A major lettings agency, Orchard & Shipman, is launching a hybrid model.
It says that the days of high street letting agents are numbered.
The firm has offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Brighton, and will use its new offering to expand nationwide.
The firm says its new service brings together the best of an online letting agency with “a superior, full property management service, backed by the firm’s local agency network”.
It says the launch is in response to “3,000 landlords across the UK, who were all looking for a more affordable letting service, backed by a local presence, which delivers a range of property management services”.
The new service provides landlords with three different options, including a fully managed service; rent collection; and a let-only service available through the firm’s branches and online, via a new website, www.os-residential.com
CEO Shane Spiers said: “Up until now, landlords have had only two options.
‘Either traditional and expensive high street letting agents, or cheap, no frills, let-only packages, offered by the plethora of online agents.
“The majority of online letting agents struggle to offer a property management service, as they have no local representation.
“For too long, landlords have been forced to fit into the business model of high street agents, only to find that they have been given a poor service, with bad tenants who have either caused expensive property damage, or have mounting rent arrears.
“We recognise the letting market is changing rapidly and that the days are numbered for most traditional high street letting agents.
“We are offering landlords a superior service, finding the right calibre of tenants and managing the whole letting process, from rent collection to property maintenance and inventories.
“All this is backed by more economical pricing at 9.5% of the let income and highly experienced local teams, who can deliver a range of property management services.
“We have over 25 years’ experience managing the assets of private landlords, residential portfolio owners and large corporate and institutional investors.
“Landlords across the UK know they can trust us to look after their property.”
The new offering offers rent guarantees; payment of legal costs linked to possession cases; and cover for any loss of rent that a landlord might have after an eviction.
Comments (12)
Its much more nuanced and depends upon the locality where you are operating in. As the service levels of the big chain high street agents decline (daily they become more and more like call centres with their open plan offices, headsets and scripted sales patter) the opportunity for a more tailored and knowledgeable approach given by independent agents arise. We had a high street presence for 11 years in a very prominent position in the City of London. It was a waste of resource. Walk in business was negligible and those that did come in either wanted directions or demanded to talk to the owner so they could show off their property knowledge. We’ve been going over 18 years and since we moved off-street to larger offices near Lloyds Headquarters, business has increased significantly. I’m not saying that this by any means is the correct approach and if we were in a different location I might consider a high street location. I do think that like many commercial agents, and even travel agents, the need for a high street presence will decline but not disappear.
We started as a ‘hybrid’ very soon after we decided that this although this model keeps the overheads down but does nothing for your brand.
We want our brand to grow and develop and have taken high street offices to help us with this. It seems that we are going the other way… headed in the right direction..
Totally agree. Those that invest capital in high Street premises show a commitment to the business over the’ here today gone tomorrow’ hybrids. There is trend away from estate agency sector to return to the high street. People apparently buy more in a shop than they do online and enjoy the experience. As you rightly say, its about building a brand that vendors can trust.
I went to a Rightmove seminar some 9 years ago and the death of the High Street agent was announced then. Gets you a little bit of free advertising.
Boring Boring
I have to say I remain bewildered by “hybrid agency”……From reading this press release, and other comments about “hybrid” I can’t see anything new about their offerings.
They said their offering was ” in response to “3,000 landlords across the UK, who were all looking for a more affordable letting service, backed by a local presence, which delivers a range of property management services”.”….
…..Isn’t that what all high street letting agents already offer customers?
Don’t forget “finding the right calibre of tenants ”
Is there a special class of ‘good’ tenant that only frequents hybrid agencies I wonder? what would happen if one of those horrid high street tenants found their way into one of their properties?
perhaps they have some sort of beatification process for high street tenants?
There have been so many lines drawn in the sand for the death of high street agency that the beach is starting to resemble the Nazca lines.
I guess if you buy a high street estate agents as they did, fail to make any money from it and have to sell it, lose some of your golden egg contracts for housing associations in London affecting your core business then I suppose you would try a hybrid version of what you do.
I would have respect for someone who issued a press release saying that trading conditions for them had changed and they were trying something different. What I have no respect for however are people who make statements saying the high street agents days are numbered simply to justify necessity as strategy.
Hear Hear on the second paragraph.
No comment on the first paragraph other than there is Kings new clothes group think going on.
Hybrid agency is a passing phase, an evolutionary change in agency. I will have great respect for anyone if they can successfully, profitably and honestly pull off COAR hybrid agency; there are very few people capable of pulling that off. Right now I reckon best chance lies with Ian Wilson, Mike Goddard or Kevin Hollinrake as a variation of franchise rather than another industry sector.
I’m not sure about the three examples you gave but one thing is, in my opinion, undeniable and that is the industry hasn’t become bigger its become smaller with customers preferring to use the services of the individual or small firm as opposed to the big one. The reason was initially perhaps recession led; sellers needed someone that knew the area well, someone they trusted and thats a lot harder to find in a large entity. Its now however become more about relationships and using an agent not just to find a buyer but to find a home to move to and all of the issues that can arise with that process.
The one thing so called hybrids do have right is that a large amount of business is done by one or two local experts, where they fall down is you also need the local support network as well. Thats where underpricing their service is a problem for the hybrid because it doesn’t generate the revenue to pay for that.
There was a subtlety in the post that said they were the 3 most likely to pull of the only logical route to hybrid. I am not sure they would succeed but they are the people most experienced of running the sort of remote, trusted expert, agencies you describe (correctly) as essential for COAR. COAR becomes COAA, which is a franchise.
I gave a talk to an NAEA conference around 10 years ago about the coming of new business models, and hybrid agents. I said at the time it was to be welcomed.
Hybrid agency is the future for agents however, not all high streets are ripe for change; the local demographic simply isn’t ready and doesn’t want it.