is the same whichever is chosen.

      We make it absolutely clear verbally and in our contract that the up front  fee is non refundable and that it shouldn’t be considered unless the client has definitely decided come what may they are going to sell and move.

      There is nothing unethical whatsoever about this type of up front fee agreement.
       
       

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      1. Property Pundit

        Charging a fee where there is no guarantee of a sale or a refund of said fee where no sale takes place is not only unethical but immoral. End of.

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        1. ARC

          Doesn’t seem to bother every other industry going.

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        2. AlexBroadfoot

          They’re not charging for a sale though, are they. They’re charging you to list the property and have the opportunity to show people round. That’s it. It’s why so many agents are angry because Purple Bricks talks about how much they save clients on average, compared to the high st. What PB clients should be asking is not ‘how much will I save’, but ‘what chance do I actually have of achieving exchange of contracts’. For most people, the cost involved makes it a risk worth taking, but there’s nothing immoral or unethical about that. 

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          1. aSalesAgent

            The agency I work for do not offer a ‘pay-now’ service, but it’s not something I would object to. It costs money for professional photographs to be taken, floorplans to be produced and for property particulars to be written and uploaded to the online portals. As well as the ‘no sale, no fee’ service, I think it fair to offer (as an alternative) a small ‘listing’ fee with reduced sale fee (on exchange/completion) and possibly a non-refundable ‘pay now’ fee, but at a greatly reduced rate because it removes the chance of earning £0 for your efforts.

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      2. Woodentop

        No incentive to have to sell, even put the extra bit of effort in or get the vendor the best price! No sale = no fee came about because that is what the vendor market wanted, not the agent. This is forgotten but will come back to bite those that charge for failure … a time bomb? 

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  4. jasonking

    My local newspaper used to charge me to advertise …  when i didn’t  get any response  they wouldn’t refund me … not using them again !

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  5. Chris Wood

    In defence of Purplebricks and other call-centre agents (no, you did read that correctly), there is nothing wrong with charging up front it is, after all, the way that estate agency used to operate prior to the late eighties. Every business model has a niche and an opportunity to do well with its own market offering. What is crucial (and which does not appear appear to be happening in some cases) is that each business model operates in accordance with the various laws and codes that apply to estate and letting agents.

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