‘We’re going to change how the public feel about estate agents’
From helping to scale Purplebricks to co-founding TAUK, Steph Vass is challenging the way the property industry works.
After finishing her GCSEs, Steph Vass began to annoy her mother, who ran the family’s 10-branch estate agency business in Liverpool. He was given a six-week summer job and for over 20 years Vass has been changing the way homes are bought and sold in the UK.
A conversation with Vass is filled with both real estate market statistics and passion for how he’s currently challenging his industry. He does this as a co-founder United Kingdom Agency (TAUK)A freelance real estate agency platform he founded in 2020 that allows experienced local agents to run their own businesses.
The aim is to provide a good service to UK dealers and Vass believes the model is long overdue. “I am extremely passionate and proud to be a real estate agent,” he says. “There hasn’t been a career in a very long time that people have felt this way about, and we are consistently in the top five most hated professions.
Read more: ‘We started with a second-hand minivan; ‘Our travel firm now has a business worth £30 million’
“I believe we can change the way the British public thinks about estate agents and that this can be done in a trustworthy and personal way.”
However, his main intention was music before he left his short-term education at the university. At the age of 18, with the help of a friend, she started working full-time at a real estate agency and began handling phones and doing viewings. “The girls I worked with back then are now the owners of the business, which is great,” says Vass.
Since its founding, TAUK has reached approximately 250 self-employed agents.
He took on the position of branch manager at the age of 19, and music continues to exist today with the karaoke stage set up in his home. Vass admits that he amended his resume to indicate that he had previous office manager experience because there was “no real room for growth,” given that real estate owners have worked as “branch managers, appraisers, and principals.”
He joined Purplebricks in 2015, learning about the growth of the brand and how technology began to play a role in the seller’s journey. Four years later, he became a recruiter in the United States.
After speaking to thousands of agents over the years in both the UK and the US, Vass has now set out to create a model where TAUK agents “hold” the buyer throughout the process. “They want personal service from start to finish, and you are the person who can help them with that,” says Vass.
Self-employed agents setting up business under the TAUK umbrella come in a variety of formats; Its primary function is to reduce the costs and overhead of running a traditional agency business.
Read more: My laundromat closed early so I launched a £27m global laundry service
He says the platform is different from a high-street agency; The transaction process that buyers go through throughout the chain from sale to contract, leading to a lack of communication. “The traditional estate agency is full of empty and broken promises, and we are changing that trend,” says Vass.
TAUK agencies receive the lion’s share of the commission, varying between 60-70%. In the current environment, it takes an average of 19 weeks from quote submission to completion before moving day. The vast majority will demand ‘no sales, no fees’.
“That’s six to nine months before you get your paycheck,” says Vass, whose company implemented advanced commission in two phases to allay potential fears.
“As a business we know this is life-changing for agents and clients. It’s really the only style of estate agency where every stakeholder wins but people can’t afford to do it. Do we accept any older person who can sell a house or find a way to make it easier to enjoy all the benefits of being self-employed?”
By the end of the year, TAUK will have around 250 agents in England, Scotland and Wales since launch, with an annual revenue rate of over £10 million.
Vass is also part of the leadership team of Purplebricks and Rightmove (RMV.L) co-founders Kenny Bruce and Harry Hill. A series of rival acquisitions has strengthened shares of TAUK, one of the UK’s largest self-employment platforms, and part of its ‘buy to build’ strategy.
Steph Vass is still selling properties in her hometown and wants her agents to be ‘community champions’. ·Ian Morton
Vass says around 15 per cent of any homeowner will consider moving to their UK home at some point. “Only 2% of properties are available in the UK on Rightmove (RMV.L) or Zoopla. We need to open up the market, expand the audience and show people that the market doesn’t just move on. [those] portals.
“I would like every homeowner in every town and village in the UK to have the chance of being represented by a TAUK owner.”
Vass also continues to sell houses on the platform in his hometown of Aughton in Lancashire. It’s also quick to act, with a unique five-Michelin-star selling point in three restaurants on its doorstep.
Read more: How did bamboo make Cheeky Panda millions?
“I treat each of our agents as business partners,” he says of his colleagues. “You need to be a brilliant marketer, have a creative flair and get homes in front of the right people.
“About 50% of properties don’t get completed. You have to have nerves of steel and be a bit of a psychologist or therapist at times.
“It can be a very emotional time and I’ve probably discouraged people from becoming real estate agents. But there’s nothing better than handing over the keys to a new family.”
Read more:
Download the Yahoo Finance app you can use. Apple And Android
