The Fun Side Of Business

We Lost A Sale Over A Second-Hand Cooker

• RSZ Accountancy • Episode 41

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A house sale can fall apart for the most unexpected reasons — like someone refusing to leave behind a spare cooker. Then, in contrast, another deal can be saved simply because an estate agent rolls up their sleeves, cleans up an empty property, stages it with whatever’s on hand, and helps buyers instantly picture a future there. That’s the side of “selling homes” most people never see, and it’s exactly what we dig into with Joe and Peter Wood from the Joe Wood Property Team.

Peter shares his long-term view of the UK property market, including an early wake-up call with negative equity and how his background in banking and business coaching shapes the way he manages risk, pressure, and people. Joe brings the scrappier origin story — starting with a phone book, relentless door knocking, and a mindset shift sparked by Rich Dad Poor Dad. We also explore why Keller Williams stood out to them, how they built a modern estate agency in Ipswich, and why the goal shifted from being the cheapest option to delivering the best value.

If you’re buying or selling, this episode is packed with practical insights: smarter negotiation tactics, pricing strategies that actually work, staging that changes how buyers feel, and the hidden complexity of conveyancing, where a third of deals can collapse before completion. We also break down why buyers often go head-to-head with pros while under prepared, and how acting as a trusted adviser can protect both sides of a move.

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Welcome And Meet The Duo

SPEAKER_01

Good morning, Jem.

SPEAKER_03

Good morning, Nick. How are you?

SPEAKER_01

Awesome, happy, smiling, and good. And really excited about our guests.

SPEAKER_02

Who are they?

SPEAKER_01

So we have today I think I do I wouldn't call them legends yet, but I think they're going to be.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01

The duo from the Joe Wood property team, Joe Wood and Peter Wood.

SPEAKER_03

Hello guys.

SPEAKER_01

So I'm going to caveat that just because now they're both looking at me going, hang on, what do you mean, not legends at all?

SPEAKER_03

Excuse me, we are the legends.

SPEAKER_01

These guys are carving the path where the property market is apparently depressed and no one can do anything, and these guys are not paying any attention to the hype or the media or whatever, selling, selling, selling, selling, selling, selling, selling. And so I think that people are going to look back in time and say, yeah, don't worry about what all these other estate agents are doing. Let's follow what the Joe Wood property team are doing. That's quite the introduction. There we go.

SPEAKER_00

But it's quite true. We're trying to disrupt the industry. We want to do things differently. Not worry about what the mainstream's doing, what the high street's doing. Let's do what we do. Let's do what you do. We do it well and doing property properly. There you go. I like that. Property property. Property properly.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, you can't say it after a glass of wine. You can't do that one.

SPEAKER_01

We'll try and do that as a drinking game later on. Right, let's go, let's go along and bring everything back. So I don't know how we're gonna do this because we've got a duo, and duos are unusual for us.

SPEAKER_00

So we are an unusual duo.

Peter’s Early Property Battle Scars

SPEAKER_01

So what we're gonna do is we're gonna do a quick introduction with each one of them individually. Yeah, yes, do that. And let's try and get a little bit of the background. So let's start with Peter because obviously it's gonna be so much shorter because he's only in his mid-twenties, mid to late twenties. So Peter's saying it's the other way around. This is it. Okay, so I thought brothers.

SPEAKER_00

I think that's brilliant. Joe not so happy about this. Okay, so Peter, grew up in the area? No. I was born in Lancashire. Okay. Uh went to school there, left went to Hull, to university, then moved to London, then to Cambridge. Oh wow. And then here for the last 29-ish years.

SPEAKER_01

Oh wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Wow.

SPEAKER_01

And always been property focused?

SPEAKER_00

No. No. So yeah, I I finished my degree and ended up as general secretary of my student union. And as part of my student duties helped set up the Hull University or Humberside Business School. I was the student rep to that, which was kind of a great step when you're 21, 22, that you're you are the uh the student person that's involved in that. Moved to London and uh we at that stage people were saying if you want to buy property in London, you've got to buy it today, boss. Next next week, even tomorrow, you are not going to be able to afford it. Prices were going up so fast. So we did. What was this? Was this around the time where they were doing all the developments at Canary Wharf or City or I remember all those bits happening and whatever else, but this was yeah, 88. Okay. And the market was the market was just overheating. It was going faster and faster and faster. We paid we were we were offered 125% of the value of the property we bought.

SPEAKER_01

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

Because the prices were going up so quick that the lenders actually thought, no, that's fine. We can we're gonna be able to do it. It'll be 75% loan to value with the side of like yes. Yeah, next week or whatever. Yeah, so they they were offering way too much money. Oh god, four times joint income. Okay.

SPEAKER_03

Oh my god. Yeah, quite incredible when you look at it.

SPEAKER_00

And and yeah, we took a hundred percent mortgage on sixty thousand uh sixty thousand pound property.

SPEAKER_01

It was now you couldn't even get a cardboard box for sixty thousand in London now.

SPEAKER_00

That same cardboard box is now worth about six hundred thousand. Yeah, but there is a really scary bit that I was I I was working for the Bradford and Bingley Building Society, I was relocated from London to Cambridge, and they said to me, What we want you to do is sever your ties with the area and therefore this flat that you've now arranged to be let out and make you money. Oh no, this uh is absolutely fine, but sever your ties, and not only that, you as a building society officer, you cannot be in debt. And you are technically in debt because your sixty thousand pound mortgage is now secured against a property worth£27,000. And they made us sell it. Ouch. So we ended up.

SPEAKER_01

So the so the so the story that should have been£60,000 to£600 turned from turned into£60,000 into negative equity. Yeah. Thanks very much. Here's your new job now, have some debt and then leave and leave London.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and and hindsight, beauty of hindsight, yeah, should have stayed there, kept the flat worth six hundred thousand now, let it out because it would have just made a stack of money. Um we thankfully we managed to clear that, but in hindsight, yeah, I should have just stayed in London and gone. Didn't we?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but if you if you change any part of your past, you wouldn't have your current event. Yeah, be where you are now.

SPEAKER_00

But I should have said, stick your job, I'll just get another one.

SPEAKER_01

Sick and Joe and going, yeah, I should have stayed in London and not knowing where about you, buddy.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but there we go.

SPEAKER_03

But yeah, so I So you moved to Cambridge doing the same job.

Cold Calling And Banking Lessons

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. Moved to Cambridge, uh re promoted, relocated, etc. etc. Three and a half years in Cambridge, uh some shrewd investments and managed to recover all of that negative equity, make it back. Hold on. Uh relocated then to Suffolk. Believe it or not, Ipswich was a bigger branch of the Building Society than Cambridge was. The balances, the savings balances were three times as high, the mortgage balances twice as high. Wow. I think that's just a reflection on Cambridge and a Northern Building Society where they kind of went, no, we don't want to deal with you bowler hatted guys. We'll uh just uh we'll we'll just stick our money with the Cambridge Building Society, we don't uh don't want to deal with you. So yeah, a big promotion to come to to Ipswich But uh therefore have been on the very uh uh dubious end of property investment uh having been significantly in negative equity. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but it's a good thing to do because obviously you've you know uh you know the battle scars. Yeah, completely you've had them, you've worn them. Yes. So was it always finance and always banking and stuff like that?

SPEAKER_00

I I started in recruitment in London, then got headhunted to why don't you come and have a chat about a job selling life insurance and I was selling life insurance commission only, having lived in London for about a year and knew very few people. So your black book wasn't particularly big. So I was co-calling people from the phone book. Yes, it's that long ago. There was a phone book, yeah. Just ringing people up with the same surname just so that I'd got some. That was the 27-year-old butting in and showing how old I am and how young he is.

SPEAKER_01

So we were talking to some people like the guys earlier, and we were saying, Oh, yeah, because of MySpace, and they went, Yeah, what's that?

SPEAKER_03

Have you heard of MySpace? I have heard of MySpace. They looked so blank when we said MySpace earlier.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I can I I can even go worse than that. I can remember exactly where I was when somebody said to me, This thing's coming, which is gonna change the way we do everything. It's called the internet. Yeah, everybody went, Well, yeah, whatever. But yeah, it it has. Yeah, it really has. I remember mobile phones starting and all that sort of thing. And yes, going way back as a kid, going to a friend's my dad's friend's house to watch the cup final because he'd got a colour telly. Okay, that's a good one. So, yeah, I there's a reason I'm grey.

SPEAKER_03

Imagine watching football on a black and white TV. Well, not the same, is it? No, and and all the pictures must look identical.

SPEAKER_00

What card is that? Sorry. I don't think we had cards then. You know what? I don't think there was. I think it was just like get off from the cards. Yeah, right. This hit the root style, get off now. Completely forgot. Oh, sorry, I digress. Yeah. Yes. So selling life insurance, commission only, did okay, enjoyed the work, enjoyed the advising people, didn't like the company, and then looked around and went, okay, I want to be an IFA rather than anything else. Ruffin and Bingley were independent financial advisors, so I was fully qualified as an IFA, mortgage advisor, all those sorts of bits and pieces. Did that for a long time, moved over here to Ipswich, ultimately decided that it was getting a little bit too easy for me. So I went to Nat West and I've managed the Nat West in Colchester High Street and its sub-offices in the Cornhill in Ipswich, Stallmarket, and then a friend rang me up and said, I've I've got three Halifax agencies and I want to open another one. Will you open it for me? And I went, I'm not coming just to open one. And he went, No, no, we'll go forwards. So we we ultimately ended up with nine agencies as the Halifax and one of the Yorkshire Building Society. If somebody walked into those premises, they didn't know that it wasn't a a full branch, everybody's in uniform, but we we just smashed the targets that the Halifax gave us. So I sat on the the national board for banking agencies for the Halifax as a result of that, because our figures we were the but the third best performing company in the country and we're out ranking their branches. Can we can we just kind of say he's kind of a big deal?

SPEAKER_03

Kind of a big deal. I didn't know you had such an banking background to that level.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I have a question for you. Yeah. You know when you did all this, and by the way, Joe, don't worry, we're coming to you.

SPEAKER_03

Um you're getting it next year.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, guess what? If everyone wants to just skip forward the chapter, we'll get to Joe and I. I I fast forward all of this personally, but you know, did do you ever look back and really understand with you know some kind of gratitude and what have you, that experience you picked up to go phone book, cold call, sell people.

SPEAKER_00

I'll I'll I'll tell you a story. Joe hates this story, but he uh I will tell you a story. Please tell her. So I I used to hate cold calling. It it it was such a challenge. You know, I'm tw I'm 22 and I'm I'm just picking up and ringing people out the phone book. Can I come and see you about your life insurance? Obviously, not using those words. And I hated it so much that my boss used to make me stand on my desk to make the calls. Now these are tele old-fashioned telephones where you've got uh you've got to press the hands all the way down, yeah. Got to all all all those dial-in bits, 120 people, open office, stand on your desk, and I I honestly thought, well, I can't feel any more of a fool.

SPEAKER_02

That is cruel.

SPEAKER_00

Now you would be in you'd be in caught immediately. I don't even want to know how many tribunals you'd have to go through for that one nowadays. Yeah, but it but it actually really does, it works. Yeah, and and to this day now, yes, if I've got a tough call to make, I'll stand up.

SPEAKER_03

I've just got this image of of like Wolf-Wall Street.

SPEAKER_00

It was as well, though. You you made a sale and you went and rang the bell and all those sorts of things. All of that went on. But yeah, yes, I've learnt a lot along the way.

SPEAKER_01

But less midgets, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Oops. Sorry, vertically challenged people.

Redundancy Then Business Coaching Shift

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Starboard's still there though. Uh and then I went to work for a a business loans firm specializing in loans that people that couldn't get business loans from the subprime. Subpride from the bank. They couldn't get their money from the bank. And therefore, we were all tr trained as business coaches. Headline, in order that we could support our customers underline so that we might have half a chance of getting some of our money back. Yeah. Finished as head of marketing of that, got made redundant at 50, went for loads of jobs, repeatedly got told we had 300 applicants, we're down to the last two, we're not giving you the job because you're overqualified, over experienced, and and the person that you'd be working for would would be scared of you. I'm not that scary, honest. We'll ask Joe that in a minute. I couldn't get a job, so I put my suit on, went to the Anglo business exhibition, went and shook some hands, and somebody said to me, I'll give you a contract to deliver networking, marketing, training on behalf of my company. If you go self-employed, it'll take about 40% of your time. If you can top it up, then uh then let's let's do it. And I thought, if I don't do this, I'll never know. And apart from anything else, I'm gonna be stacking shelves in Tesco's very soon. Nothing wrong with stacking shelves in Tesco's, but I'd got more to give than that. So yeah, went self-employed, and at one stage I had 10 business development contracts, and I was so schizophrenic because I couldn't remember who I was each day. I'd walk it's like, who am I representing? What am I supposed to be selling? What am I doing? Yeah. But and then it dawned on me, I'm a fully qualified business coach. I've got qualifications in life coaching, NLP, uh, elite performance coaching using sports techniques of how do you get this extra 1% gain? Uh applying that to business. So I've got all of those different bits and pieces. What why am I messing about? Why don't I just business coach? Which I then did, until one day somebody said, I'd like to offer an associate partnership with our estate agency. And I went, no, thank you. Don't want to be an estate agent, that's what you said. Don't know you, don't know your company, and I don't want to be an estate agent because I don't like most of them. That's all probably.

Joe’s Roots And Uni Choices

SPEAKER_01

And and and now, uh moving swiftly on, now we can introduce Joe. Yeah, yeah, so Joe the estate agent. Yeah, okay. So come on then, Joe. Same thing. Where did you I mean, I'm guessing if you're 27, he came here 29 years ago, you're Ipswich born and bred?

SPEAKER_05

Yes, absolutely. You're born in Ipswich Hospital. Uh, and yeah, growing up in Petha, we've we've not moved ever, so I've lived in the same house, other than my exploitations are going to different places. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Explorations, not exploitations, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Exploitations.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know what's going on, but I'm like, I like it. I'm interested.

SPEAKER_05

That's marketing, my friend. We're gonna choose it to hear more. Uh yeah, no, so I went to Stonham Aspra Primary School, Debenham High School, and then over to Northgate for sixth form. Okay, which worst two years of life doing A levels, they're absolutely horrible.

SPEAKER_01

Scrape through Did you did you find, and I'll and I'll kind of call back on this one because I went to Northgate Sigform. Did you find it was like a step back? Cause it because like the last couple of years of high school, because when I went to not Stoke, because it's awful, when I went to Copeleston, we generally found that as you kind of reached 15, 16, the teachers were treating you more like adults. And so you kind of had a bit more freedom and a bit more like, yeah, okay, you're about to leave, and you know, we'd have to be so strict and whatever. And then we went to Northgate sick form, and it was like going back to year seven. I was like, this is awful. So I I think I only stuck it out like six months before I just got too pissed off. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

I I don't think it was necessarily as much of a like step backwards, but it was more about okay, you've got to learn who these teachers are and what you can get away with, I guess, at that point and how how they work as well.

SPEAKER_01

But yeah, I didn't know. So like a bit of a naughty kid at school or naughty?

SPEAKER_05

No, I was actually pretty good. I I think I think I might have had one detention in my my my my whole time. So that is not a bad reputation. I was pretty good. That's not a bad reputation. And I'm now a school governor at Debendham, so that's been uh a whole whirlwind backwards. But yeah, joining 6-4, I I mean it I thought Northgate was really good. I did some interesting stuff there with like I did law, psychology, and geography, okay, which were quite an eclectic mix. But that then led me to criminology, which is where I went to for for university at Nottingham Trent, which was absolutely a choice based on lifestyle and not the education. Because my whole life I'd grown up with mum and dad going, oh yeah, uni is the best three years of of life.

SPEAKER_04

Like, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

So that was that was my whole life plan there was all right, I'll I'll get my own levels to be able to go to uni and then go traveling after that. And that was kind of as far as I got.

SPEAKER_01

So criminology was just a something that fascinated you?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I was like well into watching all the serial killer documentaries and all of that. Like I think, yeah, they were they were great. Like pre- you still love them, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, everyone loves them. It's like the guilty pleasure for everyone. Exactly. What are what are you watching? Another documentary on serial killers.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, it's brilliant. So this could be me. No, yeah, so and it funnily enough, it all just worked that actually criminology is a lot of psychology, geography, and law mixed together. So it just naturally went into that, and I was interested in it, and that was a bigger thing for me. And this is what I say to a lot of people that have kids that are going to uni, and they're like, Oh, they're thinking about doing this. And I'm like, as long as they are actually interested in the subject, then I say go for it. If you're just doing it to have a business degree, there's no point going because you're not gonna actually do it. Yeah, so yeah, went to uni, absolutely lived the life for two and a half years, and then in the last six months decided I should do some work.

SPEAKER_01

Um came out with a degree?

SPEAKER_05

Came out with a degree, came out, came with a first class degree, actually.

SPEAKER_01

So it's one of those, it's one of those.

SPEAKER_00

We don't know where the brains came from because neither of us got anywhere near that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I I just I just like paid attention for the last week or something. Okay, so and then you went travelling.

Canada Ski Life And Lockdown

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, then I went travelling. So yeah, she graduated and then so graduated what in the summer and then flew to Canada in on Halloween of of that that year. And then so yeah, landed in landed in uh Calgary and then bussed over to Banff, which was it's just an incredible place if you've not heard of it or been there, but it's like it was like living in a postcard. You've got the most beautiful mountains surrounding you.

SPEAKER_03

Well, he's even selling it, isn't it?

SPEAKER_05

And and viewings are available to the go with poverty team. Yeah. But that funny enough, that was actually the first bit of like kind of a state agency type bit that I'd experienced because it was we were then looking at different places that we were trying to live with the people that I was out there with and kind of saw a little bit of a different side of how they do that there rather than here. But yeah, I was just there being a ski instructor, which was great fun.

SPEAKER_01

Uh, could you could you ski? Well, not really. I just put on a pair of skis and then went around a black run, just completed everything.

SPEAKER_02

I just worked out the last 24 hours.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, James Buckley eat your heart out. Apparently, we've got Joe Wood here.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, that was it was really fun. It was essentially it was like another bit of uni because there was a I was part of this academy that taught you to be a ski instructor, then gave you the job into the place.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_05

So it was like there was 30 of us, 18 to 25, all in one building. And that doesn't sound like carnage at all, right?

SPEAKER_04

It just sounds really calm and peaceful already.

SPEAKER_05

And then we go out and ski every day, so it was awesome. And then was doing that until lockdown came around, and then it was like, Oh, what's happening now? Everything's closing, called mum and dad, and they were like, Well, you can either come home or just stay there, yeah, and made the right decision to stay there. So spent the whole of lockdown there, which was absolutely amazing. It was so good. Hang on a second.

SPEAKER_03

It's such a postcard. Why would you leave looking at Mountain's?

SPEAKER_01

Give me some downside to this because otherwise it sounds cold.

SPEAKER_03

Was it really cold? It was Canada's freezing, right?

SPEAKER_01

The coldest was minus 44. There we go. Did you get an furlough equivalent to just chill and ski without actually having any like pundas to actually train? So you just got to you just got paid to ski on your own without irritating people.

SPEAKER_05

Pretty much. No, the the fact that's the fact that the first lockdown was. Life has been really tough for you, isn't it, Jenny?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's really hard. You know when we were talking to your dad and going like all the battle scars he's got? Yeah. What have you got? No, I chased my wrist one time on a ski pole. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I got a bit of ice bear. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, yeah, it was it was just wicked. The first the first lockdown, everything did shut. And then as things opened up again, I'd I'd just started working as a pot wash in a restaurant before. He had to work. So I didn't know. Yeah, I did do some work. I did do some work. Was that two days? Three days? But yeah, then I just said said to the boss there, I was like, look, I'll come back and pot wash, but I don't want to pot wash. Have you got any jobs in the kitchen? So he gave me a prep cook role for the summer, and then as the summer was closing and the ski season starts opening again, I'm like, I don't want to be working in the daytime. Luckily, the line manager who runs the even that runs the nights that the head chef he'd he'd send me in a kind of like the vibe and was like, Do you want to come and work on the line? So then worked on the line, and then yeah, was then literally I'd I'd get into work at either two or three and ski ski all morning, go to work, and then kind of hard life.

SPEAKER_01

I'm not even looking at coach anymore. And then and then Gordon Ramsey came up to me and said, Oh, do you want to just have a restaurant? And then I just went and like cook for Gordon for a little bit. Yeah, then I got bored with that. Yeah, come on.

SPEAKER_03

So a great time was had. A great time was had, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

But it was it was it was whilst I was there working at the restaurant, getting furlough to go skiing on the second and third lockdowns. Yeah, all that really hardship that I was going through. But I had I had so much time on my hands. I was sat there like, I can't just be wasting it.

SPEAKER_02

You've got a faith in you go, come on, pull yourself back.

SPEAKER_05

No, so I didn't want to.

SPEAKER_01

So suddenly it wasn't really that bad.

SPEAKER_05

And I was only melting cheese on that as well.

SPEAKER_01

Cheese meltation. But yeah, so it was heat. And then sometimes sometimes I had to do a brulee as well, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Awful. So I sat there at that point. Dad's gone self employed, started looking at bits of property and things, and I'd just gone, well, I realised then that actually working for someone and just going in for eight, nine hours, ten hours, whatever it is on someone else's timetable was not that fun.

SPEAKER_01

Especially when you've come from furlough skin. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_05

Like, come on, surely someone's gonna pay me to go screen. So, yeah, then I'm Messaged dad and just said, How do I go like how do I look at property? How do I go self-employed or something like that? And dad then sent me Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, and that just changed the whole trajectory of life, really.

SPEAKER_01

Have you played the game?

SPEAKER_05

I we I've played the online version, but I've never actually played the full game in person, and I definitely wanted to do that.

SPEAKER_00

Houston's got an event coming up playing the game. Oh, there you go. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01

We'll have to do that one time. We'll do it as a networking breakfast.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Might take a bit too much.

SPEAKER_01

Cashflow 101.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Might take a little bit too much.

SPEAKER_01

We'll just do it for a day. We'll just have a day of cash flow 101. That sounds good. That'd be fun. Sounds good.

SPEAKER_00

It's a good game. Okay. Teaches you a lot. I always got bust.

SPEAKER_01

Joe's like, yeah, I don't know, but I mean every time I've played it, I've ended up with a golden spoon in my mouth.

unknown

What?

SPEAKER_01

Isn't it a silver spoon? Not when you're Joe Wood, it's not as gold. Okay, so at this point you've then decided, right, okay, so not only have I had like the most lucky life so far, I'm just gonna make it a little bit luckier where I go, oh dad, how do I get into property? He gives you the guidance and then says, I'll tell you what, why don't you just name the entire company after you? Off you go, like, here we go, Joe, just because we thought otherwise you might look like, oh, I have to work. He's got to have a retirement plan somehow.

SPEAKER_00

I haven't bossed. There is a retirement plan, and there's a real reason it's in his name in order that he can pay me to sit on the beach in a couple of years' time. That is the way, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

That's written somewhere and signed. Like he's gonna take care of you when the time comes.

SPEAKER_00

It's recorded.

SPEAKER_05

So it's in the business plan as well, to be fair. It says, How quickly can we get dad on the beach? Yeah, he's trying to get rid of me even faster.

SPEAKER_01

Imagine having someone else to run ideas by I I already know everything. Dad, you just go.

SPEAKER_03

So then you flew back from Canada.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, yeah. Um yeah, when did I get back? I got back just before it was kind of like June time, and then worked, went back to my summer job that was putting up TPs for a local company called Events Under Canvas, which was actually a really great summer job in between unions. Is that Jenner's? Yes, Jenner. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's an awesome place. It was some of the best summers working I've ever had. Oh no. Compared to Calgary.

SPEAKER_04

Compared to compared to the ski spikes.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. Well well, what at one point on honestly, EUC hired half of Nottingham Trent University to come and work there. It was great.

SPEAKER_03

So again, you're just with your friends again at UV.

SPEAKER_01

Can I ask which part of your life has not been dicking about? The the last four years.

SPEAKER_05

Now we're getting to the real bit. Um but yeah, went back, worked, worked there, built, built up enough bit of a cash to be able to go, okay, yeah, I can get something started, whatever it was. Still at that point didn't know.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

Rich Dad Poor Dad Sparks Property

SPEAKER_05

So stopped doing that. And then at that point, Keller would called you maybe once or twice, and you told them to piss off. Kind of. And then I then started and we were looking at doing like property deal sourcing, something along that sort of lines. Didn't really enjoy that as much as I thought I might do. And then Keller then called dad again. Claire, Claire, by the way, who is the leader at the market centre, is the best person at following up you have ever met. She will follow up until Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Five times. Five times she rang me. So four times I said no. The fifth time I thought I'd better listen to what this woman's got to say. Checked her out, her CV and whatever else. Yeah. Great CV in in a in a state agency. Who the heck are Keller Williams? Now this is I didn't know at the time. The biggest real estate company in the world, number one in the States, sixty-odd countries internationally. At that stage, I'd only been in the UK about three years, which is why, despite the fact we've been in and around property since 88, uh we didn't know who they were because they're quite new considering. But then you look and see what they're all about, and yeah, this makes sense. Uh what's my franchise fee? 30, 40, 50 grand? No. A few hundred quid a month in in uh fees and then split commissions, easy entry, this starts to make sense for us. Even if we're only renting out the properties that we own, we could start to we could start to make it work. And if we do a few deals on top, then then great. Yeah. So we kind of yeah, we went, yes, let's do it. Let's go into business together. Uh set up the estate agency. And uh very much to my regret for the first year I didn't get involved. I left him to it, I carried on business coaching. Yeah. And what does he do? He goes and wins rookie of the year for the UK. Shocker.

SPEAKER_03

He does.

SPEAKER_00

Shocker.

SPEAKER_01

Why am I surprised? And then and then what he did is he went out for a jog, and then Usain's bolt came along and he went, I'll just beat your time as well. What's that? Nine seconds? I could go under that. That's all right. Do you not know who I am? I'm joking.

SPEAKER_00

All of those. But it's it's not always been easy. Yeah, we've we've struggled at times. It's not you know, guys, that being in business is not straightforward. Yeah, I do have to give him another rap that he consumes a phenomenal amount of motivational and business books. And frequently, there's me as the qualified business coach. I'll go, some guy said something like this, or whatever it was, and it was really inspirational. And he'll go, Yeah, it was this person. This was this person. It's in this book, it's this chapter, and this is what he's talking about. And and and yeah, it in due course, yeah. I think there'll be a another duo of let's coach people and talk to them about business, about property, whatever it might be. But we'll say that.

Hiring Jess And Building Service

SPEAKER_03

So is Joe Wood just you too? Is there is there a team behind you guys? How's it made up?

SPEAKER_05

There is now, yeah. We made the big step of hiring the amazing Jess Rolfe, or Jessica, as she will like me to be called call that.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, we're gonna call her Jess now. Yeah, I just call the Jess. Yeah, Jess, when you listen to this, Joe made us do it. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_05

Uh but yeah, it was February last year that we actually we actually went out, so we'd known Jess for a a while through networking because she had a home staging company, which already so we we were already passing business and and whatnot there because it's really good synergy. And Jess said, Can you come around and just give me a value on the house? And whilst we were there, Jess then said, Oh, actually, I'm thinking about a little bit of a career change. We've had some personal situations where I just want some employment, and I we just went, we need to hire you. Yeah. Um so yeah, we brought Jess in the team, and she's now our customer success manager. So she she handles the whole client-facing side of things, keeping everyone up to date. And she is far better at customer service than I have ever was, and I thought I was good, and but she is just an extra. Sounds like you.

SPEAKER_03

What Jess, just Jessica?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, Jess. Jessica. No, the story. Oh, yeah, how we just Where it's like a little bit of like, yeah, we would we'd come across each other in like different industries. So she was in recruitment apprenticeships, apprenticeship recruiting thing, whatever. Job, job stuff.

SPEAKER_03

My job for 18 years, but yeah, let's just call it one.

SPEAKER_01

Well, job stuff. Not being funny, Joe would have completed it after six months. Yeah, he wouldn't have taken 18 years to do it, he'd have done it in six. Anyway, so uh yeah, and and we had that thing, and Jem was like, Yeah, I'm gonna make a career change. And I went, Okay, well, I think you need to come and work with me. I don't know what you're gonna do yet. You are gonna what did I say on day one?

SPEAKER_03

I'm gonna be a well drop me the we can swear.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you can do it.

SPEAKER_03

Exact words to me.

SPEAKER_01

On day one, this is like the you love this like almost induction moment.

SPEAKER_03

It's like Jem, you're gonna be a fucking liability for the first year. Thanks, Nick. That's a lovely introduction. I mean, he said it in my first few days. Well, thanks for this.

SPEAKER_00

And and how many years in, and you're still that largest belief.

SPEAKER_03

But um, we we always say it's just when you find the right people in business, that's and that's how it was with JSW.

SPEAKER_01

We absolutely you sometimes just find that person and go, I don't quite know how it's gonna work yet. Yeah, but you're the right person.

SPEAKER_00

And and we we weren't ready to hire, we couldn't afford it. Yeah, but we just went, we can't miss this opportunity.

SPEAKER_03

That's what you said about me, wasn't it? Because I said, I'm looking elsewhere, you went, Yeah. Can you come back in six months? I went, no.

SPEAKER_00

No, we'll just find a way to make it work. She got other job offers on the on the table, and we said, Okay, come and have a chat about the job. And the only time that we could find where we could all get together was 6 30 on a Friday evening. She came to our house, she knocked on the door, and uh, we opened the door and there's a bottle of red wine in her hand, and oh you got the job. Yeah. Hired. Hired.

Door Knocking To Rookie Award

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So I'm gonna ask you a question, Joan. What time does your normal working day start? Depend depends on the day.

SPEAKER_05

If I've got networking at BNI, then we're there at whatever it is, 6 30. Although Dylan will say that I'm I'm normally there at quarter two, seven. Okay, and finish time?

SPEAKER_01

Oh god, I mean do you know why I'm asking this? I know it sounds like pretty out of left field, but everyone will always be jealous of where you are. Yeah. No one's jealous of the journey and what you've done. So as much as I give you shit about like, yeah, you've done this, you've done this, you've been out on the slopes working hard, whatever. Remember when we had Donna in here? I wanted to be a ski instructor, but then I realised I had to instruct when it was raining and skiing in the rain is not as much fun. But you've gone along and said, Well, I'll do this, I'll do this, then I'll go into events under canvas and I'll stay until I need to, I'll be there from when I need to. And everything is always a case of there's no starting to be able to do that. You tried your hand to everything. Yeah, it's a you do what you need to do to achieve.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, absolutely. And starting the business is the biggest one of that. It's oh, it's scary. I was incredibly naive starting it though. I was like, oh, six months' time, mate, I'll be making millions. Yeah, you know how it goes.

SPEAKER_01

Come on. I'm Joe Woods, don't you know this?

SPEAKER_05

And it but it is, it's like the only reason I won the rookie of the year thing was because I literally just went out. I didn't know barely had anyone in my phone book because everyone was just from Union as mates like that. So I was like, well, how am I gonna find more people? I so I literally just picked a patch of homes and I just went and knocked on all the doors. Just that's it. I love that. I love that.

SPEAKER_01

But you you could tell I could tell you can't give him shit for that. No, I went that's why I was talking about like start time and finish time, because you can just see he's got that drive to go, I'll achieve it. Start times and finish times don't exist. Yeah, yeah. You you like, oh hang on a second, I need to go and get this. Well, I'll just do this. And you will find that 70, 80% of the pick population would go, but it's a Saturday, that's your day off. And you go, No, I just go and do it.

SPEAKER_03

Well, if it once you found your he's found his passion, once you find your passion, you just Well, it's not he'll complete it.

SPEAKER_01

Or is it have like self-serve home selves, home rents, whatever. Joel will just be going, yeah, I wrote the software for that one, that's fine. Just could just give me the commission. I'll take the license and fee off it.

SPEAKER_00

But there's a there's an interesting person that he bumped into along the way when he was door knocking, who who you guys know very well that we were chatting to this afternoon. Oh, what, James? Yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05

So James Roper was at that point.

SPEAKER_03

Did he knock on his door?

SPEAKER_05

Oh yeah, just knocked on his door. And at that point, he'd just started his business as well. So we were chatting about it today. It's like it's quite crazy to see how each other's grown in that time of the world.

SPEAKER_01

Do you know the weirdest one was we've got that one with James Roper. Do you remember he came into networking breakfast the day he started his business? Oh. And literally he went along and he said, Oh, yeah, hi, I'm James Roper, and I've been self-employed since today. And everyone gave him a round of applause.

SPEAKER_00

That's happened a few times at your networking since people have turned up and said, I've just started my business, and the very first thing that everybody does is applaud and cheer because everybody wants somebody else to succeed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

We all know how flipping hard it is sometimes. Absolutely. So you're not alone, we're we're a community, we're all in it as healthy, whatever you want.

SPEAKER_01

We were all talking about it and going, like, everyone who's an entrepreneur is a bit of a psychopath. They they have to be.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Because when you think about the hours that go in and the, you know, everyone could look at this and go, I could probably get a job earner more than this.

SPEAKER_03

You can clock in and out and not worry about it when you get home. Don't have to go to bed and lose sleep over any worry, but we all still choose to run business.

SPEAKER_01

It's always quite funny. You spell this out to everyone and they go, Oh my god, you're so right. It's like, would you have it any other way?

SPEAKER_04

They go, No, no, absolutely not. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And there was a there was a question mark about Joel being a psycho when he's door knocking because some guy took his camera from the from the door to say, This dodgy geezer's been knocking on my door. Posted it all over Facebook. I don't know who he is, what he wants, but he's so dodgy. Is anybody else? Do you know what he'll have done?

SPEAKER_01

He'll have gone round behind it or all these things that just attach his business cards to every single well.

SPEAKER_00

What was what was brilliant?

SPEAKER_03

It's not that it went on a Facebook group.

SPEAKER_00

Lots of people then went, That's Joe. He's he's brilliant. He knocks on your door and he chats about property and he helps you and whatever else. And he got all this support. We were then doing an open house, and you went down to Morrison's to to get some balloons. Yeah. And walked in to ask for this balloons. And this woman who was serving him went, You're Joe, aren't you?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. And she'd see me from the Facebook, and then she took a photo of me with my balloons, and she was putting it on the Facebook saying, I've seen him and he's really nice.

SPEAKER_03

You must have left it. I've made it now. I've done it. I've made it now.

SPEAKER_05

He gets glorious now and he's like, Oh, I've never wanted to get it. No, but it's it's funny because it's like that that could have been a quite traumatic thing that could have turned out. It was at the time, yeah. Yeah, definitely. And then it comes about background positively, so it does work.

SPEAKER_03

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_05

I love that story. Yeah.

When Deals Collapse Over A Cooker

SPEAKER_01

As if it wouldn't. At some point you're gonna have some really shit luck. It just has to happen. The universe has to give you some shit luck at some point.

SPEAKER_05

We we've been through it, that's for sure. Like, I mean, obviously we talk about the success bits, but there's so many years, like two, three years where there's literally no money at the end of the years that we've barely paid ourselves anything. But we're what we know is that we're building to the point where we are, and we get to the point where we've got three, four deals that are absolutely we are depending on going through, and we've done six, nine months' work on it.

SPEAKER_03

You put all the work in, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

All of a sudden someone changes their mind and they pull out the deal, and then we're absolutely screwed. And there's nothing we can do about that in our in our industry. We don't get paid until everything goes through. Yeah. So it's that is the worst.

SPEAKER_00

We lost we lost two sales that were on top of each other on an argument over a second-hand cooker.

SPEAKER_03

No, yeah. People pull out a di seriously.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, hang on a second. Who did we who do we speak to? Denise, wasn't it? Or hang on, it might have been Denise or it might have been Kate, but someone I remember talking to and saying where there was like a divorce, said what's the weirdest thing a couple's argued over? And they went, Oh yeah, a tub of Vaseline. Vaseline, that's Kate. Oh my gosh. That's Kate from Kerzy's.

SPEAKER_03

And literally, and it's like because all she she said at the networking of it is Kate from Kerzy's, because she said they argued over Vaseline and then like dropped the mic and we're like, Well, tell us more of the story.

SPEAKER_01

Can you not tell us the rest? Like, what was special about I'm not telling you.

SPEAKER_03

They argued over Vaseline, or what happened?

SPEAKER_00

Well, Vaseline's a very personal thing to me. It might have particular memories. It was definitely a mic drop moment, and she left us all thinking, oh well, yeah, they we had a sale lined up, so a guy was selling his house, he was buying another house from us, so we'd two sales lined up as a result, and he decided that he was taking his cooker from the first house. Why? Because I want a spare cooker. And we were and the guy went and there wasn't anything special about this. There was nothing special about it, he just wanted it as a special uh spare, sit in the garage, doesn't need it.

SPEAKER_03

So he had a this is just a spare. A spare.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, the one because the place he was buying had a cooker in it. I think he was just gonna take it, maybe, maybe replace it with the one that was in there. But that then led to the buyer from his place going, Well, if you're taking taking the cooker out, or what else he's taking, I'm gonna pull out.

SPEAKER_00

That quick just yeah, and um and we went, We'll buy we'll buy both of you a cooker. We'll buy you a new cooker, both whoever has it, we will buy you replace the cooker. It's a matter of principle now. I am not selling to that person, I am not buying from that person. And that I can't believe things like that actually happened. I want to buy both from a cooker now. Yeah, and that and that screwed our cash flow for nine months. Yeah. Because we'd done a whole lot of things.

SPEAKER_03

And even though you'd gone above and beyond and said, look, we'll just get you a bloody cooker. Whoever wants a cooker.

SPEAKER_00

I'm not buying, I'm not selling.

unknown

Wow.

SPEAKER_03

I didn't know things like that even. And I'm very naive. Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, arguments over you've taken the curtains and I thought you were leaving them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And that's sad when you've got two you've got both sides there, you're dependent on.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And they're both.

SPEAKER_00

And I mean the stats are that one third of sales fall through between negotiation and exchange. So from the point of yes, we've agreed the sale and shook hands to the point where it becomes a legal contract, one third of sales collapse.

SPEAKER_03

That's a lot.

SPEAKER_00

And all those cases, we've done all the work and we just don't get paid. And that's really hard and frustrating.

SPEAKER_03

It might I can't. That must be horrendous. Yeah. And and and if you get a few of those together, yeah, that's I don't think anyone thinks about how that affects people like you. That's that's a lot of work you've put in up till that point.

Why Estate Agents Get Blamed

SPEAKER_01

As a general rule, I think that most people, if you said you had a positive or a negative opinion of a state agent, it's going to be negative. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

We we're we're way down on there's not many on the party list of who's hated the most.

SPEAKER_05

There was one, the the one that I saw that there's tax expected, then it's a state agent.

SPEAKER_03

No, how no really?

SPEAKER_00

I I can go to a party and tell people I'm a traffic warden because I get a better reception.

SPEAKER_01

But yeah, I mean that I mean I I've I've come across where you just go, oh, you know, these estate agents. And and we've had it. I mean, we had it when we moved from Clacton over to Ipswich. And literally we had, oh yeah, we we put it with an estate agent and they did nothing with it for three months. And so nothing happened at all. And then I happened to talk to someone who said, Oh yeah, actually, I'm quite looking for a house there, and I sold it for. And so we did it. And then Connells wrote to us and said, Oh yeah, by the way, you asked all the commission on that. Because you're on a director. What what for? You didn't sell it. Yeah, but you signed our terms. I said, But you didn't sell our house. You were unable to sell our house, you couldn't sell our house. Yeah, I know, but don't care. You slow us. Yeah. And chased for like four grand on something. Yeah. It was nuts. Yeah. And that's stupid as they and that's very that's very common. However, it it's nice to hear the other side of it to say, yeah, yeah, yeah, but it also happens the other way around where they've done all the work and everything's been done and then they don't get paid.

SPEAKER_00

And and there is a whole load of work, and and sadly, a lot of our work or a lot of Jess's work is chasing solicitors to say, okay, where are you up to? Where's the contracts? Have you done the searches? All these bits, and chase up and down a chain of nine houses and things like this. She she spends what what figure did she give us the other day? About 50 to 60% of her time is chasing solicitors to find out what they're up to.

SPEAKER_01

I could see if I can get them both in a libel case. Hang on a second. I'm just I'm gonna put the question out there and then see how quickly they go. Oh, I'm not answering that. Uh so which are not answering that. Which are the solicitors that people should use because they're really good and efficient, and which are the ones they should avoid?

SPEAKER_04

Oh.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, right, moving swiftly. You can plug a couple of good ones.

SPEAKER_04

You can plug your first one. I'll answer the first one. Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_05

So uh Megan from Martin Elliott, they are they are based in Colchester, so it's a little bit further out than usually, but I've known Megan since we were 14 or whatever, and so she she prioritizes our deal slightly so that we we can't.

SPEAKER_00

No, she doesn't, she just does a really good job for everybody. No shame.

SPEAKER_01

She does do a great job. Sorry, it doesn't matter, but you go Martin Elliott.

SPEAKER_04

Martin Elliott.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so yeah, you can use Martin Elliott, but only if you've used Joe Wood property team to sell your house as well. Absolutely. Then it will get done really quick.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, Megan's really good. Yeah. She gives us a really good service. There's some really good ones out, like Kem from KMA as well. I know Kem from KMA.

SPEAKER_01

I was a landlord for three years.

SPEAKER_05

We know Kem. She's awesome. And there are a few other good ones out there. Haywood mean it would have been good when we've used them as well.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Don't say any more.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that'll do. Because otherwise you're just gonna go, hang on, you are now naturally creating the list of the other ones by not mentioning them.

SPEAKER_00

Some of the national licensing conveyancing firms aren't necessarily the fastest at doing their job and they're not necessarily the best at communicating.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Moving swiftly.

SPEAKER_00

Very well. And that was diplomatic answer, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01

Okay, here we go. I'm gonna have a quick fire question with each one of you. Well, hang on a sec, you can both answer this or look together. Would you suggest that anyone takes a career in a state agency? Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Oh, that's nice. I wish I I wish I'd done it earlier and we'd have been further on.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, I like that. That's a nice answer. Well, we've had a few people where we've said, oh, if you were talking to someone younger wanting to get into your career, no.

SPEAKER_01

Bizarrely enough, that was a solicitor, wasn't it? Oh, if you could have your time again, would you be a solicitor? No. Absolutely not. No, no, no. Okay, here's the next one. If you wanted to get into a state agency, what skill would you have to enjoy communicating?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, the interpersonal is is is the biggest. And scarily, it's the one that sadly most agents don't necessarily do as well as they should.

SPEAKER_01

Is it because they're just like ping, ping, like ping an email, ping an email, ping an email rather than pick up the phone and talk to someone?

SPEAKER_05

Less so that. It's it's more just like actually a state agency comes down to pure communication. There is, I don't make a single decision along that whole way. I guide my clients to a pricing strategy that we might be best to use or where we think the value is going to be at the end of it. I guide them to the right kind of buyer that we want to choose when we've got multiple offers on the table. But throughout the whole process, there's no decision. So if I'm not able to communicate what I think is good and what I think is bad and what I think works best for that client, then we don't end up where we actually want to be. It just all just comes down to communicate. And that's the same when it comes down to when you're trying to win the business as well. If you can't communicate why you add value and how you're different and how you can be the best person for them, the best agent that they could possibly choose, then you're not not gonna get anywhere. So it literally just comes down to communication.

SPEAKER_00

When you're communicating that yeah, we're not the cheapest, we know we're not the cheapest, but you'll get value for money. And and this is why you'll get value for money, and this is how we explain it and all those things. But that's the thing.

SPEAKER_01

I think I think that like And you're so personal, that's you may you bring the N nowadays I I have that feeling and and again it feels like the landscape is changing because I think five years ago, ten years ago, people were so price focused, but now they understand that value is beyond price.

SPEAKER_05

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

And we I mean we we have exactly the same thing in our industry, you know. When people say if we get a phone call and someone says, I need to do a tax return, how much is it? Instantly we don't want to deal with them. It's the it's the biggest pot off ever. Because and they and you know, quite often I'll have people on the phone and they say, Well, you know, but but how much is it? I said, It kind of depends on your circumstance. They say, Yeah, but but just roughly. And I said, Okay, it is your plan to try and hit the cheapest. And they said, Well, what do you mean? I said, Well, look, let me tell you how things work in relative cost. If I do your tax return and I charge you£500 to do it, but I save you£2,000. To me, I haven't cost you anything, I've saved you£1,500. That's your outcome. If you go and see John down the road who says, I'll do it for£100 quid and saves you nothing, he's a£100 cost. Now you're asking me a question and you want to compare my£500 to John's£100, but what you're not seeing is, but I can give you back£1,500. And I guess it's the same in your industry where you go along and you see like estate agents that are there going, yeah, well, you know, whether that house goes for 280 or 290, we don't really care. Our commission changes by 70 quid. Yeah. But for the seller, that's 10 grand. Yeah, it's huge. Yeah. So you can go and drive for those better prices. And so if you charge them an extra 500 quid, who cares? Yeah, exactly that. Yeah. Because the value that you're bringing is so much more than just the cost.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. It's it's similar literally a similar saying that it's quite talked to us by Keller and especially when we're first starting, is that the cheapest agent is not always the best value because I I think people even get turned off by that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. You know, I I I what did someone say? Like cheap, good, and fast. You pick two.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. What does what does Magdalene sell? He says it's something something reassuringly expensive. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

Which is uh Rolls-Royce, isn't it? Right reassuringly expensive. But it used to be their tag. Yeah, I think they had that. Hang on, didn't be one of the beers had it. Oh, right.

SPEAKER_01

Which was the beer that used to have the um pop top.

SPEAKER_00

Uh Grohlsch used that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I think it was Grosh. I think Grosh had it as reassuringly expensive. Yeah.

Negotiation That Saves Tens Of Thousands

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I mean it massively comes out. It's exactly that, like a your your 1% agents on your high street are just getting you to list on because they're they're built on volume, which is why their bad behaviors come from that, which I can talk on as well. But that 1% agent is just going out there to put the house on, hopefully get a sale and see where they get. Whereas we're looking at it from going, okay, how do we maximize your value on this sale? And then for our goal package clients, we also then look at their onward move and go, how do we save as much money on that one that we can do? So one of our recent clients that's getting close to exchange now, they were desperate to sell the house and because they'd found that their place that they really wanted to go to. So we got it on the market with a competitive strategy so that we got that interest straight away, had interest, first offer came in, and it was, I think it was at or just below asking. And they were like, just take it. We we want to make sure we go. And we were like, no, we're gonna, we're gonna go forward, we're gonna go through the negotiation. Went back, then sold it five, five, no, seven grand over asking price, wasn't it? So they they they were ecstatic at that point. Then they're going looking at their place that they found, which is the dream home for them, and they're going, okay, look, we're we're just gonna offer asking price. And we're like, no, no, you're not gonna offer asking price. So looked at the numbers, looked at the value, call the agents to find out a bit more interest. Like Jess has even done some mystery shops on viewings as well, just so that we can understand how much interest that property's got so that we can offer better. So then come in with an offer strategy, went in and then we got it for like 20, 30 grand below asking price. Wow. Yeah. So I think I think actually the.

SPEAKER_01

And here's the stupid thing, they can give you an extra thousand pounds and they're better off by 40 grand.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. Yeah. And because if we're selling somebody's house on a on the package that most people take, we will do their onward negotiation. Oh, nice. And uh as part of the service. But I'm guessing there's not many other people that are doing that.

SPEAKER_05

No. No, there's not. And it's very American. Yeah. It's it but it's a massive thing. What why is it in in the English property industry that when you're buying a house, it's a civvy against a professional?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

What other industry do you have a civvy against a professional when it comes to negotiation? So it's like, can can you have a professional that knows the situation, that goes through these deals all the time, yeah, that can look at something a little bit differently and go, actually, you're in this position, let's do this strategy, let's work from that. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And let's face it, anybody that's been in the Turkish market bartering over 25 pence for a football shirt and felt totally uncomfortable, and all of a sudden you're in the biggest negotiation of your life to buy the biggest thing most of us ever buy, and and we're we're playing.

Selling Prep Like Selling A Business

SPEAKER_01

But it's a but it's the thing that's always been so lacking. And I've always thought about this in the estate agency industry, because if you think about it, so moving house, one of the most stressful things to do in your life. Whereas if, for example, you want to go along and you want to get married, there's wedding planners that are going to hold your hand all the way through every part of the procedure. Whereas when you're buying or selling a house, it's almost like, right, so what do you want to do? I've seen a house and you ring an estate agent and they're like, Well, have you sold anything? Have you speak to a financial advisor? Have you got this? Have you got a mortgage offer? Have you? And they're like, I don't know. Come in and come and come in and see our guys, and then they'll talk to you and they'll credit certain. And it's like, I just want to maybe buy a house. I don't even know what I can afford yet. Well, you come in and do this, and we'll sell you this, and it's like hard push all the way through. And to have those, like like an American realtor, to have that trusted advisor that you go, right, this is what I want to try and find. Let me talk to you in normal terms, and then you guys can go into the shark tank and go, right, now we'll go and source this and we'll get what you need.

SPEAKER_00

And some of the high street have been in trouble for pushing people so much on their mortgage advice that they were making more money from the mortgage advice than they were from the selling the houses. Yeah. Um yeah, that's that's hit the hit the headlines. Our our service now starts before that. In that, okay, so you're thinking of selling your house in what six months' time. Jess will come and have a chat with you now about what you might think of doing to tidy your house up, to get it staged properly.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but that but it's what people should be doing because it's no different if you're selling a business. You don't go, I'm gonna sell a business, right? Okay, well, I'll just put it on the market today. Yeah, you're planning for it, you know, a year out, two years out for everything that you're trying to do.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and to do that, you'd beat your accountant and you'd get the business in a in a good state. Make your accountants look excellent. Exactly that. Hide some things.

SPEAKER_00

Get a good accountant, yeah. That's it. I have uh I have an interesting experience of this very recently that I was looking to buy a portfolio of properties from somebody, and these these properties were valued at£1.7 million and we were willing to pay the£1.7 million. Those uh properties were in these people's accounts at£960,000. You do realize you're gonna have a tax implication immediately you sell these, are we? Our accountant thinks it's fine. Okay. Right. So you're I've as long as I flagged it up because it makes no difference to me.

SPEAKER_03

You've mentioned it out, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, because I'm gonna tell you because I know you've got a problem with your tax already. You need to speak to your accountant. Okay, right, we'll structure this deal, we'll structure a deal and we'll give you this much money up straight away up front and we'll pay you the remainder over the next five years. Because you don't need all that money, you don't need£1.7 million on day one. So we'll pay you£1.7 million but over five years with most of it up front. Yeah, that's okay, but our accountant says that we have to have first charge on the properties. Well, if you have first charge on the properties, we can't do any business. We can't get an overdraft, we can't we can't raise any funds against those properties. Ah, yeah, but our accountant says.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And you think Yeah, they don't people just don't get it sometimes. And unfortunately, you know, they'll they'll also find and the other thing is that if the accountant recognises that they're wrong, they also can't backpedal. Yeah. As much as they should do to go, do you know what? I mean, we we have this all the time. Well, I I don't know. We we have it where people will go along and ring up and they go, So I've been doing this research for the last four hours in tax law, and can you just tell me is this right? And you're like, Well, you've just been looking at this particular one area of tax law specifically for four hours, but you expect I'm just gonna know this off the top of my head, because that's what happens with every PAYE, income tax, self-assessment, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, VAT, every question that you could ever ask. Obviously, I just know it all. And I went, Yeah, it sounds like it could be, but you know, just stop for a second. I need to I need to time to have a look and work it out because it g always gives you that sway to say, look, do you know what you can be wrong? You can get something wrong. What you can't do is you can't go along and like be wrong to the point where they're making that kind of decision. But yeah, I think you know, people have to be willing to admit they're wrong and backpedal and stuff like that, but there you go.

SPEAKER_00

Nick, don't you know it all?

Viewing Reality Checks For Sellers

SPEAKER_01

Between between me and Google we do. How about that? That's how it works. Yeah, right. Any other questions for these two? No. Have you have you had any of like your weird like you've gone to do a viewing stories or you know, it's like, oh yeah, I've just got a yeah, I don't suppose you know, a plumber or a leaky tap or anything?

SPEAKER_00

I don't think I've ever had a 1970s moment like you're talking about. But yeah, sometimes sometimes you would you you do think somebody's I need to tidy up before you come around, and then you think, actually, maybe if you hadn't left your washing, your underwear washing right in front of us once we're talking about negotiations and whatever else. Yeah, that that that that's kind of distracting, really.

SPEAKER_03

But yeah, people don't fit because even if I have a I don't know if I've got I've got an electrician in t today.

SPEAKER_00

70 spawn again?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah, and you know me so well for you. Um but I naturally all put washing away. Like I don't even when someone like that comes in, so when someone like you Yeah, I don't understand why people wouldn't do that.

SPEAKER_05

Imagine having dirty laundry out on your bed when someone's going to take a photo of your house as well to put it online.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And given that he has a bugbear about the fact, oh, you left you left the tea towels hung over the oven because that looks bad.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, okay, yeah, you must do that by the plate on the night.

SPEAKER_00

Getting rid of dirty underwear that people do.

SPEAKER_03

What do you say to people? Can you move some clothes? Do you are you allowed do you he doesn't know, it's got Jess, she does the stage.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, so Jessica's just come along, deal with this game. It doesn't matter, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I've I've tidied up all that sort of thing before viewings and and and whatever else, yeah. That you turn up, I always turn up early just in case. Yeah. Turn all the lights on, blah de blah. And then you think, oh, last night's underwear's still on the floor.

SPEAKER_05

If you if you want to know how what what we've been willing to do to get a sale, is we went into a property, lovely house in Chalmandiston for sending for a great client of ours who's a friend of dad's as well. And family house, so a lot of sentimental bits with it and everything like that. It'd been on the market for with a previous agent for well over a year. The place is empty. We walk in, and the amount of flies that are just on the windowsill, like it stinks when you go in, like it just does not look like something anyone would want to buy. We took it, we took it on and said, look, we can change up the pricing strategy a little bit.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

Cleaning And Staging To Sell Fast

SPEAKER_05

Approach it from a slightly different angle. But the biggest thing we need to do is make it look like something someone wants to buy. Yeah. Unfortunately, because of the situation and because of like the family and how long it had been, they were just done with the place. They didn't, they didn't want to spend any money on it, they didn't want to do anything, they didn't even want to go in and clean it. And I was like, look, I I want to sell this house because I want to help you, but I am not taking a photo when it looks like this, and I am not showing people around the house when it looks like this. So we went on a Sunday afternoon and just cleaned it up.

SPEAKER_03

You cleaned it up.

SPEAKER_05

We went, yeah, we went and cleaned it the extra month. We went and staged fake beds making made in made out of old boxes and then put a duvet on top so it looks like a bed and you can actually get a feel for the size. Yeah. Put it on the market and slightly different pricing strategy, but still aiming to get to the same price that they were getting to before. Put it on the market, and then we were sold within a week because we someone walked through the door and said, Because they can then picture you can picture it, and you're not going, Kai, what is in that loft if that's got that many flies coming out of it and all that?

SPEAKER_00

Like, I opened the loft hatch on the on that day that we were doing the cleaning, and then probably about 300 flies fell down the back of my neck.

SPEAKER_03

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It wasn't it wasn't that's like a bush tucker trial, right there. Yeah, it wasn't it wasn't nice, but you go the extra mile, it it sold straight away.

SPEAKER_05

And it it said to us, it says, You can't polish a turd. And uh said, Yes, but you can roll it in glitter.

SPEAKER_00

We can make it look pretty.

SPEAKER_01

And it's it sold, and at least they didn't pull out of the deal and said, hang on, in those photos, that bed, no, it's just cobble boxes. Yeah, if you're not taking if you're not gonna leave the bed, I'm out. We want the boxes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but he's uh he's uh he's well, he's Joe's biggest uh fan. No, he he raps him all the time, and we've sold another house for them after as well.

SPEAKER_01

So but I think just hearing what you're doing, and you know, here we go. I'm gonna give you a mine addressing down for this, PR. I think you go in there and you undersell Joe Wood, what you guys actually do at networking, because you come across as a yeah, yeah, we do property just like everyone else, but actually you're totally different to everyone else. Yeah, you are in terms of what you do, and the fact that you have that ability to hold people's hand through the buying and the selling and the sourcing and everything else like that, that's not like any other estate agent there isn't.

SPEAKER_03

That's special, yeah. That is.

SPEAKER_00

Well, we'll tell you that when we present on on Wednesday morning. Oh, there we go. Yeah, oh yeah. The good thing is that yeah, but we'll record releases afterwards. Sorry about that. I didn't say that at this point. The other Wednesday presented to you a few months.

Final Thoughts And Thanks

SPEAKER_01

You should have remembered this from back then, yeah. Guys, thank you so much for being on. Thanks so much for coming in. It has been amazing to hear about your journey and yeah, what you've been yeah, what you've achieved. Yeah, it has. So good. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Cheers, thank you, guys.

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Gemma Addison

Host
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Nick Hampton

Host