I am old.

March 19, 2018 by Rob Kahl @ Scott & Stapleton

I know that may come as a surprise to most of you given my youthful good looks but I am afraid that it is the truth. Whilst I have been happy to embrace all of the technological advancements that have happened in my industry I must admit that I have been a bit slow to the party when it comes to social media. I will be honest with you. I don’t really understand it! I am not being rude but I don’t care what you have had for dinner and I am not bothered about watching videos of cats doing funny things, sorry.

But I now understand that it is a vital tool and something that should be embraced rather than scared of. It is amazing when I think back to how we used to advertise properties or our services over 20 years ago. The only way that we were to be able to show them was through the weekly newspaper. We had a quarter page advert that held just 6 properties a week! Well that along with the window display in the office and of course the telephone were the only ways that we were able to get our message out there. What was even more amazing when you look back was that the newspaper used to have to come and collect Polaroid type photos of the properties to copy them for the advert and then drop them back afterwards. As I said I am happy that some things have moved on.

Nowadays everything is instant which is much better and obviously a lot quicker. This week we have even got a drone to shoot a particular property that is on the seafront. We should be able to have a video sweeping up from the estuary over the beach towards then over the property to show the swimming pool in the rear garden. Adding this to our on-line details would have been beyond her wildest dreams 50 years ago when Simone first started in the business.

Obviously the main way to show our properties for sale or rent is on-line. There are hundreds of different websites available for agents but by far the biggest is rightmove. I remember when they first started and we were chosen as the first local agent to try them out. We didn’t think much of it but gave it a go not really thinking it would catch on. Now look, there are over 3,000 properties on the market in Leigh and the surrounding area and rightmove had over 1.7 billion hits in January of this year alone. Do you know what you were doing on the 26th January this year? You were probably browsing for property (or just being nosy) because that was the busiest day this year for the site so far with 4.7 millions separate searches! I don’t think that a poor old newspaper can get even remotely close to that sort or coverage.

The other thing that I think is great about the on-line phenomenon is the ease of which you can get all sorts of information. Gone are the days where you have to believe your estate agent when he says ‘of course, this roads really quiet’ or ‘theres no chance of them building in the field behind you’. This information and loads more besides is freely available and so there is no excuse for poor preparation before viewing or offering on a house. You can see what schools are like, crime rates, commuter times, possible planning applications and best of all statistics for pricing.

You can research what types of properties have sold locally or how long things take to sell or even how much on average people are reducing from their asking prices. If you do find a property you like you can offer with confidence knowing what the current market conditions are and even have an educated guess on what might be to come. The whole social media thing is slightly different. There is no point just throwing pictures of properties on there and nothing else. There are plenty of other platforms out there for that if people want.

With social media it is more about getting your message or your ethos out there. Showing the world a bit more about what you can do and how you would do it. At Scott & Stapleton we have always tried to make estate agency less scary. We have tried to shy away from the shiny suit salesman who you think is going to rip you off. We hope that we are more approachable and are always happy to offer plain english sensible advice rather then beat an offer out of you or put you in a head lock until you put your house on the market with us. Getting this message across is often difficult but social media is a very good platform.

As well as show you what we do professionally we can show you that we are just like you. We all care deeply about Leigh on Sea, most of us live and have grown up here. We can show you what we do in the community with the schools, churches and local council, speak up with other local traders about events or local matters and show you that we are human and how we mitt celebrate a colleagues birthday or some of Lisa’s latest dance moves.

We might even share a daft video like the time I pushed Simone in the swimming pool! Hopefully she has forgotten about that though because she still hasn’t got me back. This is all basically to show you that we are extremely professional when it comes to selling or renting your home but we are also human and we can have a normal side.

All this basically is leading me in to tell you that this week I will be interviewed for our Facebook site. They will be asking me things like ‘what do you like about Leigh on Sea?’ or ‘Why do you love working for Scott *& Stapleton?’ At the moment I have no idea what I am going to say I know what I feel but how to articulate that when a camera is trained upon you is very different. Wish me well.

So if you do want to come and find us please don’t forget that we are humans and are available for a chat or a coffee in our office but we are also on Rightmove, On the market, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all the others. Basically everything except Tinder & Grinder!

This article is by Rob at Scott & Stapleton 
42 Broadway | Leigh-on-sea | Essex | SS9 1AJ
Tel: 01702 471155 
Email: rob@scottandstapleton.co.uk

To read all of Rob's previous property blogs, please click the link here