MOV8 Real Estate Celebrates 8th Birthday
This month MOV8 Real Estate celebrates a very special birthday. Eight years ago MOV8 opened its doors for the very first time. Since then the company has experienced highs and lows and gone from strength to strength, now selling more property than any other ESPC solicitor estate agent in Edinburgh and the Lothians.
MOV8 Timeline
June 2007 – MOV8 Real Estate is born
September 2007 – MOV8 Real Estate opens its doors for the first time
April 2008 – First effects felt of property market crash
September/October 2008 – Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy, RBS and Lloyds Banking Group nationalised, global financial crisis ensues
January 2010 – Fixed Fee model launched
November 2011 – Birth of MOV8 Financial
April 2013 – Corstorphine branch opens
June 2013 – Robert shortlisted for JCI’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award
December 2013 – MOV8 reached 100 property sales for the first time
September 2014 – ‘Project Yang’ launch – Clients now pay estate agency fees at end of process
October 2014 – Shortlisted for Business Insider’s Employer of the Year Award
December 2014 – Launch of Corporate Social Responsibility program
January 2015 – Newington branch opens
January 2015 – Shortlisted for Scottish Legal Awards Community Contribution and Employer of the Year Awards
June 2015 – MOV8 helps Corstorphine Primary School’s ‘Project Play’ smash their £10,000 fundraising target
September 2015 – MOV8 celebrates 8 years in business
Where it all began
MOV8 Real Estate is the brainchild of Robert Carroll. Robert started life as a solicitor, working in corporate and criminal law in Edinburgh and Glasgow. However, it wasn’t too long before Robert realised he wanted to be doing something else with his talents.
With a passion for marketing and advertising, and feeling that estate agency had developed into an old-fashioned, ‘money for old rope’ industry in the east of Scotland, Robert knew he wanted to do something different with MOV8. Customer service and value were to be the cornerstones of the company, combined with honesty, a level of transparency and an appetite for continous innovation.
The business began brightly, employing some 15 agents and staff within the first few months, covering Edinburgh and the Lothians, West Lothian and Glasgow. It was all going swimmingly, then…
The property crash
About six months after MOV8 was born, the unthinkable happened – a UK-wide property market crash and global recession. As a young company that had borrowed to get off the ground, the company had to make some serious changes and painful decisions.
However, sometimes necessity can be the mother of invention and this tough time forced Robert to look again at the property sales market and question whether the prevailing estate agency model really served the customer as well as it could. The answer, seemingly, was ‘no’.
The solution to this was simple, but a complete game-changer: a Fixed Estate Agency fee, with a simple menu of services that property sellers could select depending on their needs.
The new structure was an instant hit. Over the years, the system has been tweaked, but the fundamental principle remains: one, transparent, fixed estate agency fee with any additional charges clearly explained combined with friendly customer service and honesty in dealings with clients and property buyers.
MOV8 today
Fast forward five years and the company has grown exponentially to become the most widely-chosen estate agency or solicitor estate agency firm in East Central Scotland, selling more property in Edinburgh and the Lothians than any other ESPC member firm or independent estate agent. Some 50 staff and contractors are housed throughout 3 branches in Edinburgh; Leith, Corstorphine and Newington with a fourth opening on Leith Walk later this year. The company has been been shortlisted for the Business Insider Employer of the Year Award and Scottish Legal Awards Community Contribution and Employer of the Year in recent years.
The thing that MOV8’s core team are most proud of, however, is its corporate social responsibility policy. Every month MOV8 donates 10% of its profits to local and national good causes such as Corstorphine Primary School’s Project Play, The Big Issue, Macmillan Cancer Support and Movember.
It was Robert’s vision, sweat and tears in the early years, but without an amazing team there is no way that the vision would have become a reality.
So, what’s the formula to MOV8’s success?
“A good idea, hard work and brute perseverance and a great team of people have got us to where we are today. Our customer is our king or queen and we try to ensure that they all have an excellent, friendly and consistent experience. We treat people how we want to be treated; with courtesy, respect and friendship. And we try to have a laugh whilst we are doing it. It seems to have worked for the past 8 years so we’re not in a rush to change it!”
Robert Carroll, Managing Director, MOV8 Real Estate
So happy 8th birthday MOV8 Real Estate. Here’s to eight more fantastic years to come!
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