haart estate agency has unveiled its new national Partnership scheme and is set to add more than 250 locations to its network over the next two years across England and Wales.
At the same time, it will be investing in its Elite branches as well as a new senior management structure, to take advantage of the changing estate agency landscape, post coronavirus.
Partner estate agents will work from home or from haart’s Local Property Centres and will be supported by its national call centre.
The company is also creating a Partnership Academy to bring new talent into the industry.
“The coronavirus pandemic has shown us just how effective and productive our teams can be working from home, making 18% more calls,” said haart Managing Director Antony Lark.
“This bodes well for our new Partnership scheme and we are now starting our search for estate agents who are well-known in their local areas to become haart Partners, with all the backup and support of our well-known brand and marketing expertise, including our unique FLINK social media technology.
“We have reviewed and assessed all types of employment models and feel that by being fully employed by us, our Partners have the best of all worlds. It’s far better than being self-employed as the role comes with all the associated employment benefits, along with industry-leading technology and marketing that gives incredible lead generation to support the individual to grow their business.
“Very importantly, individuals have far more autonomy to manage their own day, giving them a much better work-life balance and enabling them to provide a more flexible service for our customers.
“Partners also have access to our £6m purpose-built IT support system, which gives them their ‘office in their pocket’, so they can work while out and about.
“We are also retaining and investing in our existing Elite network as part of our major expansion plans.”
haart’s expansion programme will start in the West Midlands, Leeds, Brighton, Southampton, the Oxford-Cambridge corridor and in additional locations around their existing Bristol Property Centre.
haart is part of the UK’s largest independent estate agency group, Spicerhaart, whose CEO Paul Smith said:
“We have been planning our new Partnership scheme for some time but the coronavirus pandemic has shown us how important it is for estate agencies to respond swiftly to changing circumstances and adapt to new ways of working.”
Meanwhile, haart’s physical branches are set to re-open within the next 10 days, following alterations to the offices to make them safer for staff and customers after closing due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Given that this announcement appears to herald possible branch closures, EYE asked for a statement from the company confirming if all of haarts physical branches will reopen within the next ten days. A response was not forthcoming by the time of publication but haart did make a later statement which we have published separately.
NEWSFLASH: haart confirms 23 branches will not reopen ‘at this stage’
Comments (28)
I hesitate to post as I did not want to get trolled as of a Friday evening after a few Eye readers had opened the bottle of Grand Hermitage 51- or more likely Asdas excellent Pinot Noir.
Whilst not at the sharp end of this I see it an interesting and brave move. I think it leaves circa 160 physical branches plus the new partnership locations to be announced shortly -a mighty machine compared to most. Add in overall 250 partnerships over the next two years and you can begin to see the idea.
Now if the team at Spicerhaart is lacking in the skill in making this model work then that will be at their cost. If they make it spin, they will be forward thinking and ground-breaking. Only time will tell.
On closing a few branches, I know from many years’ experience some branches, for some agents, not matter hard you try, are a dead duck. Maybe a competitor is simply amazing, or the location is now secondary, or ongoing premises costs just too high to make it worth the effort.
Whatever one thinks of Purple Bricks they have disrupted the industry to the extent the customer clearly accepts that it is not always necessary to have a physical office. Maybe accelerated by the Covid 19 ? This model is a good halfway house and gives those that want to operate in their home patch from home an opportunity to earn Branch Manager salaries-with life/work balance, amazing tech support and working with a team as well. Not for everyone but works for some if not many. And if it does -what is wrong with that?
There are some big jobs for current employees capable of doing them and perhaps for some high-quality new candidates out there as well.
Some of the best agencies I know are the smaller individual or branch chains. Some of these independents are fleet of foot and know their towns inside out. If Partnerships can replicate some of this at least they will have a successful model when multiplied many times over.
Bottom line-this is a way the SHG can expand into those Areas without taking on expensive High Street premises-to grow for the future and not shrink.
Now where is that Red wine.
At last somebody seems to evaluated it with a degree of objectivity – well done Majortom1 – hope the wine went down well. I think there were many people who simply paid no regard to PB when they launched -“it will not work” many said and “they will not last” …..they are still here!!! Perhaps we should be looking at SHs move and consider it from the perspective that it just may be a brilliant strategic move. I can see many people being attracted to this model. On a separate note I also love the criticism that comes from so many who have never personally been in the very position that requires certain decisions to be taken. I have never owned a business that employs 000s of people so can’t comment objectively on the rights and wrongs – very few can but seem to think they should. It lacks substance.
Interesting to really see how that ‘work/life’ balance being offered pans out. I think we all know that at Purplebricks they work all the hours for little reward. Will that be the same for a Spicerhaart Partnership? How will being fully employed impact that drive I wonder? I’d like to see the nitty gritty of those employment contracts.
Interesting points on both sides and no doubt we will all watch with interest to see how this new model pans out. Hopefully more successful than the Tesco/iSold debacle!
The naming of the Consierge sounds like Purplebricks too and makes me wonder how on top of pipeline management the Partners will be. Hopefully better than the abject failure of PB of looking after their customers after listing and throughout the non-existent sales progression.
No surprise – the writing on the wall was published here:
propertyindustryeye.com/key-appointment-as-former-purplebricks-national-sales-director-joins-high-street-chain-spicerhaart/
The contempt shown to the employed staff at haart would make me suspect you would have to be certifiable to want to be self-employed for them.
Who said anything about being self-employed? It’s a fully employed role!
And the basic pay is what? Are they going to copy what some Countrywide franchises did and end up losing the very disgruntled staff?
haart have a reputation for number crunching and squeezing what they can get out of employees.
The basic pay depends on experience, but in the main it is in line with that of the branch managers and the commission structure is also very generous too.
Mamagerial pay…next question….
Your post just shows why you clearly have no idea what you are talking about.
This model is fully employed.
Seriously…what dont you get?
Well this will not be a surprise to some but haart certainly know how to be unpopular with other agents and cause damage to the industry. They been at it for years.
I suspect it will be like the Milton Keynes debacle some years ago and all the risk will be with the Local Partnerships Experts.
No wonder spicerhaart so callously culled all those loyal experienced staff at the start of lockdown – shifting to an under-equipped low-skill low-pay low-overhead model, with regional hub & head-office backup to handle the inevitable avalanche of customer complaints from poor service.
I’m confused as to what your ’low-skill low-pay’ comment is based on? There are some extremely experienced agents going into these Partnership roles who will not be on low pay?
JohnJames
‘under-equipped’? One of the best-equiped agencies out there – that is why Spicerhaart performed so well during lock down – people immediately set up from home, tech-enabled, and knocked it out of the park all the way through lockdown. It is why there was no mad rush to get back into branch, unlike those that had no facilities to work from home in the same way, and as soon as restrictions eased, they were straight back in to branch. Spicerhaart in lockdown performed so well we didn’t need to rush back – fully risk assessments conducted in branches in the meantime – PPE/screens, etc in place and now, in a graduated, managed way, staff returning over the next two weeks in a seamless re-opening of branches. So, you are wrong.
‘low-skill’? Those that worked throughlout lockdown and on furlough are very highly skilled – they could not have performed the brilliant way in which they did if they were poorly skilled. The Training and Academy systems throughout the company are second to none and as per the press release, a new Partnership Academy, recruiting the best and paying them the best, is underway. So, you are wrong.
‘low(er) overheads’ – what company in the UK is not now looking at its overheads and seeking to reduce them, whilst maintaining high street presence in high performing, flagship branches and then FULLY EMPLYOYED Partners, with felxibility to work from home, with brilliant marketing budgets, help, support, training, coaching and mentoring, great basic pay PLUS enhanced bonuses – it is a redirection of resources to make them most effective. So, you are wrong.
It is not a Regional hub – flagship and elite performing branches will remain open throughout individual regions – every postcode in England and Wales will be covered – 250 new Partners being recruited and trained and rolled out and yes, supported by our own in-house concierge service that the best of the best companies also have – not outsourced to AllDayPA/Moneypenny. So, you are wrong.
And our 5* reviews show just how well our customers receive us – of course we get it wrong, like every other company out there – we always aim to improve.
The nonesense written in the past about what Spicerhaart was doing/planning to do, is now blown out of the water – we are expanding, investing hugely in our people, our tech is outstanding with a £6M investment in our people having their agency in their pocket and be fully operational in all things whilst out on the road between appointments – you really do not have any idea what you are talking about.
Once I read the first paragraph Spicerhaart in lockdown performed so well we didn’t need …..
Clearly a haart employee. Any agent who has been working over the last decade or more knows only to well how Spicerhaart operate and what they think of PS editorials about how agents should do things.
Nonsense, I think not. As for Concierge Service that is nothing but flannel. Agents have been providing that service long before PS came out of shorts.
Surely employees of Spicerhaart know more about how Spicerhaart operates than those on the outside?
A lot of what was has been written has been nonsense!
Also, Jockey didn’t state that Spicerhaart are the first or only company to have an in-house concierge service, just that it is not outsourced like other companies do. So why is that ‘flannel’?
I know more about Spicer McColl … Spicerhaart than you could ever imagine.
For the rest of the community, haart have history.
Then we have Tesco’s!
As you referenced Spicer McColl, am I correct in thinking that you left at least 5 years ago? If that’s the case, I’m curious as to how you know how it operates now?
Not even luke warm.
So you’re still employed by Spicerhaart?
Jockey – Wake up and smell the coffee. Those of us in agency recruitment are inundated with heartbroken staff flooding onto our books – most of whom have little or zero notice of their impending demotions / pay reductions / redundancies / etc.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck… it’s a duck!
If its a Parrot, is it dead?
It’s not dead…
…
…it’s resting.
Employment law has to be respected…so that is another nonesense you have spoke.
And for those coming to you now in tougher times…top performers?
Because of course companies lose their top performers in tough times don’t they?
Stick to recruitment.
Keep off blogs.
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”
I guess they are to be known as Purplehearts
Not sure you have read this properly or you simply don’t understand the PB model?
That will be the not for profit model.
Too many similarities -least of all Customer Reviews
2 Trustpilot Reviews July 2nd
John Clarke
“A really unprofessional service. It is a shame to say but this was one of the worst estate agents I have ever dealt with. (Ipswich Suffolk Branch)”
Amy
“By far the worst estate agent I have ever had dealings with! For the first 3.5 weeks they did not attend the newly renovated house to take any photos; using the old photos from a different estate agent when it was originally for sale. I sent videos and photos following the makeover and had to chase for over a week for these to be published on any of the sites.”