Having begun his career in estate agency over 30 years ago, Stephen Brown has become a respected name in the industry, providing training and consultancy to property professionals. Not only is he a knowledgeable agent, he is also a huge advocate for supporting charitable causes, including his Computers for Schools project and more recently, Markers for Mindfulness. Listen to this episode to understand Stephen's motivations as well as gain some helpful tips on negotiation.

With parts B and C of the Disclosure of Material Information regulation coming into effect late last year for sales and lettings agents across the UK, we caught up with Guy Welfare from National Trading Standards for some clarity on what this means moving forward. Iain McKenzie asks Guy questions such as, 'how should agents communicate these changes to buyers and sellers?' 'How are the portals preparing?' 'What is classed as material information?' Listen now to find out all this and more.

Almost 15 years ago Erica and Lewis Tandy were considering moving home to be near good local schools, in the process they discovered a gap in what estate agents could offer buyers. They began developing something that showed schools on a map, with information at a glance about their Ofsted report ratings and exam results. Today, Locrating is much more than just a map as Ben Sellers discovers...

On Friday, 22 March 2024, The Guild of Property Professionals hosted its highly anticipated annual Guild Conference and Awards at the QEII Centre in Westminster, London. Under the theme ‘Sharing Success,’ the full-day conference brought together innovative and passionate Guild Members alongside industry pioneers for an event exclusive to The Guild's network. Listen to Iain McKenzie, CEO of The Guild, and Holly Hibbett, PR and Social Exec for The Guild, look back on the day as well as hearing interviews from Members on their successes.

Anna Clare Harper, CEO at GreenResi.com and podcast host herself, joins Iain McKenzie this week to look at some of the challenges the Private Rental Sector and investors are facing with the race to net-zero by 2050 and other factors limiting supply. With 14% of emissions coming from homes, what impact have changes to EPC gradings in recent years had on the sector? Should housing really be the political football it is? Find out in this episode.

The first guest to join host Ben Sellers on The Home Stretch: Tech is Ian Preston. As Director at Greenhouse OS and Founder of Preston Baker, Ian has seen his fair share of innovation and transformation in property technology over the years. In this episode Ben and Ian discuss some of the key changes they have experienced as well as discovering some of the driving forces of Ian's many entrepreneurial endeavours.

With the Women in Estate Agency Conference fast approaching, we caught up with Liana Loporto Browne, Founder of the Women in Estate Agency Facebook Group and Owner at Loporto Browne Residential, to delve into some of the decisions that lead her to be the business person she is today. Listen to Liana tell Iain McKenzie about her career beginning on the island of Malta at 19 years old through to her current role as a trailblazing entrepreneur alongside her husband, Oliver.

We welcome Kevin Ellis to the podcast today to make an announcement on a new collaboration between The Guild and Land and New Homes Network for 2024 that Iain McKenzie has been excited to reveal to Members and the industry...

Join us for a new feature on The Home Stretch, as Ben Sellers takes to the microphone on the first Friday of each month to offer us an insight into the world of technology all while making it relevant to the day to day running of your estate and letting agency business. For the first episode in the series, Ben introduces Canva, a creative tool which is making use of AI to enhance social media posts in just a few clicks.

On this episode of The Home Stretch, Iain McKenzie is joined by Malcolm Prescott, Managing Director, and Karlie Baker-Kidwell, Digital and marketing manager of Webbers Estate Agents to celebrate 100 years in business. Words such as trail-blazer and pace-maker have often been used to describe Webbers during the past century and today we delve into some of the reasons Malcolm believes the agency has stood the test of time.

With the first two weeks of 2024 seemingly offering a more positive outlook for the property market, we asked data-analyst, Anthony Codling, and stat-mad, Chris Watkin, to join us on the podcast to look at the figures behind the sentiment. Listen as Anthony provides insight on how 2023 ended and his predictions for the rest of this year, and Chris offers his advice to agents operating in the current climate.

In the the first episode of 2024 in The Home Stretch podcast, Iain McKenzie is joined by Annabel Goulden, Head of KnowYourMarket, to dive into the world of mystery shopping and its transformative impact on the property sector. They look at the behind-the-scenes operations of KnowYourMarket and the importance of using mystery shopping results not just for assessment but as a catalyst for implementing positive change and, ultimately, fostering growth within companies.

Join Iain McKenzie and Chris Watkin on the final episode of 2023 as they look at the real stats behind the Boxing Day Bounce as they help agents to understand whether to get on board with the marketing ploy or not. They also look into transactional data and house price figures for 2023 as well as looking to the future to predict what 2024 might look like for the property market.

In the latest episode of The Home Stretch podcast, Ben Madden, Director at Fine & Country Chiswick, Fulham and Teddington, joined Iain McKenzie, to discuss the steps his team are taking to become ‘the number-one estate on the planet’ from improving culture, to being more proactive day-to-day.

Season three of The Home Stretch podcast kicks off with a bang as Tim Bannister, Director of Property Science and Innovation at Rightmove, reveals the latest data for the UK property market after a somewhat subdued August. Listen now to hear which factors Tim feels has impacted the market over the past few months and why the data shows postive developments on the horizon.

Nicola Broomham believes that estate agency has become a marketing industry over a sales industry in recent years and her experience in recruitment has shown her that candidates are chosing to work for agencies whose value mirror that of their own. Listen to her recent conversation with Iain McKenzie on The Home Stretch to find out how it all started for Nicola, and why she is striving to improve the industry for the next generation of estate agents.

Ian Crampton, Director at Ferndown Estates in Birmingham, opened his estate agency 20-years ago in 2003 with his father, John. Since then they have gone on to see many changing markets and have even scooped some awards along the way, including Gold for the Letting Agent (Landlord) in West Midlands at The ESTAS 2023 and Gold for Sales in The Guild Awards 2023. As the exclusively chosen Guild Member in Marston Green, Ian spoke to Iain McKenzie about his experiences in the area as well as introudicing the inaugural Sanjay Cup Golf Tournament.

As a Director at deverellsmith, a spokesperson for the industry and the Chair of Women in Residential Property, Nicola Broomham has a lot in her diary! Iain McKenzie caught up with Nicola recently to discuss how her role in Women in Residential Property is helping her to make improvements within the industry through regional representatives and collaborative thinking.

With AI dominating the tech space headlines, Iain McKenzie invited Ben Sellers, Co-Founder at Digital Marketing specialists, Starberry, on to The Home Stretch podcast to delve deeper into 'machine learning'. Listen as Ben helps us to understand which tools agents can utilise day-to-day in order to become more efficient and keep up with the fast-moving 'AI train'.

On this week's episode of The Home Stretch podcast, Compliance Officer for The Guild of Property Professionals, Paul Offley speaks to Oliver Wharmby, Client Director at Mint Insurance Brokers about the rise in Professional Indemnity insurance claims, as well as the cyber security risks estate and lettings agents face.