One of the core values of the estate agency that I founded in 2008 was ‘premium’. Whenever I went away from that (and I did from time to time) it didn’t end well. Fundamentally clients need more service and better outcomes from their agent rather than lower costs. The UK estate agents fee is already incredibly low by international standards and continues to go lower. Little wonder our reputation isn’t as good as it is abroad where higher fees, mean lower volumes and therefore better service.

My belief is that you have to be able to demonstrate a better outcome for the customer to be able to charge a higher fee. Since 2016 we have been using the principles in Robert Cialdini’s book “Influence” to test whether or not a different launch strategy for a property makes any difference to the outcome for a customer.

The dashboard above is one of the biggest reasons we chose to use Greenhouse OS as our CRM. It allows us to measure the impact of these two different strategies in real time (with no parallel spreadsheets) and then show this to our clients in the valuation.

These are the results from the last 90 days of sales. When we don’t use our ‘Property Launch’ strategy our sellers are getting £8400 less than their asking price. When they use the Property Launch strategy they are getting £156 more than their asking price. What I love about this, is it normalises for everything else. The same people in the same location with the same marketing, but a different method getting our clients at present over £8000 more on their sale price. It doesn’t take the greatest valuer in the world to be able to sell a better fee with these results behind them.

Why does it sell for more? Look at the average number of offers per sale, we are dealing with 2.6 offers per sale rather than 2.

What is a Property Launch?

1. Run a full marketing campaign for 5-10 days – NO VIEWINGS
2. Create a viewing event (Property Launch) for a Saturday or an evening
3. Negotiate interest after the event, closing the offers by Tuesday / Wednesday of the following week

Why does it work?

Imagine that you are on holiday. You walk down the main high street to see two restaurants. One is busy, the sound of laughter rolling out on to the street and people having a great time inside. The other is empty, with a lonely looking waiter, cleaning a glass with a tea towel, with a thousand yard stare into the street.

Which restaurant would you like to eat at?

If, you are like most of us, you would pick the busy restaurant then you are doing so because of social proof. Seeing that other people love a good or service is shorthand that it must be good, the reverse is true. Boards breed boards? The same thing.

Another principle of influence is scarcity. The fact that other people might want the ONE property of that type, means that you are much more likely to want to pay a top price for it. Why don’t developers release all 300 houses in one go? Because they want to create scarcity for an otherwise abundant product.

Sellers Love it

Being a numbers guy, I imagined the £8000 more would be the biggest selling point for most clients. However, for a large number it’s the fact that it’s easier for a seller. When was the last time you moved? One of the biggest hassle’s (especially if you have 5 kids at home) is keeping the house ready for viewings. Imagine doing it just once and not having to be there to show people round.

Combine it with Live Booking Appointments

The other big value add is that if you have real time viewing booking, (like we have in Greenhouse OS) then you save a huge amount of time. You save time because every digital lead is answered instantly. Every lead that meets the qualification criteria of the seller is then offered an opportunity to book a viewing.

It works brilliantly for landlords

Lettings lead handling and viewings is a major drain on a businesses resources, for a relatively small amount of initial money. We have found a higher success rate with online viewing booking for lettings (north of 50%).

The Property Launch process results in one visit to a property, and multiple offers for a landlord to consider, meaning that it may not be the level of rent that clinches it. Often the landlord chooses a good offer of rent from a tenant whose position which offers them the greatest degree of comfort and security.

I am going to be adding Property Launch to my selling upfront fees training day, so if you would like to chat about any of the ideas in this article, feel free to drop me a Whatsapp on the link below