Estate Agents: Woo-Hoo! Stamp Duty Holiday 🏡 ⛱

At last, there has been some good news for the estate agency industry, with Chancellor Rishi Sunak announcing a Stamp Duty holiday on residential purchases of £500,000 or less in England and Northern Ireland until March 2021.

So, being in the property industry, how do you feel about this?

Is it enough to keep the property market buoyant for the next eight months?

When the time comes next Spring for the Stamp Duty holiday to draw to a close will there be a massive frenzy during the final days followed by a market collapse?

Estate Agents: 7 Things Your Customers Want to Know Right Now

If lockdown has done one thing, it has highlighted the necessity for estate agents to increase their online presence. In fact, this has been underlined not just for estate agents, but for every business that until these last few strange months may have been lacking somewhat when it came to their digital arsenal.

I’m not just talking about having a website though. Any estate agency can have a website.

Actually, I’ll rephrase that. Any estate agency can have a pretty website.

Estate Agents: How Attractive is Your Website?

How attractive are you? How interesting are you?

I bet you’d give yourself a solid 8 out of 10, maybe even more?

Now, how did you actually reach that score?

Estate Agents: How to help home movers!

How helpful have you been to your clients these past few months? No, really, I mean if you take a proper good, long look at yourself and your agency, have you been, and do you continue to be as helpful as you can possibly be when it comes to your clients?

I’m interested to know because there was an article that caught my eye in the Property Reporter newsletter last week which stated:

“According to new research by home setup service, Just Move In, an overwhelming 69% of the nation feel that estate agents should do more to help them during the stressful process of moving between homes.”

Estate Agents: Are you Playing the Long Game?

You’re a fantastic estate agent, right? Of course you are.

Or, you think you are.

But how does your target audience see you?

Estate Agents in competition: How do you feel?

I was chatting with a long-standing client recently. She runs a very successful estate agency in the South East, and we generally enjoy a bit of chit-chat before we talk business! This recent catch-up was no exception, and she was obviously desperate to tell me ‘a funny story’ about how one of her competitors had quite recently tried to sabotage her reputation by publicly bringing her credentials into question.

I mean, I wouldn’t say that’s funny – more rude and disrespectful!

It turns out that, without going into all the details, her credentials had been questioned publicly in a way that was meant to ultimately make her look incompetent.

Estate Agents: It’s not all about you!

When was the last time you learned a new word?

In fact, I’ll rephrase that, when was the last time you learned a new word and then actually used it as part of your vocabulary?

I’m guessing it’s been a while, because generally, in our day to day lives we don’t encounter new words all that often. If we do and we don’t know what they mean, we forget them.

12 Reasons Properties will Come to Market This Week

Over the bank holiday weekend, my husband received news that his employer has extended its staff furlough scheme until the 31^st of July. He works in the financial sector for an estate agency, and so we guess that they will keep him in this furloughed position until mortgage momentum starts gathering again.

Following this news, I was reflecting on the large number of people who are still furloughed or are working from home on full or reduced hours. And this got me thinking! This is a massive opportunity for people to reflect on their lifestyles properly during this time.

It’s been reported that for some, ‘furlough fever’ has already set in. This, allegedly, involves no desire to go back to work at all, ever, because the realisation that spending time at home, doing nothing, and getting paid for it is for some, a dream come true! Long-term this would be impossible, but I’m sure that in households across the country, priorities are being reassessed. This inevitably includes making decisions relating to personal and home circumstances.

“If content marketing is so great, why isn’t every estate agent doing it?”

So, the telephone conversation went something like this:

Estate Agent: “With the property market coming back to life, I need to attract more people to my agency.”

Me: “Great. I can help with that. What’s your current strategy?”

Estate Agents: What is the best content for you to post online?

Let me tell you a little story.

Recently I was involved in an interesting conversation on social media. The original post wasn’t mine, but the debate was about whether estate agents should be bragging about how many viewings, market appraisals and sales they have completed during lockdown.

The consensus was that during these unprecedented times, bragging is not a good look – not for any business – and content should be sensitive.

Content Matters: No Blog Yet? No Problem!

Estate Agents: This search term has seen a 950% increase

I own a dog. A beautiful fox red Labrador, who goes by the name of Skye – that’s her in the photo! She is one of the reasons I have stayed sane during the past few weeks because every day Skye and I have continued to head out on our lockdown walkies.

Before lockdown we would walk for miles together across the fields, Skye happily bounding through the tall grass, me reflecting on life. We would often barely see another soul. But, as we can’t travel any distance right now, my walking partner and I have taken to trotting around the block. We live on the outskirts of the town, so our journey takes in a variety of green areas and suburban areas and our route in the past few weeks has been interesting!

During the first few weeks of lockdown, we didn’t encounter man nor beast! The streets seemed silent. There was an eerie sense of hush as we walked. The sun was shining, but windows were shut, cars were parked on driveways. We would hear the occasional burst of laughter or chatter coming from children playing in back gardens.

Estate Agents: Business just got personal!

I don’t know about you, but I do my absolute best thinking when I’m out walking the dog or immersed in exercise. And yesterday was no exception. Out in the spring sunshine, I was wandering and pondering, and I thought to myself, why are so many estate agencies named after their owners or directors?

I’m not going to mention any names as I don’t want to appear biased or be seen to be promoting one agent over another and anyway, you’ll know exactly what I mean as you are very likely to be one, but if you think about it, I’m right, aren’t I?

Obviously, some of the corporate agents and a few franchises are named otherwise, again, mentioning no names, but these are, in the main, larger companies with many offices or locations.

Content Matters: What’s the biggest mistake estate agents make when posting on social media?

Estate Agents: Are you normal?

So here we are, in week five of lockdown! Who would have thought it?

If you’re anything like me, you will have moments of complete clarity, where you accept the coronavirus situation and get on with it, and other moments, more extreme moments, where you have a complete wobble and think: ‘What the hell is this? How did we get to this point where we can’t leave our homes, our businesses are closed, and everything is just in limbo?’

You’ll probably then have 10 emotional minutes of feeling angry/sad/frustrated/confused/annoyed (delete as applicable), spend another five minutes trying to scroll past the excessive number of “I’ve made banana bread” posts on your social media feeds, make yourself a cup of coffee, trudge back to your home office…and then you’ll feel okay again.

This is perfectly natural. In spare bedrooms and sheds and from kitchen and dining room tables around the country, we are all going through these same emotions. But don’t you think it’s weird how all of us have by now, pretty much settled into a ‘new kind of normal’?

Estate Agents: How to Connect with Your Prospects like Never Before!

These past weeks are likely to have been the most testing times you have ever faced as an estate agent.

How are you holding up?

I hope you’re doing ok and can focus on the fact that this is a once in a lifetime event (hopefully) and you are not alone. Every other estate agent is experiencing the devastating consequences of coronavirus too and quite frankly, once you get through this, you will feel like you can conquer the world!

5 Tips for Staying Productive When Working from Home

Over the past few weeks, you, like many estate agents now working from home, have probably had to adjust. Whilst you may work remotely on occasion, this is likely to be the first time you have had to do this consistently.

• Gone is the daily commute
• Gone is the office environment
• Gone is the interaction and banter with colleagues
• Gone is the routine
• Gone is the daily latte from your favourite coffee shop

Gone are pretty much all the things that made up your regular working day.

Alongside dealing with the effects of coronavirus on your business, this can also be a difficult transition.

Estate Agents: 5 Ways You Can Beat Your Competition

How many times in the past have you asked yourself how your estate agency can make sure that your target audience always thinks of you before considering your competition?

Never? Then that’s where you are making a big mistake.

As a local estate agent who relies on local business, it’s likely that you are directly competing with several other estate agents nearby, so you must have a few aces up your sleeve and a strategy that allows you to stand out. A strategy that allows you to consistently win new instructions and make a name for yourself as the expert estate agent in your area.

But first, you must know your competition. If you don’t know who they are and what they provide, how can you outshine them? So, compare your fees, portfolio size, services, reviews and consider all the areas you can improve upon whilst actively using engaging and useful content to put yourself out there as an expert.

Estate Agents: Your Website is Your Shop Window

Estate Agents: What’s Stopping you?

How Many Keywords Should I Include in a Blog Post?

Estate Agents: An Offer of Help Through COVID-19

Right now, we are going through an unprecedented situation with the dreadful COVID-19 and so it’s hard for many independent business owners to know how we should feel. I am one of those business owners and that’s why I want to help you.

Today I have already felt;

Anxious

Is This the End for Estate Agencies?

This last week or so we business owners have encountered the beginning of an unprecedented situation, and, if you’re like me, you are still trying to get your head around it.

As a writer and creator of content, I don’t usually have difficulty finding words, yet over the past few days I have struggled due to the enormity of the coronavirus situation.

It’s dominating social media feeds, it’s dominating the conversation in households throughout the UK, it’s on every news and radio station and this alone is causing the population to panic.

Independent Businesses: Be Pro-Active Through COVID-19