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.

That’s the current average time it takes from putting your home up for sale, until exchange of contracts.

This is made up of: 62 days to find buyer and agree price (IF you can find a buyer, which more than half of sellers can’t)
plus

154 further days to exchange contracts, IF you exchange contracts at all, which more than 1/3rd don’t when their sale falls through.

Things made worse by overvaluing:

1. Time to find a buyer (high asking prices are offputting)
2. Time to exchange (buyers getting cold feet when they realise they’ve overpaid)
3. Sales falling through: Lender’s down-valuing deals because the property was over-valued.

Nothing will improve until over-valuing stops.

Over-valuing won’t stop until the worst culprits are forcibly stropped (they force other agents to overvalue reluctantly).

There is no law against it. So they won’t stop.

Sellers need to understand that MOST agents will knowingly (even if reluctantly) overvalue their homes.

They need to understand that, at best, overvaluing by agents will delay their sale, and at worst it will result in them missing the market and not selling at all, while locked into an unfair contract.

Everyone needs to understand this.

Because overvaluing is killing the housing market, and affecting everyone’s chances of moving, buyers and sellers alike.

If you’re moving ‘up the ladder’, sliding house prices help you.

The zombie house-seller apocalypse is upon us.

And Rightmove (whose figures these are) think they’re helping by constantly reporting ‘record house prices’.

No one at Rightmove has any individual motivation to do anything about this. It’s an immensely profitable gravy boat, where no one will stand up for fear of rocking it.

But their ill-conceived ‘house price index’ is directly affecting the entire market, everyone’s moving chances, and good agents’ businesses.

On 27th June, at the BestAgent Day event I will be inviting the relatively new Rightmove CEO Johan Svanstrom, who is new to the property market, to discuss the possibility of reconsidering their monthly house price index format, with a view to coming up with something that actually helps movers and agents.

I don’t expect it will make any difference, because the US hedge funds who collectively own a controlling interest in Rightmove don’t care about the UK housing market, as long as they get their regular dividends and share buy-backs.

So they won’t allow RM to do anything differently. But there’s no harm in asking.

And when they don’t change, and BestAgent launches its new ‘exchange-price paid index’ which will make a mockery of their asking prices, they can’t say we didn’t warn them.

Everything rests on ending overvaluing.

Agents collectively possess the data to do this, today. BestAgent will enable this, and create an all-new, transparent, verifiable house price index which will render all the others meaningless, once and for all. And it won’t cost estate agents a penny to participate.

Yet collectively, they will be able to aim this new torpedo of transparency directly at Rightmove and all the worst overvaluing corporate agents, and finally put a stop to a disingenuous, borderline-fraudulent practice.

It’s just such a shame that none of the biggest companies in the property sector have any interest in transparency. Otherwise this would have happened years ago.

When the time comes, we will be asking for your help to spread the word. I hope you will. It will help everyone except those causing the problem.

The post Ending overvaluing is the only way the housing market improves. appeared first on BestAgent.