Setting up an estate agency
Discussion
Aha ! This is what I need to know ..I'm assuming I can just go on Phil Spencer's webpage and do the multiple choice quiz and hey presto I am an estate agent ? I'm not looking to become a Cirencester-qualified land agent / surveyor. In my house-buying days I never once thought to ask if my estate agent was qualified. The money side / deposits stuff is all handled by lawyers / conveyancers I thought. This is the thrust of my enquiry - barriers to entry ?
Very easy to set up; incredibly hard to be successful at.
If you want to trot along and sell 1-2 homes a year out of your network for a side income you can do it.
If you want to spend all day, evenings + weekends dealing with hyped up buyers and sellers with no guaranteed payday at the end of it then avoid.
If you want to do lettings, that's a whole different kettle of fish and myriad of regulations with very real punishments if you get it wrong.
I have a lot of experience in this field - if you have specific questions you want answered, please fire away.
If you want to trot along and sell 1-2 homes a year out of your network for a side income you can do it.
If you want to spend all day, evenings + weekends dealing with hyped up buyers and sellers with no guaranteed payday at the end of it then avoid.
If you want to do lettings, that's a whole different kettle of fish and myriad of regulations with very real punishments if you get it wrong.
I have a lot of experience in this field - if you have specific questions you want answered, please fire away.
22s fantastic , thanks. Sounds remarkably like trying to sell e-bikes in 2025! I’d love to leverage my contacts but of course everyone just goes on rightmove. Absolutely no interest in lettings / management. From w hat you say I could just rent a shop in the high street and put a load of properties in there ? I just charge the cheapest rates in town and have just me working there. Free money! Or am i missing something ? I don’t need to be licensed / regulated ? If I want to waste 20k renting a shop and building a website off I go …!
No-one walks into EA shops on the high street so you need to be on Rightmove and Zoopla which are going to cost you as much as your shop rental.
You don't need to be "regulated" but you need to join the Property Ombudsman and register for Anti-Money Laundering authorisation with HMRC.
If I'm selling my biggest asset, do I want a 60-year old with zero estate agency experience, zero buyer database and no presence on the number one buyer lead generator (Rightmove) and pay 1%, or pay 1.5% to the agent that's been in town for 30 years and sold the same house four times? You will need to consistently spend an insane amount on marketing to get people to even know you existing.
Sorry to be doom and gloom, but estate agency done properly is very hard work, expensive to run, and stressful. I managed to launch an agency in a competitive market in London to £30k a month in 9 months but it sucked up every hour of the day and I was spending £10k a month just on marketing, plus social media and all sorts of others.
If you really want to do it then I would suggest you become a self-employed agent with any of the below - they will give you training, materials, guidance on how to build up your business and you don't need a shop.
https://join.exp.uk.com/
https://www.fineandcountry.com/about/join-us
https://nested.com/partnerships
I did receive your PM - really sorry, but I can't commit time to discussing this directly at the moment. But hope the above nudges you in the right direction.
You don't need to be "regulated" but you need to join the Property Ombudsman and register for Anti-Money Laundering authorisation with HMRC.
If I'm selling my biggest asset, do I want a 60-year old with zero estate agency experience, zero buyer database and no presence on the number one buyer lead generator (Rightmove) and pay 1%, or pay 1.5% to the agent that's been in town for 30 years and sold the same house four times? You will need to consistently spend an insane amount on marketing to get people to even know you existing.
Sorry to be doom and gloom, but estate agency done properly is very hard work, expensive to run, and stressful. I managed to launch an agency in a competitive market in London to £30k a month in 9 months but it sucked up every hour of the day and I was spending £10k a month just on marketing, plus social media and all sorts of others.
If you really want to do it then I would suggest you become a self-employed agent with any of the below - they will give you training, materials, guidance on how to build up your business and you don't need a shop.
https://join.exp.uk.com/
https://www.fineandcountry.com/about/join-us
https://nested.com/partnerships
I did receive your PM - really sorry, but I can't commit time to discussing this directly at the moment. But hope the above nudges you in the right direction.
Timetoleave said:
I’d love to leverage my contacts but of course everyone just goes on rightmove.
It might be worthwhile watching the likes of Luxe Listings Sydney and Deals In The Desert (both on Prime) where they do high end deals and it's all about their network. Of course, it may all be made up just to impress. This kind of work may well be up your street. It's definitely not a skill that I have!Timetoleave said:
22s fantastic , thanks. Sounds remarkably like trying to sell e-bikes in 2025! I’d love to leverage my contacts but of course everyone just goes on rightmove. Absolutely no interest in lettings / management. From w hat you say I could just rent a shop in the high street and put a load of properties in there ? I just charge the cheapest rates in town and have just me working there. Free money! Or am i missing something ? I don’t need to be licensed / regulated ? If I want to waste 20k renting a shop and building a website off I go …!
Whatever you do, don't try to be the cheapest. You won't be cheaper than the on-line only crowd, you'll attract only the absolute dregs, and you'll make no money. Barriers to entry are very low. Easiest way is to throw your lot in with an existing agent, as a freelance lister. Or one of the broker type models. Then someone else worries about the AML, cost of portals and all that jazz. You just swan around the golf club, schmooze some accountants, mortgage brokers and sols, tip up to BNI and every networking group going.
My cousin (55) and her friend opened one locally about 2 years ago. She had previously been in retail managing DFS and Sofology stores. Her friend had worked part time in another local EA and also ran her own Beauty Therapy salon. To say it came out of the blue would be an understatement. We don’t get on too well. I sniggered at the tomfoolery of it.
Joke is on me. They are listing houses all over the area now. Their Boards are everywhere. Their FB and Social Media presence is everywhere. They won the Business of The Year award last September as run buy the local newspaper and had even more Social Media stuff on the back of all the glam.
Joke is on me. They are listing houses all over the area now. Their Boards are everywhere. Their FB and Social Media presence is everywhere. They won the Business of The Year award last September as run buy the local newspaper and had even more Social Media stuff on the back of all the glam.
renmure said:
My cousin (55) and her friend opened one locally about 2 years ago. She had previously been in retail managing DFS and Sofology stores. Her friend had worked part time in another local EA and also ran her own Beauty Therapy salon. To say it came out of the blue would be an understatement. We don’t get on too well. I sniggered at the tomfoolery of it.
Joke is on me. They are listing houses all over the area now. Their Boards are everywhere. Their FB and Social Media presence is everywhere. They won the Business of The Year award last September as run buy the local newspaper and had even more Social Media stuff on the back of all the glam.
Anything's possible if you're willing and able to hustle!Joke is on me. They are listing houses all over the area now. Their Boards are everywhere. Their FB and Social Media presence is everywhere. They won the Business of The Year award last September as run buy the local newspaper and had even more Social Media stuff on the back of all the glam.
I ran a few offices of an independent agency for 8 years and if I was to set up myself today I would do it under one of the brands as a personal agent. But, I wouldn't do it without working for an agency first.
My advice would be to go and do some part time work at a local independent for 6 months and understand how to position yourself to get called out on valuations and also how to progress a sale by working with seller, buyer and solicitor.
Take a look at a company like exp who give you most of what you need to get up and running as well as some market presence - https://exp.uk.com/
I could be over simplifying it, but there isn't that much to learn. The main challenge will be getting the listings in the first place and unless you are incredibly well connected/trusted by your existing network, it will be very hard work to go from zero to winning listings.
My advice would be to go and do some part time work at a local independent for 6 months and understand how to position yourself to get called out on valuations and also how to progress a sale by working with seller, buyer and solicitor.
Take a look at a company like exp who give you most of what you need to get up and running as well as some market presence - https://exp.uk.com/
I could be over simplifying it, but there isn't that much to learn. The main challenge will be getting the listings in the first place and unless you are incredibly well connected/trusted by your existing network, it will be very hard work to go from zero to winning listings.
Thank you so much, everyone for those invaluable responses. As is clear, I have no idea about this. It just struck me as one of the last zero-barrier options out there for old sales people like me. I'll do a little more digging and watching. West Dorset is an odd place ! I'll certainly follow up on the links. I noticed yesterday that a couple of the local agencies are advertising for agents with salaries / OTE ranging from 25-50k. From my agency broking days I know how much the platform / shop providers are taking from those trades...
Hoofy said:
renmure said:
My cousin (55) and her friend opened one locally about 2 years ago. She had previously been in retail managing DFS and Sofology stores. Her friend had worked part time in another local EA and also ran her own Beauty Therapy salon. To say it came out of the blue would be an understatement. We don’t get on too well. I sniggered at the tomfoolery of it.
Joke is on me. They are listing houses all over the area now. Their Boards are everywhere. Their FB and Social Media presence is everywhere. They won the Business of The Year award last September as run buy the local newspaper and had even more Social Media stuff on the back of all the glam.
Anything's possible if you're willing and able to hustle!Joke is on me. They are listing houses all over the area now. Their Boards are everywhere. Their FB and Social Media presence is everywhere. They won the Business of The Year award last September as run buy the local newspaper and had even more Social Media stuff on the back of all the glam.
To be fair, here in Scotland it’s perhaps easier to do since the seller has to commission a Home Report which includes a surveyors valuation so the sale price expectation is set around that rather than the agents specific local knowledge.
Initially they had 4 photos of each room in a property showing all the corners and looked like they were taken by a potato phone. A year later it’s all lovely photos, video snippets and drone views on par with the best of them.
I assume they initially competed on price as most of their listings were ex-council houses and stuff at the cheaper end of the market. Now, they cover the full range.
Timetoleave said:
Thank you so much, everyone for those invaluable responses. As is clear, I have no idea about this. It just struck me as one of the last zero-barrier options out there for old sales people like me. I'll do a little more digging and watching. West Dorset is an odd place ! I'll certainly follow up on the links. I noticed yesterday that a couple of the local agencies are advertising for agents with salaries / OTE ranging from 25-50k. From my agency broking days I know how much the platform / shop providers are taking from those trades...
I'd love to know if you could do something like in the TV shows I mentioned.renmure said:
Hoofy said:
renmure said:
My cousin (55) and her friend opened one locally about 2 years ago. She had previously been in retail managing DFS and Sofology stores. Her friend had worked part time in another local EA and also ran her own Beauty Therapy salon. To say it came out of the blue would be an understatement. We don’t get on too well. I sniggered at the tomfoolery of it.
Joke is on me. They are listing houses all over the area now. Their Boards are everywhere. Their FB and Social Media presence is everywhere. They won the Business of The Year award last September as run buy the local newspaper and had even more Social Media stuff on the back of all the glam.
Anything's possible if you're willing and able to hustle!Joke is on me. They are listing houses all over the area now. Their Boards are everywhere. Their FB and Social Media presence is everywhere. They won the Business of The Year award last September as run buy the local newspaper and had even more Social Media stuff on the back of all the glam.
To be fair, here in Scotland it’s perhaps easier to do since the seller has to commission a Home Report which includes a surveyors valuation so the sale price expectation is set around that rather than the agents specific local knowledge.
Initially they had 4 photos of each room in a property showing all the corners and looked like they were taken by a potato phone. A year later it’s all lovely photos, video snippets and drone views on par with the best of them.
I assume they initially competed on price as most of their listings were ex-council houses and stuff at the cheaper end of the market. Now, they cover the full range.
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