The things estate agents say.

I collect estate agents flyer's. It tells me who's doing what and where, and I've been collecting them for the last 3 years. I have hundreds. Some I like, they are well written and others are so bad its hard not to laugh.

Some are great quality but don't really say anything, others are just down right dower, lacking in imagination with the worst of them littered with spelling mistakes and bad grammar. But what they all have in common is that they are asking for your business.

Naturally what my competitors are doing is of great interest to me. As Sun Tzu said "In order to defeat your enemy, first you must know them". Well a flyer can tell you a lot about the company asking for your business. It may say more to me as I'm inside the industry, but to an unsuspecting owner or landlord the flyer's are tailored to effect a response. Either 1) Getting a call or 2) The bin. (The latter preferred).

So lets have a look at some agency jargon and what it actually means;

Apologies for this unannounced mail shot...

I'm not really apologising for this mail shot.

We have let a substantial number of apartments in this development...

We may have rented one or two here or there, but we want more property.

Do you want to sell or rent your property within 10 days?..

Well, we'll give it a go. But if we don't, we'll find some excuses as to why we didn't do it.

25% reduction on fees. £200 reward on completion...

We are desparate!

5% full management to you our landlord...

We're cheap. So is our service.

Due to client demand we now need your property...

If we have your property, we have a chance of selling it, or renting it.

Mr M is looking for a property in your road...

There is no Mr M. But it gets a foot in the door.

We have over 20 years of experience...

Let me quickly count up how many staff I have and how long they've been here.


The above isnt always the case, but what has worked when it is true will work when it isn't. This is an area that I don't struggle with, because I won't do these types of flyers or make these statements as I hate this kind of speak. Anything the others do, I will do something else. Or nothing, well not nothing, but we look after the people we do business with and concentrate on doing the basics brilliantly. 90% of our landlords come via recommendations, so we dont need to talk a load of nonesense to make our point. We all ready made it.