Could serviced offices be the way forward for today's estate agents?

According to the UK division of the world's largest estate agency brand, today's estate agents no longer need to work from a high street premises to be successful.

Related topics:  Business
Warren Lewis
28th September 2018
Landlord Keys 22

Keller Williams UK argues that the typical modern consumer has little desire to visit a high street office and that agents could save on expensive rent and invest the money into other crucial parts of their businesses.

As consumer behaviour continues to adapt and people carry out large parts of their property transactions remotely online, outside of normal working hours, the need for a high street estate agency office opening Monday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm, is reducing all the time.

Ben Taylor, Managing Director of Keller Williams UK, says: "People no longer need to visit a high street office when buying, selling, letting or renting a property.

Consumer processes are changing and the property industry needs to keep pace. Agents sitting in an office waiting for people to come in are wasting valuable time and could instead be actively pursuing new opportunities or visiting prospects."

Keller Williams UK runs its operation from market centres - ideally located hubs which provide agents with access to co-working office space, training and mentoring from the world’s number one training company as well as technology solutions including portal subscriptions.

These serviced offices allow agents to take advantage of an innovative service model which gives them a vastly improved earning potential. Keller Williams UK now has four market centres, located in Prime Central London, London Bridge, Leeds and Glasgow.

Taylor continues: "Of course it's still important for agents to have an office space to work from and somewhere professional for clients to visit.

However, we believe that serviced offices are the way forward as they provide agents with the space they need but are significantly cheaper than paying for an expensive presence on the high street. Training has always been and always will be a vital ingredient in a successful agency.

By training agents to be better at identifying opportunities and nurturing existing partnerships, a business can create a culture of lifetime clients which will help to futureproof its local market presence for years to come.

A cutting-edge CRM is invaluable and providing staff with access to the best PropTech solutions on the market is fast-becoming a necessity. Furthermore, if agents want to connect with modern consumers they need to incorporate social media into their marketing and make sure they have visible online reviews.

Investing in these areas could be the difference between thriving or faltering in a challenging market which is only going to become more pressurised due to low-cost competition and government regulations such as the ban on letting agent fees."

More like this
Latest from Financial Reporter
Latest from Protection Reporter
CLOSE
Subscribe
to our newsletter

Join a community of over 20,000 landlords and property specialists and keep up-to-date with industry news and upcoming events via our newsletter.