What A TAUK Personal Agent Really Is 🧱✨
Summary
This podcast episode introduces the new season of TAUK's peer-to-peer podcast, focusing on personal estate agency. It defines what a personal agent is, emphasizing community roots, hyperlocal knowledge, and client dedication. The episode also covers effective marketing and pricing strategies, the concept of buyer representation, and the justification of agent fees.
Key points- A personal estate agent is deeply rooted in their community, possesses extensive knowledge of the hyperlocal market, and is dedicated to their clients' success from start to finish.
- Door-knocking is presented as a free and effective way for agents to introduce themselves, appear human and friendly, and differentiate themselves from traditional estate agents.
- Effective marketing and pricing strategies are crucial, with the mantra 'strategy beats chance,' emphasizing professional imagery, understanding buyer psychology, and strategic timing for launches and viewings.
- Buyer representation, while new to the UK property industry, offers a comprehensive service by assisting clients with their onward purchases, not just their sales.
- Agent fees should not require justification if the agent has consistently demonstrated value through strategy and professional service from the outset.
- Advanced commission is a tool that allows agents to attract talent, invest in marketing, and build their business without the immediate financial pressure of living hand-to-mouth.
Chapters
Notable quotes (4)
“absolutely believes that doing hyper local business is best for them and best for the clients and the community that they serve.”
“I think a door knock is just an amazing free way to introduce yourself to the people in your local community.”
“strategy beats chance”
“Advanced Commission allows you to lean in to strategy beating chance at every single turn.”
0:00Welcome to a brand new season of the TAUK peer-to-peer podcast. And this season, we've changed things up a little. I'm here as your new host. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Steph, one of the co-founders of TAUK, longtime industry lover, estate agent of many years, uh, and truthteller. and hopefully we'll really dig under the skin of what makes Personal Estate Agency so great. This season is called Freedom with Foundations.
0:35You're going to hear me mention Hyperloal even more than I normally do. We're going to talk about the duality of brand, but most importantly, we're going to hear from estate agents probably just like you guys who are listening and watching, but who are maybe a couple of steps ahead. So, if you are considering going down the personal estate agency route, this is going to be gold dust.
0:59Take this like a voice note from somebody several steps ahead. If you're 3 months in or 3 years in and just need a little bit of inspiration, take each and every one of these episodes as the opportunity to restart, reset, and go again. But I'm your new captain. Hopefully, we'll hear a load of honesty, some humor, the occasional swear words, and hopefully this season is going to be bigger, funnier, sassier, and sharper than ever before, because personal estate agency deserves a personal voice.
1:38Welcome to season 3. Let's get into it. Steph, we use the phrase personal agent very very frequently. In your mind, what's the perfect explanation of a personal agent? >> Well, firstly, I want to say that it's a Tauk personal agent because I very firmly believe that we own that niche. So, a TAK personal agent is somebody that's rooted in their community that absolutely believes that doing hyper local business is best for them and best for the clients and the community that they serve. That knows every single house that's on the market in that hyperlocal area, whether it's listed with them or not, and understands the
2:28nuances of pricing and strategy for that local area. They then get out and network with their local community that they're part of. It's where they walk their dog. It's the butchers. They buy the sausages for breakfast on a Saturday morning. It's the place they go for a pub lunch on a Sunday afternoon. And they become known in that area if they're not already there. And then they actively network by going out and introducing themselves to people that may be considering moving home and offer their expertise. not in a salesy way, um, but in a way that is really focused on helping people move home when they're lucky enough to win
3:11the business from somebody in that hope or local area. Uh, that enjoys the way that they've demonstrated their localness, their datadriven um, knowledge and and their care and attention. They're with that client from the very start to the very finish. Whatever that moving home journey looks like, they are the main point of contact at every strategic important milestone that people um discover on that very different journey that you can sell two identical semi- detached homes on the same street, but the journey that you and those clients are going to go on are going to be very, very different.
3:51your that personal agent, that TA UK personal agent is is absolutely dedicated to that outcome and will do everything within their power to be accessible, accountable, and driven to getting those people moving home. And we'll only celebrate when that happens. >> That's good. >> Thank you. >> Don't have to answer anything.
4:21So Steph, we talk about door knockocking a lot. I talk about doornocking a lot. Give me your perfect explanation for a door knock. >> I think a door knock is just an amazing free way to introduce yourself to the people in your local community. I think or well I don't think I know that the British public aren't exactly enamored with estate agents and so a door knock is a way to get in front of people show that you're local. Show that you're human. Show that you're friendly.
4:54Look, it's not about making a sale. It's not about getting a listing. It's about being able to to market yourself and show just how different being a personal agent is to probably the preconceived notion of what an estate agent actually is. And I mentioned the word free. It's free marketing. One of the brilliant things about doing the state agency the way we do it is that you'll work with like-minded clients. What better way to unearth who those like-minded people are than by showing up being you trying to help. I just think for me if you could go and knock five doors every day that's five knocks closer to profit. And when
5:39you're a personal agent particularly in those early days you don't mess with your opportunity. Don't waste your opportunity. Think about it like this. Your actual job is sitting on people's couches having a chat. That's all it needs to be. You're just on the doorstep. But you know, the more doorsteps you get on, the more couches you'll get on very soon.
6:06I like that one. >> Find it so hard to take you seriously when you get to the flow. H. >> So Steph, I've seen your marketing. I've seen a lot of your marketing over the years. Um, I think you do it very well. >> Thank you. >> Give me the perfect explanation for a marketing and price strategy.
6:32So strategy for me is the initial element. And we all know one of my favorite phrases is strategy beats chance. And I think for far too long estate agency has been all about chance. Stick something on right move, put a board outside and and kind of hope for the best. But also, you know, if you're an employed estate agent that is um bonused based on the amount of listings that you're bringing to market, again, the job has really been more about just winning the business rather than setting a sale up for success. And quite honestly, of course, the only successful estate agency sale is one where clients
7:13get to move home at the end. So I think for me setting up a marketing and pricing strategy at the very beginning is about discussing that with a client. This isn't about putting your house on right move with some pretty pictures. This is about putting ourselves in a position where the likelihood of mo you moving home and getting to that dream home is more likely than it's not. So from a marketing perspective, before we even talk about price, we know that we're in a really sort of Instagrammable society and you have from the bottom of an iPhone to the top of an iPhone scrolling time to grab somebody's
7:50attention. So imagery, cinematography, making your home stand out from the crowd isn't just a nice to have. It is absolutely the baseline of what we should be strategizing over because you want to move home. We cannot leave this up to chance. So, we need to invest in that marketing to make your home stand out. But also, think about this. At any given point, 15% of people are considering moving home. At any given point, there's only less than 2% of property available on the portals. So there's a huge disparity there between people thinking about moving but not yet taking the steps to move. So the vast
8:33majority of people that could be interested in your home aren't scrolling right move every day but they're scrolling Instagram and they're waiting to be stopped. So what's going to make somebody stop that scroll? It's presenting your home to the buyer. So it's pulling out those lifestyle elements. How's somebody going to live in your home? what does their future life look like that possibly they don't even know they're looking for yet. So marketing from that perspective is absolutely imperative. And then it's also about timings and launches. We know that you should have a social media launch premove and all of that kind of stuff and that should always happen on
9:12the weekends because that's when the views on social media at their highest. We also know that views on portal on right move and zupller peak around midday on a Monday and Tuesday. So that should only be the time that you should be launching to to market. So even down to those sorts of things, strategy beats chance. We also then know if we've launched on that Monday morning around midday, we shouldn't be doing viewings that first weekend. It should be the second weekend. Give ourselves time to let the market breathe. Let's gather that competition and let that competition fight it out at a really well planned
9:51open day that second weekend. Particularly in my area, I also need to make sure that Everett and Liverpool aren't playing. Otherwise, I'd just have nobody turn up to my open. But again, it's about creating this environment that creates competition. I don't believe that you can ever undervalue a home. I believe that pricing to entice is absolutely the right way to do it. You can't undervalue, but you can overpric. I want that open date buzzing. I want people leaving when somebody else is arriving and I want them looking over their shoulder thinking that they're about to miss out on their dream home. And I want to take that emotion and I want to get
10:34my seller the best price the market can deliver. But all too often people sit up here and allow themselves to be knocked down. Think about it from a psychology perspective. Do you want a buyer walking around your house trying to come up with reasons to knock you down? Little bit of paint missing over there or a tap needs replacing here or whatever. Straight away you're putting the power in the buyer's hands and allowing them to negotiate with you.
11:05I want to negotiate with the buyer. I want to say, "Listen, Bob, you saw the people ar leaving when you arrived. You saw people arriving as you were leaving. You're in competition, pal. You need to give me the most that you're willing to pay." And all of a sudden, the buyer psychologies changed. They're talking themselves in to that extra 2 3 4,000 because everybody wants something that everybody else wants. Nobody wants something that nobody else wants. So for me, marketing and pricing is strategy.
11:39Strategy beats chance and strategy gets you the best end result. >> This is very close to my heart. um buyer representation. I think it's fairly new to our world, fairly new to the property industry in the UK, but for those people who really want to embrace it, what's your perfect explanation of buyer representation? >> So, I suppose bit of context and I'm going to mention the f most thing ever that I used to live in California.
12:12>> None of us knew that. >> Uh nobody noticed about that cuz I never ever mention it. Um but look if we if we look at the states as a buyer you have representation from an experienced uh real estate agent and as a seller you also have representation. Jewel agency does exist but most real estate agents find that to be absolutely crazy. And I suppose when you think about it, you know, the job of a selling agent is to deliver the very best price the market will allow for their selling client. But what does a buyer want? Well, they want the house at the cheapest price
12:45possible. And so we have this sort of dual representation where we have to do right by a buyer. We can't treat them badly if we're the selling agent, but really our offer dociary responsibility sits with the seller. So I kind of like to look at buyer representation as the completely rounded service offering for your seller client. Yes, you were going to go in and strategize and market correctly and all these sorts of things and drive their price up to the best price the market will deliver from a selling perspective, but why on earth shouldn't we be looking at their onwards purchase and trying to see where we can
13:24help them there? And I'm not going to say we're currently in a difficult market. I think it's a normal market, but a normal market is quite sticky. And where we see prices that perhaps do need to be negotiated from a selling perspective, we also find that sales are set up incorrectly and sellers become married to their asking price. And actually, what you sell for and what you buy for is largely inconsequential. It's the money in the middle that allows you to move. it's what you need to put down X amount to get the rate that you need for your onwards purchase with your mortgage and so on and so forth or on a
14:00downside you want to bank X amount and so it's equity to move forward with so I think if from the very get-go you're not married to your asking price you're married to the outcome of moving home and you understand financially what that needs to look like it could be exceeding and outperforming the market on your sale or it could be having a really great agent that's looked on sprift um that's built comparables that's almost delivered for your onwards purchase exactly what we would have done if we were selling that home ourselves but from the perspective of actually most agents will have overvalued most properties will have sat a little bit in
14:37the marketplace let's look at what's sold let's look at what's selling and give our sellers the most amount of information possible so that they can go and make a really great offer on that onwards purchase and have the backup to give them the more likelihood of that offer being accepted. And in some cases where sellers are happy, why don't we go in and actually negotiate directly with that estate agent? And where I found this works really, really well, and I don't mean to talk ill of any other estate agent, but quite often we're dealing with inexperienced people that just haven't neged as many deals as we
15:09have, right? You can almost deliver to that agent how they set that offer up. You're almost giving them a script without them knowing it. knowing that if you've had a little bit of repetition during delivering, this is why we're making this offer, so on and so forth, they're going to take a couple of bits of those snippets and go on and be able to repeat that to their seller. Um, so one thing, look, you're doing a great thing just for the industry. You're training agents and they don't even realize that they're getting free mentorship, but we're also lining up those offers in the way that's more than
15:42likely going to get that delivered. And as the market's sticky, you're not always going to be able to outperform on your sale and then outperform on your negotiating. But if your seller understands that they're not to be married to their asking price and it's the money in the middle that will allow them to move, maybe, just maybe, you do help them move.
16:03>> It's a good ending. >> State agency [ __ ] gold this >> if she does say so herself. >> Well, look, if I'm not going to say it, who's going to say it for me? Am I asking you the perfect fee explanation? Please say price on your fee. >> I should bounce back with that. >> We skip that question or >> um Steph um I think there's always an element of anxiety when the conversation in the lounge heads towards fee.
16:31>> Yeah. >> What do you feel is the perfect fee justification when you're presenting your fee to people? So I think if it gets to the point of justification, you've honestly done a [ __ ] job up to then because if you have talked about strategy beating chance from the very beginning and how that applies to professional marketing, to pricing, to timing, to accessibility of your agent and all of those sorts of things. Really, it shouldn't be a question that's asked. And really, the only question that that should be as you know, oh, will you negotiate on your fee? And you go, is that a serious
17:05question? Because look, if I'm going to negotiate on my fee, dead easily. Think what I'm going to do with your equity. Haha. And we move on. Because some people will always just have the the the need to ask. So really, actually, let's think about that. Treat every conversation as a strategy discussion. Make every point that you make land. You know, you're not just talking for talking's sake.
17:33And think about it as well from the fact that the more strategy you apply to pricing and marketing a home, the easier your godamn job's going to be. Like a beautifully presented home that's priced right. Why would what what why would that not be something that the entirety of the conversation is aimed for? So take a step back. If you're at the point at the end of a listing appointment and somebody's trying to batter you down on fee, it's two things. You've not done a good enough job in the beginning or they're actually just not the right client for you. So, I don't subscribe to
18:09this whole every single time you just haven't justified. Some people just ain't going to like you. Some people you just don't want to work with. And it's absolutely fine to go at that point. >> I don't think we're the right people to work together. So, I wish you all the very best, but you know, that's it for me. We don't need to take this any further. But I do think if it's somebody just chants in the hand, chancing their arm, they just want to see. Have a laugh and a joke. Is that a serious question?
18:36Because it it must be a bit of a joke because of course if I just fell down on my fee so easily, imagine what I'd do with your equity. >> But the other way to frame it is as well, have you done the maths? Do you know what other agents charge? A line that I use quite frequently is, I know what other agents charge in my area and I still charge what I charge. So surely that's a them problem, not a me problem.
19:02>> Yeah, >> another great way to do it. But again, do the maths because quite often maybe it's three or four grand when it comes to it more expensive than the other agent. So for me as an agent with 20 years, probably 4,000 people I've helped move home. If I can't neg a buyer up by four grand, I've got absolutely no business being an estate agent.
19:26So, whilst my ticket price might look a little bit more expensive, knowing that strategy beats chance and everything we've talked about today is to make sure that we get you the best price the market will deliver and probably end up going to be the cheaper option in the end. Anyway, that's how I'd do it. >> Was good that.
19:43>> Thank you. It's almost like I've done this before. Just wonder why your feet so low. >> She had that explanation and thought, >> "Yeah, >> never going to let you live that day." >> So, no matter how good an estate agent somebody is, >> Yeah. >> we do not always get it right. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Right. I don't get it right, you don't get it right.
20:07>> When you're doing your marketing review with your seller, >> what's the perfect marketing review in your mind? First and foremost, in person. We are personal estate agents. That means these tough conversations should be in person, but we've also got more time than most estate agents who are in a conventional setting. So, we've got time to go and sit with these people.
20:32And again, I think if you set this up in the beginning in the right way, if we've talked about marketing, if we've got this absolutely beautifully presented property, if we did it really well from the beginning, for me, there's three things: price, presentation, and promotion. So, remove price from it for a second. Presentation. I know that I'll have had my favorite videographer and photographer Matt to the property with me. We'll have talked about what we want out of the shoot. We'll have labored over music choices and we'll have really set things up to present that home in a lifestyle scenario keying right into who that buy will be and doing it. So, it's
21:17never going to be presentation promotion. I'm going to know what I've put in to the effort of that. I'll have done social media marketing. Of course, we've still got the portals and the boards and so on and so forth, but I've gone out my way to make sure I've spoken to everybody locally who I think is moving home and thought about extra ways that I can promote the home. And I know that I'm more accessible than most estate agents. I'm available 7 days a week to do viewings. I'm available and contactable outside of usual hours. So, I don't think from a promotion and accessibility thing there could be
21:48another agent that could do anything differently from me. So if it then comes down to us not getting the interest, the only thing that can be left is price. But I think the difficulty here is that isn't set up from the beginning. All of this work is started at the top. It starts in that listing appointment. We have to talk about eventualities. And I think we should be booking in for 2 weeks or four weeks at that listing appointment to revisit regardless of what the outcome's been at that point. I think the other thing that we failed to do and again I'm talking way previous to
22:22sitting down on the marketing review is explain what actually happens in the market. What's the most used phrase do we think by sellers? It's I'm not in a rush. But actually you are the data proves that the minute you enter the market you are in a rush to get a sale as quickly as possible because the longer it it goes on it's not just about the asking price or the selling price that you're going to get. It's actually the ability to close the deal. It's the likelihood of you actually ended up moving home.
22:53So, I think if you set things up correctly in the beginning, if it does fall to that marketing review, they're already knowing what's going to happen next and you've got something in place that said we tried it at X, we now need to reposition to why. But the brilliant thing is I'm still the most accessible agent. I'm still the agent that's going to promote it better than any other agent in the marketplace. And I'm also the agent that got the very best marketing with my great marketing folks at the beginning. So if we reposition, we do it strategically. That for me would be the perfect marketing review.
23:26It starts from day one.
23:35I'm really hoping my facial expressions aren't too much.
23:44So Steph, you're one of the founders of the home of personal estate agency and you've brought on the home of a personal the home of personal estate agents. What is the explanation of home of personal estate agency? >> So the home of personal estate agency is how we show up for clients. We have over the last 5 years really understood where our niche is and that is owning the personal agency space that is promoting uh this wonderful strategic intelligent datadriven community-led hyperlocally focused agent and given them a platform that allows them to be there for all the really necessary important milestones of somebody's moving home journey.
24:40The home of personal estate agency is somewhere where clients can feel they've made the safest choice when selling their home and they know they're going to be looked after from start to finish. And that's fundamentally what we're all about. The home of personal estate agents is where we all gather to be able to deliver that personal estate agency service.
25:03For me, it's the smartest choice for estate agents because again, you have this platform that gives you the time and the resource to be able to be there for your clients at all those important milestones and offer this moving home journey that they just will not have experienced before. But you're then backed by this larger organization, this powerful movement that over the next five years is going to be at the forefront of British people moving home. When they've got a lovely home to sell, they're going to turn around and go, I want to be with a personal estate agent. I want to be with a talk, a TA UK personal estate agent.
25:43And I know where that is. That is the home of personal estate agency. It's the home of personal estate agents and it's the movement that is improving how people move home across the UK. Can't believe I said talk. [ __ ] sake. T A UK. >> I'm so glad you said talk and not me. >> Yeah. God [ __ ] damn it.
26:08>> I'd have had to talk to you while you glared at me. >> Yeah. Um so Steph talk to me about advanced commission. What what is the explanation of advanced commission? >> Advanced commission first and foremost for me and for TAUK I believe has been the ticket to allowing us to only attract talent and great agents. A brokerage style setup in all honesty only works at a certain critical mass of agent members of of business partners.
26:47And so if we hadn't introduced something like advanced commission, I think we'd be like some of the other brokerages that just take anybody with a heartbeat and a disto. Nobody should do their own measurements, by the way. Oh my god, what the flipping Nora is that? Side note, please don't do your own measurements. >> Please don't do your own floor plans.
27:08Please don't take your own photographs. Oh my flaming god. But yes, so advanced commission, fantastic tool for us to be able to be really picky, really choosy, have a real element of standards when it comes to attracting business partners in into our business. But from an agent perspective, what's the biggest reason people don't take this leap of faith? It's because they're living hand-to-mouth. We pay terrible wages in estate agency. There isn't the ability for people to go, "Well, do you know what? I'm just not going to pay my mortgage for 6 months while I start a business." And whilst many people up until the point of us
27:48introducing advanced commission had to just take that chance, now they don't have to. So the ability for you to list a home and that very week that you list a home to be able to take half the commission up front at our expense, I believes allow you I believe allows you the breathing space to market proper properly and strategically to invest in yourself and in your clients and in that marketing so that you bring the best properties to market in the very best way possible which makes them more salailable and allows you to build a reputation from day one that it's about bestin-class.
28:28Far too many people go down the self-employed route and are just self-employed. They'll charge cheap fees. They'll take photos on their iPhone. Nothing will have a strategy to it. Advanced Commission allows you to lean in to strategy beating chance at every single turn. What better way to start your business than being able to be picky and choosy about the listings and the clients that you work with when you would then work with those clients allow you to deliver the very best marketing program to make that listing more salailable and also gives you the time.
29:04You don't need to rush, but you're paying the mortgage. Mr. or Mrs. can breathe easy. they can give you a bit of time to build this business and you can invest in yourself in the very best way possible. So, there are a couple of caveats. It's got to be a minimum of a 1% fee, but if you're doing 1% or less, you're not really a personal agent anyway. go to other brokerages, market it properly, professionally, but I wouldn't put a pro property to auction without doing professional marketing.
29:40What I want to be known as a baseline. Professional marketing isn't an extra. It's the baseline of what we do. And of course, make sure your listing is salailable and and compliant, but they're all the great things that you should be doing to build your business correctly anyway. But the fantastic thing is here, listings are what you need to get your business going.
30:00We know that when somebody gets to their fifth listing, their chance of success is over 84%. Advanced Commission is the tool that takes it that takes you from that starting block to that point of success. Use it. Allow it to build your business correctly and you'll never look back.
Works on any YouTube video.
Swap youtube.com for 2outube.com in the address bar — or paste a link.
Read another video