Phillips and Still: Moving Forward

To meet the team, hear about what makes them stand out, and discover their views on the current state of the market, Andrew Kay spoke with Phillips & Still director Chris Still.

In a property market that some will say is quiet you are currently expanding your team, why is that?
We at Phillips and Still would not say the market is quiet, it’s just a bit more challenging and price sensitive. We wanted to expand as we are a growing business still and there are plenty of clients out there for us to do business with.

As one of the newer agencies in the city, to what do you accredit this success?
We have been open almost four years now and our success has been down to hard work and passion for the job. The foundation of our business is great customer service, as our Google and All-agents reviews show.

What are the key factors that mark you out as different?
We are very personal and treat all customers how we ourselves would like to be treated. With the combined experience of over 30 years in the industry we have the skillset and knowledge to know how to sell properties in more challenging times, such as now.

What modern methods of property marketing do you employ?
Most of our updates and feedback to our clients are done via their online accounts and email, where we see a lot of agents are not adapting to the modern way of keeping customers informed. We still like to adopt the old school approach of calling buyers as well as emailing them about new properties, in addition we have meetings with sellers to discuss the strategy of the marketing when it appears a sale is not on the horizon.

How valuable is it to have a street presence as opposed to online property businesses?
I think a central high street presence is one of the most important things these days, especially in a slightly challenging market. Customers more and more like to come into the office to discuss how things are going and buyers also want that face to face contact. The internet is an important search tool and often is where people begin their search but in a more challenging market you really want is to be selling with an agency that has good levels of stock, as the days of simply placing a property online and hoping it will sell are gone. Online agencies in Brighton have an extremely small share of the market and we believe with little other stock when you get enquiries on one property you need to be showing buyers several other similar ones. This will increase your chance of getting a sale.

Given the current political unrest both here and globally, what advice would you give to people who are considering buying or selling a property?
I would suggest that whatever is going on with the country and further afield, people will always still need to move and there is always demand for more homes. With the market becoming a bit more manageable and buyers having more time to make their decisions without the fear of losing out to other buyers at a higher price, this would mean a lot less stress when buying or selling.

Customers like to have a high street agent where they can discuss how things are going

Is there still room in the current market for people to invest in buy to let properties?
Yes, I think the buy to let market has certainly tightened up and they factor in the stamp duty etc. now, but there are still investors out there, they just don’t dominate over the homeowners like they did for the last several years.

As a company do you offer financial services and or guidance?
We do offer this service through ‘My Mortgage Company’ and this works very well as clients appreciate the advice and more often than not we can obtain a mortgage for clients where some lender/brokers are advising their clients otherwise.

Has the situation with Southern Rail impacted on property sales to prospective London buyers planning to commute?
Maybe a little but not as much as people think, it’s more about the market being challenging across the country including London.

Has that been beneficial to local buyers?
Yes a bit, but I personally do not think this puts all London buyers off and it’s more about the market being tighter and allowing all buyers to get a look in now.

112 Western Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 2AB | 01273 771111
westernrd@phillipsandstill.co.uk | www.phillipsandstill.co.uk