Welcome to four-i April
Estate Agents fulfil peoples dreams of home ownership. They recently fulfilled mine. I am one of the lucky ones who managed to complete before the 1st April stamp duty deadline and I must say it was a very positive experience, and only possible due to appointing a great estate agent, and an excellent conveyancer.
In early January, after debating whether to sell or rent out my flat, I decided to sell it and commence marketing ASAP with the hope it would sell ahead of the stamp duty change. It was the perfect investment flat, and in my mind a good time to get the best possible price for it, enabling me to buy a house with my partner.
Choosing my estate agent was easy. I knew who I wanted to use before I had even called them, although like many home movers, I got a couple of valuations to be sure and to be able to compare their service and fees. I am very happy with the agent I chose. I trusted Jason who handled my sale and purchase.
When it came to negotiation on fee, Jason wasn’t having any of it. I was quite surprised! As I had purchased the flat from his agency, I was hoping for a deal, but no. He stood his ground. Fair play to him! So I ended up paying them 30% more than the other agent quoted me but I wanted to use them, not just because I know, like and trust the company, but because I know, like and trust Jason as an individual. And I’m pleased I did, what a result!
Jason believed I could get a record price for it, and he was right. I was under offer in 48 hours with an in-excess-of-asking-price offer, resulting in an amount never achieved before in the development. Crazy….
I hope that there are many others out there like me who have had an extremely positive experience in moving in the first quarter of 2016 through an agent they know, like and trust. Survey of one, I appreciate, but I didn’t mind paying more to use the agent that I really wanted to use.
Well done to agents and conveyancers who really worked their socks off to get the deals through before the deadline. I am very grateful to my conveyancers, AVRillo, for doing a great job on getting everything through in a little under 8 weeks.
This month’s bag of goodies includes our regular guest speaker video featuring international master networking expert Rob Brown (we like him because he taught us how to learn people’s names on first meeting!). Following which our monthly book summary delves further into psychological technique – our own Sales Manager Annie Gray takes us through Terry Cole-Whittaker’s What You Think of Me is None of My Business which proves to be more of a journey than a read! Speaking of journeys, if your business is on the path to growth this year, can you afford to miss the Property Academy’s Growth Summit on 22nd April? Scroll down for more info.
Next up, in a timely fashion, we have an interview with the overall winners of last year’s Lettings Agency of the Year Awards. It was a real pleasure to speak with Spencer Lawrence and Carla Bradman from Paramount Properties and they have been hugely generous with their insights into taking part. If you haven’t registered to enter yet, get a move on as the deadline is coming up – see www.estateagencyevents.com
Finally, our business coaching session offers three powerful sets of tools this month. Have you been wondering how to navigate your website through the minefield that is Google search? Digital marketing guru Tom Davis, MD of Digital Munkey, has given us some top tips which should help steer you in the right direction. And if you are looking to increase your referrals, we are sharing with you a fantastic five step process created by USA business expert Scott Baird which can be circulated to the team. Finally, in typically generous fashion, we have our monthly tip from Mastermind Group member Matthew Bennett of Orchid Properties – a simple, surefire way of mining your database with proven results.
Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Nicky
