Getting work from Estate & Letting Agents

The Problems new DEA’s face getting work from Estate & Letting Agents?

Most Domestic Energy Assessors enter the business from enrolling and completing a Diploma with a Training Agency.  The advertisements from the Training Agencies are in our national & local newspapers proclaiming the myth that large amounts of cash can be made from the thousands of houses and flats needing to be sold through out the UK.

It is true that people are always buying & selling houses, however the problems for DEAs is who controls the decision making and who is performing EPC certificates for them before you even decide to ask them for jobs? Entering the market is swamped with problems, especially dealing with all the Estate & Letting Agents in your own area. It is case of too many fools rushing in, when patience and guidance from this website can save you time and money.

From the wisdom of three DEAs in different areas including my own experience in North Yorkshire, where I believe the problems of finding work enters into several areas:

• National or Local Estate Agency chains
• Local Letting Agent tactics
• Staff Indecision – must obtain HQ decision
• National EPC Providers with sales teams
• Too Many DEAs in One Town
• Unknown Assessor – do we trust YOU!
• Time to grow slowly by local advertising
• £200 fine if you disclose an EPC to all the public

When dealing with a chain of estate agents the problems faced are often that these chains are able to gain Government training grants to improve their business and one way to improve is simply to select someone to go on a course who works for them as a DEA / Estimator. Another method is to employ a DEA as a company figurehead and use them, not as paid professionals, but salaried staff to keep the profits in the company chain.

Most Letting Agents are local and need a local DEA who can do an EPC certificate for landlords as cheap as possible. My own experience with one student letting agency was that he wanted a cut price deal with £10 cash in his hands! You might think what the problem is – well if you do a £35 EPC and hand them £10 a tax free gift!  You loose money TWICE! 

You provide a cheap price and pay tax on the whole £35, rather than the £25 in your pocket! Another think to consider is they charge the customer a higher price than quoted to you and what you get paid, so these sharks keep the difference twice – you even give them a tax free bonus on top of their exploited profits, which should build up your own new business!!

Honest too many DEAs are cutting each others throat and taking a smaller and smaller price on every EPC and the Letting Agents who operate this practice are reaping the profits that DEAs should make to survive this Credit Crunch by staying wise – simply say No!

When a new DEA enters the doors of these High Street Shops presents his business card and brochure, it is common to ask for the Director / Manager and state how you can help them. One DEA in Seaford told me that staff indecision and having to contact HQ for a decision wasted him nearly one month of his time & money. Repeated in several shops a new DEA can waste valuable time better placed in growth assessment and future expansion.

National Energy Performance Cerficate Providers have entered the market place with sales teams targeting the big chains and several letting agents. I was approached to work for them and accepted. You gain the whole fee and pick up keys from there client, the Letting Agent and email back to the National EPC Provider the EPC. You get paid every so much time and it seems alright, providing more business is developed. It will be a slow step in the right path, not a quick trip to riches. It is best treated as another client, rather than mass sales.

Too many DEAs in one area is fatal for all, I know two DEAs who have gone bankrupt. Why? Simply cut throat tactics cause new DEAs to believe a small amount of cash per job is better than having to advertise locally – so each one gets less and less until you are better off cleaning dishes in a hotel!  A new DEA is better checking the register at LandMark to find out how many DEAs operate in London or Manchester and then move to a small market town.

A further problem is everyone is unknown as a DEA to begin in this business and so many crooks and con men have taken money by deceit that really the general public is worried! You must have a website that proudly proclaims that you carry Police approved ID on every visit and that you have passed a CRB check and display publicly a certificate with no convictions. Early publicity of DEA work before Accreditation Schemes entered into our lives had convicted con men in London making a fortune from EPC assessments that were overpriced, dishonest assessments on houses and flats to higher grade EPCs for fat fees.

A time to grow slowly must be planned from the beginning of your business after all most businesses struggle for the first two years. Any well planned business must NOT take out wages at all, or very small wages from any growing business until after initial growth has developed, otherwise it will collapse. Even several jobs per week from a contact cannot be relied on as an established income because it can cease trading or worse if you have foolishly accepted delayed payments – you will NOT get months of EPC payments back to your business that have cost you lodgement fees, petrol, time and lost revenue!

I have heard that one new DEA who produced a EPC sold it to her client and then proudly produced it to show to everyone as a sales aid, not realising that a £200 fine makes it illegal to speak about, or show an Energy Performance Certificate to anyone, but the client or legal authorities.

Most DEAs are proud to be DEAs and produce good work whilst waiting for an up turn in our economy. My advice is for DEAs not to destroy each other, but work together, compare notes on estate & letting agents and work out a common survival plan to aid us all in our common business.