Are you a Market Maker?

There are few things worse than political commentators being so right after the event however quite a few estate agents, (those who believe they have both political and economic insight, not to mention unparalleled forecasting ability), somehow manage it. And there were plenty of them to be found last Friday.

But rather than join in with your own sweeping statements of what the general election result will do for our economy, interest rates, sterling and property prices – (because, let’s face it, who among us truly has a clue?) – instead I suggest you take this opportunity, yes opportunity, to focus on what you can do to help people to successfully move on with their lives.

Whilst you can’t know what’s going to unfold over the next seven days, weeks, months or years you can predict, to varying degrees of accuracy, which of your clients’ lives will change. Many will get married, have children, move job, get divorced, inherit, get older (that one’s guaranteed!) and each of these life stages will trigger a desire to at least consider moving home. These are the people you now need to work with, the people who truly need advice and assistance to successfully move home and move on with their lives. And the very best estate agents know how to do this.

Rather than bemoan a lack of stock, (btw, there’s c.1million properties available on Rightmove at the moment, that’s pretty close to all the whole industry needs this year!), instead make your own. Get close to your buyers, find out what they’re truly after and can afford, and then, if the properties aren’t conveniently already on your books, go out and find them. This is the time for increasing the intensity of your “buyer work” to truly be proactive rather than joining the reactive herd that will sit around all day bemoaning the economic and political uncertainty and the things they can’t control.

Dale Norton, founder of Romans, always said to his team at times like this: “every market makes a market”, and his words resonate loud and strong with me today. Whilst others decide to take an early summer, instead you be the local estate agent that is in contact with all your current prospect buyers, tenants, landlords and sellers – you’ll stand out even more than usual. Find the positives of every situation, for example, I can imagine dialogues such as: “yes there will be uncertainty in some people’s minds but that will cause them to consider a more competitive offer, what would you like me to put forward…” or “yes you can wait to put your property on the market as many people will do right now, or you can have one of the few properties available which will likely attract much more interest and even a higher offer than when things settle down and the market is flooded…”.

Every market makes a market, the question is: What market do you want to make?


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