Heather Staff on building Street Group with her brother, how Spectre's AI predicts which homes will sell, and where AI genuinely helps agents versus where human judgement still wins.

Technology and AIEstate AgencyMarketing and Brand

EP 15 · Russell Quirk

Always Have a Plan B

Property commentator Russell Quirk on the collapse of his online agency eMoov, rebuilding with Proper PR, why failure is the path to success, the case for the self-employed agent who keeps most of the fee, and why you cannot digitise empathy.

EntrepreneurshipEstate AgencyMarketing and Brand

Quotes

Always have a plan B.

Russell Quirk · 14:55

Ross: Optionality is oxygen. Build the alternative before you need to breathe it.

Stop making excuses on fees and do something about it. Stop blaming everybody else.

Russell Quirk · 41:08

Ross: The fee debate ends when the service argument is won. That is the whole of Worth Every Penny.

If you're on seventy percent of the fee, you're financially bought in. So you're going to be better.

Russell Quirk · 45:06

Ross: Ownership of the outcome changes the standard of the work. Our Partner Agent model is built on exactly this.

You cannot digitise empathy.

Russell Quirk · 1:00:08

Ross: The most defensible skill in the industry costs nothing to practise.

Agents using the AI propensity to sell get a 340 percent uplift in ROI versus those that don't.

Heather Staff · 04:34

Ross: Data finds the doors worth knocking. The knock is still yours.

We'll get more highly skilled agents doing the higher value work: negotiating, empathy, face-to-face.

Heather Staff · 09:12

Ross: The future agent does fewer tasks and more judgement. That is a promotion, not a threat.

Offer applicants a tech-first experience, and when they become vendors, who are they going to choose?

Heather Staff · 1:00:22

Ross: Today's applicant is next year's vendor. Serve them accordingly.