The recruitment market for agents is reflecting the property market: demand is outstripping supply.
Joshua Rayner, of Rayner Personnel, and Estate Agency All-Stars, said that employers are hungry for negotiators with up to two years’ agency experience.
He said that employers are “increasingly looking for agents with raw passion and experience who are looking to step up into a listing or assistant manager’s position”.
But relatively few in the industry are keen to move on, said Rayner.
He said: “Not a lot of people are moving due to existing pipelines. They are also questioning if the grass really is greener.
“There are simply not enough exceptional people in the industry to go round.
“A good candidate who has been fully vetted by us has on average the possibility of job interviews with seven different employers.
“Although we are placing 35-40 candidates each month at Rayner Personnel, we are still playing catch-up all the time with regard to the number of jobs available for candidates.
“My view is that we need to look in other sales sectors, such as car sales etc, and train people to be the future of agency.”
Rayner Personnel has produced this salary chart for Eye. It essentially covers London and the south-east, although Rayner says earnings for agents working elsewhere are similar.
Comments (12)
There are two things an agent needs:
1) a round idea of the property market in their area
2) customer service and inter-personable skills
Number 1 is easy enough to teach someone who is willing to learn. Computer systems, picking up a phone and looking on a database is all pretty simple stuff. Number 2, however, is something you’re either good at or not so good at.
Yes, I know that we all need to have staff that are good at what they do, but in a client focused industry (yes, it is client focused), you need people who can work with people easily, be personable, friendly and helpful. Those people tend to work in hospitality and high-end retail stores.
Yes, it’s brilliant having a member of staff that knows exactly what is on the market at the moment and can use the database like he was born strapped to a computer, but if he ain’t got the skills to talk to people… well, you know the rest
Hi Smile Please, confines on property description for sure, but not in what any agent can write about themselves. A brilliant copywriter will convince any vendor that you are worth your fee, whatever it is. You, just have to deliver in the promise. Vendors need reassurance they are choosing the best estate agent and your character, integrity and ability to be different will help them choose you. No vendor cares about your brand, for them it’s personal. Crafting an interesting story about you or your business allows the vendor to connect with shared values. As an example, a Ladbrooke Grove agent told me a story that connected with my value of integrity. Were I selling in that area, I would use him regardless of fee, brand or anything else.
Regarding sensible wages, if the skill set required is above that if say a bus driver or postman, then pay that level of basic. What the industry is suggesting is that a negotiator is only worth half the basic wage if a London postman!!
So much is wrong with the sector, it’s hard to know where to start, but hiring good people from outside and learning from them is a start. OK, they have no experience but they should offer a different perspective from traditional agents.
Don’t complain about lack of excellent candidates when the wage structure is so abysmal. Why is it so abysmal? Because most agencies cannot justify increasing their fees, or are unable to convince the vendors that they are truly worth it.
There should be a growth structure to any estate agency business, but many take on any property to make the contribution and exhaust man hours and promotional expenses on something that they should have no interest in, whatsoever. The sooner estate agencies join the real world and stop believing that everything starts and ends with a buyer/seller, the quicker the problem will fix. Bring in university candidates for sure, because they know much that the traditional estate agent doesn’t. But then focus on learning FROM them, not TRAINING them in ways that have been shown to fail. If I had to hire a new candidate, it would be from the writing community (pr, blogs, content creation, direct mail, web site copy, twitter, Facebook etc). One of the biggest and most profitable industries is direct response advertising and the ability to write memorable content that demands a response is a precious gift. These type of people, if you can attract them, are the diamonds you need.
Got that off my chest, back to work.
??????
You do know there are confines to what an agent can write?
And do you think flowery details will help increase fees? – Granted some are dull boarding on lazy with just room measurements.
Not say you are wrong we can learn from a university candidate but what???? No life experience, no comprehension of the industry – Think Mary Porter tried it with an agent and totally failed in understanding what estate agency is.
I have employed a number of university educated individuals in the past, some good some bad. Always looking at new ideas but what can they offer.
Fees are being ground down nation wide but house prices rise, As for poor wages what would you suggest is a reasonable wage?
Not a pop but trying to see if worth taking your comments on board, we are a very progressive agent and listen to all ideas.
I think it’s a great shame that estate agency recruitment looks at used car salespeople as good candidates. This does very little to lift the reputation to poach from industries that make regular appearances on Watchdog!
As an aside, I am surprised at how low the salaries are, even for a Senior Manager and am wondering if there is a correlation between staff quality and remuneration? And then in addition to that, do the top earners break out of estate agency and move into property related industries or something totally different? This could explain why there are more positions than candidates.
I have ex-estate agent friends who earn £150k+ in the property software industry and others who joined companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and Vodafone in sales roles, Monday to Friday, 9-5 banking £200k+.
Estate agency taught them the need for professional persistence but failed to reward the continued effort along with long hours and weekend working. The earning potential is higher as a manager at B&Q or Tesco and comes with slightly less embarrassment.
How much did you think they make?
60k is not a bad wage is it? – Dont forget these are high street branches not superstores doing millions in turnover.
The top earners tend to ‘Break Out’ as you put it buy opening up by themselves or buying in as partner.
A number of individuals have ‘broken out’ in the last 6 – 12 months because of the strong market thinking they can go it alone. Trouble they have is a lack of stock so many will be back employed probably this time next year as they unfortunately have no brand awareness.
I actually don’t think £60k at the upper level of estate agency is that great when you consider the mortgage capability of somebody with a £25-28K base.
Estate agents, for the effort, hours and commitment they put in deserve to earn so much more. You can earn the same doing internal sales for a coffee reseller maker (http://goo.gl/dNTYuO) as the middle upper end of estate agency! Half the hours, half the responsibility and half the pressure! (and I assume a lot of free coffee!!)
My “break out” reference wasn’t to the thankless task of setting up on their own but to using all the great skills that agency gives you and transferring them to more financially rewarding industustries. Thus maybe offering an explanation as to why there is a shortage of suitable candidates which is the original point of the article.
Considering most offices i know in my region bank between 250k – 400k i think 60k for a manager is reasonable considering other staffing expenses and overheads.
Dont forget we do not have millions in turnover (or profit) such as Microsoft or Nescafe!
Also dont forget a lot of people do the job as they love it, yes stressful but always different! 🙂
This is very true. Finding quality staff is tough at the moment, in reality, if the Neg’ is worth anything they should have a healthy pipeline at their existing employer…. Recruitment, its like playing the lottery, rarely do you get a good win
Sorry Greg, have to disagree.
If you are looking for a good neg, look at your competitors, find their best neg and poach them!
Easy enough, just upgrade their car, increase basic (can be as little as a grand), offer them an end of year bonus, or even look at working hours, agent round our way tend to open to 6.30 we say 6 but negs are here by choice till 7 most days.
Only difficult is if you don’t want to pay, If that’s a case and you just need a body take an apprentice, you get a £1500 government grant and pay as little as about£2.60 per hour. They are hit and miss but for leaflet drops, emergency cover they are ideal, you may even uncover a diamond!
I totally agree with Smile on this. The best staff will only move to the better employers. This surely is a great time of year to make the most of the influx of uni graduates and consider taking on trainees new to the industry who are keen to get themselves into work. This is an opportunity to mould these fresh and promising new individuals into agency stars!! Training is key.
Bang on the money Helen, All about the training! even a 5 year seasoned pro needs regular training to keep on top of their game, we all get into bad habits or find short cuts always good to give refreshers!
It baffles me the amount some companies spend on advertising, papers, portals, branding, cars yet totally ignore their biggest assest STAFF. Its only a lottery if you let it be a lottery.
Spend time recruiting and spend time developing – Keeps the staff happy and adds ££££’s to your pocket!
As for poaching staff with a big pipeline, what is a big pipeline? personal pipeline 80k? what are they paid 5%? its only 4k give them a £400 underwrite for 6 months or even a 3k golden handcuffs deal, Great scheme of things its not a lot of money if they are quality staff. Plus its win / win – you get a top member of staff and your competitor loses one!