Administrators Are Pointless

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As an administrator, have you ever felt unappreciated in your job? Do you feel like you are the least important person in your office?

If I had a pound every time an administrator tells me this, I’d be a very rich woman.

Here are 5 reasons why your administrator is amazing:

  • They are your right-hand man. Anything you ask them to do, they do it. Without complaining and with a smile on their face and even if they have a list of 20 other things to do, they never say no! (even though they really want to sometimes)
  • They are always one step ahead. Everything is done a couple of hours before you have even got round to asking them to do it.
  • Every office needs a mum right? They keep everyone in check when you are not there. They see every romance blossom. They go through every break up with you. They always offer the best advice and a shoulder to cry on. They keep you calm and help you see reason.
  • Not only are they the office administrator, they are a doctor, counsellor, teacher, IT specialist, all round superhero, pretty much everything you can think of.
  • Lastly and most importantly they save you time! Something we could all do with a lot more of. A good administrator means you spend more time focusing on managing the team, making sales, meeting clients, winning new business whatever it is you need to do to run a successful office.

One of the biggest challenges I come up against in my job as a Property Recruitment Consultant is hearing from clients that they do not want to pay recruiters for administrators as they are not ‘fee earners’.

Yes, negotiators are ‘fee earners’, they bring in the money and are at the forefront of the business. But please do not forget about your administrator. They are the backbone of the office and keep things running like clockwork. Appreciate the work they do for you, pay them well, keep them happy.

Administrators salaries have risen drastically since I started specialising in Business support here at Cherry Pick People. To find out if you are being paid the right salary or are paying your staff the correct wage please take a look at our salary survey. http://www.cherrypickpeople.com/salary-survey/

If you would like to have a confidential chat about the next step in your career please contact me today on 0203587 7689 or georgie.barraclough@cherrypickpeople.com

Why being in the wrong job is like being in a bad relationship!

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Why being in the wrong job is like being in a bad relationship!

So a while ago I wrote a blog about how going for an interview is a little like going on a first date (Why a failed first interview is like a failed first date!!), and the more I think about it the more I believe the similarities to be true. I also believe that being at work is very much like being in a relationship… There’s the honeymoon period, the break ups and the make ups!… And there’s always that one colleague you would like to suffocate while they’re sleeping like you would your partner!

So how does being at work relate to being in a relationship, I hear you ask?…

 

The honeymoon period and making it last!

It’s great when you’re starting off in a relationship and things are very much rose tinted! Very much like starting a new job; you’re full of enthusiasm and getting to work early, getting involved and giving it 110%. But that day comes when you wake up (maybe next to your partner) and question the past three months and whether you have done the right thing! The trick here is thinking about the reasons why you took the job in the first place, giving yourself some space from work by perhaps booking a holiday and ensuring you have a good work-life balance.

 

Working through the good times and the bad

Like any relationship, there will be good times and bad times, but we tend to forget about the good times a lot quicker than we do the bad times… However being successful at work requires you to learn from both the good and the bad; why did things work out the way they did and could they still be improved? However, with the bad times can always be a time to learn but also reflect on why we took the job in the first place and the “honeymoon period”.

 

Taking it to the next level

Just like going from base to base (you know what I mean) you don’t want to be in a stagnant career. A lot of the time employees will wait for an appraisal or a review to voice their opinions or their desire to progress their career. As you would make a move in a relationship, there’s nothing stopping you from speaking to your seniors inside or outside of work and expressing your ambition to move up the ranks

 

Trying not to kill your colleagues (or partner)

Do you ever look at your partner while their sleeping, think how peaceful and great they look, but also at the same time how easy it would be to get a pillow and cover their face? I get that from time to time with my colleagues too! In a relationship either one of you can end up on the sofa for the night or give each other the silent treatment until one of you breaks the silence. The same goes with your colleagues, take some time out, have a chat about things, kiss and make up (if you’re into that sort of thing)

 

Staying faithful

Not that I’m condoning cheating! But there are bad days in our careers where we may think the grass may be greener on the other side. Change in role? Pay rise or better work-life balance? Before making the move to another company or entertaining a call, what measures have you taken to iron out any issues which you have with your current company?

With the debaucherous work Christmas party soon approaching are you going to remain faithful or do you want to explore how green the grass is? If it is the latter get in touch with us!

So there you have it, my overview on work and relationships.

So happy my offer has been accepted? But oh WAIT, the dreaded stamp duty…

Posted by & filed under Blog, Cherry Pick People News, Industry News, Opinion, Uncategorised.

So happy my offer has been accepted?  But oh WAIT, the dreaded stamp duty…

The Times recently stated, “Stamp duty only used to be paid by the wealthy property buyers but now it makes younger buyers poorer”.

As promised, here is an update on my last blog – the sales market is it doomed? I started the process of buying my first ever home in London.

To give you an update – I have had an offer accepted on an amazing property in my perfect location! So happy! But the excitement flattened, as a first-time buyer I was shocked in the increased stamp duty to 5%. I sat there – looked over all the figures – How do they expect first-time buyers to save for a deposit, pay the mortgage and solicitor’s fees as well as pay a hefty stamp duty? Naomi Heaton (CEO of a Property Investment firm in PCL) has said the fall in home sales is ‘very concerning given additional government schemes for first-time buyers’. The Guardian have also blamed the huge rise in stamp duty as London home sales fall by 40 per cent!

The Telegraph has stated that stamp duty is not actually helping first-time buyers – an example was shown of a married couple trying to buy in Brixton, found their dream home at £345,000, offer accepted but did not budget for the stamp duty and had to pull out due to an additional £10,350 for stamp duty that they could not find the money for! Contradicting the latter, Marsh & Parsons have stated that home purchases have increased from 22% to 34%, according to data collected from buyers across all Prime London. The FT have also said the 3% rise in stamp duty for private landlords has scared off buy-to-let purchases which have given a larger market to just regular buyers.

According to the Land Registry in 2016 we have seen that the huge rise in stamp duty is blamed for London’s sales falling by 40% with the average stamp duty at a whopping £16,500 – even more so in Central London with a 60% fall (only 62 properties were sold in Central London in 3 months!). Comparethemarket.com has shown that a third of people are choosing to renovate their homes instead of selling/ moving. I had this experience a few times whilst looking – viewings booked, properties had already decreased their prices by 20-30% and then the seller decides to not sell!

However, if we scrapped the stamp duty – what would happen to house prices?! Of course in logical thinking, bringing more people into the property market without increasing supply is likely to push prices up? It has also been suggested by Yorkshire Building Society, that Stamp Duty should be paid by the house sellers rather than the buyers to remove the burden of money so that younger generations who are struggling can actually get on the property ladder earlier in life!

So, what are you thoughts? Should the stamp duty be paid by the sellers? Should it be different for first-time buyers? Or has the increase actually helped the property sales market?  I’m interested in your thoughts on this.

The Estate Agency Sales Market – you are doomed!.. Aren’t you?

Posted by & filed under Blog, Opinion.

Doom and gloom have risen over the property market in the past months, especially focusing on the estate agency sales market. A question that is frequently asked of me is “Surely Lettings is doing a lot better than Sales isn’t it?”. But is it? I believe it is all a scare/ shock tactic of the EU referendum. As a first time buyer looking to purchase a property in South West London, I have had conflicting advice. I either hear “NO – do not buy now just after Brexit, bad idea WAIT” or “Yes April, it is a perfect time to buy, mortgages are at an all-time low!”.

So what is the truth?

What is the estate agency sales market currently like – behind all the façade of the UK exiting Europe?

I have researched this vastly for the past week, in property news, and speaking with brokers, Sales Managers, Sales Directors and various other estate agency professionals. It is clear that uncertainty shook the Sales Market after Brexit. The Guardian stated uncertainty of the EU Referendum drove the largest fall in people trying to buy a property since the Financial Crisis. The Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICs) has also suggested the number of homes for Sale has declined more rapidly than at any other time since they started gathering information in April 1999! (Rics) have also stated that at least 1.8m more households will be looking to rent rather than buy a home by 2025. This has been proven by tenancies also increasing from 2.3m in 2001 to 5.4m in 2014. House prices in London are the second-most over-valued of all the world’s major cities, according to investment bank UBS.

The Guardians research, however, contradicts with figures showing the Brexit vote in June has not collapsed all consumer confidence which was so feared – Christen Lagarde stated prior to the EU Vote, that voting to Leave would lead to a crash in house prices. Whereas house prices have grown in September, and August by 0.3% and 0.6% according to their research.

Deutsche Bank analyst Reiff and Scheulfer made a huge case (over 70 pages worth) arguing that for any investor the economics in the London Property Sales market have been HAMMERED according to the FT times. The analyst’s state three main things to prove this fall – the tax deductions in 2015 have been restricted for higher income buy-to-let landlord’s. Secondly, increased stamp duty on buy-to-let and second homes, lastly changed the way landlords report their income, forcing them to register their gross rental income rather than the net income.

Facts, figures, stats and everything shown – People will still always buy in London, it is one of the most sort out cities in the word (even though it may be one of the most overvalued…). It will always be somewhere we (well me), will want to buy in.

What do you think? Is the Sales property market REALLY doomed? Or will it get back to normal as some facts have shown?…

I will keep you updated with my first time buying process.

Why lazy recruiters are a problem for estate agency

Posted by & filed under Advice, Opinion, Uncategorised.

 

It’s interesting when I meet with my property clients as they often explain what they don’t like about using recruiters and why lazy recruiters are a problem. Very often they say it’s people throwing irrelevant CVs at them or meeting inappropriate candidates and wasting their time.

It’s also interesting  when candidates say they have spoken to recruiters and have 3 interviews lined up with various different estate agents – having never met the recruiter. Then once I have met the candidate I have no idea why they were put forward to those companies, it might be that they don’t fit the brand, aren’t qualified or just won’t fit in with the team.

At Cherry Pick People we spend a lot of time making sure we find the right opportunity for our candidate’s and the right candidate for our clients. As I’m sure you’re aware, finding the right candidate is not an easy task. If it were I’d be out of a job. The right candidate isn’t just someone with a good CV it’s so much more than that which is why I believe all good recruiters should meet their candidates.

Every company is different and has something unique to them whether it be the way in which they operate, the culture, or their brand, and whether someone is going to be suitable can only truly be ascertained upon a face to face meeting. Particularly in the estate agency industry where personality is so important. I often meet sales and Lettings Negotiators with lots of estate agency experience thinking they’re going to be a fantastic candidate for my client but upon meeting them I quickly realise that they’re not the right fit at all.  This stops my client wasting their time interviewing the wrong people and stops my candidate wasting their time seeing the wrong companies.

I think lazy recruitment is becoming a problem within our industry and is taking away some of the hard work and effort we do as recruiters. After all, I provide sales and lettings negotiators who make in some cases huge amounts of money for estate agents so the difference between the right candidate and not the right candidate might mean you make an extra £100,000 revenue at the end of the year.

If you are looking to recruit a sales or lettings negotiator or looking to get into estate agency, start here with Cherry Pick People – we will do our best to find you the RIGHT candidate or RIGHT opportunity.

Are you changing jobs for the right reasons?

Posted by & filed under Advice, Blog, Jobs, Opinion, Starting a new Job.

Handing in your notice can be a daunting experience that most people face in their working careers but are you changing jobs for the right reasons? I’ve certainly faced it during my career in estate agency in both my roles as sales negotiator and Assistant branch manager so I know how it feels.

 

handing-in-notice

 

10 things to consider before handing in your notice

  1. Do you really want to change roles?
  • Is this just a knee jerk reaction to something that has happened in the office, can you speak to your director and resolve the issue.
  1. What are your reasons for changing roles?
  • Will changing companies actually benefit you or will it just be a short term solution to the existing problem?
  1. What can you bring to the role?
  • If you get the role, can you deliver on the promises made in the interview?
  1. Is Property the right industry for you?
  • Do you genuinely enjoy your role in estate agency or do you have a passion for another industry but may not be brave enough to take the plunge?
  1. What do you know about the company?
  • Have you spoken to other negotiators or managers who work in the company, have you done research and due diligence?
  1. What are their values?
  • How do they do things? Do you have similar values? Can you work in the same way that they do? Do you believe in the same things they do?
  1. How many deals do you need to do per month as a negotiator for the move to make financial sense?
  • Are the targets achievable? Will you be able to perform in the role?
  1. Will you make more money?
  • In the long term will the move leave you financially better off?
  1. Are you prepared to start from the bottom again?
  • Trust and respect is earned and you will have to earn this.
  1. What impact will the move have on your work life balance
  • What is the work/life balance like, are you prepared to put in the ground work whilst you establish yourself in your new role?

It seems like a lot to think about when handing in your notice, but these key questions will allow you to fully weigh up the pros and cons before you accept a role.

As property consultants specialising in the property sector, we have these conversations with Sales and Lettings Negotiators and managers on a daily basis to ensure that our candidates are making informed decisions about their future. We follow up with our candidates throughout their career, as we want to be on hand to help and offer advice at every stage.

Should you be considering your next move or just want some friendly advice, feel free to get in touch with me on 020 3587 7687 or email me at lisa.clarke@cherrypickpeople.com

handing-in-notice