An enormous task that some doubted could ever be done has been completed – the assessment and mystery shopping of every single estate and letting agency branch in the UK.
Peter Knight, of the Property Academy, said yesterday that the mammoth exercise is now concluded. Knight ditched his highly successful estate and letting agency awards schemes, sponsored by The Times and Sunday Times, to concentrate on his latest – and potentially controversial – venture.
The assessment has included a review of over 25,000 sales and lettings branches, over 12 months, marketing 1m properties at any point in time, have handled over 3m transactions, received 50m leads and 3bn property views from consumers. Each branch has been compared with its peers geographically and then the top 40% have been mystery shopped a minimum of three times.
Agents are being told if one of more of their branches has been rated as being in the top 20% in the country in the forthcoming Best Estate Agent Guide, being launched on September 22, as part of the EA Masters Event being staged in London’s Docklands.
The assessment ranks branches as highly rated, excellent or exceptional, and Knight said that the exceptional ones are in the top 5%.
He said: “We’ve now concluded the data analysis and our mystery shop programme and it’s very clear that the top 20% of branches really do excel at marketing properties for sale and to let, deliver a higher quality of service to sellers, landlords, buyers and tenants and get results over and above the average for their market.”
Knight said: “We’ve set out to recognise the very best branches and to reward them for their achievements. Everyone looking to sell or let a property can now find the best estate agent in their area based on our independent assessment. We also hope the Best Estate Agent Guide will inspire all estate agents to further improve and thereby raise the standards of the industry.”
The first invitations to the top 20% of agents have now been sent, asking them to the event.
We have seen mixed responses. One agent said they were pleased to receive the ‘badge’, but that they would not pay to attend. Another, Russell Quirk of eMoov, also received the ‘badge’, saying this was one industry event he would attend.
http://www.eamasters.co.uk/the-guide/ and the full results will be published at the EA Masters on 22nd September at the InterContinental – The O2 – London.
Comments (7)
I got a ticket. I have to say I was quite excited until I heard Russell Quirk was going to be there.
I’m always sceptical about ‘awards’ so if the basis on which this has been done is correct, then it may well prove to be something that is worth supporting and will help the public in choosing an agent that genuinely does the best job, not just those that talk a good job. Pleased to have received my ticket today and for those of you that haven’t, maybe have a proper look at the reasons why.
Can the ‘dislikes’ please explain why, i’m genuinely interested and somewhat baffled
Delighted to have made the shortlist & hope to attend but would have taken the whole office if it wasn’t on a Friday in the peak of Lettings season. Hopefully next year it can be later in he year. That said a truly hurculean task and we look forward to seeing how we and those we know do on the day.
There will always be doubters however having personally worked closely with Peter Knight, the Property Academy for over 10 years and been a judge for the Sunday Times Awards, I can assure you that the diligence, care and passion that has been put into this and previous events is off the charts. This is one event that we as a business are supporting and having heard some of the plans for the day and the scale of it, you’d be missing out if you’ve been selected in the Top 20% if you didn’t attend.
What a mammoth task.. of which I’m proud to say I got my golden ticket! Roll on September 🙂
Talk about ambitious!
Thank you Peter and your team.
I can’t wait to see the results and am looking forward to the event in September – win, lose or draw…we’ll be there.