Please excuse the brash and somewhat self-indulgent title but when you have won the awards that Cross Keys Estates has over the years, it does give you the right to shout about it from the roof tops. AllAgents is our industry’s version of Trip Advisor, which gives its readers a fascinating insight into how well an estate agent looks after its sellers, buyers, landlords and its tenants. I will admit that being an estate agent is a great choice of career and gives me a bit of a kick to be able to read what clients are saying about other estate agents, as well as the phenomenal comments that we receive personally.
Society today seems more than happy to take to their keyboards when they feel aggrieved or have had a bad service, quite often they get referred to as keyboard warriors, but why do we chastise them for leaving negative reviews or comments? Surely if a company does exceptionally well in customer service, they deserve to be recognised for it and have the opportunity to use this as a marketing tool to help inform possible future clients what type of service is on offer from that company. This is exactly the same for negative reviews, if a company falls below the expectations of its clients or its contractual agreement then surely this person has the right to let other possible clients know that the service that was given was certainly not at the level of service that was promised to them.
If you click on AllAgents you can read the wonderful reviews from hundreds of our satisfied clients, you can even read a couple from clients that were not so happy but on this I can say at least they are very few and if I had to defend against them I would have to also say that they offer a bit of balance, but they are there, so please feel free to form your own opinion from what you read. It is based on these reviews that we have won the “Best Estate Agent in Plymouth” Award for the last four years on the trot. We have also won “Best Letting Agent in Plymouth” for the last three years as well as “Best Estate Agent in Devon” and “Best Estate Agent in the Southwest”
Four of our team drove all the way to Leeds to take part in the award ceremony. They left Plymouth in the wee early hours, stayed in the newly refurbished Queen’s Hotel, booked to get their hair, nails and make up done, put on their superb posh attire, ate some great food, had a few cocktails and almost swept the board for awards for this region, which were presented by Amanda Lamb. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. After a good night sleep, they came back to Plymouth with a glut of awards. To say, as their Managing Director, that I am so proud of all of our team is such an understatement.
Since winning the awards (again) we have been plastering them all over social media and trying to encourage as many people as possible to like and share the information on their social media. As the old saying goes, the best form of advertising is a good recommendation, not only are we trying to grow our reputation, but we also want to get more and more people to read the reviews of any of the other local agents that they are considering using to sell or rent their properties.
As most people only move once every ten years, keeping up with the who’s who of the house moving industry is not an easy thing. Most assume that the agent who has the most property on their books or the agent that is offering unbelievable pricing must be the best, but this is not necessarily the case. There are a few new websites that have popped up claiming to put you in touch with the BEST estate agent in your area. What you may not realise is that they only promote agents that are willing to pay either a joining fee for these websites or who agree to pay away a percentage of any agreed fees with any new clients that they put to the agent. This clearly does not mean that they are putting you with the BEST, just ones that are willing to pay for these websites to call them the best. At AllAgents you get to see the real reviews from genuine clients, not bought reviews, not reviews from corporate offices that are not even on your area but 100% bona fida honest reviews from people who have been in the same place you possibly are when it comes to deciding who will be the best agent for you.
Since we established Cross Keys two decades ago, we have grown organically based on the same foundation of good honest advice and service. If you are looking at a possible move at any time in the future, please look at AllAgents to make sure you get the right agent for you.
Where to begin, 2020 has been a very strange year and for some it’s sadly been the worst year possible; people are facing huge disruptions and changes to their lives which none of us could have predicted. If we go back to 12 months ago, I don’t think any of us could have even imagined where we’d be now, in and out of lockdown and not knowing what the future holds…
For many businesses 2020 has been a hard year for them, facing months of not being able to trade and with the restrictions currently in place even when open most businesses are looking at largely reduced capacity meaning ultimately reduced income and trying times ahead. Estate Agents initially closed up shop just like everyone else when the lockdown was announced on 23rd March and the market essentially ground to a halt. Without being able to conduct any appointments including viewings, valuations and all other important stages of the house buying process we were all left motionless… however this was 100% the right thing to do in order to make a change and fight the virus.
During the lockdown we carried on working in the background from home and took the time as an opportunity to reflect on ourselves, iron out the creases and make sure that when we do return to our offices, we hit the ground running and are more streamlined than ever. Part of this included the introduction of Video Tours, something which we are very proud of as we designed, created and perfected them ourselves. The quality of our video tours is something which we have received many compliments for and they were instrumental in securing a large number of lets and even a handful of sales before the lockdown restrictions were lifted for Estate Agents in May.
Thanks to our preparations, the week we reopened we were inundated with potential buyers and vendors looking to sell their homes; and after just 5 days back in the fold we secured some 15 sales on properties ranging from £100,000 all the way to £500,000… it was fantastic! This initial flurry did not stop, and honestly has not stopped yet. Every week we are securing more sales than ever, the prices we are achieving for our clients are higher than ever and we’re seeing record breaking achievements across the board and in all areas of Plymouth.
In order to thank our wonderful NHS and other key workers who were out there face to face with the virus whilst we were safely in our homes, the managers and directors of Cross Keys decided to implement a discount on our sales and lettings fees of a 50% reduction for NHS and keys workers as a huge thank you from all of us; this deal was to last until the end of 2020 and is potentially going to be extended into 2021. This has been a huge part of our success this year and we are thrilled that so many people have benefitted from something which we are very proud to offer.
As 2020 draws to a close most of us are looking forward to Christmas and the new year with optimism and are also looking forward to leaving what has been a tough 12 months behind us. So on behalf of all of us here at Cross Keys, we’d like to thank our clients both old and new for your continued support; and we’d like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We are looking forward to working with you all in 2021 and for many more years to come!
The housing market has been on fire since estate agents were tasked with returning to work in May. Everyone bought a house thinking it would be exactly what they needed, Lockdown proved them wrong. It wasn’t just the lower/smaller end of the market that wanted that extra space that they did not have but also the higher end including the town and country market.
Historically there have been a few agents that are well renowned for dealings with high end town, city and country property set, Cross Keys Estates was not in this category, however I can safely say that we have not only breached this market but are currently sitting pretty high in the rankings for the marketing of these exclusive and desirable residences. Recently a client of our lettings department had their property on the market for quite some period of time going from one of these country agents to another. By chance we had a conversation and I explained what we do for our properties in order to secure sales on them. The client decided that they would like to try the Cross Keys way and gave notice to the agent currently trying to sell their house. This property was out of Cross Keys normal marketing area by quite some way plus it was a listed building worth almost one million pounds. We went out to take new more lively photographs, did our three dimensional floorplan and researched the area and all the things that made the location desirable for potential buyers.
After 48 hours we had a fabulous set of property particulars to show the client who happily signed them off and we placed the house on the market on the Monday morning. After 7 days of marketing we had completed three viewings and received offers from two of those viewings resulting in a sale being agreed above the bottom “Guide Price” meaning that from initial conversation to agreeing the sale took less than 7 days. Now this could been seen as bragging, however we have now had numerous examples including a stunning detached six bedroom family home in Derriford, another detached property in a gated community close to the city centre, a double fronted Victorian villa in Stoke Village, a large semi-detached family residence in Hartley and a stunning refurbished farm house in Cornwall to name a few, all having asking prices over £500,000.
I believe that our success with the higher end of this market comes from the fact that we offer bespoke, premium marketing with fully properly produced video tours and fantastic 3D floorplans alongside a clever pricing strategy which allows for a fully immersive buyer’s experience. We believe that this is essential for the larger family homes as potential buyers prefer to look at these properties online and do their homework before coming up with a shortlist for viewings as many of the buyers have been relocating from the east coast.
Cross Keys Estates place customer service above all else, we have dedicated managers that are there for our clients at all times, we have staff that are either fully qualified to offer you advice or are many years experienced and very happy to help no matter what the problem.
If you are currently trying to sell your property with what you think is an appropriate agent but getting nowhere, ask yourself this “could Cross Keys Estates succeed where most of the normal agents are failing?”. My answer to you is yes, we can. Please call either Jack Fi, Rob or Jon on 01752 500018 to find out more about how to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.
