What a glorious day for golf! #SheffieldChildrensHospital

Spencers Estate Agents and 

Mackenzie Spencer Corporate Solutions

What a great day we had (mainly because we didn't get soaking wet) at the golf day we helped to sponsor for the Sheffield Children's Hospital on Friday.

My brother and I have a great deal of love and respect for those at the Sheffield Children's as my niece has made a bit of a habit of hanging out there, so it was with great pride that we donated to help sponsor the day on Friday for the charity.

We would like to thank our guests who made it such fun and my special thanks to my new golf tutor Philip Prince, who may have a job for life!

Don’t hate the player….... #Spencers #Sheffield #TheAgentvTheSolicitorBlog

Hate the player do not…..

Training up new negotiators is always fun, but should “stand on your chair when speaking to a solicitor” really need to be in the teaching manual?

I hate the term “progress checking”, you may as well call it “ringing to irritate you”, as that is what everyone seems to think that it is, or certainly what it does. We have tried our best to wrap up this term in as many different packages as possible. “We are ringing to facilitate the sale”, “we are calling to try to help you”, “we are hoping that we can provide you with information that you might find useful”, “we are the only people who are willing to speak to all parties involved without charging by the minute”.

The general public think that selling a house is easy, all you do is find a buyer and the rest of the job is done by the solicitor. After they have sold their house, they will tell you that their sales negotiator was invaluable. The negotiator speaks to the seller, the buyer, the buyer’s solicitor, the seller’s solicitor, the mortgage advisor, the surveyor, the agents throughout the chain, the utility companies, the contractors instructed for quotes, the removal firms, the families … and so the list goes on. “How useful” I hear you cry, “to have access to all this information and to be available at the other end of a phone or an email”.

Let’s be honest, moving house can be quite stressful. Often people really don’t want to move or don’t want to have to sell. The three D’s unfortunately feature daily in our vocabulary (death, divorce and debt) and no one likes to hear someone in tears over their circumstances, it is actually heart-wrenching. But your sales negotiator will listen to all your woes, and all your worries, we will hold your hand throughout the process and will try our best to always offer impartial advice, always with your best interests at heart.

So, when we are ringing solicitors for an update, this is so that we can help our clients, but also so that we can help chase things along too. We are quite happy to pick up the phone to our clients to let them know that they need to do something, or to explain that they need to call by to sign a document, or to pay across their deposit. We are NOT just ticking boxes on our software to say that we have called a solicitor, we are genuinely looking for ways to make the process smoother and easier for all concerned. If you are a solicitor reading this, maybe bear in mind that we aren’t all just irritants, we can actually help you.

I will keep “stand on your chair when ringing a solicitor” in my training manual for now, but hope to be able to take it out in the future and replace it with “invite the solicitor out for coffee”. We are all human and all trying to get to the same goal, and it’s so much nicer if we can all have a pleasant time along the way. 

http://www.spencersestateagents.co.uk/team.aspx

Spencers are twenty years old! #thepartyROCKED

20 years! Good grief, where does time go?

 

Where were you in the Summer of 1993? I was just seventeen, had just passed my driving test, and was tee-total, which lasted until I was 24! My mum and dad had both been made redundant and decided that, with the money that they had received, they would set up the legacy that is Spencers Estate Agents....

A lot happened in 1993. It was the year that devastating news included the horrendous murders of James Bulger and Stephen Lawrence, and that saw the deaths of Audrey Hepburn, Pablo Escobar, and River Phoenix. 

Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" was the hit of the year and Jurassic Park was the movie box office top title. 

It was the year that the Football Premier League was born, and both Sheffield teams were in it! I may have to point out for Pop's pride that MUFC were of course champions, and for my own, that SWFC ended the season in 7th where SUFC  finished in 14th. Enough football already.

Bill Clinton was the oh-so charming President of the good old US of A, and the oh-no-not-so-charming Prime Minister was 50 Shades of Grey John Major.

The Maastricht Treaty meant that the EU was formally established, and the public were allowed into Buckingham Palace for the first time in history.

And one sunny day in the heart of the summer, in the centre of the Universe that is Ecclesall Road, a couple of ambitious spouses opened the doors to Spencers Estate Agents.....

Thank you so much to everyone that came to our birthday bash. We are very proud to call many of our clients our friends, and have the most loyal and dedicated staff. Hopefully, looking round over a glass of wine, mum and dad can feel incredibly blessed seeing the progress of their original dreams and know that the only way forwards is for us to hopefully, very proudly, follow in their footsteps.

Thanks so much also to Nonna’s who provided the rather sensational pizzas, to the best DJ in the world, Greg Robinson, and to Fancie for the SuperSpencers cakes.

Hopefully, in another 20 years time, my hologram blog will be projected to you, we will all be selling properties by teleporting clients round their dream properties, and we will all be charging 5% like our European counterparts….

Sign of a good night!! 

Spencers in Sheffield - on the brighter side of life!

At Spencers we believe in being positive. There is little point doom and glooming through life with your head down and your feet dragging. Fortunately, we finally think the rest of the world is starting to join us in our campaign for looking on the brighter side of life.

From the constantly depressing depths of the media to a general desire to be grumpy, we have seen people jumping on a band wagon of destruction for the property market. Borrowing has been difficult and prices have dropped but since the Diamond Jubilee the good old fashioned British spirit to brush ‘oneself’ off and to pick ‘oneself’ up seems to be prevailing. I don’t know if the sight of our poor Queen on that God-awful boat with the rain dripping down her cheeks was the turning point or not, I only care that the rest of the nation suddenly seem to be saying “sod it” and getting on with moving.

We have seen a good increase so far this year of instructions of very good properties, achieving very good prices from buyers who have got themselves into proceedable, organised positions, and we are putting part of the success down to our incredibly positive outlook as well as our new branding, which has had the most wonderful feedback.

In difficult times in business it is easy to think that the best thing to do is to batten down the hatches, spend little, and cut back; that is so last year! 2013 is our 20^th year at our offices on Ecclesall Road and the party is going to be epic. Our rental department has reopened and we are doing really well with wonderful clients flocking through the doors wanting to deal with good people in a local independent agency.

My dad, Jim Spencer, is still working with us and is currently learning social media expelling all myths that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, watch out for the blog. What we have learned from being independent is that honesty is key to the longevity of your good reputation. Our clients bring in cakes, cards, wine and most importantly “Thank you” messages every week to acknowledge that we care about doing the very best job for them to get them the most out of their transaction and their assets.

So, if you are looking for good old-fashioned honest advice with an opportunity to become a long-standing client and friend of ours we would be very excited to meet you to discuss why Spencers Estate Agents have been thriving for the last 20 years and intend to do so for the next 20 too. Thank you very much to all of our loyal clients, we really do appreciate your business. 

70 Year Dambuster Anniversary

The Dambusters 70 Year Anniversary

Oh! And an amazing property For Sale! 

16th May 2013 is the 70th anniversary of one of the most memorable operations of the Second World War. 617 Squadron flew in Operation Chastise, using the famous bouncing bomb to attack the industrial region of Germany and are now best known by the name of the film that dramatised these events -The Dambusters. 

The bouncing bomb was an ingenious invention by Sir Barnes Wallis that, in simplest layman's terms, backspun the bomb to make it bounce along the water, much like skimming stones. On the 16th May 1943, 19 Lancaster bombers carried a bomb each and had to fly at incredibly low levels, which was dangerously skillful and eight of the planes never returned. The date was specifically chosen as the pilots needed the light from the full moon to be able to reach such low flying levels, and it was seen as a "now or never" opportunity. 53 men of 617 Squadron lost their lives in the operation which took five attempts to breach the Moehne Dam. Wing Commander Guy Gibson then led the three remaining Lancasters to attack and breach the Eder Dam. Two other dams were attacked but not breached. 

You can donate to The Royal British Legion at http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/support-us/how-to-give or you can attend one of the commemorate events http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/remembrance/dambusters-70th/commemorative-events 

There will be a 70 year anniversary Lancaster flyover at Derwent Reservoir (the Ladybower Dam) on Thursday 16 May between 1300 and 1315 to commemorate this historic event, they will then fly on to Chatsworth for around 1320. 

Spencers Estate Agents in Sheffield are currently selling a fantastic farm house with barn conversion right on the Derwent reservoir. Have a look at the full details by clicking the link -  http://www.vebra.com/spencersestates/property/23900203

Spencers Agents would like to take this opportunity to pay our greatest respects to all our service men and women and to remember those who have lost their lives fighting in our honour.  

www.SpencersEstateAgents.co.uk 

Job in Sheffield Estate Agents

 Due to incredible success – Spencers need more staff!

Please drop your C.V. in Experience preferred 

Email Nicola@SpencersEstateAgents.co.uk or drop in at 469 Ecclesall Road, S11 8PP 

The World's Loveliest Testimonial @SpencersAgents #Sheffield

WOW! This Testimonial in today was so lovely that we couldn't help but share it. Thank you.  

"We just wanted to write and thank you and the team at Spencers for the amazing work when selling our home.

 

From the first meeting we could tell that Spencers seemed a lot more professional than other agents we had used in the past, James gave a great first account of your company and was respectful of our home while offering honest advice of areas we could improve things. Your whole team seem to have a refreshingly genuine interest in helping people sell their homes and their enthusiasm was contagious.

 

Immediately after listing my property with Spencers we knew we had made the right decision. The photos and marketing literature were outstanding,presented our home accurately while highlighting the best points well, and within a few days we had a diary full of viewings. Without Sally and Maggie keeping me organised with regular updates I would never have managed to keep track and after a week we had multiple offers on the table. You, Sally and Ben did sterling work achieving the best price for our home resulting in an offer above the asking price which we were of course delighted with.

 

If we had not been wowed enough at this point you all really earned your stripes after the sale was agreed with advice, phone calls to solicitors, buyers and surveyors to get everything completed in record time despite some fairly major problems along the way.

 

Lots of my friends have had very different experiences with their property purchases and all tell me how lucky we have been that ours went so smoothly, I point out that luck had nothing to do with it rather the good sense we had asking Spencers to help us sell our home.

 

Thanks to you all we are now settled into our new home and while I have absolutely no intention of moving for a long, long time, if we ever do decide to sell Spencers will be the first people we call."

www.SpencersEstateAgents.co.uk  

“Let Spencers change the future of Lettings”

“Let Spencers change the future of lettings”

Having recently joined Spencers Estate Agents Gemma Hynes  says the most appropriate two words for Spencers are “professional” and “innovative” and says that this especially relates to the eagerly anticipated opening of Spencers Rental department, which launches in April in our prestigious newly extended first floor offices at 463-469 Ecclesall Road.

Having worked in the highly demanding Leeds market for over eight years for one of the country’s most successful award winning Independent Estate Agents, Gemma knows plenty about the key to success in the property industry and remarked that Spencers “have it in abundance”. This is why when Gemma relocated back to her home town she knew that there was “only one estate agent for me”. 

Gemma says “the Directors and the team here have the enthusiasm and passion which sets them apart from the rest and will make Sheffield take note of how letting should be done. The plans for the future are not only exciting but aspirational and I am very honoured to be a part of this. We cannot wait for you all to see.”

For more details call Gemma or Nicola on 0114 2683682 or email them to pop in and see the fabulous show flat at their offices Nicola@SpencersEtateAgents.co.uk or Gemma@SpencersEstateAgents.co.uk