With a week to go, 81 attendees from independent estate agencies have so far registered for BestAgent’s “No Valuations” event.

The London 6th Nov event, sponsored by award-winning conveyancers Thomas Legal, is fully booked, with just one space left for Manchester on Tues 4th, and 3 spaces left in Bristol on Wed 5th. (If you’d like to grab one of the last places, please email events@bestagent.co.uk).

Founder Charlie Lamdin will be talking through the results already achieved by the BestAgent process, which centres around the mantra “Talk Process, Not Prices” and starts with vendor advice meetings where “No Valuations” are given, and instruction rates have increased as a result.

The strategy, first adopted by Carringtons estate agents in Kingston, has succeeded in completely side-stepping the overvaluing plague that’s slowing down transactions.

Deal times halved, fees up 50%

As a consequence, transaction times have halved, fall throughs have been all but eliminated (still zero fall throughs at the time of writing, since adopting this process in February 2025), fees are up 50% and the sign up ratio on pitch is over 90%, with little or no pushback on higher fees.

Commenting on the selection of agents who have registered, Charlie said “There are some very good independent, owner-managed agents around the country, who aren’t getting the instructions or the fees they deserve, almost entirely because of the widespread practice of wild overvaluing by desperate agents.”

As has been shown with Carringtons, the BestAgent process completely sidesteps that problem.

With the same number of new leads, but with higher instruction rates, larger fees, and better sales rates, the results are transformational not only for Carringtons, but for their staff and clients too.

“It’s made our job fun”

“My favourite unexpected outcome of working with Carringtons has been how they say that this process has removed virtually all the usual stress they endured, and it’s made their job fun. The feeling of knowing that all their sellers are genuinely happy and have enormous respect for what this agent has achieved is the icing on the cake.” Charlie added.

BestAgent will now be expanding the project with agents in other areas, on a one-off basis, to prove that the approach works in any market, and that good agents no longer need to overvalue to win business.

Agents, not conveyancers, are at the centre of all transactions

“Estate agents are at the epicentre of all parties to every transaction. As such, they are the only industry in a position to fix the housing market congestion, more than conveyancers, government or lenders. The key to returning transaction times to the sensible 10-week time frames of the 90s is to help the public find more agents who understand how to deliver these results.” said Charlie.

“That’s why the website is called ‘BestAgent’. We want to put the idea into the public’s head that their choice of agent is pivotal to their move.”

Email events@bestagent.co.uk to reserve one of the last places if you’re an independent agent owner-manager

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4, 5, 6 Nov: BestAgent Process Onboarding Day – How BestAgent’s ‘No Valuations’ process transformed every aspect of sales in under a year.

What it is: A free, confidential 10am-2pm in-person, invite-only event for owner-managed independent agents from England or Wales.

Manchester Tue 4 Nov

Bristol Wed 5 Nov

London Thu 6 Nov

Charlie Lamdin will show how Carringtons (Kingston) have transformed their results in under a year, and are on target to multiply their turnover several times within 2 years, by adopting the BestAgent ‘No Valuation’ process taught by Charlie himself.

Gleaned from 25 years of observing the practices of hundreds of top agents around the country, The ‘No Valuations’ process results in much shorter transactions at higher fees, and almost zero fall-throughs.

Overvaluing is widely recognised as a destructive industry habit, clogging the market with unsaleable properties, reducing transaction volumes and threatening estate agency businesses. This is particularly worrying as we face falls in activity due to budget uncertainty and economic decline.

Learn how Carringtons uses this process to consistently create a market of competing buyers for every property they launch, ensuring a choice of buyers, fast deal times and so far, zero fall-throughs.

Andrew Hill of Carringtons will share their experience of adopting the ‘No Valuation’ process, and how it’s changed every aspect of their business. They’ll also be taking questions about how they implemented the changes, and the lessons along the way.

Sales times halved, fees up 50%, almost no fall-throughs

Carringtons’ Key achievements since Feb 2025:

1. Average fee up by over 50%, continues to rise.
2. Time on market down from 100+ days to 28.
3. Time to exchange down from 115 days to under 70 days
4. Fall-through rate currently remains at zero for all new instructions taken on under the new approach.
5. Appraisal to instruction rate is now over 90% (for accepted clients, rejecting unrealistic sellers)

Starting in December 2025, BestAgent is launching a one-time, 2-year programme for a limited number of suitable candidate businesses who wish to escape the overvaluing problem and achieve their full potential.

The purpose of the programme is to show that Carringtons’ success is not a one-off, and that this process works in any market, any location, and at any mainstream market price level. Therefore it is in BestAgents’ own interests that every agent who joins the course succeeds in at least doubling their turnover, but ideally hitting the 4x target at the end of the 2 year programme.

The biggest surprise

A spokesperson for Carringtons said “Until we began this process, the big overvaluing corporates were making things impossible and killing our pipeline, and the local market. Six months in and we’re selling everything faster at higher fees. Once you get used to the differences, you realise the strategy of transparency really appeals to sellers and buyers alike, and the markets natural forces take over and people can move. The biggest and most welcome surprise is the number of new business opportunities falling into our lap on the back of this process.”

Charlie Lamdin said “This process came from working with hundreds of different agents over 25 years, and combining the best ideas from all of them into one strategy. Good agents who deliver great results, deserve to make a great living, and you can’t do that unless you’re charging at least 2%. Sellers will pay that, provided they’re sure you’ll deliver. It’s a win, win, win.”

On a podcast interview with Matt Giggs, Christopher Watkin said (of the process): “This particular agent is one that’s known by me, and I know the people there. I’ve looked at their stats using Twenty EA, and what Charlie’s saying is true.” Matt Giggs replied “So it’s verified?”. Chris replied, “It is.”

Christopher Watkins also said, in a comment on a post on LinkedIn: “when I look at it, there is something that needs to be looked at in the technique Charlie talks about. If you are open minded, have a listen. Go in with open eyes and an open mind, and make your own decision on it.”

Who should apply: Owners of above-average quality, independent estate agencies anywhere in England and Wales, where overvaluing is affecting your business and your local market.

How to get your invite:

Email events@bestagent.co.uk today with basic details of your estate agency (name, location, website) and which location you’d like to attend (Manchester 4 Nov, Bristol 5 Nov, London 6 Nov). Please comment on how overvaluing is currently affecting your market or business. If less than half of your stock is under offer, you’re a good candidate.

You will get a response confirming your invitation, with full details of the location and agenda for the day.

If places are oversubscribed, they will be allocated to qualifying agents on a first-registered basis.

Note: This event focuses on helping established independent agencies; future sessions may include startups and self-employed agents.

Watch this livestream with Charlie and Carringtons reviewing progress 6 months into the process.

The post Press Release: Agents to hear how “No Valuations” process halved deal times, bumped fees 50%, eliminated fall-throughs appeared first on BestAgent.

Transactions took half as long, and there were 70% more transactions in 2007 than in 2023.

Sole agency fees were 2%-2.5%, transaction times were typically 10-12 weeks, and there were more of them, making it easier for movers to find homes.

Since then, despite 25 years of industry events, there’s been non-stop decline in fees, deal volumes and times.

BestAgent Day marks the turning point when we get back to better agency, led by agents and other moving industry pioneers operating from a base of integrity.

I’ve called BestAgent Day the ‘greatest agency event yet’, said it will be ‘a turning point’ after 25 years of decline, of ever-lower fees and ever-slower transactions.

It’s not just sales guff; I really mean it.

There’s a special thread that joins all the guest speakers, all giving us their time for nothing; they all have something special in common:

They’re all striving for change.

Without change, we can only expect to see fees fall further, and deal delays worsen, both in our own businesses and as an industry.

This helps no one, especially not the moving public.

So how do we make the change?

That’s where, I hope, BestAgent comes in.

Our goal at BestAgent is to form a new, unbreakable alliance of businesses across the moving sector who operate with integrity as their central value.

What does that mean? In simple terms, it means always putting the customer’s interests before our own.

It sounds simple, so why hasn’t it happened? Something has prevented it from happening. What is it?

This is where we get into the substance of the talks on BestAgent Day: confronting the decades-old hard-wired habits afflicting most agents, brokers and conveyancers, and breaking them.

The first, and worst, habit is the monster we aim to slay on BestAgent Day: deliberately excessive overvaluing.

I’m not talking about the few extra percent that’s down to innocent over-optimism, but the 10, 15, even 20% deliberate excess that is often used as the oldest tactic in the book to trick sellers into signing their future away.

The worst thing is that this tried, tested and terrible tactic only serves to trash transaction volumes, sucking sales out of the pipeline for the rest of the industry.

At BestAgent, we have a plan, and a product built with the sole purpose of restoring fee levels, transaction times and volumes back to where they were decades ago.

70% more transactions, in half the time, at twice the average fees of today.

That product is built on transparency, which is the bedrock of trust.

Trust is what movers need, and they’re prepared to pay for it. They can’t currently identify truly trustworthy agents; that’s what we want to change.

If you’re an agent who welcomes the sound of this change, I hope BestAgent Day will be a turning point for you too, which you will look back on and say “That’s when we turned the corner and things began to get better, for everyone.”

If you haven’t already booked your free place, don’t miss it, book here: BestAgent Day 4th September 2024

The post Why BestAgent Day will be a 25 year turning point. appeared first on BestAgent.

A uniquely passionate lineup of moving-industry change-makers gather to discuss how agents can double transactions and fee income, in a way that will spark change across the housing market and bring the improvements most agents and all movers want to see.

The Event – Agents Only

Every agent in the UK can attend this online conference at no charge and engage live with the speakers. Registration is essential and only active estate agents can attend.

Its sole purpose is to be the most valuable day of insight and inspiration agents have ever had. It’s aimed as much at ambitious employees as it is business owners and directors. The target audience is all agents who care about customers and want to see better service levels across the moving marketplace, along with rising fee income and transactions.

The live online event starts at 9am and runs throughout the day. “Agents time is their most valuable resource, so as a thank you, we’re offering ‘Lead Credits’ that can be used for buying leads from BestAgent to agents who register early and use their time attending the event.” explained BestAgent Founder Charlie Lamdin.

“Whether you’re a seasoned pro, or a junior negotiator just starting out on your agency career, you can attend free and put your questions to the live speakers.” said Lamdin.

The Best-Ever Speaker Line-up.

The speaker line-up, including Daniel Daggers of super prime agent DDRE Global, Nathan Emerson (Propertymark CEO) and Richard Donnell (Zoopla research director), as well as industry regulars Christopher Watkin and Russell Quirk, is a striking one.

Lamdin said “The sheer level of passion for change among all the speakers is palpable. My hope is that, perhaps for the first time, when agents hear what they have to say, they might actually start to believe that change is possible, after 25 years of total stagnation in our industry’s progress. No one here has been paid to speak or is trying to sell anything. They are all generously giving their time and sincerely want to help agents and the market as a whole to improve.”

“I have attended countless industry events over the years, always enjoyable, but never resulting in much change or improvement. It’s time for a breakthrough.” added Charlie.

With speakers from agency, industry bodies, marketing, PR as well as conveyancing, lending and broking, all bases are covered on the goal of halving transaction times.

Speakers also include: Adam Day, leader of eXp UK; Perry Power of Power Bespoke agents; Arjan Verbeek, Founder and CEO of Perenna Mortgages; Ash Borland, mortgage broker business coach; Katie Griffin, owner manager of Sawdye & Harris estate agents; Martin Stewart of London Money FS; Katie Fox of Katie Fox EA Poole; and Simon David, CEO of Thomas Legal.

The Call to Action: End Excessive Overvaluing and Double Transactions, by participating with BestAgent

Lamdin says the potential exists for all agents in the country to double their transaction volumes, and that any agent that wants to can start on this straight away without having to wait for others. “The combination of price transparency, well-informed movers and better prepared agents can transform pipelines within weeks.”

Richard Donnell will share data showing the potential demand for double the current transaction levels, as well as how badly overpriced properties cause a slowdown in pipelines, increase fall throughs and take potential sales out of the running.

Founder Charlie Lamdin will unveil how any agent can use BestAgent to help end excessive overvaluing and double fee income, alongside whatever they currently use.

Charlie will also share details of how business owners who choose to join BestAgent Club can participate in future dividend payouts.

How BestAgent enables agents to force change for the first time with the new Public House Price Index

BestAgent is the “biggest piece of tech the residential property market has ever seen” claims Lamdin, who says he will reveal why on BestAgent Day. “The vision is a fairer moving marketplace, free from corporate control, where agents who consistently deliver better results for clients will be easier for movers to find. The goal is 10 week transactions for forward thinking movers and agents, by building the transaction process into the platform.”

“But the only way to break the current stranglehold by the worst offenders of mass, excessive overvaluing to win instructions that are then locked into 5 or 6 month sole agency contracts, effectively taking those listings out of play for transactions, is to shine the spotlight of transparency on them with a public house price index, of exchange paid prices.”

“We already have conveyancers and agents agreeing to supply their exchange prices to the index on an ongoing basis. We will be calling on all agents to submit their exchange prices to the index through their BestAgent BackOffice account, in return for early access to index data for their area.” explains Lamdin. “Agents who participate will get a ‘transparent agent’ badge on their listings on BestAgent Property.” he added.

Ending excessive, dishonest overvaluing for good

“We’re not trying to take away the optimism of a good agent who wants to get the best price the market will pay for a property. On the contrary, the goal is that agents will be able to achieve best market price for clients more quickly, by listing at more realistic prices and getting competing buyers, which is the only way to be sure best price has been achieved.”

BestAgent is the first property site where movers can go to find moving professionals they can actually trust to provide advice that’s in their best interests, not just be sucked into a funnel and upsold to.

Viewing and instruction leads are offered to agents on a pay-per-lead basis with transparent pricing, where all agents pay the same price and there are no corporate discounts.

BestAgent All Homes Index

BestAgent Club

For agents who want to actively support BestAgent’s endeavours and help accelerate progress, Charlie formed the “BestAgent Club”. A £100 per month, cancel anytime, community who want to share stories on efforts to end overvaluing and double fee income, help shape future policy, and become eligible for revenue share for any referral income generated from their listing on BestAgent Property. Agents who choose to join on or before BestAgent Day will receive double or triple rewards to thank them for their early support. Full details of membership can be found on bestagent.club

The post BestAgent Day: a turning point. The most important estate agency industry event in 25 years – Wed 4th Sept appeared first on BestAgent.

Or at least that’s what I naïvely thought when I set out to solve this problem. What I’ve uncovered is the industry’s dirty secret: the murky truth behind the reason for ever-worsening exploitation of movers, estate agency employees and the thousands of small, owner-managed estate agency businesses across the country. The answer: shareholder and investor interests almost always out-rank staff and customer interests. This means the most powerful companies in the industry set the rules of how the game is played and everyone else has no choice but to play along. BestAgent will change that, or fail.

Let me be clear: I want to permanently dismantle the current, toxic power structure in the industry which has led to ever-worsening experiences for home movers and the good people working in agency. Below is the (not so) secret plan.

The BestAgent Vision

Hardly anyone understands the importance of the role estate agents play in people’s lives. It’s one of the most critical, life-changing (better or worse) services you will ever use, whether you realise it or not.

People don’t know how to find trustworthy agents.

BestAgent has been built to enable the emergence of a self-regulating, home-focused residential property marketplace where better agents prosper and dishonest conduct fails.

Or in simpler terms, BestAgent has been built to make moving home easier, fairer and better for everyone.

Plan: Neutralise the current control structure

Moving home in the UK has been too painful for too long, for everyone involved, especially movers and agents. And as time passes it keeps getting even worse. Something has got to change.

The plan is simple, but the execution of it will be anything but.

Step 1: Stop the noise. Neutralise the bewildering, confusing torrent of estate agency brand marketing guff, social media spamming and lead generation exercises. Help intelligent homeowners make a better informed choice of agent at the personal level. This is what “Find Your Agent” already does.

Step 2: De-game the home advertising space by creating a self-regulating marketplace where all homes are advertised free of charge. Fake or out of date listings can be instantly removed by agents or movers on a trust basis, (repeat abusers get barred). Leads are transparently-priced, pay per lead, where all agents pay the same rate regardless of size. Gradually deploy features that further improve the chances of committed movers finding the best agents to work with. No-show or dishonest applicants also get flagged by agents and potentially banned.

Step 3: Deploy the remaining 6 functions (see diagram below) which further enhance and promote the outstanding individuals in the industry, wherever they may work (for example, think of a great employee agent with a terrible boss. This person should thrive despite their poor employer). Deploy the functions which makes it harder for one-sided, zero-sum game ‘proptech’ products to prosper, at the expense of movers and agents. Eliminate disingenuous lead-gen tech completely by rendering it useless.

Strategy: Focus on forward-thinking movers and agents

The barrier to innovation is the people who don’t want change. While participation in BestAgent is open to all agents and movers, it’s specifically designed to appeal to more forward-thinking people. These people understand from other industries how the intelligent use of new technology works for those who embrace it. Remember when the iPhone, then Uber and Airbnb first appeared? Early adopters jumped at it and had years of the benefits while the mass market mocked and ignored them, before finally adopting it themselves.

Who’s going to keep paying more for less, when these firms delivered the opposite?

The luddites, that’s who. We have to ensure the luddites don’t kill this opportunity. (Many people I love are luddites. I have nothing against them, but they must be avoided lest they destroy new tech with cries of “It’s rubbish!” because they don’t know how to use it.)

The only losers will be the protectionists who will squeal loudly when BestAgent gets traction (prepare for the BestAgent-hater agents), as it will be a threat to their entire operating method, a bit like cars must have been to the horse-and-carriage industry. They can participate, but only on the same terms as everyone else. They can no longer dictate their own terms. Movers deserve better. Being tricked into signing a sole agency contract with bad, backwards-looking agents will no longer be acceptable. Those days are now numbered.

Objective: The better, fairer future everyone deserves

The property market’s biggest problem is the control exercised by a small number of large organisations, primarily for their benefit, at the expense of everyone else. This is unacceptable for hard working, lower income people need to move house. The move is often forced on them for reasons beyond their control, and they end up being chewed up and spat out by the lack of integrity displayed by many estate agents who prioritise their own income over the real needs of their customers.

Movers need good agents, even if they don’t realise it. A poor choice of agent ends up hurting people’s life chances. An intelligent choice of agent for the right reasons can turbo-charge a customer’s life chances. It’s that important, literally life-changing.

Another thing

There are many good people working in agency who are expected by their employers to use bad practices. They don’t like it, they don’t want to do it, but they have to if they want to earn a living. One of our hopes is that these people will find better jobs with better employers who don’t use bad practices. A major part of BestAgent has already been built specifically to facilitate this, which will allow individual agents to build a professional profile and take it with them when they change employer or start out on their own.

No one (who’s not a psychopath) feels good about making money at the expense of others. But everyone feels good making money because they helped someone. This is the future I believe most people want, as has already happened in other industries.

The intelligent application of technology has the potential to eliminate, or at least radically reduce, the instances of dishonest conduct and exploitation of others, with the lazy justification that “it’s just business.”

No investors

All of which should go some way to explaining why I have no investors. I have failed to find any venture capitalists who actually practice putting the enhancement of others’ lives ahead of their profit-making. They are almost all, zombie-like, completely focused on spreadsheets and ROI. While they love the buzz words of social impact, they don’t live it. Which is why I have bootstrapped this venture on my own for the last 7 years (to the tune of c. £5m so far, including deferred rewards).

If I can get enough agents who operate with integrity to join BestAgent to get it to a starting point where the first consumers who use it get a better experience than they would otherwise, it will be downhill from there, and a happier future ahead for all.

Better-than-the-rest agent? Join BestAgent. Here bestagent.co.uk/agents

The post The End of Bad Estate Agency – BestAgent’s Secret Master Plan appeared first on BestAgent.

This function is included with all free BestAgent Marketplace accounts as standard.

BestAgent has released a new free function that automatically imports all Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket leads straight into the applicant database of an agent’s BestAgent account. Agents no longer have to manually input portal lead information, no matter which of the main portals they list on.

The post BestAgent releases automatic Portal Lead Importing function appeared first on BestAgent.

This function is included as standard, at no cost.

BestAgent has released a new free function which allows any new or existing applicants to book a property viewing online 24h a day. This allows applicants and agents to confirm viewings by mobile.

The post BestAgent releases Online Viewing Booking to single-branch agents appeared first on BestAgent.

This function is included as standard, at no cost.

BestAgent users have told us that getting new listings onto portals faster than other agents is an important part of winning new instructions, especially in the fast-moving lettings industry.

The post BestAgent adds OnTheMarket to its free, real-time data feed list appeared first on BestAgent.

This function is included as standard, at no cost.

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