What marks you out as different as an estate agent?
Is it the fact your staff don’t drive Minis?
Is it because your fee structure is openly displayed on your website?
Is it because your social media is engaging and active?
Or does your office look lovely to those who walk or drive by?
Have you built a tribe of followers, who’d endorse you wholeheartedly by word of mouth, putting their reputations on the line for you, do people trust and like you?
Do you offer something different from Agent A, B, C and D in your small patch?
The problem now is that people aren’t moving as often.
I remember being told by someone who’d been in the industry for over 25 years that the average timespan spent in a home was 7 years, only 6 years ago, and on new estates, just 4 years.
I read recently it now stands at 16 years and the supply chain of first time buyers has dried up with investors clogging the bottom end of local housing markets, with landlords holding on to property for 25 years and more.
So what do you do?
You should do something different.
Put it this way: we will probably move in 2019 and relocate. I already know who will sell our home: it’s a company that does things differently.
Your job as estate agents is not only to source vendors who will pick you from the other two shiny suits who rock up in Minis but to help them sell so they leave reviews and tell others, but you may also want to consider something different.
I know estate agents are cash-strapped: the portals, office and staff costs absorb most profit.
But I have a service that I didn’t invent, that I can’t claim originality with or pretend I found estate agent clients, good ones, who buy into this as one of their USPs.
Property stories.
Vendor narratives.
Call them what you will – but it’s a service that me as a copywriter, property writer, turned web designer, offers on an increasingly frequent basis.
It costs you as an estate agent around £25 and here’s how it works.
Your staff email me draft particulars or a set of photos via Dropbox, Google Drive or We Transfer, with a contact name and no preamble. I look at the photos, maybe the floorplan and sometimes Street View, and then ring the vendor for a 10 – 15 minute natter.
The estate agent has already promoted my services at valuation and when they’ve committed to listing, I get the photos and vendor number.
I like doing it.
A lot.
The home seller gives me a potted history of their home, their plans, favourite aspects, I listen, prompt when they’re drying up and make notes. I don’t look for the radiators in halls rubbish – though I did in the one below!
Estate agents often bandy superlatives around – stunning, delightful, immaculate – so much so, that they can become clichéd and almost self-parodies, but we’re quite confident to add those three epithets to this property.
And some more.
You can see why when you look at the photos and floorplan and step foot in this stunning, delightful, immaculate property.
The current owners bought this Victorian villa in 2014 and were smitten by the smorgasbord of original features – the stained glass windows, the balcony, the cornicing, the original fireplaces adorning reception rooms. We know you will fall in love too – and perhaps declare love from that balcony?
Known locally as the chocolate box house in ———-, the house delights.
From parking up to three cars, to venturing into the hall, we think the entrance will impress. Original tiled floor from the Victorian heyday. A beautiful radiator – yes beautiful and radiator, two words that don’t often rub shoulders in a sentence, but they do in this hall.
A magnificent kitchen, complete with range cooker, original terracotta tiles, plus living room with real fire and orangery complete the downstairs, with more delights waiting upstairs on the first and second floors.
Why spoil your anticipation though by showing and telling all?
You need to view this property for yourself.
In terms of practicality, ________ station is under 2 miles away – a brisk walk or short drive – and you can be at ________ in 38 minutes.
But why would you want to leave this stunning, delightful, immaculate home?
The beauty of this arrangement is that estate agents don’t have to waste time creating a decent property story as you’ve outsourced it to me, a graduate of English and professional copywriter.
You don’t have to wait days for John or Joanne to finish the description.
You shouldn’t have to spell check – but I am human and sometimes commit typos which I inevitably spot just as I hit SEND on emails. I made two yesterday which were spotted but the estate agent was cool with it, as they were obviously typing errors and one was an autocorrect to deepening, bizarrely.
You must though have a vendor who’s up for it. I give up after a few tries if I’m getting nowhere.
I turn them round quickly as I know getting a property live is paramount.
Vendors love it, estate agents love them and now I’m writing for eight of these Mini driving property suits in various parts of England.
If you want to gain vendors, add a USP and not be ripped off by a property writer, get in touch with me. Each story costs £25 – unless you’re already one of my clients.
Mobile is best via iMessage or What’s App on 07462923476.
Or email stuart@getprocopy.com
As long as you pay me quickly for my quick writing service, I’m happy to take on more stories.
