Top selling Telford estate agents, DB Roberts, say their February house sales total was the best since 2008 and that March has started ‘brilliantly’.
D B Roberts Sales Director, Jo Culley, confirmed the results from the firm’s 9 branches were the best February total in 5 years and was quick to congratulate the sales staff across the Company for their achievement.
‘It is unusual for sales to be so strong this early in the year and, of course, February is a short month. The month did start slowly, but sales picked up rapidly around mid-month and we finished on a real high. The staff around the branches were competing with each other over the final few days to see who could agree those few extra sales; of course, our telephones being open for business until 8pm each weekday evening helped us to tie up some last minute viewings, offers and sales – but there’s no doubt the result is down to our great sales staff. We have had a brilliant start to March which may well be another record breaker.’
D B Roberts first opened almost 50 years ago and rapidly expanded to its present regional status, with the firm’s Stafford Branch having become one of its most successful. Jo Culley explained:
‘We operate in widely varying markets across Shropshire, Staffordshire and the West Midlands and we have to be flexible to respond to varying selling conditions. In February, our branches in Stafford, Telford, Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton all made a significant contribution to our sales result.
‘Fortunately, new instructions are also extremely busy and we have taken on many more new listings to more than replace those properties sold; Stafford alone listed almost 50 new instructions in February, which is an excellent performance from our new branch team lead by Lara Brown. However we still need more new instructions to meet continuing demand.
‘A considerable proportion of our new instructions are properties which have previously been on the market with other agents but not sold; as ever, good local market knowledge, honest valuation advice and excellent marketing reach are all important factors in achieving our sales success. Unfortunately, some agents overvalue property simply to gain the instruction, and this inevitably leads to the property remaining on the market far longer than necessary.
D B Roberts Lettings results were also encouraging.
‘There is strong demand for rented property, and at DB Roberts we aim to ensure that we only rent to good quality tenants. We credit score all our applicants and offer initial rent guarantees to our landlords; this means we have very few issues with rent arrears and landlords are happy to keep dealing with us and managing their properties. It’s all about good customer service.’
