The Estate Agent and Letting Agency’s national award scheme (known as the Estas) is the largest and longest-running award scheme in the estate agent industry.
The Estas are unique because there is no judging panel of industry experts involved in selecting the winners. Instead, letting agents are judged by their landlords on the effectiveness of their property management process, so winners have the satisfaction of knowing they have been voted “the best” by their own customers.
Sue Gidney, owner of Swindon Home Finders, whose office is in Commercial Road, said she and her staff are hoping that as many of their landlords as possible will give them the thumbs up.
“It’s quite a tough competition, because for every landlord who doesn’t vote you actually get a negative vote, which cancels out one of the positive votes,” said Sue.
“But we think it’s a great way for landlords to provide confidential benchmarking date, and the landlords who vote for the winner will go into a draw to win £2,000.”
Phil Spencer, who presents Channel 4’s Location, Location, Location property programme, said: “I’ve been involved with the scheme for six years now and absolutely believe it to be the most relevant in the current market. The fact that customers are the judges and they determine the winners makes the awards unique. The customers are the ones who experience the service levels of the agents on a daily basis, so they are in a unique position to assess their performance.”
Paper questionnaires must be returned and received by 12 noon on 1st February 2010, but online votes can be completed up to 5pm on 19th February 2010. To vote, go to http://www.estateagentoftheyear.com/vote.html .
The competition will culminate in the most prestigious awards ceremony in the industry in Mayfair, London, on 15th April 2010, when Phil Spencer will present the much-coveted Esta to the winning letting agent.
