How a Land & New Homes team paved the way for success

Nicol & Co are a traditional, independent estate agency located in Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire, in the heart of the West Midlands.

They love their local area just as much as the clients they serve, and are dedicated to providing a wide variety of services with a level of integrity and honesty that sets them apart.

• Already a successful estate agency
• Have been in the market for 11 years
• Using LandInsight since 2017

Nicol & Co's traditional, friendly approach to customer service helped them succeed in the estate agent market, so they wondered if they could bring it to other revenue streams too.

They’d been speaking to a group of industry professionals who were advocating for land and new homes teams. It seemed like the exact opportunity that Nicol & Co were looking for, so they decided to invest in LandInsight after it was recommended to them. And boy – are they glad they did.

Luke is a Land and Development Consultant at Nicol & Co, and he has LandInsight open all day, every day.

From finding new land for developers, offering information to local hopefuls, and giving accurate valuation data to Nicol & Co's sales team, he's a pretty busy guy. Here are some of the features that deliver the biggest results for his work.

Whether it's land he's sourcing or homes he's selling, the comparables layer is an invaluable tool for Luke.

It allows him to compare local sold prices (in actual figures and £/sqft) faster than ever, so due diligence is easier and more effective.

This means Luke's clients get a great deal when they're buying, and better returns when they're selling.

Having lots of data at your fingertips is great. Easily being able to share it with people is better.

Using LandInsight's site reports feature, Luke can create reports that are tailored to the needs of his property-developer clients. They include data like ownership information, planning history, and local £/sqft values all in a few clicks. And he can change the design and add Nicol & Co's logos on them too.

Now, he doesn't just approach developers about new opportunities – his data is so good, they approach him for information.

Having proactive ownership alerts set up means that Luke gets automatically updated whenever sites he's following change hands.

That means he can react in the best way possible – maybe by ruling the site out, or maybe by jumping on a new opportunity. But either way, he gets insights sent straight to his inbox without having to lift a finger.

Plus, he gets the details of the new owners so he can even get in touch and offer his services, leading to a potential payday in his future. Now that's what we call efficient.

Nicol & Co jumped into land and new homes, and started getting results almost immediately.

So much so, in fact, that in 2017 they became a founding member of the Land & New Homes Network – a group being set up by some pretty highly-regarded industry specialists. Nicol & Co could share their experience, and learn from all the other members too, helping everyone to grow even faster.

And what tool do the Land & New Homes Network recommend? LandInsight of course.
Nicol & Co have grown their land and new homes team hugely over the last three years. And they show no signs of slowing down.

In the last month, Luke and the team instructed on over £75,000 worth of fees. And in their latest campaign, they closed on a land deal worth over £2 million – and they're getting in on the resale of the new homes, too. It really is a win-win.

Despite Nicol & Co's small size and location in the heart of the West Midlands, they're competing nationally with the biggest agents in the UK. And they're more than proving that they've got what it takes.