Estate Agency

[clan]

Am I mad to be considering a change of career, 20+ years with my current employer, a decent salary and a five minute commute to work and give it up for an estate agency franchise?
The market in my area is on its knees with not a lot of movement and it looks like the normal franchise monthly fee is £800 minimum per month. I could try and tap into the lettings market but most of the other local agents have already moved into this.
I am looking to the future but it doesn't really seem to make a lot of sense at the moment does it?

[sussexjob]

Yes and No,

I think you answered this yourself.

Edited by sussexjob on Monday 15th March 14:39

[clan]

sussexjob said:

Yes and No,

I think you answered this yourself.

Edited by sussexjob on Monday 15th March 14:39

Your right but if things settle back down in the property market in a couple of years times and I dont mean to the boom and bust levels that we witnessed for a few years then I could make a better living than I am at the moment.

[soxboy]

What experience do you have?

[monthefish]

clan said:

sussexjob said:

Yes and No,

I think you answered this yourself.

Edited by sussexjob on Monday 15th March 14:39

Your right but if things settle back down in the property market in a couple of years times and I dont mean to the boom and bust levels that we witnessed for a few years then I could make a better living than I am at the moment.

But you said the the OP that you were currently on a decent salary?

I think you'd be absolutley nuts to consider this, especially as you have said your local market is flat.

[clan]

soxboy said:

What experience do you have?

Very little apart from ten years of property development experience and a small portfolio of buy to let flats all bought a long time before the madness started. Part of my plan before taking on the franchise would be to take an estate agency job for six months in another area to gain some experience.

[clan]

monthefish said:

clan said:

sussexjob said:

Yes and No,

I think you answered this yourself.

Edited by sussexjob on Monday 15th March 14:39

Your right but if things settle back down in the property market in a couple of years times and I dont mean to the boom and bust levels that we witnessed for a few years then I could make a better living than I am at the moment.

But you said the the OP that you were currently on a decent salary?

I think you'd be absolutley nuts to consider this, especially as you have said your local market is flat.

Your right in what you say, I suppose its the potential of a better salary thats making me think about it. For me its about waying up the guaranteed decent salary with the potential?? of a better one.

[JQ]

I think you're absolutely mad. The only guys out there making money in EA at the moment are high end stuff in London, over £5m and people doing city centre lettings. Lettings is just a high turnover business with plenty of competition and you've got no chance in the £5m plus bracket as you're competing with Global companies with access to the foreign buyers.

I would have thought the vast majority of instructions for those EA's that haven't lost their jobs over the past 2 years will be coming from the extensive contacts they've made over the previous 20 years. I certainly don't employ an EA on price, but on performance. As you won't have any experience and a track record the only way you'll be able to compete is to either over value (short term gain, as you'll eventually get dis-instructed) or cut your fees. With the introduction of Tesco and Sarah Beeny to the Property Portal business those Vendors wanting cheap service will go to the likes of them and EA's will rely on Vendors paying a premium for good service, which with no track record you'll struggle to prove.

Do not under-estimate the power of the likes of Tesco entering the market, they seem to be doing quite well in all the other markets in which they operate.