An Essex estate agency is launching a bid to become a national name and looking for agents to sign up as Property Partners.

Neil and Matt Baldock, who run high street Chelmsford estate agency Charles David Casson, have ambitious plans for their brand and are offering both franchised and self-employed style territory opportunities.

The pair, who have between them worked within agency for 20 years, have developed a model that helps agents set-up and expand sales and lettings operations quickly.

“Too many good agents leave the industry because they can’t see growth for themselves for their career and earning potential,” says Matt

“If you’re working for a corporate the options are to either start your own high street agency which requires approximately £100,000 or leave to go into other sales such as insurance or recruitment.”

The pair say they initially offered a franchise model but also now offer a licence option because they want to keep the barriers to entry into the industry as low as possible.

Fees structure

This includes a unique fees arrangement. Agents who become Property Partner share sale commission with the head office on a 70:30 split in their favour and then, over a certain threshold, a 90:10 split.

For lettings, agents pay a £250+vat fee per tenancy plus and a 5% property management fee.

In return agents are given a full back-office and property management service enabling them to scale their business faster than if they were setting up from scratch.

“We’ve already made all the mistakes and enjoyed the success of establishing an estate agency and the idea is to pass that on to other and help the industry retain the best agents,” says Neil.

“We also still work on the coalface, so we – for example – we understand the pain of a sale falling through.”

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