It's an innovative and timely idea. Having trouble selling your house? Need the best price in a reasonable amount of time? Tim Jackson and Eli Robinson are couple of ex-estate agents who think they can help. Tim was kind enough to answer a few questions for the Rat and Mouse.
Could you tell me a little about the background to Property Stress Relief? How did the idea originate?
We were meeting lots of vendors who were very keen to sell through our property buying business, SecureASale.co.uk. However, many of them still wanted to hold out for the best possible offer and were having little luck on the open market. We ended up giving free advice on how to improve their chances of selling their property and one lady who lived 200 miles from her vacant flat, asked us to manage her sale for her, hence the birth of PropertySressRelief.co.uk
And your own background is in estate agency?
Yes - although for the first 6 years of my working life I was a professional pianist! I decided to join Foxtons in 2004 when I’d had enough of working long nights, and so went on to work long days AND nights!
When and why did you leave Foxtons?
I (we) left Foxtons in March this year. Speaking for myself, I had achieved everything I wanted to at the company from working up the ranks to running my own branch in Hampstead and increasing revenue by 70% in less than 2 years there. There’s a saying that you don’t earn where you learn and while Foxtons was an unbelievable organization to work for, it was time for me to create my own success.
What tangible solid skills are you bringing to the table with Property Stress Relief? What are you doing that the vendor couldn’t do him- or herself?
We are doing nothing that the vendor can’t do themselves – assuming they have unlimited time, are completely objective and unemotional about their property and have the confidence to manage their agent effectively. In truth, there’s a large dose of basic common sense in everything we do, but our record between the two of us is that of successfully selling 1500 properties in 4 years. We’ve dealt with every possible nightmare transaction, we know virtually every road in N and NW London as well as all the good solicitors, surveyors, reputable tradesmen etc. Our skill is that of re-energizing the marketing of a property, doggedly chasing agents for viewings and negotiating offers as well as possible for our client.
Read the rest of the interview - including Tim on Foxtons.
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What’s the relationship between Property Stress Relief and SecureASale?
Property Stress Relief is a wholly-owned division of SecureASale Ltd. Some clients of PSR contacted us first about SecureASale, decided not to sell to us but asked us to represent them in their sale. We realised we had an amazing opportunity to troubleshoot sales that weren’t going to plan and created our offering around that. For ethical reasons, Property Stress Relief will not refer back to SecureASale.
Your service appears to make an assumption that the estate agents won’t do their job properly… could you comment on that?
Not at all – there are many excellent estate agents out there who put their clients first but equally there are many with limited sales skills who have made a living over the last few years as order takers on the strength of record markets. Even good estate agents don’t give 100% to every property on their books and our primary function is to ensure that our clients’ properties get the full attention they deserve. If we can deliver the agent a sensibly priced, well presented instruction which ensures them a higher chance of a sale, they should be grateful for any help. Property Stress Relief succeeds by working with the agents, not against them.
In a period of fewer and fewer instructions, do you think there might be an opportunity for you to negotiate a discount from the estate agent, and so “factor your fee in”? Or do these desperate times mean that the days of negotiating fees with agents are now over?
Yes, we do negotiate fees with the agent, but only if it’s in our client’s interest. Battering an agent on their fees is not the best way to motivate them, so we usually try to implement a sliding fee scale rewarding the agent for achieving higher offers and offering individual negotiator bonuses for asking price etc. When we help sell our clients property quickly and for a good price, our fee and the agent’s fee is well justified in this market.
How have people responded to your service so far? Have you been busy?
The service is still new but we have been overwhelmed by the response to a recent Sunday Times feature. The phone hasn’t stopped ringing and vendors seem to appreciate the added value of having someone championing their property in a market swamped with unsold stock.
Finally – and I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, you seem like a nice guy and everything… but – fairly or unfairly – being an ex-Foxtons estate agent might not be seen by everyone as the ultimate evidence of honesty and integrity. Do you think this is unfair? Is it ever an issue with clients? Or do they – perhaps – like to think that you “know all the plays”… and desperate times call for desperate measures?
Foxtons knows better than most agents how to present, market and sell property, and whatever your opinion of them, few would argue that the staff work harder and longer hours than anyone else. The people who succeed there (and in any sales organization for that matter) are usually the most committed and most transparent, honest workers. The cheats always get found out. We do our business face to face and it’s up to the public to decide whether they trust us and so far, I am pleased to say the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
Thanks, Tim. Hope this was fun.
Thanks, Ben, and I wish you much continued success with the site.
