Nick Mosley – Mosley Jarman

Nick Mosley shares his experience of setting up a Business in Bramhall and the fun he’s had along the way despite the recession.

There were a lot of people that questioned our sanity when they heard that we were opening a new estate agency in an established market in the middle of arguably the worst recession this country has ever experienced. On June 20^th 2011 our first office opened in Bramhall, I too by this point was questioning my own sanity! After all we were an estate agency, an estate agency sells houses, we did not have any houses to sell, the office phone was not ringing and we had no customers visiting the office….. I had to have a quiet word with myself. “Do not panic Nick enjoy what is going to be an exciting new chapter in your life.”

The recession had been kind to me; I had worked incredibly hard and had been rewarded by having my most successful years in estate agency at a time when many agents were struggling for survival or were dramatically downsizing the scale of their operations. Not only had the recession put a little bit of money in my pocket to start Mosley Jarman but it had given me the self confidence that I could and would sell houses no matter what state the housing market was in.

Opening our first office in Bramhall Village was an easy decision. It was never up for debate. It was only ever going to be Bramhall. I had gained my experience and reputation in the industry by running branches in Edgeley, Cheadle, Manchester City Centre and more recently Didsbury.  Bramhall was my home though; it had been for 20 years. I lived in Bramhall, went to school in Bramhall, my friends were in Bramhall and I spent most of my time here. You can now see how easy a decision it was for me.

Our decision to start Mosley Jarman had been made two years earlier. Finding a suitable office caused a delay as we were constantly surprised at the sheer incompetence of commercial letting agents and landlord’s reluctance to take a risk on a new local independent business being able to meet their rent and instead preferring to look for larger blue chip companies. It is little wonder that our high streets nationally have been in decline. Eventually we heard a rumour that the bookmakers were moving to a larger premises on Woodford Road and after checking the land registry we were able to make contact with the landlord directly and were able to convince him that our business would give them peace of mind, security and our rent would always be paid promptly. I will always be eternally grateful to our landlord that he took a risk on us where so many others had closed the door.

At first it was difficult, whilst Bramhall was my home my reputation had been built up elsewhere. In the run up to the business launching my friends and family had been incredibly helpful. Between us we hand delivered 30,000 leaflets in the four weeks before the office opened. In the first few months there were a few clients that were willing to put their trust in a brand new company to sell their homes, but these clients were few and far between. Most people stick to what they know and decided to over look us and to use the services of older more established companies instead. I did not blame them for that, after all they were selling their biggest and most valuable asset and no matter how enthusiastic we were, how hard we were willing to work, how hungry we were to succeed, we had not built a brand, a reputation or provided a history of results. The only clients that would give our new business a chance were people that were already on the market and disillusioned by their current agent and felt that they had nothing to lose by giving us a go!

There is a perception of estate agents that frustrates me immensely, ‘that all agents are the same’ but at this early stage I had to accept that we were going to have to build our brand and earn our reputation by selling houses that other agents had been unable to sell. As an agent you want the new instructions in to the market on your books, the fresh ones, the houses in the best condition, the houses on the best roads and the ones near to the popular schools. I had to accept that I was not going to get these houses to sell until we could demonstrate that we could sell houses and not just collect them.

Well, two and a half years on we have established ourselves in the local market and the large majority of our new business comes from recommendations from our previous clients to their friends, family and work colleagues. My team and I share a passion for providing exceptional customer service which we can demonstrate by our current ranking of 29^th out of over 20,000 estate agency offices in the UK on the allagents.co.uk website. This website is similar to trip advisor where potential sellers and landlords can access independent reviews of estate agents in Bramhall from previous clients to help them make a decision on which agent to appoint to sell or rent their home. Visit the site to read our reviews in full.

2013 was a fantastic year for Mosley Jarman as property transaction levels in the UK rose back over the 1,000,000 mark for the first time since 2007. Confidence came flooding back into the market place and it is widely expected that during 2014 prices will rise. We are expecting the activity within the market to pick up quickly this New Year with many buyers hoping to complete purchases in the early part of 2014 so that they will benefit from prices increases later on in the year.

May I take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year and if you would like advice on buying, selling or letting in 2014 we would love to hear from you

Best Wishes, Nick Mosley

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