2 Charlie says... thoughts on Contemporary Agency and what to look out for…. Contemporary agency utilises cutting edge software, highly developed websites, powerful portals with endless functionality, mobile apps, email and text alerts, virtual tours, land registry data analysis - the list goes on. Every conceivable technological advancement has been applied to the industry. Many such developments are very convenient and create instant gratification for prospective buyers and tenants. For agents technological features can create individual USP’s and distinction and no doubt the race for the next gizmo will go on and on ad infinitum. However, surprisingly, it hasn’t actually changed the way houses are marketed, bought and sold. Yes it has sped up some of the marketing elements and added huge convenience, any agent worth their salt will of course embrace that, but no fundamental change has occurred. The reality is the process hasn’t really changed for hundreds of years, in brief; an owner obtains the advice from local estate agents and subsequently chooses the one they feel most comfortable with. The agent then promotes the property to potential buyers, arranges viewings, negotiates offers and sees the sale through to completion. This is how houses were bought and sold in Dickensian times. So even with this astonishing array of technology no change has actually been made to the underlying process. Another interesting observation is the development of cyber agents. Some web based agents have multi-million pound TV and media advertising campaigns or the backing of celebrity personalities, luxuries well beyond even the most successful regional agent. Combined with this profile they charge a fraction of the price of much of the competition. So given this seemingly powerful combination of massive national publicity and undercutting prices, they should surely have complete dominance and majority market share in all of their operating areas….however they don’t. Their impact has been generally insignificant. So what is the correlation between these observations, to recap: All the technology in the world hasn’t actually changed any of the principle functions of the estate agent and web based agency with monumental advertising budgets, combined with the lowest fees available, has had little impact.
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