by Stephen Roe
Roe and Co Residential Sales is 15 months old!
The first thing Roe and Co Residential Sales would like to do is to thank all of our family, friends and clients (who are now friends) for the support we’ve had over the last 15 months. Thank you!
Its been a crazy 15 months considering Bolton, has been in lockdown for what feels like forever, we have grown as a business and the mighty Bolton Wanderers have been promoted (#COYWM)
I thought now would be a good time to let you know what we have changed and how we have grown. Its important to us that our clients feel like they are a part of the Roe & Co family and want to share our journey with you.
Let me take you through the brief history of Roe and Co Residential Sales. The changes we have made (like our new website – thanks Pixelcreated) to make us your local estate agent in Bolton.
Roe and Co Residential Sales was established in Bolton January 2020
Its always been Kate’s and my dream to own our own Estate Agency business and this happened in January 2020, when we launched Roe & Co Residential Sales.
Now, when you launch as an estate agent you want to stand out from the rest and have unique selling points which makes you different from the 100’s of estate agents in Bolton. Luckily for us, Kate has been a successful estate agent for almost 17 years. Working for traditional estate agents & well known online Estate Agents in Bolton. This experience allowed us to build our customer journey so that Roe and Co Residential Sales make it easier for you to buy or sell a home.
So it’s easier for me I will break it down for you below….
Clients deal with one person throughout your journey with us, from your initial enquiry to selling or buying your home, right through to completion. This means you are not ringing for Bob but speak to Tina, who then forgets to tell bob, so you ring Bob but get Ross…..and so on.
Simply put…you deal with one person….its easy!
The figures do not lie: 91% of properties brought to the market sold! 91% of properties went through to completion! It takes us on average 11 days to sell a property! (based on 2020 figures published on Rightmove) and finally 5 star Estas Reviews!
March 2020 - The Pandemic hit us like a heavy weight boxer and .....Roe and Co Residential Sales came out fighting
I didn’t want to spend too much time on you know what but then I think back and I feel a massive sense of pride for what we have achieved and how we did not let it faze us.
It was March 2020, Roe and Co Residential sales was 3 months old and Boris locked the country down. What sticks in my mind the most, I was working still at my previous job and it was cracking the flags outside. You could hear your neighbours in their gardens relaxing and trying to make best of a bad lockdown situation. This is when Roe and Co Residential sales stepped up to the plate and came out swinging (why so many sport anlogies?)
Kate could have gone on furlough and closed the doors on Roe and Co Residential Sales, leaving our clients to fend for themselves and our potential future clients to forget about us. But, we didn’t and we kept in contact with all our clients, conveyancers, mortgage advisor, upped our marketing spend and stayed relevant on social media. When Boris let us out again we were ready, house sales where completing and we were bringing new properties to the market.
Busy…busy…busy
May 2020 - Market Madness! Roe and Co Residential Sales stayed sane
Long and short of it…..the market went crazy, house prices increased, demand increased and no houses to sell.
From experience you know when you are going to be busy and you know when you are going to be quiet. For example, January & February are usually busy because everyone’s had a below par New Years Eve (I always have high expectation for New Years Eve but they end up not being as good as I hoped) and make that New Years resolution to move. School holidays are quiet because you want to get away. Nothing could have prepared us for how busy it would be but why?
Well lockdown had a major part to play, people being stuck in their homes came to the realisation that either the house was too small or big, kids had outstayed their welcome at 35 years of age or probably the DIY required to improve the house was a bit outside of the required skill level they had. I put it down to people having more money but there was many different factors.
The good news was that Roe and Co Residential Sales was ready and able to cope with the demand. We brought lots of properties to the market, at the right price and helped clients achieve their dream home. The reason I mention the ‘right price’ is because sometimes clients get lost in all the hype and try to sell their homes too high or pay too much for them. The thing I think clients forget is that estate agents can only value a home and ultimately it’s a surveyor/valuer (on behalf of the bank if the buyer is lending) that determines the price. So one of 2 things could happen, you stay on the market for months on end or its gets down valued on survey. (Sorry I digress and have already started to think of my next blog!) The main point is we did it right and hence why we have so many 5 star reviews.
September 2020 - Bolton was put into local lockdown and Roe and Co Residential Sales stayed open for business
Like a Game of Thrones episode, the North took on the South and we went into Lockdown….. again. The good news is that this time the housing market stayed open and Roe and Co Residential Sales thrived.
With the business growing at the rate it was, we had to make sure we did the basics right, to keep our client journey smooth and more importantly safe.
The most frustrating thing as an estate agent is when viewer gives feedback is that the house was either too small or needed to much work, etc. Now before you role your eyes and think, ‘well I need to see it before I can make a decision.’ This got us thinking… how can we improve the viewing experience? Every property had high quality images with floor plans and virtual tours. This is when the penny dropped…the virtual tours were good but not good enough, they didn’t give our buyers a clear picture of the property. So we invested in better camera equipment, drones and presented tours.
Now why am I telling you this? not just because our clients absolute love them or because they market your property in the best possible light? It’s also because they help keep our vendors and buyers stay safe during the pandemic. Not making that unnecessary journey or entering the property when it wasn’t right for them. This way we introduced motivated buyers to motivated vendors…job done.
Fast Forward to April 2021 - Roe and Co Residential Sales opened an office and got an Electric Car
As I have mentioned a few times before, Roe and Co Residential sales has grown and I’ve now joined the business full time. Because of this, we felt it was the right time for us to invest more into the business, move into an office and get a company car.
Our office is based at Suite 8, The Newlands Estate, 315 Chorley New Road, Bolton right next to “The Retreat”. We did this because we wanted to move our office away from home to somewhere in Bolton where people could find us easily enough (but call us before visiting). Its not your standard traditional estate agents office because you will not find pictures of properties on the wall or a mortgage advisor sat in the corner of the room. Its a place for us to go and focus on work and to meet with clients when needed (if you would rather meet us in Retreat let us know, we’re more than happy too).
Why did we do this and not get a high street office, well from the extensive market research we did we found that clients didn’t like to go into offices and potential buyers never looked at the pictures on the wall. Everything is done online and this is why we focused so much on our online marketing, our customer journey for both vendors and buyers. Some people disagree but we believe this the future of estate agency because we are not restricted to office hours which gives us and clients more flexibility.
The new car was a big decision and was definitely the correct one. Normally when we look for a car we look for the nicest car we can get for our money, this time however was different. We contacted Leasing Options and spoke to our account manager Ashey Allen, we asked him to consider our carbon footprint because of how the car would be used and also costs like mpg and monthly payment. So he recommended Hyundai Ioniq Electric vehicle and we couldn’t be happier, not because our accountant is happier but because of the environmental impact, Zero-emissions! Its in black and has our stickers on it so if you see us driving around feel free to give us a waive.
May 2021 - All our hard work is paying off. Roe and Co Residential Sales are off to London!
This month has been my favourite working at Roe and Residential Sales because finally….we have received some recognition for all the hard work put into our fledgling estate agents in Bolton.
Firstly, out of the blue we received a call from Eleven Sports Media (on our way to our new office so must of been a sign) pitching to set up a meeting to become associate partner with Bolton Wanderers Football Club. Now, we do receive a lot and I mean a lot of sales calls with people trying to sell us one thing or other and sometimes bending the truth with what they are offering. However, after a lot of questioning from both parties we set up a meeting and met with Michael Roddy (ex BWFC Player). This is when we were blown away, Michael knew everything about us, our 5* ESTAS reviews, that we were a family run and a new business. He explained, that this is why they came to us and wanted Roe and Co Residential Sales to be the official Estate Agent to Bolton Wanders football club.
With me being a massive Bolton fan, I have been through the hurt like most football fans but since Football Venturers bought the club and Sharon Brittan took the helm, I have once again fallen in love with my club. The club was in a poor state and it has been rebuilt from the ground up and you can now feel the buzz of the town. I particular love the BWFC mantra ‘one club, one community, one town.’ I believe the town is now coming back together and this is why I am so proud to be apart of the club and felt it was such an honour. Hopefully as Bolton Wanderers Football club success grows, so will Roe and Co Residential Sales.
#COYWM #COYWMROECO
Northwest Estate Agent of the year ESTAS nominated, sounds good doesn’t it? Especially when you are 15 months old and up against the 1000’s of established estate agencies in the North West. So how did we get nominated? it all comes down to our independent & verified reviews from our customers. Normally you have to ask for reviews but, we don’t or should I say rarely do ask. Clients ask us where they can leave the reviews and the best platform to put it on for us to grow. This is all the feedback we need to know that we need we are doing everything in the right way.
So fingers crossed when we get to London, we win the North West award and then we are in the hat for the national award. However as the night ends, the drinks will be flowing and we will be happy to be there and be apart of the ESTAS awards night.
So....what happens next for Roe and Co Residential Sales
Well it’s simple, it’s time to grow the business further and build on the hard work we have put in over the last 15 months. We have plans in place to expand the team, increase our exposure within the Bolton and surrounding areas.
Our first major step forward is our new website www.roeco.co.uk, take a look around and let us know your thoughts? Everything has now been streamlined to make your journey easier.
I hope this has given you an insight into what’s been happening and feel free to get in contact with any questions or if you require a valuation.
Cheers
Stephen
Roe and Co Residential Sales
stephen@roeco.co.uk
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