Has the property market picked up?
In a word Yes- but let me explain.
2010 has been a busy start for both sales and lettings within all Goodchilds branches. But let’s not forget that in late 2008 and in 2009 when many agents were saying “the market’s dead - houses aren’t selling and the worlds coming to an end” (Okay - so the last bit about the world coming to end was a tad dramatic). Goodchilds stayed positive, we still sold houses in this so-called ‘dead market’
Yes it was quieter and yes it was certainly harder than the golden years all agents were used to - but surely it’s not bad to have a clear out – it sorts the wheat from the chaff.
Many agents cut staff, ditched rightmove, closed offices and reduced advertising all because the market was difficult. I’m not sure who thought that by not doing all the things that helped agents sell houses in the good times - would help them sell them in difficult times?
Whilst Goodchilds is one of the largest local agents we are still family and privately own many branches run by individual franchisees with vested interest in the company. This enables Goodchilds to adapt quickly and tackle the problem head on.
Whilst companies were cutting on advertising we stayed strong, we kept our presence in the newspaper attracting more buyers and sellers than our competitors who were no longer advertising.
When people were cutting staff we never made one person redundant the whole time. We needed to ensure if we were to survive and grow in this climate our service levels must stay second to none. Every single vendor and landlord now has a personal sales negotiator and the direct personal mobile of a Goodchilds director.
We have not only updated our own website, we still advertise all of our properties on rightmove.co.uk - one of the UK’s most visited property websites.
Because of our continued advertising and service levels we were still able to sell and let houses and importantly; make a profit. This meant when other agents were closing branches to save costs - we could take them over and increase our local presence and network. Our Tamworth, Sutton and Lichfield branches were all previous estate agency offices that have closed down - we are now in the same offices and we are selling and letting houses out of them. We must be doing something different to other agents and it works!