As we come to the closing stages of a year we certainly didn’t expect, it’s time to get into the festive spirit.

Despite having gone through our second national lockdown and emerging back into the government’s three-tier system, the property market has remained largely unaffected over this period.

Thankfully, the market has shown its resilience and remained strong, which can be contributed to the fact that unlike back in spring, the UK housing market has been kept open and active for homeowners to progress with their next move.

Whilst it’s not a traditional time for buyers and sellers to flood to the market, 2020 has been an unprecedented year so far, meaning there could be one or two surprises left this December.

Last Christmas, Rightmove saw a 26% increase in web traffic with over four million of us visiting their site, showing just how crucial this season can be for estate agents to grab the attention of their clients before they buy or list in the new year.

At BriefYourMarket.com, communication is critical to us.

Therefore, whilst you were wondering what presents you needed to buy, we were working hard to ensure we could provide you with a comprehensive send plan to step into Christmas with!

Packed with eight different emails to fulfil your every need, you won’t struggle to provide your clients with content this month.

With the festive period bringing Christmas joy, as well as the news of the UK housing market remaining open in every tier, it’s important your database knows this.

To support agents in this, we’ve prepared eight campaigns for our December send plan.

These communications look to encapsulate elements of the government’s guidelines, whilst promoting your virtual services, viewings and valuations. 

Despite the worrying times we’re in, England’s second lockdown seems to have “barely dented” the property market – according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Over October, agents saw higher buyer demand for the fifth consecutive month, whilst properties Sold Subject to Contract in the last week exceeded February’s monthly total by an incredible 128%.*

At BriefYourMarket.com, we’re facilitating communications for our estate agents, keeping them in touch with their customers when they’re operating from the office or when they’re working from home.

With the demand in the market only rising, are you utilising your database to unlock real value?

We would like to thank our highly valued customers for allowing us to share their feedback and continuing to partner with us.

For more information on our digital marketing proposition and what we can do for you, please contact us today.

*Source: BriefYourMarket.com

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This year has provided the property market with plenty of ups and downs, and now – with England back under lockdown – it looks like we’re going to be required to rise to the challenge once again as an industry.

To sustain business activity and support homeowners and movers, it became imperative for agents to be reactive to an ever-changing pandemic environment.

Meaning that agents who had little to no experience with online marketing soon found themselves facing a very uncertain period, with more and more of us relying on digital communications to keep ourselves informed and our businesses operating.

At BriefYourMarket.com, communication is critical to us.

So when we heard that the property market would remain open over lockdown, we started work preparing all the campaigns you will need to inform your clients, rebuild their trust in the market and position yourself for a successful autumn and winter.

How are you continuing ‘business as usual’?

House moves can proceed as long as COVID-19 protocols are followed, such as with the use of social distancing measures, face coverings and only allowing two households within a property.

Communicating your precautionary measures to your database is of key importance to keep people moving and taking advantage of limited stamp duty savings.

This November, we’ve released nine drag-and-drop campaigns to help agents achieve that. Contact us to learn more.

With the UK housing market able to operate during the second lockdown, it’s important to make this clear to your database.

To support agents in this, we’ve prepared nine campaigns for our November send plan.

These communications look to encapsulate elements of the government’s guidelines, whilst promoting your virtual services, viewings and valuations. 

Getting the market moving

On the 13th May, the UK Government made the welcome announcement that it was easing restrictions for the property market in England. This meant that people who were looking to make a move could now proceed in line with its official guidelines.

At the time of writing, the respective markets in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are still heavily restricted; home moving is not permitted and only virtual viewings should take place unless the property being moved into is vacant or the move is deemed as critical.

In England, agents are now able to list new properties and visit to take photos and videos whilst adhering to official safety guidance. However, it is still necessary for agents to conduct virtual viewings in the first instance, with physical viewings only taking place with serious buyers who are genuinely interested in the property.

Agents ramp up digital marketing activity

As the announcement was made, agents were quick to respond to the easing of restrictions, eager to highlight that the market was open for business.

Cumulatively, agents updated 1.3 million people on the 13th May by property email updates via the platform. May 2020 saw a 9.6% increase on cumulative property-email interactions when compared with the buoyant February market which was full of pent-up demand fuelled by Brexit and the now infamous ‘Boris Bounce’.

Agents have renewed vigour in their marketing and are keen to service public demand for property and guidance information. The majority of businesses are now opting to communicate with their entire database by email property bulletins every other working day.

Agents have more to directly offer their clients now too. The ‘desire’ for property is tangible. The rebound in housing demand isn’t only due to pent-up movers who were put on hold during lockdown, there are new movers registering with agents at record levels as property becomes more accessible via virtual services.

What’s trending in estate agency marketing?

Reassurance and virtual service

There has been a huge push on reassurance pieces. Agents have been quick to demonstrate that offices are open and operating safely, with many choosing to publish their own COVID-19 safety guidelines in line with the government’s guidance. Many have also sent out their physical viewing and valuation policies.

Agents are eager to shift existing stock and many have chosen to send out filming checklists for vendors and landlords to help them capture property USPs on video.

Simple property viewing videos (like the example below) are being created between vendors/landlords and agents. These are then being distributed in hot property emails via our Video Module to encourage bookings for virtual accompanied viewings.

Portal stats and comments

Recent Rightmove and Zoopla press releases have been used for content marketing. Rightmove’s ‘record-breaking browsing’ release and Zoopla’s recent ‘88% surge in buyer interest’ commentary are being leveraged by agents who are using the established property-portal brands to drive direct traffic to their own webistes, properties and services.

Proceeding with a physical valuation or viewing are being marketed with advisories in place. Agents are driving virtual viewings first and informing people that they must establish they can financially proceed with the purchase before progressing to a physical viewing.

Want to find out more?

If you’d like to find out more about how we can help your estate or letting agency to market your properties and services, click below to book a no-obligation consultation.

Our resident webinar-in-chief – David Mann – looks at how virtual viewings have captured the attention of the public and asks: what does the future of virtual service really mean for estate and letting agents?

Recent statements from Rightmove and Zoopla – along with press testimonies from estate and letting agents up and down the UK – seem to indicate that online viewings and valuations are here to stay for the foreseeable future.

Rightmove recently declared that 6000 of its estate agency branches have used its online viewing label when uploading properties to the portal. Now, following a recent poll, Zoopla note that an overwhelming majority (98%) of vendors said that they would prefer to receive a remote ‘virtual’ market appraisal from an estate agent as the first stage in the sale process.

Necessity, protection and public sentiment

The UK Government’s advice is that agents should strongly encourage clients to view properties virtually in the first instance and only physically inspect properties which they have a strong interest in. Even developers have been told to pursue promoting virtual viewings in the first instance too.

Necessity, protection and majority public sentiment have been the catalysts for the growing popularity of virtual property services over the last few months. This unprecedented pandemic has brought about unthinkable changes to our way of life, and the desire to make a move for many is now coupled with extreme anxiety. The ramifications of social distancing will live on for the foreseeable future too; especially as we are constantly foreshadowed by a potential second wave of the virus as lockdown measures are continually relaxed.

On the plus side, most of us have also been forced to embrace technology in some way due to lockdown; fuelling our sense of interest and proving that even the most diehard technophobe can conduct social and business transactions online as it isn’t actually as daunting as we first thought.

It does now seem inevitable though that agents will – once again – be put under the microscope by consumers (and by their own competitors). There will inevitably be an analysis of service; how are agents adapting, how they are operating safely? Who would have thought that offering virtual property services could become an indicator of competency and trustworthiness for the industry in the future?

Indeed, I think that back when marketing properties on the portals became a commonplace benchmark for a basic marketing plan, the expectation for virtual property promotion will now surely follow from vendors and landlords as a pre-requisite service that we will come to expect as part of our marketing package.

Combining safety and convenience with a reduction in overheads – what’s not to like?

I believe that virtual tours will become commonplace in the housing market, purely because people like convenience; and what can be more convenient than getting to see what a property has to offer from the comfort of your existing home before committing to a purchase or a rental?

Yes, there are some welcome guidelines from the industry’s regulatory and advisory bodies to note. On lettings, The Property Ombudsman (TPO) has stated that ‘it is not advisable for an agent to accept, or recommend a landlord to accept, an offer on a property that has not been viewed by the prospective tenant(s)’. Similarly for sales, it notes that ‘video viewings are to be used by agents as a filtering exercise, and that any serious buyers are provided with an ‘offer agreed subject to viewing.’ Likewise, the NAEA and ARLA Propertymark air on the side of caution too; sharing the same sentiment for using virtual viewings as a ‘filtering system’ to progress sales or lets with prospective buyers and tenants who are serious about continuing the transaction.

Some agents are not entirely sold on the idea, noting that – justifiably – only a physical viewing can confirm whether a property ‘feels’ right. Some are apprehensive about letting the vendor or landlord film the property, and some are worried that it serves to undermine the objective of traditional online marketing altogether: to ‘whet’ the appetite to book a physical viewing.

Taking all these considerations onboard, surely virtual viewings should be embraced as an exciting moment of progression in property marketing? Whether you are an agent that has been doing them for years or if you’re new to it, this is a service that comes with massive benefits for the consumer – and that’s what’s important to get the market moving. I totally get that there is a sentiment from agents that says even though virtual viewings are available, most people would prefer a physical viewing before making a final decision, and that’s understandable; property is a big commitment.

Yet, video viewings are, for me, an extension of the services provided by property marketers, and I think that’s really exiting. E-commerce is officially part of the property industry and its impact is becoming very tangible. The Property Franchise Group (TPFG) actively stated its business pulled through lockdown by its reliance on virtual viewings and property management; something that we advocated in one of our first Protection & Planning webinars. Closer to home, one our clients, Butlins Property Services, recently shared with us that their last campaign help them to take on five new properties in a really challenging climate.

For me, virtual services will drive productivity and reduce overheads in the short and long term – and that is crucial to agents who are up against in financially. In a recent meeting I had, one agent calculated that if they reduced their physical viewings by 75% and used virtual viewings to qualify genuine buyer interest first, they could make a potential annual saving of £15,000. As well as cost-saving, there some other immediate benefits that spring to mind:

• You can start shifting existing stock and use the USP of virtual viewings to prospect and replenish pipelines.
• Any prospective buyer and tenant who view a property but don’t proceed to offer become your next bank of purchases to contact for similar properties.
• You’ll see a significant improvement in accurately qualifying leads and buyer intent.
• They’ll be a colossal reduction in overheads as you decrease the number of unsuccessful physical viewings.
• Every property on your books becomes more accessible to a wider audience. Get multiple buyers all in one ‘room’ and accompany them on a tour.

To conclude then, there is little doubt that traditional in-person viewings and valuations will need to continue. However, agents who supplement virtual services into their proposition will not only capture the zeitgeist of public sentiment at a pivotal point in the industry’s history, they’ll also recover quicker.

Pandora’s box has been opened; virtual viewings are here to stay and it’s going to be nigh on impossible to go back. Even when (fingers crossed) a vaccine is manufactured, the way we interact with properties will be forever changed. The benefits to agents should far outweigh any reluctancy to adopt them right now.

In an ongoing poll, we’re asking agents to tell us more about how they are using virtual services. Click on the links above to provide your feedback. Here are the results from the responses so far.

“We’ve been using the new BriefYourMarket.com video module, it’s proved to be an amazing tool for us. During lockdown – as I’m sure we’re all aware – video has become a massive part of our day-to-day lives.

Whilst it’s great to get video messages out across social media, obviously a large part of our target audience isn’t necessarily on Facebook and so on, so we’re not always able to get our message straight across to them.

Utilising the new video tool is enabling us to get our video message out directly to the whole of our database.

It’s a really powerful tool, we really appreciate BriefYourMarket.com bringing it out for us and everything you do in your Communications Managed team.”