the 'Brilliance of Bradleys!'

The summer sun continues to shine on the West Country property market. August is traditionally a quiet time for buying and selling in the SW, when most people's thoughts turn to the summer break. This year is proving to be the exception as we continue to see remarkable levels of sales right through our office network from Taunton to Penzance. We have already beaten our months budget target for sales with a week and a half to go! The general improved feel-good factor and confidence in the market is having a strong effect and I can only see that this will continue right through the rest of this year and then into next year as the 'Help To Buy' scheme really takes the market on to another level.

Personally I have been very busy visiting all of the Cornish offices on Monday with their new Regional Manager (Ed Parker) to introduce him to everyone as well as showing him where to park in St Ives in August. Tuesday I was in HO all day and looked at some very exciting marketing options along with plenty of other 1:1 meetings. For the rest of the week I have the opportunity to have a think about the future marketing and how we convey the "Brilliance of Bradleys" to people through the many mediums available to us. I can see very clearly from MI that we perform incredibly strongly at converting instructions to sales and sales to exchanges but are still in the mix for new instructions. We have many new and exciting developments coming which will really see a massive jump in our ability to market and communicate so I am just thinking about how to convey that the best way. Watch this space   

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group

On the up!

The nation press and all the statistic offices all say the market is on the up and I am pleased to confirm that from our own performance so far in August I would agree with them. August is traditionally a slower time for sales but this year the first 2 weeks have pretty much kept pace with the previous quarter which was very good. We had our Managers Area Meetings yesterday and the office updates from Penzance to Taunton were positive with most offices reporting serious buyers about but Managers still made the point that price is still critical and we are not yet at a point where sellers can try a bit higher to see what comes. If you want to sell then price the property correctly and there is a buyer for it. Too high and you will be waiting a very long time still.

 

The Eastern Region Meeting was interesting as we had the BBC cameras in the meeting as part of the documentary series they are making on Estate Agents and I was very pleased to see everyone looking their best. Until the program comes out we won't know how we are being relayed as with several hours filming being condensed into a couple of minutes I imagine we could be made to look however the producer wants us to look.

 

I am very proud of our high professional standards and the fact that yesterday I was able to present bottles of bubbly to 2 of our Managers who finished in the top 10 of the allAgents review site customer satisfaction awards was very gratifying, and when you realise that was awarded from 21,000 agents then it goes to prove the high quality of the people who work for Bradleys. With the company awards being announced next month I have my fingers crossed for that as well.

 

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group

Just come to Bradleys!

So what's been stopping me from writing for a while? Just busy, it's review time and I have been fairly flat out seeing everybody and there have been lots of congratulations to be passed on properly. The market does seem to be on the up but our own performance at Bradleys does appear to be outstripping the market due to our good service and professionalism. This can very clearly be seen when viewing market intelligence which often shows Bradleys in the mix for the instructions but better converters of instructions to sales and even better converters of sales to exchanges. More proof of you get what you pay for in life and if you want a professional who can value your property accurately, achieve the price quoted, or very close to it and then deliver the exchange of contracts just come to Bradleys.

Other things going on right now are: BBC2 have started their filming of us for their new series on Estate Agents to be broadcast next year. The Western Morning News have cottoned on to Bradleys have the most accurate data for property transactions across the West Country so I am giving them regular interviews to let them report prices are up £5!

On Friday evening I hosted a BBQ for the Cornish offices and it was a very fine evening. Tradition required it to rain and that was a certainty with thunder and lightning for good measure. I wasn't very mobile on Saturday so I guess we all had a good time! Apparently we are having a pool party next year.

 

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director