EAM: Estate Agency Mastery with Chris Buckler

If You Can’t Touch It, Don’t Sell It with Solly StricklandIn this episode, Chris is joined by Solly Strickland, who started out selling loft apartments in the 1990s and has been heavily involved in the American broker model since about 2017.Chris asks Solly for the failures that shaped his career, and Solly shares three. Each one changed how he works with clients, buyers and agents today.What we coverSolly’s first failure came at 23, at his first agency, selling loft apartments in rock and roll tees and jeans. A client, a lawyer with a very cool flat, called Solly’s business partner and asked for someone else to handle the sale and the viewings. Solly says lateness wasn’t the issue. He was too relaxed and hadn’t learned to click with a different type of person, the person who was paying them a decent amount to sell his home. He was devastated, but he understood, and he never did it again.That lesson shapes how he mentors and coaches today. He goes hard on aligning yourself with the client, and he sees nervous agents at higher price levels fluff their lines and rush out. He believes the longer you spend with someone, the better your chance of doing business. With a buyer from a well known English band who didn’t know the area, Solly took the time to walk him round the local coffee shops, and he believes that built the relationship.His second failure was on a penthouse in the Jam Factory about ten years ago. He handled everything from the pitch to the marketing, then took his eye off the ball on sales progression. On the day of exchange, it emerged that the flat didn’t have the parking space he thought it had. Because he had put so much of himself into the deal, he couldn’t deliver the bad news himself, so he asked his business partner Dan to call the seller, and the sale exchanged. His advice is simple: if you’re in charge of your own sales progression, do it.Solly also shares the story of a loft in East London that had already had around 40 or 50 viewings with another agency, every one of them through social media. He believes you need to find out why people want to see a property, what they can afford and whether they have a mortgage. He sold it a week later, after nine qualified viewings.His third failure relates to recruitment in the American broker model. He enjoyed it, but says he is in the business of selling and finding property, and thinks he may have failed at the recruitment side. He believes everyone should be given a chance. Through the academy, he brought people into the industry who were told they had no right to be there, and some went on to make £25,000 on a single sale.Solly believes tunnel vision always makes you money, and his first rule is that if you can’t touch the property or shake the owner’s hand, you shouldn’t sell it. He admits he nearly fell into that trap when a Cyprus development wanted him as their UK rep, before he realised they would never sell a single unit and said no. Before taking on a property in Portugal, where they are licensed, he flew out and spent two days walking around the estate.To finish, Solly’s advice to his younger self is to get his RICS qualification. During his loft days, his dad, a very successful developer, asked him over lunch in Mayfair whether he had qualified yet, and Solly says he regrets not doing it. He also thinks he probably should have gone to university, after boarding school from 8 to 18. Being an agent was never his dream, but he enjoys the people side and still finds it nice to hand someone a set of keys. He wishes he had been better on the technology side, joking that when he was 19, the closest thing they had to AI was 2001: A Space Odyssey.Key takeaways- Remember who is paying you, and adapt to the client in front of you.- The longer you spend with someone, the better your chance of doing business.- If you’re in charge of your own sales progression, do it.- Qualify your viewers before they come through the door.

Season 5 of Estate Agency Mastery asks every guest one question: if you had five minutes with your 20-year-old self, what would you say? In this episode, Chris is joined by Scott Abrahams, who made the move from corporate agency to running his own brand in North London. Chris has been trying to get Scott on the podcast since season 1.Chris asks Scott for the failures that shaped him, and Scott shares three. Each one felt like a setback at the time and led him to where he is today.What we coverScott’s first failure was not going to university. He didn’t get the A levels, everyone told him he should go, and all of his friends did. He worked full time at Waitrose until he got his first job at a high street agent. His family were supportive, but he struggled with his friendship group and lost contact with many of them. Looking back, he says it wasn’t a failure, even though it felt like one at the time. His advice to his younger self is to keep going and back yourself.Scott explains that it took a long time for things to come good. He didn’t work out who he was until his early 20s and struggled until his late 20s, which he describes as delayed gratification. He was very shy growing up, and his confidence came once he started selling and clients began asking for his advice. Moving from negotiator to valuer was when he found his own.His second failure was staying in the same job for a long time. A client he had sold nine or ten houses for kept asking him why he wasn’t doing it for himself. Scott watched peers become head of sales or lettings and thought it should have been him. Today he says staying on the shop floor, selling houses and building his own reputation, was the best thing he ever did.Scott shares the moment he knew it was time to leave. Early in his valuing career, his office had nothing over a million pounds, and one square in Barnsbury felt out of reach. At 25 or 26, he said that the day they won a house there, he would be done. The week he listed the biggest one on that square, his grandfather, who had been an idol to him, passed away. Scott says it was a big inspiration, and he left.Scott believes strongly in karma and says that belief comes from his own experience more than from books. He illustrates it with a story about a Highbury home he valued at Chestertons. He spent two hours there and still lost the instruction to a local agent. Years later the same clients came back to him, he sold the house, and their referral became the first instruction at his own agency. Seven listings have come from that one connection.His third failure was launching without a website. The business grew through word of mouth, and some people thought it looked dodgy without one. Others liked that he was hard to find, and the agency won a couple of instructions that way. He says being out on the ground is what drove the business forward. His best advice is that you can have everything glossy, but if you have nothing to sell behind it, it means nothing. You can build the rest later.To finish, Scott says the best marketing is getting out and meeting people, and that you have to be truthful. His advice to every agent is to listen and not cut people off. You are never too old or too experienced to learn, and however big your business gets, you don’t know it all.Key takeaways- Keep going and back yourself, even when it doesn’t feel right yet.- Stick to what you believe is right.- Staying on the shop floor builds your own reputation.- Do good, work hard and care. It comes back, sometimes years later.- You can have everything glossy, but without stock behind it, it means nothing. Build the rest later.- The best marketing is getting out and meeting people.- Listen, don’t cut people off, and never be too proud to learn.

Season 5 of Estate Agency Mastery continues with Sarah Gabb, who recently joined TAUK.The whole season asks one question. If you had five minutes with your 20 year old self, what would you say? Sarah’s answers come from someone who left a career in accountancy for property, fell in love with the industry on day one, and is openly honest about the moments she wishes she had listened to her gut sooner.What we coverSarah opens with the biggest failure of her career so far. Who she chose to work with and collab with, and the times she did not listen to her gut. She is honest that she is a loyal person, which has sometimes meant staying in situations longer than she should have.She talks about her move from accountancy into property. She was previously doing insolvency work, which paid well and was comfortable, before falling into property almost by accident. Day one in branch she was out with the manager Nick on a valuation in Northwest London, and from that moment she knew. His first piece of advice to her was simple. Listen and learn.Sarah is open that behind the bubbly exterior there is a lot of personal stuff going on at home right now. She talks about not being too proud to reach out for help, how she leans on the team around her, and how important it is to still answer the phone for others even when you are struggling yourself.Sarah shares her three lessons for her 19 year old self.The first is to plan your money wisely. Having grown up in a working class household with a single mum raising three kids, Sarah knows hardship. She tells her own children to put away 40 to 50 percent of what they earn and always look to the future.The second is to never change. Always be yourself. Sarah is clear that she has not changed since she was 19, and that staying true to who you are matters more than letting anyone dull your sparkle.The third is to surround yourself with positive, likeminded, ambitious individuals who will pull you up with their energy and get you to where you need to be in life.Sarah closes with the advice that ties it all together. Get out of your comfort zone and take the risk. Life is too short. The worst that can happen is that it does not work and you try something else.Key takeawaysThe biggest failures come from not listening to your gutLoyalty is a strength but it can also keep you somewhere too longPlan your money and look to the futureNever change. Always be yourselfSurround yourself with positive, ambitious, likeminded peopleGet out of your comfort zone and take the risk. Life is too short

Season 5 of Estate Agency Mastery continues with Sam Mason, founder of The Mortgage & Protection Hub and one of the sharpest young business owners I know.The episode comes in two halves. First, the failures that shaped Sam's business. Then, the question: if you could sit down with your 19-year-old self, before the business and before everything, what three things would you tell him?What we coverSam set his business up three and a half years ago with a phone, a laptop and almost no money. The team is now nine and soon to be ten. He's honest that growth has never been linear, and that he has run the bank account down to almost zero more times than he can count. Most of that cash went on testing lead generation ideas: Meta ads, Google ads, bought leads and SEO. None of them worked for him.What did work was the basics. Sam printed off a list of local estate agents and called them. When they didn't answer, he sent a WhatsApp voice note so he would stand out. One of his biggest introducers today came from that cold outreach. Once he found what worked, he doubled and tripled down on it. Today his role is purely business development: networking with estate agents, wealth managers and accountants while his advisers handle delivery. His philosophy is that he'd rather have leaky buckets than no buckets at all, because everything is downstream of lead generation.We dig into how Sam learns. He was watching Grant Cardone at around 10 years old, off his own back, coming from a working-class background with a single mum. He had a paper round at 9 and worked in a chip shop at 13. He doesn't try to implement everything he reads or hears. He looks for one light-bulb idea and runs with it the next day. At in-person events he goes in with intention about who he wants to meet. That's exactly how he met Ollie Howard, who became one of his first introducers.Sam's three lessons for his younger self:Ignore the noise. People who love you will often give advice shaped by their own experience of risk. Welcome it, but seek out people who have actually done what you want to do. As Chris puts it, what kills a good idea is asking too many people about it. Sam adds that the worst case is usually just going back to a job.Don't just chase the money. Sam is open about wanting to build wealth, but he says neglecting your health, relationships, fun and giving back means you'll get to the top and find no one there. He would rather take twice as long and enjoy the journey.Think long term, not transactionally. Protect your reputation, keep your word and lead with value before you ask. When you're not in the room, the good ones will have your back. Chris ties this back to estate agency and the difference between chasing the quick sale and doing the right thing for the client.Sam closes with his recommendations: Key Person of Influence by Daniel Priestley and Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill.Key takeawaysLead generation is the number one job in any service businessFind what works, then double and triple down on itLeaky buckets beat no buckets. Done beats perfectYou don't need to implement everything you absorb. Find one idea and run with itSeek advice from people who have done what you want to doBalance the pursuit of money with health, relationships and enjoying your lifeRelationships compound. Transactions don't

Season 5 of Estate Agency Mastery continues with Dale Woods, who spent 19 years at the same firm, rising from Saturday sales assistant at Sainsbury's to negotiator, branch manager, and eventually area manager for a portfolio covering North Surrey and South London. He joined TAUK on the 17th of August. This conversation was recorded a few days later.Dale sits down with Chris to unpack the three biggest lessons of his career so far. The whole season asks one question. If you had five minutes with your 20-year-old self, what would you say? Dale's answer is more practical than most.What we coverDale opens with the failure that is hardest to hear. Priorities. He is honest that despite showing up for most school plays and parents evenings, he consistently underweighted the small, everyday things that actually build a family. School runs. Pickups. Sharing the load with his partner Carla. He does not regret his career. He regrets not making more space around it.Chris shares a moment from watching his own daughter Lily perform in Annie over the summer, and the mix of joy and sadness that came with realising how many parents miss those moments because of work structures they never chose.We get into the second lesson. Eat the frog. Dale is direct about the cost of procrastinating on hard conversations. The call to reduce a price. The bad news to a buyer. The performance conversation with a team member who is not working out. He shares his experience of stomaching hires for too long, and the ripple effect that had on the teams around them.Chris quotes an old coach: "Procrastination is the biggest form of self harm." Dale agrees and adds his own framework: it is never as bad as you imagine it will be, and you are a talented person, whatever comes at you will be handled.We dig into hiring and firing. Dale shares "hire slowly, fire fast" as one of the most useful pieces of advice he has been given, and explains the ripple effect of keeping the wrong person in a branch. Chris ties it to the 45 day rule: you know within 45 days if a hire is going to work.The third lesson is trust your gut. Dale shares his old business partner's phrase about if it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is a duck. He argues that in his 19 years of experience his gut has almost never been wrong, and that when something feels wrong, it usually is. Chris counters with the coaching perspective that "gut" can sometimes mean "gave up thinking" and suggests the truth is somewhere in the middle. Listen to your gut, then analyse on top.Dale closes with a piece of advice that ties everything together. Get the big thing on your list done. Have fun while you are doing it. Learn from the mistakes so the memory serves you next time.Key takeaways You do not get a second Christmas play. The small everyday moments (school runs, pickups, being present) matter more than the big showpiece ones you already turn up forGet personally important things in first, family second, hobbies third, then work fits around it. When you are on, you are onProcrastination is the biggest form of self harm. Eat the frog and the day gets easierIt is never as bad as you imagine it will be. You are capable of handling whatever comes at youHire slowly, fire fast. Keeping the wrong person in the wrong role damages the team around them, not just the businessYou know within 45 days whether a hire is going to work. Trust that timelineTrust your gut. When something feels wrong, it usually is. But analyse on top so you know whyLearn from every mistake. That is what memory is for