Three agents competed for the instruction. Reed & Baum won it. And the vendor said their website helped tip the decision.

That's the website result we care about most.

Not a page view. Not an impression. Not someone saying the homepage looks nice.

A real instruction, where the vendor specifically said something on the website helped tip their decision.

For us, it's proof of something we've always believed: a good estate agent website shouldn't just generate opportunities. It should help you convert the ones you've already worked hard to win.

Client snapshot

Starting an agency from nothing

When Martyn Baum and his business partner Aidan launched Reed & Baum in January 2023, they were competing against estate agents that had been trading across Quorn, Loughborough and the Charnwood villages for years.

A new agency doesn't have decades of local brand recognition behind it. It has to build credibility quickly, and when a prospective vendor encounters a name they don't already know, the website plays a part in deciding whether that business feels established and worth speaking to.

Reed & Baum didn't simply need somewhere to display properties. They needed a website that could help a new agency build trust, demonstrate what made it different and compete with established local businesses.

Martyn described those early days in 2023:

“Starting an estate agency from scratch is stressful and hard work... You need people to support you who are generous with their time and advice but also don't let you down. In fact they give you ideas that you never dreamt of which enhance your business.”

Martyn Baum, Reed & Baum

A website built to keep evolving

More than three years later, Reed & Baum's website hasn't stood still, and that's deliberate. We don't believe a website should be designed, launched and gradually left behind while the agency, technology and market move forward.

Martyn and the team regularly share ideas with us, challenge what we're doing and are willing to test new approaches. When we began developing the Better Off Calculator, Reed & Baum became one of the agencies that helped us trial it.

It tackles a problem almost every estate agent will recognise.

How the Better Off Calculator turns a fee objection into a value conversation

You've done the valuation, explained the marketing and demonstrated the experience. The vendor likes you. Then comes the fee, and another agent is cheaper.

Reducing your fee is one option. Demonstrating why you're worth more is a better one. The trouble is that percentage fees are easy to compare, and the value behind those fees isn't.

That's the gap the calculator closes. It sits on the Reed & Baum website and lets a seller compare Reed & Baum with another agent on two variables: the percentage of the asking price each is likely to achieve, and the percentage fee, including VAT, each charges. It then works out the likely sale price, the fee in pounds, and the net figure the seller is actually left with.

The point isn't to suggest Reed & Baum will always achieve a higher price. It's to make the right question visible: not who charges less, but who could leave you better off.

That distinction matters because the cheapest agent doesn't always deliver the best financial outcome, and for an agency competing on value rather than discount, it's a far stronger conversation to have than defending a fee out loud.

Then Martyn sent us this message

On 3 September 2026, Martyn messaged us:

“I have just won an instruction because of the Better Off Calculator!”

Three estate agents had been competing for the business. Reed & Baum got the instruction, and the vendor told Martyn exactly why:

“Your website is excellent, the calculator on why you are more expensive tipped me your way.”

The vendor, via Martyn Baum, 3 September 2026

That's a different kind of website result. We don't have to infer that someone saw an advert and maybe became a client one day. The vendor told Reed & Baum directly what tipped the decision.

The website didn't win the instruction on its own. Martyn and the team had already done the hard work of generating the opportunity, meeting the vendor and presenting their service. But once the vendor was comparing three agents afterwards, the website gave the vendor one more reason to choose Reed & Baum.

Why this matters for other agents

Fee pressure is a reality every agent faces. Three agents can offer very different levels of service, marketing and expertise, and the conversation can still get reduced to a straight percentage comparison.

What happens after you leave a valuation matters. If a vendor is comparing you against two competitors that evening, your website is one of the things doing the talking while you're not in the room.

Does it reinforce the case you made in person? Does it answer the objection you didn't get to close? Or does it just repeat what the vendor has already seen on two other agents' sites?

For Reed & Baum, the answer was clear. Their website gave the vendor one more reason to choose them, after the appointment was already over.

More than a website supplier

The Better Off Calculator didn't appear on Reed & Baum's website by accident. It came from the sort of ongoing collaboration we've had with Martyn and the team since the agency launched, and he explains that well in his latest video testimonial:

“They get my business. They challenge us, they come up with ideas, suggestions on how we can get better and better, and more and more engagement, as well as developing our ideas.”

Martyn Baum, video testimonial

“There's a collaboration rather than just being a normal third-party supplier.”

Martyn Baum, video testimonial

The calculator did three commercially useful things: it differentiated Reed & Baum, it supported their fee instead of undercutting it, and it kept selling after the valuation, when Martyn was no longer in the room. That's what made it useful. It wasn't technology for technology's sake. It had a job to do.

What this means for your own website

This case study isn't really about a calculator. It's about expecting more from your website than good looks and fast load times.

A good estate agent website should help your agency get found, build trust, generate opportunities, demonstrate value, overcome objections and convert more business. That's a far more useful measure of an estate agent website than whether the homepage simply looks nice.

Next time you leave a valuation knowing two competitors are still to visit, it's worth asking one question: does your website give that vendor another reason to choose you?

For Reed & Baum, a vendor already answered it. “...the calculator on why you are more expensive tipped me your way.” Three agents competed. Reed & Baum won.

Explore more

• Talk to us about your own website
• Watch Martyn's video testimonial
• See more Estate Apps case studies
• Discover why we built the Better Off Calculator
• Read more client reviews and video testimonials
• Visit the Reed & Baum website

Related case studies

Paul O'Shea case study: estateapps.co.uk/our-insights/an-ageing-technicweb-site-to-a-website-hes-blown-away-by-paul-oshea-homes-upgrade