Avard Estate Agents: Your home is our business
Latest Homes meets the team at Avard Estate Agents to talk homes & business
Avard has, for many years, been one of the prominent names in Brighton and Hove’s estate agency world. Their bold yellow and royal blue For Sale boards have peppered the city and they have been particularly dominant in Fiveways where the company has been based since 1999.
It was that dominance that appealed to Gavin Pope and his partners when they took on the company and the well known brand, and decided to take it forward in the market. Together with Michael Giovannini and Patrick Cloherty Gavin Pope has seized that opportunity by the horns and opened a second office in a prominent position on Western Road where the Brighton and Hove borders meet. It’s a great location with lots of exposure, a factor that Gavin and the team really value.
“It is certainly true that modern estate agency relies very much on modern formats,” Gavin says. “The internet and web presence is vital to being successful certainly, but not at the expense of offering a truly personal service. Shopping for anything online is seldom as good an experience as a person to person transaction, and that is something that at Avard we firmly believe in.
“Not that we are happy to live in the past, far from it. We have invested a great deal of time and money in ensuring that the systems that we use to market properties, both for sale and to let, are state-of-the-art. With the advance of technology we know that we have to stay in line with change, embrace it and make it work for us but most importantly for our clients.
“Right now we are expanding our exposure by engaging with a variety of social media platforms as we have seen just how effective they can be in helping us to market what we offer. But none of this will ever be at the expense of what we see as being the core of our great reputation, and that is that high level of personal service.”
Gavin Pope worked for many years in the world of corporate estate agency, a large national chain. “In many ways it was great experience, invaluable to what I now do. But towards the end of my time there the focus had gone from helping our clients to buy or sell a home to selling them financial, legal and insurance services. Really, when someone comes into an estate agency it’s because they either need to find a home or sell one and that should be our primary focus.
“Between us we have a wealth of experience but we know that what is really important is staying up to date, really moving with the times. At the same time we know that we have to hang on to those core values of excellent customer service.
“We are now a team of ten across our two offices, a big expansion since I started at the Fiveways office and necessary to deal with our ever increasing demands.”
So what is it that Avard offers that puts them in the frame when it comes to choosing an agent?
“For every property, both lettings and sales, we produce a free colour brochure,” Gavin continues. The kind of marketing tool that most agents would only invest in at the luxury end of the market. We believe that this kind of material really helps to present your home in the very best possible way, and we offer this free of charge, except for the costs of an EPC and floorplans. Added to this we offer vendors a variety of marketing opportunities that they can choose to take up should they wish to increase the exposure of their property. We also believe in high quality photography, showing a home in the very best way and for those very special homes we will sometimes recommend using a specialist professional property photographer, a service that we can access for a very affordable additional fee.
“We place all our properties on all of the major property websites and we make sure that the presence there is always kept up to date.
“We also believe in local media and a presence in print remains part of all our marketing. We are certainly looking forward to being able to market our properties on the new local TV channel Latest TV when it launches this year.”
“With the advance of technology we know that we have to stay in line with change, embrace it and make it work for us but most importantly for our clients”
Gavin gives an overview of the current property market locally:
“Statistics are showing that here in Brighton and Hove things are looking good with property achieving the best price increases in the UK. It certainly is a busy sales market with demand outstripping supply. Right now values are exceeding expectations with vendors doing better than ever. We value as we do, giving a realistic figure, and by doing that and exposing a property very quickly we can achieve the very best price and get that price fast.
For most vendors speed of sale is alost as important as achieving the right price. Using modern technology and systems we can have a property marketed in 24 hours. That of course would exclude the EPC where we have to bring in a specialist.
“The lettings market is also very active and very fast moving. We can put a property up for let and have ten enquiries overnight and five viewings booked for the following day. And again we can do full colour brochures and floor plans.
“We are currently running a lettings promotion where landlords benefit from peace of mind with free rental guarantee insurance on all fully managed properties and a sales promotion of 1% + VAT on all sole agency instructions.”
Avard’s promise of a personal service combined with modern methodology is clearly a great deal and their current success rate is the evidence to support that. Flexibility is key to that too and appointments can be arranged to suit the needs of all of their clients, evenings and weekends where necessary.
Their portfolio of properties for both sale and rent is wide, everything from studios to luxury homes but the heart of their business is family homes, an area in which they have great experience. They open at 8am to make the most of the massive footfall along the busy Western Road.
“We are proud to be a modern estate agent offering a traditional service and we stand by our motto that ‘Your home is our business’.
Avard City Centre Office, 115 Western Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 2AB
Avard Fiveways Office, 132 Ditchling Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 4SG
lettings 01273 748 828 lettings@avard.co.uk
Sales 01273 696 000 sales@avard.co.uk
www.avard.co.uk
