Estate agents are rightly judged on results, or they certainly should be.

However, one thing that the ‘online agents’ have changed is this perception of the results orientated agent. For 90% of my career ‘no win no fee’ was broadly the only option a homeowner had.

Personally, I love being judged by results, it suits me down to the ground. I also think that any estate agency model that doesn’t revolve around a reward system that is based on “getting the job done” is hugely flawed. If an individual or company isn’t motivated by the act of ‘selling’ your home and simply winning your instruction is enough; then their only driving force to complete the task is one of reputation.

This leads me directly to C. Scott & Co, and a question that I was asked the other day...

“How do you plan to compete against the big boys?”

After overcoming my initial frustration that large estate agents are still referred to as the big ‘boys', I began to give this a lot of thought…

…Firstly, and probably most importantly, I don’t intend to compete against the ‘big boys’, in much the same way as a boutique hotel doesn’t compete against the multi-nationals, my job is to provide something different. Which then probably leads to another question – “how different can you be?”, which my simple answer would be, VERY!

Secondly, selling someone’s home is about using appropriate skill sets and experience to form relationships with your buyers and sellers that lead to you finding them the ‘right’ home for them to buy. It isn’t about CRM’s matching options, or throwing enough people through the door until someone makes an offer. Proper estate agency is more than that, it’s an art form. One that can benefit from being done on a macro level.

Having owned a medium estate agency chain and also worked for a large multi-national company, I can safely say I have done my best work when I was at my most nimble. The larger a company gets the slower they pivot, and whilst buying power and collective size can be hugely beneficial, our customers want service and results.

A good estate agent with vast experience can trump any of their competitors if they remain true to what made them successful in the first place and that is by being the most motivated, skilled, knowledgeable and hardworking agent in their area.

You don’t need a £1 million marketing budget to have passion and work ethic. Perhaps ‘skin in the game’ gives you that…