There is a growing trend in parts of the property industry to take a hands-off approach to selling. Homes are listed online, pushed across social media, and positioned as if visibility alone will do the work. For some agents, this has become the entire strategy. The belief is simple: get it online, let the portals do the talking, and assume buyers will come in their own time.
The problem is that this style of passive selling is slowing the market, particularly in the upper quartiles. It creates unnecessary drag, it removes urgency, and it ignores the truth that homes do not sell themselves. They need leadership. They need proactive management. And they need agents who will actually do the work.
That is not a strategy. That is gambling, and gambling is not estate agency.
That is not a strategy. That is gambling, and gambling is not estate agency.
An ‘idle’ Problem
Across Greater Glasgow and the West of Scotland, the difference in performance is becoming increasingly stark. Corum is consistently weeks quicker than our nearest competitor to secure an offer, with our average sitting at 24 days. More importantly, we are as much as a month quicker to conclude. In a world where mortgage offers last six months, and where a buyer’s situation can change with little warning, that time advantage matters. It protects deals. It reduces fallen-through sales. It keeps momentum on the seller’s side and buyers feeling reassured to proceed.
The gap becomes even more pronounced at the million pound level. Sellers working with our two key competitors are typically on the market for an extra month and waiting a more than two months longer to conclude – frankly, that’s shocking indictment and it is little wonder that the number of collapsed sales among these agents is so high. That is not a strategy. That is gambling, and gambling is not estate agency.
Just for the record – these figures aren’t a secret, but equally you don’t hear them in most pitches.
The Elephant In The Room
There is also a rather large elephant sitting in the room: overpricing from the outset. It satisfies the pitch, but it sabotages the sale. It introduces hesitation. It deters motivated buyers. It extends time on market. It tilts the balance of power towards the buyer rather than the seller, and, notably, it almost always leads to a series of uncomfortable reductions that do nothing but devalue the home. The irony is that sellers are often told this is evidence of “strategy” and “how the market is right now” rather than a problem created by the agent’s lack of nous in the first place.
“There is no acceptable reason for failed sales to be so commonplace.”
“There is no acceptable reason for failed sales to be so commonplace.”
Sellers Should Expect More In a Market Like This
When you combine overpricing with passive selling, the results are predictable. Longer timescales. Weaker offers. Slower conclusions. Higher fall-throughs. And a market that feels less efficient than it truly is. The reality is that the Greater Glasgow and Ayrshire markets remain healthy, liquid, and full of qualified buyers. There is no acceptable reason for failed sales to be so commonplace.
As with many aspects of estate agency, we take a different approach because we believe leadership drives the market forward. Our team spend more time on the phone than they do watching for portal alerts. They speak to buyers directly, match them to properties, and build relationships that allow us to act quickly when the right home appears. Our databases are not window dressing. They are active tools. When we launch a property, we already know who is likely to be interested, who has missed out before, and who is in a position to move. That speed of connection translates into speed of sale.
It is this hands-on approach that explains why our fallen-through figures set the benchmark. Deals complete because they are managed properly. They complete because we do not wait for interest; we create it. They complete because the momentum we build from the moment of instruction carries through to conclusion.
Standards Maketh The Agent
Passive selling may be the industry trend, but it is not in the best interest of sellers. It is not what the middle and upper ends of the market requires. And it is certainly not what premium estate agency should look like. The market moves fastest when the agent takes control and shows leadership. The evidence is clear; when the work is done properly, the results follow.