Utterly Indispensable Podcast for Estate Agents

You’ve left employment, gone self-employed and started earning more. But what happens when you stop?

Have you built a business that can work without you, or does every pound still depend on your next instruction?

In this episode of The Utterly Indispensable Podcast for Estate Agents, I’m joined by David Lindley, former CEO of Fine & Country and now CEO of By Design, to explore the difference between being a successful agent and building a business with a future.

David explains how By Design’s licence model gives agents an exclusive territory and the opportunity to recruit their own team, supported by a shared premium brand.

But the conversation goes well beyond the model. We discuss:

David also shares why he walked away from a comfortable CEO role, the self-doubt behind starting again and why leadership, for him, means serving the people in his network.

Whether you run a traditional agency or work as a self-employed broker, this episode asks an important question: are you building something that will give you choices, or something that will always need you working in it?

If sellers think every estate agent does the same thing, why wouldn’t they choose the cheapest?

Before you spend another pound on advertising, you need a convincing answer.

In this episode of The Utterly Indispensable Podcast for Estate Agents, I’m joined by advertising specialist Gareth Melly to explore what makes an agency stand out, why that matters and how to turn that difference into business.

Gareth brings experience working with brands including Dyson, Rolex and Pepsi. Now, he’s applying that advertising background to estate agency through his business, David to Goliath.

We discuss:

We also challenge the assumption that customers will always prefer a human. If you can’t get an agent to call you back, would you really care who, or what, finally responds?

A practical conversation about giving people a reason to choose your agency, then making sure your marketing and service deliver on it.

Returning calls. Preparing properly for valuations. Following up with buyers. Doing what you promised.

Every estate agent knows these things matter. So why do so many businesses struggle to deliver them consistently?

In this episode of The Utterly Indispensable Podcast for Estate Agents, Rob Graves talks to Michelle Gallagher, Sales Director and co-owner of JDG Estate Agents, twice named Overall Winner at the EA Masters.

Michelle shares what getting the basics right actually looks like inside her business, from aiming to respond to enquiries within 30 minutes to making sure every valuer does their own preparation and calls the seller before the appointment.

We also explore:

An honest, lively conversation about turning good intentions into consistent service, and building an agency that gives clients a reason to choose you.

You’re selling houses. The team is busy. Money is coming into the bank. So why does it feel as though there’s nothing left?

I put that question to Paul Miller, an accountant who has spent over 30 years running his own business. We talk about the gap between turnover, profit and cash in the bank, and why owners can work harder and grow their revenue without becoming any better off.

Paul also challenges us to look at the work we spend our days doing. Are we making time for the decisions that improve the business, or filling every hour with tasks someone else could handle? And with agency fees often arriving months after a sale is agreed, what could we change to get paid sooner?

Paul is preparing to hand his own firm over to his son, so this isn’t just theory. It’s a conversation about knowing your numbers, protecting your profit and building a business that works beyond you.

Connect with Paul on LinkedIn.

What does it take to build an estate agency that sellers actively seek out?

In this episode, I’m joined by Lisa Curran, owner of Currans Unique, a family estate agency that has served Chester and the North West for more than 36 years.

Lisa explains how Currans evolved from a traditional lettings business into an aspirational three-branch brand, known for distinctive homes, exceptional marketing and a very different approach to selling property.

We discuss:

This is an honest conversation about playing the long game, protecting your standards and building an estate agency people genuinely want to instruct.

When Ric Dawson, CEO of Alto, last joined me on the podcast, Alto Intelligence had only just launched.

Five months later, AI has moved forward at a staggering pace, and so has Alto. But perhaps the most significant change isn’t simply what AI can do. It’s how we will interact with our CRM in the future.

CRM providers have spent years building powerful tools that many estate agents barely use. Not because the tools aren’t valuable, but because the systems are complicated, people work in different ways and, let’s be honest, most agents would rather get on with selling houses than learn another workflow.

AI could change that completely.

In this episode, Ric explains how Alto Intelligence 2.0 could replace endless screens, menus and clicks with a simple natural-language interface. Instead of learning how the CRM works, agents will be able to tell it what outcome they want, by typing or speaking, and let the system work out the most effective process.

We explore Alto’s new AI “skills”, intelligent property matching, automated sales progression and property management, and the ability for agents to build their own workflows simply by describing what they want to achieve.

We also discuss what this means for customer experience, data security, the broker model and the future role of people within estate agency.

The CRM has always had the tools. AI might finally enable agents to use them properly.

Robert May has spent much of his career spotting problems in the property industry before everyone else catches up.

He has influenced material information requirements, challenged unreliable property data, helped shape the technology that became Alto and built rummage4, which was later acquired by CoreLogic. Today, his attention is firmly on the next major shift: how AI will change property search and what estate agents must do to remain visible, relevant and valuable.

In this episode, Robert and I discuss why portal valuations can be dangerously misleading, how good agents distinguish between overvaluing and genuinely understanding a changing market, and why winning instructions means very little if those properties never complete.

We also explore contract-ready listings, material information, the absurdity of sales taking 19 weeks in an age of instant communication and how better preparation helped one agency increase its share of local completions from 19% to 37%.

Most importantly, Robert explains why he is no longer writing solely for humans. He is building the structured information that allows ChatGPT and other AI platforms to understand individual estate agents, their properties and the local expertise that makes them different.

Robert has also been incredibly generous with his time outside the podcast. When I need an honest view on property technology or data, he is my go-to person. He occasionally makes my brain hurt, but it is usually worth it.

Stephen Moss believes independent estate agencies are undervalued. So much so that Sourced Group expects to invest close to £10 million acquiring them by the end of the year.

But this isn’t simply about buying lettings books and bolting them onto a larger operation.

Through Sourced Living, Stephen is combining acquisitions with a franchise model that can fund 100% of the purchase for its franchisees. It’s an ambitious approach that has helped the network grow to more than 50 estate agency and lettings franchisees in just 18 months.

In this episode, Stephen shares his journey from taking a £10,000 pay cut to become a junior negotiator, to building a six-office agency with his dad, experiencing the consequences of the 2008 crash and ultimately creating Sourced Group, which now has more than 250 franchisees across property investment, finance, lettings and estate agency.

We discuss:

This is a conversation about building, buying and eventually selling businesses, and what the next wave of estate agency ownership could look like.

Connect with Stephen Moss on LinkedIn.

Buying another agency can rapidly accelerate growth. But agreeing the deal is only the beginning. What you do after completion can determine whether the acquisition delivers its potential or becomes an expensive mistake.

In this episode, I’m joined by Lucy Noonan, founder of Atomic Consultancy and an award-winning business broker specialising in the sale and acquisition of lettings and estate agency businesses.

Lucy brings extensive experience from across the acquisition process. She has worked as a corporate buyer, managed integrations and, through Atomic, helped complete more than 150 agency transactions.

I approach the subject from a different angle: as an independent agency owner who acquired and integrated several businesses, grew a substantial lettings portfolio and eventually sold the company.

Between us, we’ve seen acquisitions from very different perspectives, and we don’t agree on everything.

Lucy believes buyers should resist changing too much too quickly after completion. My own experience suggests there are times when decisive action is necessary, particularly while deferred consideration and attrition arrangements still provide some protection.

We also explore:

This isn’t a conversation where every opinion neatly agrees, and it is more useful because of that. If you’re considering buying, growing or eventually selling an agency, you’ll hear two experienced but sometimes differing perspectives on what makes an acquisition work.

Sales progression is taking up an extraordinary amount of estate agents’ time. But is all that chasing actually moving transactions forward?

In this episode, I’m joined by Natasha Candeias, founder of Property Progressors, who has grown her outsourced sales progression business from a one-woman operation into a team of 26 experienced progressors in just four years.

Natasha explains why effective sales progression is about far more than repeatedly asking solicitors for updates. It requires empathy, tenacity, strong processes and, most importantly, the ability to solve problems before they derail a transaction.

We discuss:

If you or your team are spending more time managing existing sales than creating the next ones, this episode will give you plenty to think about.