For centuries estate agency has remained somewhat traditional. An office, a phone, a filing cabinet, hot-boxes, a window display and some employees to list, sell and administer things.
It took hundreds of years of inertia for the first ground-breaking innovation to pop up and that was the invention of the property portal by Harry Hill and his Rightmove in 1999. Since then, we have seen the birth of online estate agents, franchises, hybrid agents, self-employed agents, private sale websites, auction platforms, plus more.
Nothing happens for decades and then over a few short years, progress travels at warp speed.
Dominic Marcel, a former Countrywide regional director who now works as a Keller Williams agent, said: “The UK property industry has been finding its feet, experimenting if you will, in recent years. Just like eCommerce and fast food and supermarkets and taxi services, technology and raised consumer expectation and faster communication methods now throw curve-balls at every sector.
“For some, like estate agency, it takes a while to fathom what the perfect solution is that suits both customer and business.!
Marcel believes that that from the multiple variations of estate agency that we have all seen of late, one will now evolve as the perfect blend of earnings, flexibility of work life balance and guidance and oversight, and that is the ‘team model’, which is big in the USA and Australia.
Stateside, around a quarter of all agents are part of an official team arrangement as opposed to just working alone as a self-employed individual, research shows.
So, what is the ‘team’ concept?
Marcel of Lion Estates, powered by Keller Williams, explained: “A team is a group of self-employed agents led by a ‘rainmaker’ agent who is a top performer and can provide additional value to the agents above what the brokerage provides. It’s the self-employed agent version of a high street branch team, but the agents decide what their personal goals are and the hours they want to work. Team agents earn considerably more than in a branch employed role”.
N.B. The ‘team model’ referred to in this story is in no way connected with ‘Team Association Ltd’ or its website ‘teamprop.co.uk’.
Comments (2)
So not working the demands of the business, customer driven mixed with sensible employment standards. Doomed to failure and spouting off about the model being a success in the US. Lol, its one of the worst part time-workers, corrupt, poor service in the world. Been there and seen it first hand. There is a reason why things work and this has been proven time and again this model has no longevity for employees and many business failure …. how many have gone under saying it the best thing since sliced bread? Markets evolve but in the UK it is consumer driven services that matter, not what you want to do as and when, or be told is.
but the agents decide what their personal goals are and the hours they want to work.
As Brenda from Bristol said, “Oh no, not another one”.