You might think that a recruiter specialising in the estate and letting agency sector might not want to cast doubts on what high street firms do or whether they’re worth it – but that is exactly what James Richmond of JR Recruitment has done.
His post on LinkedIn had 40,000 views and a couple of hundred comments in less than 24 hours.
Richmond’s post cites online agent OpenRent, which charges landlords £49 for a package of advertising on sites including Rightmove and Zoopla plus tenancy creation.
Currently, OpenRent has cut its advertising-only package which allows listing on Rightmove and Zoopla for three months from £29 to nothing.
On LinkedIn, Richmond posted: “Estate agents… two years ago I put my property on the market with OpenRent & with a high street agent.
“The high street agent found me a tenant willing to pay £1250 per month, I found my own tenant through OpenRent willing to pay £1300 and it only cost me £49!
“This time the property’s been valued at £1250 per month and I’ve used OpenRent again and found a tenant within the first week happy to pay full asking price before I’ve even had the chance to instruct the agent. Again, only paying £49!
“My question is… Why should a landlord use an estate agent? When they can do it themselves, hassle free.”
Responses to the post included this from Bobby Singh, nominating it as “the dumbest post of 2019. I can’t believe you serve the industry with so-called talent and yet you question the very talent you provide.”
Darren Simpson, operations director at Chancellors, responded: “You’ve let a stranger move into your biggest asset and are gloating as to how much you’ve saved when it’s peanuts compared to what you stand to lose if they wreck your home or stop paying you rent or both.”
Another recruiter, Cameron Wallace at Jobline Staffing, said: “I always think of letting agents like insurance policies; the money you pay may seem wasted but when something goes wrong and you need the support of a clued in professional that is when it pays dividends.”
Other responses suggested that agents were a “dying breed”, full of “overweight dinosaurs”.
Richmond agreed that his post was “fairly controversial”.
He told EYE: “I recruit for estate agents but I think there’s a lot of weak ones that won’t be around much longer if they don’t buck up their ideas so I’ve called them all out.
“People are shocked as to why I’m calling them out when a lot of them are my clients but the reality is 90% of them can’t answer the initial question I asked and cannot justify their fees.”
I wonder whether these property recruiters can justify their fees please. After all 10% +\- of salary commission is ludicrous… Just for a phone call……. Lol
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Quite right…having used recruiters (supposedly some of the top property recruitment firms included on the list of those used)on multiple occasions in the past- they range from being unwittingly useless, to outright bottom-feeders…
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Does he charge £45 per placement? I’d hope less given it requires less time and resources.
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Wouldn’t surprise me one bit if he loses a lot of clients over this. I know I’d certainly never use him after such a public slating to the industry
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It’s the same old story they are cutting prices to gain market share and relying on shareholder funds to keep them going. 7 years down the line and still not making a profit and losses increasing each year.
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Watch this recruiter be put on the block list from his client list.
Headhunters historically charge a fortune for just an advert and a couple of phone calls. Which he’s basically accused the property specialists.
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I have never understood who the client is for a recruiter, they claim the person paying the invoice. However, after 12 months of placing somebody with a firm, they are onto that person advising them of another opportunity somewhere else! A money merry-go-round.
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……. from Bobby Singh, nominating it as “the dumbest post of 2019. I can’t believe you serve the industry with so-called talent and yet you question the very talent you provide.”
James Richmond of JR Recruitment take note, just because you had to say something about a subject you clearly have no idea about. The word “Overheads” immediately springs to mind. Why would any agent know want to use your services, you are not the only recruiter?
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A true ‘Ratner’ moment indeed.
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I can only assume that Mr Richmond has never heard of Indeed.com, I can post my Vacancies for free, why would I need to pay for his services to find a candidate. I still use recruiters because I value what they do.
Clearly everything in life is as simple as placing an advert, it’s not like there is any legislation that you would need to be aware of in setting up a tenancy, or pitfalls in the ongoing management of the tenancy, what could possibly go wrong. I assume he writes his own tenancy agreement as well as there is no point paying those good for nothing lawyers money to draw one up when I can google “free tenancy agreement”, simple this Lettings Agency stuff, thinking about it I might open one, money for old rope…
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