It’s funny, some agents will try to convince that the photo in the header above is still a regular occurrence for house buyers…

At Hannells we’re always looking at how best to promote the properties of our customers and how to generate as much interest as possible. For me, it’s one of the most important areas of the business that an estate agency should keep track of.

After all, its pointless wasting money on marketing and advertising that’s not bringing any results when that could be invested in other areas of the business that are actually going to generate good things for our clients.

We’ve advertised prominently in the Telegraph for over a decade and had a great relationship with them. There’s no doubt that in days gone by, having your property advertised in the weekly property supplement was a sure fire way of generating some interest.

However, I’m sure it comes as no surprise that even in the world of estate agency, times are changing and advertising in the local paper is no longer a necessity, or even beneficial.

At Hannells, we sold well over a thousand Derby properties in 2015 and when we tracked where those buyers came from and where they had seen the property advertised, less than 1% quoted the local paper – an incredibly tiny return compared to what it costs to advertise.

You see, anybody that is being truly honest with you will tell you that a huge percentage of people who do look to buy in the newspaper are not actually in a position to buy and won’t be for an average of six months, you’ll be long gone by then!

So, we took the decision that rather than wasting tens of thousands of pounds each year, because it is still incredibly expensive, on an advertising medium that clearly doesn’t generate a good return on investment for our customers – we’d be much better spending that money in areas that is going to make a real difference and help us to provide an ever better service, sell even more houses and take Hannells to the next level.

At this point, you might wonder why other agents still advertise in the paper if it fails to produce any results. Well, the answer is that Estate Agents are, and always have been, creatures of habit. Many only advertise in the paper because it’s seen as the “done thing” when they full well know that it is unlikely to yield any enquiries, let alone sales.

Times are changing and Hannells has always taken pride in moving with the times and embracing what works best for the benefit of our customers, rather than staying stuck in the past and resisting change.

I have no doubt that other Derby agents looking to gain some sort of competitive advantage over Hannells may use this withdrawal from the Telegraph to insist that we’re cutting our marketing costs and not working in the best interests of our clients.

However, in actual fact it is quite the opposite. Because of this decision we’ve been able to invest much more in training, bringing on board excellent staff and really ramping up our online efforts which is already bringing about far more positive results for our customers.

We’ve been Derby’s top selling Estate Agent for over a decade now and much of that has been based on our ability to break away from the norm and innovate. We have no doubt that this is a decision that will pay huge dividends to anyone that decides to list their property with us.

As the saying goes:

“It is not the strongest of the agents that sells your house for the best price, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most responsive to change.”

Luckily at Hannells, we meet all three of those criteria…

Buyer habits are changing with the times and many Estate Agents are too stuck in their ways or just simply don’t know how to adapt.

If you’re looking to sell your property in Derby in 2016, look for an agent that is prepared to challenge the norms and really has the best interests of their customers at Heart.

Choose Hannells.

It will truly be a moving experience…

Ben Brain
Littleover Branch Manager
Hannells
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