After a 20-year career initially at Romans and later with Foxtons and Marsh and Parsons, Ben Gee decided to set up his own agency, Hat and Home. The name and the firm’s strong brand image is evidence of his belief in brand – not something that is very common within the estate agency sector – and its power to gain market share and help win instructions.

The Neg sat down to talk to the 44-year-old who, after just two years of trading, now operates three branches in the Berkshire towns of Wokingham, Crowthorne and Bracknell but with plans to open more.

In 2021, the agency swept the boards at The Negotiator Awards, winning three golds, for New Agency of the Year, Marketing Campaign of the Year and Agency of the Year (South East of England) – a phenomenal achievement after a year of trading and evidence of a textbook new agency launch. Part of his effort to differentiate himself from the competition comes from his willingness to try new ideas. This includes a small 10cm wide box that he sends to prospective vendors and landlords that plays a short video when opened, presented by him, explaining his business.

“It’s part of our efforts to get people to understand and know our brand before our negotiators turn up at their home to pitch for an instruction,” he says. “People have really engaged with the video box presentation, they really love it.”

Hat and Home’s approach is unusual within the industry. Many large agencies with regional or national reach put only weak emphasis on their brand – relying all too often on the portals for leads as well as ongoing reputation and signboard numbers. “I don’t think estate agency is big on brand and that’s an opportunity we saw when launching Hat and Home,” he says.

“Agencies tend to good on ‘branding’ – e.g. colour schemes and logos or whatever – but I don’t think most consumers understand what those brands stand for – so they are predisposed to do business with them.

“It was important to me when we started up that it shone through what our values were; how we do business; and who customers would be dealing with i.e. personality.”

Hat and Home is not averse to using traditional start-up measures, nevertheless. Gee says their first cold-start in Wokingham did a 0.5% fee offer on sales and a 5% management fee for lettings to establish a foothold. “I wish I could have done a 0% start-up offer but back then it just wasn’t possible financially to do that,” he adds.

CURRICULUM VITAE: HAT AND HOME

Established: February 2021
Directors: Ben Gee (founder) and Luke Strzadala .
Branches: Wokingham, Bracknell, Crowthorne.
bApprox 16
Motto: Making moving home a fantastic experience.
Number of properties on Rightmove: 150
Charity: Major local donor to Parkinsons UK, raising over £29,000 so far.

How did Hat and Home come about?

Gee attained a senior regional management position within Marsh & Parsons, his most recent corporate role, but all along knew he wanted to establish an estate agency that put ‘making moving a fantastic experience’ at its heart. “Moving home is not fantastic for a lot of people which is mainly down to a lack of communication, care and knowledge,” he says.

“Wherever you open an estate agency it’s always a crowded market, and to cut through that I knew we needed two things – a great brand and great people. It just wasn’t going to be enough to choose a name, get a logo and stick a board up – and I wanted something that we could have a bit of fun with.” And fun he has had – as anyone who’s seen the agency’s advertising (pictured)) will know.

Above all, I think we have been gaining traction because we offer something different.

This approach may raise eyebrows among more traditional agents, but Gee believes that in a crowded and competitive agency market, a firm’s brand needs to stimulate an emotional response including a bit of laughter to cut through although, as he admits, it’s important to ensure it doesn’t prompt irritation or anger.

Have your old jobs helped?

“Both Foxtons and Marsh & Parsons were fast-growth companies and for example when I joined the latter firm, it had six offices and when I left it had 32,” he says. “I have definitely used the ‘great bits’ of my experiences at both companies to help make my agency a success and for example Foxtons were brilliant at training their people, very customer centric and competitive against other agents.

“On the other hand, Marsh & Parsons had a great brand behind it and grew quickly after it was purchased by Peter Rollings and Liza Jane Kelly in 2007 so I’ve definitely taken bits of that with me.”

Did you learn anything from Peter Rollings?

“I think he’s right when he says that there are too many ‘friendly’ estate agents around – yes, you can give great customer service but that doesn’t mean you can’t ‘close’ and that’s more important now the market is tightening up – too many people have been riding the huge wave of enquiries,” he says.

Gee makes the point that, since Rightmove and Zoopla have become so dominant in the market, for many agents it’s been all about managing their diaries, not closing deals. “If you haven’t been investing in training to ensure staff know how to work the market, you may be struggling now as sales and lettings instructions get harder to achieve.”

How are you going to grow the business further?

Gee says he’s been approached by agents wanting to be Hat and Home franchisees but for the moment he’s concentrating on growing the business organically and getting its ‘culture’ embedded, albeit planning more cold starts in the areas around his existing branches.

How have you funded Hat and Home?

“We are privately owned and there are no ‘investors’ behind the business because I wanted to retain control over the brand and not have money people looking over my shoulder,” he says. “We’ve grown it by being careful and we’ve been profitable from as early on as we could, reinvesting everything back into growth – so no extravagant cars for me.”

Has it helped opening in wealthy towns like Wokingham?

“Definitely – they are destination places that attract people who are moving out of London but want to be within commuting distance, so it’s a good place to be an estate agent,” he says. “One advantage we were given was that the business opened during the pandemic and therefore we could start-up using fewer staff than we would have done with a physical branch from the outset – and the post-pandemic market has been very kind to us in terms of demand, but above all, I think we have been gaining traction because we offer something different.”