A preliminary founder members’ meeting of a new trade body is to go ahead this Wednesday, founder Charlie Wright has confirmed.
He also revealed that the over-riding pre-requisite of membership will be a no sale, no fee model – and that all the prospective founding members are male.
Wright, who is the founder and managing director of estate agency software firm Easymatch, had initially withheld his identity when plans were announced last week for the Charter for Independent Estate and Letting Agents (CIELA).
However Wright – whose previous businesses in the estate agency sector included the bu2iness, and Datography – has now openly expressed his hopes for the venture, which aims to create a new agency mutual organisation for independents across the UK.
He said that the role of the founder members will be absolutely critical.
He said: “National members must be able to relate to the founders.
“If grassroots estate agency members cannot relate to their national committee representatives, then they will be unlikely to unite in sufficient numbers.
“It’s no good having corporate employees as board directors of agency mutuals if they have never walked the walk of starting and running a small business in a highly competitive environment.
“They will know nothing of the eternal struggle of the high street or small business owner. It is my view that having employees of large corporates representing small business owners in a collective organisation is a recipe for failure.”
Wright went on: “Each founder member will be representing the interests of thousands of their fellow members’ livelihoods. This is an extremely serious undertaking, so I will be asking founder members to accept that their role has nothing to do with their own individual agency business.
“The overall geographical balance of the founder members committee should be one that reflects the whole country. Past and existing agent organisations have, in my opinion, been too London centric at their leadership levels.
“Of the initial CIELA invitees, only two are from London agencies. The rest are from the home counties and around the country.”
He said the founder members would also represent a balance of different views and business models, including rural and urban, traditional and high-tech.
However, all would have to offer personal service “in person”, including advice, accompanied viewings, negotiation, sales progression and a no sale, no fee business model.
He said two prospective founder members operate small hybrid agencies; another prospective member is a former branch chairman of the NAEA; and another holds a very senior position in a regional group of agents.
Wright said that there will also be several members of another estate agency mutual – which he declined to name – at Wednesday’s meeting.
However, not one woman business owner is among those due to be at the inaugural meeting.
Wright said: “The female candidates I invited have expressed support but said they are unable to spare the time, or they have not responded. I would be very happy to hear from any women business owners who fit the profile.”
Anyone interested can visit www.ciela.co.uk or email the acting secretary samantha.westlake@ciela.co.uk
Wright said his earlier preference for anonymity was because he had not wanted to be bombarded with responses.
He said: “As a direct result of last week’s story on EYE and people quickly deducing that I was involved, we have received dozens of approaches by email, on LinkedIn and on Twitter from people proposing commercial partnerships, associations or collaborations which are simply premature at this stage, given there is not yet any certainty it will proceed, but nonetheless time consuming to deal with unfortunately.”
Wright said of his own business: “In due course I will fully disclose my commercial interests in CIELA, but its premature at this stage, other than to say Easymatch has almost zero involvement, and CIELA is a totally separate undertaking, legally and commercially.”
Reminds me of the film ‘eyes wide shut’. All male, secret underground meetings, masks, strange rituals… not sure Charlie is the right person for this but good luck to him and all his secret male members.
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Can’t wait to find out what Charlie Wright has planned for estate agents and how this will benefit us and how we are going to stand up for our rights, fight our cause and educate the public.
I get that we have to pay for his software and we also have to give up our data so he can sell conveyancing, referencing, utility/broadband switching and other services to our customers – even though ‘EasyMatch has almost zero involvement’.
Why make a bad attempt at hiding your identity in the first place? Why get involved in this if you do not gain? Are you really doing this with no vested interest? If you are, then hats off to you, I applaud you. It will be a lot of your time and energy and more importantly, require a lot of skill and knowledge.
Does anyone else want more information without going to a meeting or is this how AM was set up?
As smile please said, ‘Groundhog Day’.
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Rumour doing the rounds everybody’s favourite floppy hair toxic mouth piece has some kind of involvement in this – might explain his twitter meltdown last week, if you missed it think Kevin Keegan”s rant on sky circa 97.
Bearing in mind it’s in his interest to get property as cheap as possible I hope it is only rumour…..
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I’m having this comment printed twice, sealed in waterproof frames – and hang one up in the pool and the other in the cesspit for all us pondlife and bacteria to enjoy!
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Someone with too much time on his hands and a penchant for seeing his name in print. It’ll come to nothing.
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“…the over-riding pre-requisite of membership will be a no sale, no fee model…”
Interesting – by that “pre-requisite” at least ONE Call-centre Agent will be allowed to join – and many good High-Street Agencies whose fee model includes “marketing” or “withdrawal” charges will be excluded.
Do these people actually have one single, solitary Scooby?
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Bizarre insisting on sale – no fee.
Those of us with flexible business models and who deal with specialised properties, occasionally have contracts with clients which are mutually beneficial and which may include a withdrawal fee during the period of sole agency/sole selling rights or a fee for witholding material information which may affect a sale, etc. Perhaps Mr Right (sic) should include a requirement for a maximum fee as well (may I suggest 1%!).
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SO – TODAY’S THE DAY…!
Will tomorrow bring news of who actually turned up? Who the twelve ‘Founder Fathers’ are and what they aim to achieve?
Will it turn into the stag-rut of the year/decade/century in terms of industry history?
Who will wrap their own agenda in the prettiest Christmas paper to convince the masses that it is actually for their best interests?
SO many questions… wonder if the answers ever emerge?
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For anyone who hasn’t visited the website for a few days, apparently there’s an ‘Open Letter’ for us all* to read. That’s original.
* Definition of ‘all’:
1. You must be an “INDEPENDENT ESTATE AGENCY OWNER”.
2. (for anyone still reading that No.#1 hasn’t immediately discounted from further participation) You must “wish to own your future”.
It’s even wordier than anything I think I’ve ever produced – and that takes some doing!
There are inconsistencies in its’ message – such as:
(Para 1) ‘Would you ever consider uniting… in the fight against corporate domination and unfair practice’
(Para 5) ‘We would not presume to… be trying to encourage better practice’
I guess the fun bit to watch is gonna be when they start deciding the minutiae – which might be getting somewhere near to job done around the time of my now-galloping-toward me retirement, around 2030ish. Give or take.
Oh, joy.
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AND… the news is out!
How many of the ‘Founding Fathers’ did you guess, folks?
I got three (excluding Mr Wright) – would have been four or even five if I’d thought about it a bit more.
Look forward to reading Ros’ article in the morning…
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