Interview: Meet the London hybrid with eyes on Britain’s other big cities
Rollo Miles says his firm Agent&Homes is expanding fast three years after he founded it in central and west London.
A hybrid estate agency in London says it is thriving without having to compromise on service or fees, a common criticism of online and hybrid firms.
Rollo Miles, who this week is celebrating founding hybrid firm Agent&Homes in central and west London three years ago , says his model is now proven with nearly 40 former high street agents now working for it with another 15 due to join.
It is a sensible strategy – many estate agents and upmarket vendors view hybrids such as Purplebricks as cut-price and who, too often, make promises on service that are difficult to deliver.
But Agent&Homes is planning to roll out its model across London and into cities such as Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle, although Miles says he may change his formula to adapt to the lower fees outside the capital.
“We’ve spent the past three years growing organically by recruiting people I knew from when I worked at John D Wood or Marsh & Parsons,” he says.
“And we’ve been concentrating on working with them to make their roadmap with us a success. But now we’ve achieved that we’re going to start talking to people we don’t know who are further afield.
“Agents can leave the high street and, if they adopt the frame of mind that they’re running a business and become entrepreneurs, they can earn a really good living.”
Rock stars
Miles says Agents&Homes is different from many other hybrid estate agency firms because it offers his agents a full back-office marketing and support function. “They are the rock stars and we the roadies,” he says.
The company gives each agent three to four fresh leads every month from tech platforms like Homesearch and Spectre and offer both touting and off-market searches and also pre-valuation conversion support. But it’s they up to them to find more.
“I know what’s it’s to be in the business because I’ve been a valuer, negotiator and branch manager so I’m used to the feast and famine so we get being an agent more than our hybrid competitors.”
Read: Guide to hybrid and online agents.
