The Cost Of The Label

Imagine you and I are walking down the street together to go and get a coffee.

To the person walking towards us, we're simply two people. They know nothing about us - they don't know our professions or our backgrounds. They don't know whether we're successful or struggling. They simply see two human beings.

And, statistically speaking, their level of trust in both of us at that precise moment is broadly the same.

Then you tell them you're an estate agent...

In an instant, something changes. Not because you've changed. But because your label has. And this is the most extraordinary problem facing good estate agents today, that hardly anyone is talking about - other than my good friend Chris Arnold.

For years, estate agents have carried one of the most damaged reputations of any professional group in Britain as repeatedly demonstrated by The Ipsos Veracity Index.

In 2018, just 30% of people said they trusted estate agents to tell the truth. By comparison, the figure for the ordinary man or woman in the street was 62%.

So just by telling someone what you do for a living, they place less than half of the trust in you as they do the average person on the street.

The latest figures are a little more encouraging... In 2024, trust in estate agents rose to 37%, its highest level since they were first included in the Index. But the ordinary person in the street still scored 60%. That's a trust deficit of 23 percentage points. Not good.

And here's the part that really bothers me. You might be one of the good ones. You might be honest. You might be exceptionally knowledgeable. You might have spent twenty or thirty years mastering your profession. And you might genuinely care about your clients.

But none of that changes the label.

And unless you actively change that label, you remain professionally wounded by the effects of a poor reputation created by people outside of your control.

To me, that's not fair. But it is our current reality. And the answer isn't to complain about estate-agent bashing.

The real answer is to become something different. Something better. Something the public can easily recognise as a trusted symbol and know they're in safe hands.

Why? Because good practitioners cannot afford to allow the vagabonds, the ne'er-do-wells, the liars and the cheats - who I believe make up the minority of the profession but who affect everyone - to undermine them.

The label - estate agent - is simply costing you too much money. It's costing you trust. Ultimately, it's costing you the ability to differentiate yourself. And no amount of (paid for) industry awards or self-proclaimed "No. 1", "market leader" or "best estate agent" is going to change that.

That's the real problem with commoditisation.

A price-comparison website or property portal doesn't let you show consumers that you've spent thirty years learning your profession. It doesn't let you show consumers how many transactions you've successfully navigated. It doesn't reveal the problems you've prevented or the crises averted. And it can't unveil the professional judgement and discernment you've developed over the years.

Instead, it reduces all of that expertise to a number, a fee, a review score and ultimately, a very expensive (for you), line of code.

The ultimate evil with commoditisation - something every professional within the property sector has steadily edged towards over years - is that it tells the consumer you're broadly interchangeable with the person down the road offering the same service.

I'd like to believe that you're not - but my belief and the current reality are two totally different things.

So why are you still allowing yourself to be treated as though you are a commodity? I get that we're all busy and this is most probably something you've been meaning to deal with for some time. Yet the sector has waited 30 years to address this vital point and shows no sign of solving it anytime soon.

Instead, those who ought to be doing something about it are actively working against good estate agent's interests.

This is where The Maverick Mindset shift becomes so vitally important. Because changing the label isn't about changing your logo. It isn't about calling yourself a "property consultant" or "local expert" instead of an estate agent. Everyone knows they're really just an estate agent in disguise.

The truth about The Maverick Mindset is that it's about becoming the sort of property professional that has earnt, and therefore deserves, a different label.

A Property Maverick.

Someone who questions the industry's assumptions. Someone who understands the wider economic environment. Someone who doesn't simply follow the crowd. Someone who protects their clients from risks the client doesn't even know exist. Someone who builds a business capable of surviving when the market changes.

Because there is another reason this matters and hopefully you can "feel" this in your business right now - the economic environment is changing.

I don't believe any responsible professional should reasonably assume that the good times will continue indefinitely. We've already seen how quickly financial leverage can transmit shocks around the world in 2008.

The 2024 yen carry-trade unwind demonstrated how a change in Japanese monetary conditions could contribute to a rapid repricing of global risk assets. The BIS described the episode as an example of leveraged positions amplifying an initial shock.

Now there are fresh questions around the extraordinary stock market valuations attached to the artificial intelligence bubble. The European Central Bank has warned that excessive optimism around AI could contribute to a significant correction in US technology markets, with potential consequences for global financial stability.

I'm not predicting a crash - and nor should you.

I'm saying something much simpler: You should be prepared for one.

Because the greatest risk in business isn't necessarily knowing that something bad might happen. It's discovering that your entire business model is dependent upon it not happening.

That's why I worry about estate agents who have built their entire business strategy around one thing - perpetuated, naturally, by the Guardians of Average: winning the instruction.

The cracks in the strategy of "hopium" are already beginning to show: Win the listing; put it on the portals; wait: hope; chase. And repeat.

What happens now the market is slowing down and home are taking longer to sell? What happens now consumers have become much more price-sensitive because of wider economic factors? What happens now technology is changing the way people search for and compare agents? What happens when your acquisition costs rise while your conversion rate falls?

The result is already showing up when nearly a third of estate agents are already in significant financial distress (https://wiggywam.co.uk/news/5437-7719-agencies-face-closure-the-red-flag-crisis-every-agent-m)

Businesses built around the status quo model can look incredibly successful right up until the moment the status quo disappears. And this is precisely why I believe changing the label, now, matters.

Because becoming a Property Maverick isn't simply about becoming a better estate agent. It's about becoming a better businessperson.

Understanding risk. Understanding economics - not just passing off headlines to make yourself sound informed. Understanding incentives - especially those which work against your clients. Understanding technology - where its helpful and where its not. Understanding your numbers - what metrics are worth chasing and which aren't. Understanding what your clients actually value.

And, most importantly, understanding where the market is going rather than simply where it has been.

The same applies to conveyancing. I'm increasingly concerned about professionals who are carrying enormous caseloads simply to try and make an unsustainable business model work. More files. Lower fees. Longer hours. Greater pressure. Slower service.

Increasingly exhausted professionals trying to deliver an outcome that should be one of the most valuable parts of the entire property transaction whilst giving all their profit away in exchange for winning the work.

That isn't a sustainable model and somebody needs to be brave enough to say so, because this isn't an attack on the industry - quite the opposite.

I care too much about the good people in it to remain silent.

I want the honest estate agent to be recognised for who they are. I want the exceptional conveyancer to be properly rewarded. I want consumers to know the difference between a true professional and an interchangeable commodity. And I want the people who genuinely care about doing a great job to stop carrying the bad reputation of those who don't.

That's why I believe The Maverick identity matters. Because sometimes you can't change the market immediately, but you can change the way you position yourself within it.

You can change the standard you operate to and change the experience you give your clients. You can change the business model and change the outcomes.

Eventually...you can change the label. But in the meantime, you'll have achieved something much more profound - a business immune to market changes working alongside clients and peers who love you for you.

So here's your Maverick challenge this week.

Look at your business as if you were an outsider. Ask yourself:

If I removed my name and logo, what would actually make me different from every other estate agent in my area?

And if the answer is "not very much"... Don't panic. That's actually good news. Because now you've found the number one problem in your business. Once you've found the problem, you can start by fixing it. And I'm always here to help you once you're ready to dive in and solve your biggest problem - just message me and we'll take a look together.

The future doesn't belong to the cheapest estate agent as much as it doesn't belong to the biggest estate agent. And it certainly doesn't belong to the people who simply keep doing what everyone else is doing.

It belongs to the professionals who become impossible to compare.

That's the journey from Estate Agent... to Property Maverick.