news & events

31 Personal Agents Now Operating!

Looking for your own estate agency business with high earnings potential and a great quality of life? Well here it is!

Click here to listen to one of our top Personal Agents talking about his business or download Paul's case study by clicking here

Our Hunters Personal Agent franchise delivers all these things and is also revolutionising the way we sell homes by allowing field-based agents to cover their own local area without the need to set up a dedicated high street office. It’s a win-win situation as the agent gets to keep up to 75% of all the commissions earned!

Having no office means the Hunters personal agent has low overheads and more freedom to deliver a world-class service. Unlike many web-based operations, the emphasis is on personal service and is an enhancement on their already strong service culture.

Kevin Hollinrake, MD of the Hunters group, which also offers franchises for conventional estate agency offices, believes that it could revolutionise the industry, “New technologies, such as the internet and mobile working, mean that our industry is changing, just as the travel industry changed over the last decade. This allows our agents to work more flexibly and with a focus on personal, one-to-one service for the customer.

The fact that the agents are self-employed makes them much more driven to get the best result for the seller. The most common complaint about estate agents is “they didn’t keep me informed” - being a personal agent means you will have time to make sure that everyone is aware of what is happening.  Moving is a stressful time and the seller can now look forward to a more personal service from their agent.

Hunters personal agents farm an area surrounding their own property, so they will know and serve their own community, and there are lots of benefits to that.”

We’ve also got the software now to allow agents to work from home and to go out there and gain market share.”

The Hunters Personal agents have access to all Hunters’ services, including their training, their website and their surveying and financial teams.

“They market themselves in the same way as office-based agents, by canvassing, board presence, websites and advertising in newspapers, and they do viewings for you and hold your hand through the process,” says Kevin.  “It’s traditional estate agency, it’s just that technology allows different ways of working.”

Footfall in estate agent’s offices has fallen dramatically in the past few years, and just five percent of buyers visit in person.  Most buyers and sellers now use the telephone and the internet to keep in touch.

“Only time will tell how much importance customers put on a conventional office, but we see Hunters Personal as evolution,” says Kevin.

The franchise costs £2,995 and Hunters say agents can make over £100,000 a year.

“There are a lot of estate agents looking for a new way or working at the moment and we think this could be an option for them, but with our award winning training courses, we do have the capabilities of training someone from another related industry.  The success really lies with the individual who has the ‘get up and go’ attitude and wants a great job with a great quality of life.”

For more details call Louise Cowen on 01904 756128 or email louise.cowen@huntersnet.co.uk

Rebekah Try and Tony Wallis outside their new Selby branch

Hunters’ franchise scheme is so appealing that even employees of the property group have been unable to resist!

Tony Wallis, manager of Hunters’ City Country branches in York and Harrogate and Rebekah Try, a senior valuer at the Bishopthorpe Road office in York, are leaving their jobs to set up their own Hunters franchise.

The pair are planning to open the first branch on Selby early this year, with a further four offices planned over the next five years.

Rebekah, who has worked for Hunters for nine years, said: “Tony and I both have experience of managing Hunters offices and had often talked about the prospect of one day running our own business. However, we may never have risked it had the franchise opportunity not arisen. We know that we are buying into a great brand and the huge advantage we have is that we both know the property industry and Hunters’ processes inside out.”