What is the future of the estate agency industry?
The future of estate agency is a hotly debated topic, with the industry divided on key issues such as highstreet vs broker vs internet vs hybrid models.
As a people business, it seems crazy to me that this is how agents choose to be defined. Self employed agents on my Linkedin acting like they’ve just discovered the wheel. Plenty of people thought I was a lunatic for being a self-employed, one-man band from my mum’s bedroom 15 years ago. Can that way of doing it work? Of course. You could be the handstand estate agent and that could work.
Where there is little debate about this is…. in the general public. People don’t care.
And why would they?
Clients care about
- Getting a great price.
- Getting value for money.
- To not be ripped off.
- To have enough transparent communication so as not to lose their mind.
- For their chosen agent to be on their side.
Agents, of course, will try to say their way is best, but nobody has a ‘better way’ of sitting down at a computer or holding their phone a certain way.
There is a lot of skill in estate agency, but what the industry argues for/about and portrays to clients rarely matters.
I described selling and buying a house as running a gauntlet where everyone tries to take your money at every stage. It’s not changed; it just looks different.
