Category: Listings

When the market has slowed down, winning an instruction can be half the battle. Keeping that listing and delivering results is where the real challenge begins.

One of the biggest threats to agents today is touting—when rival agencies attempt to poach your listings by undermining your efforts or luring vendors away with unrealistic promises. 

 
So, how can you protect your hard-earned instructions and maintain your pipeline? Here are practical steps every estate agent can take to reduce the risk of touting and keep their clients engaged and loyal. 

1. Understand Why Touting Happens 

Before you can tackle the problem, it’s important to know why touting is so common. In hot or slow markets, the pressure to win new listings can push agents to cut corners or overpromise. Vendors, especially those who feel neglected or uninformed, may be easily tempted by flashy promises or reduced fees from competitors. 

The key takeaway? If you’re not actively nurturing your relationship with a seller, someone else might be

Tip: if your listing has been on the market for 6 weeks, update the main image with a dusk shot and let your vendor know you’re actively prioritising their property. 

2. Build Strong Vendor Relationships 

At the heart of any long-lasting instruction is trust. Make sure your sellers feel valued and in the loop. That means: 

• Regular communication: Don’t wait for them to ask for updates—be proactive. 
• Set expectations: Explain timelines, marketing efforts, and next steps from day one. 
• Be transparent: If there’s a slowdown in interest, say so. If you’re adjusting strategy, explain why. 

When vendors feel informed and reassured, they’re much less likely to be swayed by outside interference. 

3. Showcase Your Value at Every Stage 

You might be working hard behind the scenes—but if your client doesn’t see it, it may not count in their eyes. That’s why it’s essential to: 

• Present listings professionally with high-quality photos, floorplans, and descriptions – PropertyBox can certainly help you here! 
• Highlight your marketing efforts across portals, email campaigns, social media, and more. 
• Demonstrate results: frequently update your clients by sharing viewings booked, feedback from buyers, and market insights. 

Visibility is a powerful antidote to doubt. 

Tip: create a social media campaign and share this with your vendor. You can do this before the property is live with a “coming soon” campaign, when it goes live with a “now available” campaign or after it’s been live for a while with a “price reduction” campaign.

4. Use Technology to Stay One Step Ahead 

Smart tools can make a big difference in how you protect and promote your listings. For example: 

• Use your CRM to schedule timely follow-ups and track communication history.
• Platforms like PropertyBox can enhance your property marketing, making it faster and easier to produce professional assets that stand out – try it for free today!  
• Automate vendor updates to show them exactly what’s being done to market their property. 

5. Monitor and React to Touting Tactics 

Keep an ear to the ground. If a vendor tells you they’ve been approached by another agent, don’t panic. Stay calm, and: 

• Reassure them by restating the work you’ve done and your current strategy.
• Share performance data—views, click-throughs, enquiries—to show tangible progress.  
• Be honest if things need adjusting. Acknowledging and improving is far more powerful than being defensive. 

Showing composure under pressure builds confidence. 

6. Protect Your Reputation 

Touting can be aggressive and unprofessional. You don’t need to stoop to that level to win. What you should do instead: 

• Continue to deliver excellent service. 
• Ask happy clients for reviews to build social proof. 
• Maintain a consistent and recognisable brand presence in your local area and online 

Tip: make sure all of your listings look great and highlight your brand by having great looking property photos with your logo consistently visible in the corner.  

When sellers see you as the professional, trustworthy choice, they’re less likely to entertain other offers. 

7. Educate Your Clients 

Sellers don’t always understand what’s involved in marketing a property. They may assume switching agents is a quick fix. 

It’s your job to explain: 

• The investment of time, money, and resources that’s already gone into the listing.
• The potential delays or confusion that can come with switching agents.  
• How your current marketing strategy is designed to get them the best result—not just the fastest. 

When clients feel informed, they make better decisions—and are more likely to stick with you. 

Final Thoughts

Touting isn’t going away, but it doesn’t have to be a threat to your business. The best defence is a strong vendor relationship, visible value, and consistent communication. 

By putting the right processes and tools in place (like PropertyBox), you can stay one step ahead—and ensure your listings stay exactly where they belong: with you. 

Want to protect your instructions with better property marketing? Discover how PropertyBox can help you deliver standout listings, faster. 

Jessica Peckett

A data-driven creative, Jessica is a passionate marketer experienced in bringing brands to life on the global stage. With a focus on fostering exceptional customer and employee experiences, she is committed to excite,  engage and empower both in a positive and productive manner. Ultimately, Jessica cares about using marketing and technology to see PropertyBox build long-lasting relationships with customers and employee alike, so that they see real value add from both a professional and personal perspective.

As technology advances, data protection for estate agents is becoming increasingly important.

Estate agents have a responsibility to safeguard sensitive information in visual content like photos and virtual tours.  
 
So, what should you be mindful of, and how can you make privacy protection in visual content easier? 

This blog post will explore the importance of data protection, the risks associated with neglecting it, and practical solutions to ensure compliance. 

Understanding Data Protection in Visual Property Content 

When creating property listings, agents should identify and protect personal data that might be captured in images or video. This includes: 

Family Photos: Ensure these are removed or blurred to prevent revealing a client’s identity, or other sensitive information 

Personal Belongings and Documents: Mail, photos, documents or other identifiable items should not be visible in listing photos or videos. 

Vehicle Registrations: Blur or remove vehicle registrations to protect client privacy. 

Neighbouring Properties: Be mindful of capturing identifiable features of neighbouring properties to respect their privacy too. 

Security information: Although harder to detect, be mindful of capturing where clients’ keys are kept or other details that could pose a threat to clients’ safety. 

The Growing Importance of Data Protection for Estate Agents 

The threat of data theft is escalating, with technology advancing rapidly. 
 
For instance, there has been an 84% rise in digitally-driven property fraud targeting homeowners and landlords.

This is a notable trend across every industry, and one that real estate is certainly not immune to.

But why should agents care? 

Why Should Agents Care about Data Protection? 

The consequences of failing to protect client data can be severe:

1. Fines

Mismanagement of client data can warrant fines of up to £17.5 million or 4% of annual turnover, whichever is greater.

Although this is more commonly associated with the management of personal data held on record rather than visual content infringements, this shows the seriousness with which data protection is treated. 

2. Damaged Reputation

Loss of client trust can be irreparable.

A client is unlikely to trust you to sell or rent their most valuable asset if you don’t take their privacy and security seriously. 

Negative experiences regarding something as serious as a data breach or fraud can spread particularly quickly by word of mouth, or in the media. After everything you have done to build your brand, the last thing you want or need is for your brand to be associated with a scandal.

3. Client Legal Action

Clients may pursue legal action if their data is mishandled, resulting in both fees and reputational damage. 

How to Protect Client Data 

Protecting client data in visual content may sound daunting, but there are actionable ways you can make this easier: 

Educating Teams: Ensure all your agents and team members understand the importance of data protection in visual content and their role in it. 

Pre-shoot Preparation: Make your life easier by preparing properties before photography by removing personal items, sensitive documents, and checking for any security risks. 

Cautious Use of Third-Party Providers: Ensure any third-party services used adhere to data protection standards. 

Automation Tools: Utilise tools like PropertyBox, which would automatically blur private information, protecting your vendor or landlord as well as yourself. This allows for sensitive information to be blurred automatically, reducing the need for manual preparation and minimising errors.

Conclusion

In conclusion, protecting client data in property listings is not just a legal requirement but a crucial aspect of maintaining your hard-won trust and reputation. 

Ensure your team understands what needs to be protected, and why. Then implement effective solutions (like PropertyBox) to make your life easier.

Remember, it’s not just about compliance; it’s about genuinely caring for your clients and your brand’s reputation. 

Eleanor Keech

Eleanor has worked in content creation across various industries, including tech, beauty, and fitness. She is excited to support both existing and potential BoxPros through content that will help them enhance their property marketing.

Often, estate agents focus on the visual aspects of their property listings, consequently overlooking the importance of well-crafted property descriptions. 

Whilst property photos and floorplans remain the most viewed part of a property listing, descriptions still play a valuable role in providing a comprehensive overview.

Interestingly, Property Academy’s Home Mover Survey found that:

• 90% of buyers and 89% of renters said quality photos were “important” when searching for a property
• Similarly, 95% of buyers and 87% of renters indicated floor plans were “important” for them.

…But, when it came to property descriptions, these numbers were even higher, with 91% of buyers and 94% of renters describing them as “important.”

So, to help your estate agency enhance its property descriptions, here are our top seven tips and tricks:

1. Create a checklist

Create a checklist before heading to the property. This should detail all the info you need to get while you’re there. 

This helps you feel more organised and boost your efficiency too. After all, the one thing you want to avoid is visiting the property more than once, as it slows down the overall sales process.

2. Use your local knowledge

As an agent, you will undoubtedly have extensive knowledge of the local area and the benefits of buying, selling or renting a property there. 

Use these insights to add relevant information to your descriptions, such as details about nearby schools, transport links, and other local highlights. 

Not only does this information demonstrate that you’re a trusted agent, but it also adds a personal touch to the description.

3. Tailor descriptions to your audience

When writing property descriptions, it’s crucial to consider your target audience. I.e., who are you trying to entice with this information?

This means establishing the type of person who might purchase/rent the property and catering the description so it resonates with them. 

For example, if your property is suitable for families, it would be crucial to mention how many bedrooms and bathrooms the property has. It would also be wise to highlight the closest schools and parks. 

These details make it easier for potential customers to picture themselves living in their new home, which goes a long way to securing more relevant leads.

4. Highlight unique selling points

Always highlight the property’s unique selling points. For example, incentives such as “Help to Buy” and short contracts are often available to buyers and renters and should be mentioned in the property description. These sorts of positives could push the sale over the line.

5. Keep descriptions concise and clear

We all know prospective buyers or renters only skim-read property descriptions to pick out key information.

Focus on brevity and avoid excessive jargon or details that detract from the property’s key features.

Also, always use sentence case and avoid excessive capitals. Trying to highlight too many features can make it harder for the reader to engage with the listing.

6. Use keywords

Make sure you use common keywords searched for on property portals, like “open plan”, “garden”, or “south-facing” in your listings. This should help them appear in more searches.

7. Embrace generative AI

In 2023, AI is taking the world by storm, and the property industry is no exception. 

As you know, producing high-quality property descriptions for each listing is time-consuming, which is why more and more agents are utilising AI software to speed up this process. 

It’s important to remember that you’ll have the most success using generative AI for your property descriptions when you use accurate and effective prompts.

Property Academy’s Mover Survey shows there is plenty of potential for estate agents to differentiate themselves on high-quality property descriptions that provide quality information to prospective buyers or renters. More specifically, they found that only 31% of buyers rated the accuracy of property descriptions as “Excellent” and 43% as “Good”. 

By implementing our seven recommendations, agents can take their descriptions to the next level and generate greater interest in their properties.

Introducing auto-generated AI descriptions

If you’re interested in generative AI to fuel your property descriptions, PropertyBox uses cutting-edge AI technology to generate property descriptions in seconds, saving you hours of manual work. 

Subscribe to any Starter or Pro plan for free to experience our brand-new auto-generated AI descriptions. 

PS. You’ll also benefit from our game-changing AI property photo enhancements, and floorplan redraws too!

The market outlook heading into the start of this year is certainly calmer. But with Zoopla reporting a ‘Boxing Day boost’ with a 42% increase in new listings compared to the same day in 2021 and Rightmove reporting a 20% jump in the number of buyer views, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic heading towards the spring selling season.

There will be big gains for agents who are willing to go the extra mile to ensure their listings stand out on the portals and win the click. Not only will professional-looking visual content help agents sell quickly and for the highest price, it will ensure they’re front of mind of prospective sellers too.

1. Professional photo enhancements will provide all the benefits of professional quality property photography, without the price tag. PropertyBox’s easy to use, instant photo enhancing tool provides blue sky replacement, vertical correction, brightness adjustment, shadow boosting and colour enhancement, with beautiful quality, professionally enhanced photos returned within seconds.

2. Professional floor plans help agents generate more leads, increase buyer interest and build a reputation for high-quality property marketing. Within just a couple of hours, a simple hand drawn sketch will be converted into a professional looking 2D plan, customised in the agent’s style, colours and branded with their logo, enabling them to benefit from up to 30% more enquiries from buyers and tenants.

3. Clutter-free photos help agents get the perfect shot by airbrushing eyesores such as wheelie bins, shampoo bottles, kitchen clutter and For Sale boards from property photos. Simply highlight any objects that need removing using an online pen, with an adjustable brush size for ease of use, then relax as our AI-driven Object Removal tool instantly airbrushes the eyesore and seamlessly backfills the space to march with the surroundings.

4. Estate agency branding on photos and floorplans helps agents grow their brand online and highlight their commitment to property marketing excellence. The online equivalent of a street full of For Sale boards, ensuring branding is clearly visible on the portals allows agents to promote their business and show potential sellers how much they care about the quality of their listings.

5. Upload between 8 and 15 photos when adding new listings to your website and the portals. This optimum number helps agents attract attention to the property and move a potential buyer onto the next step by making an enquiry. Between 8 and 15 high quality professional-looking photos will show off the listing to its full potential and give buyers plenty of information, but also leave them wanting more.

Are you ready to get started?