With the average price of a Scottish house currently sitting at £167,000, agents here have to work hard to get the best sale prices for their customers.
But with property prices now at their pre-recession levels and predicted to continue rising, it means there is scope to build a very healthy career as an Estate Agent.
Chris Campbell runs the Scottish division of Your Move, one of the UK’s largest estate agents and he’s been talking to s1homes about what it is like to sell homes for a living.
Tell us a little bit Your Move and about your own role within the company?
“Your Move is part of the LSL Group and is one of the biggest estate agencies in the UK. Our services cover residential estate agency, lettings and financial services.
I am the Regional Managing Director for Scotland, responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Scottish branches.”
How buoyant is the housing market in Scotland at the moment?
“The housing market has steadily improved since the recession, with house prices increasing year on year and volume sales slowly increasing.”
What does it take to persuade a seller to list their house with Your Move ahead of one of your competitors?
“We are a customer-focused company and will strive to provide the best customer service that is available in the market place.
We also have wide coverage via the internet portals and pride ourselves in having the ‘most visited’ estate agency website.”
What makes a really great estate agent and what skills to do you look for when recruiting staff?
“You’ve got to be a ‘people’ person with good interpersonal skills.
We expect our agents to be team players and when we recruit we look for someone who has a good customer service background as well as excellent selling skills.”
Do you provide training and, if so, what form does it take?
“Training is ongoing, starting with an intensive induction course in our training centre followed by further training within their base branch.
We pride ourselves in promoting from within wherever possible and will actively put people forward for training courses, if we think that this will help them to further their career within the company.”
Do you think good estate agents are born with sales skills or is this something anyone can learn?
“Selling skills are the same for estate agents as any other sales role – the key talent a good sales person has is the ability to listen, to get to know their customer and to only sell to their needs and requirements. This can be learned during training.”
Finally what advice would you give anyone who wants to get into the industry?
“Be prepared to start right at the beginning where you can learn in detail the role of an estate agent before progressing with your career.”
s1homes.com works with trusted estate agents across Scotland. So if you are looking for someone to sell your home, search now. Or if you are an agent looking to advertise on Scotland’s biggest property site, contact s1homes.com