Stephensons Wrapped 2023

December 18, 2023

Just like that, it’s the end of another year. 2023 has been a whirlwind with a challenging and unpredictable market, choppy waters to navigate, and a general sentiment that the housing market was well and truly in for a downturn. But, despite it all, Stephensons has enjoyed fantastic success, growth across the business, and incredible reach across our social media platforms. We’ve even welcomed some new faces to our team!

We’re launching Stephensons Wrapped, our yearly round-up to celebrate our success and spread positivity and cheer this Christmas. Here, we’ve compiled all the highlights from the year, from the number of instructions won and homes sold to personal stories and magical moments from our team. We do what we do every day to continue to offer the best possible service and outcome for all our clients, and we’re so proud that even in the most challenging times, we’ve continued to do just that in 2023.

Thank you to our team, suppliers, collaborators, sellers, buyers, landlords, tenants, and everyone else we’re so lucky to work with daily. Without you, we couldn’t do what we do here at Stephensons. And that, as they say, is a wrap!

Sharing our successes with you every step of the way.

Smashing records.

We’ve seen phenomenal growth and results across the business this year. Even faced with a post-COVID contraction in the market, rising mortgage interest rates and a cost-of-living crisis, our team has continued to deliver for our clients across all areas and departments. Our incredible lettings team, headed by Iain Jarvis, achieved record turnover in a booming lettings market this year.

Meanwhile, Nick Lawrence and the team in Easingwold smashed their best year in over ten years, and Elliot Newby, Head of Commercial Agency, continues to make great roads in the commercial agency market across North Yorkshire. All of this is a testament to the team here at Stephensons, who are the lifeblood of the business.

Winning instructions.

Across Stephensons, we won 720 instructions in 2023, which we’re incredibly proud of. As North Yorkshire’s largest independent estate agent, we pride ourselves on securing the most highly sought-after, unique, and premium properties in the market, and we do this by delivering our signature and industry-leading marketing for every single one of our sellers.

As the numbers suggest, we’re showing no signs of slowing down in living up to our reputation. Our phenomenal sales teams in York, Knaresborough, Haxby, Boroughbridge, Easingwold and Selby have outdone themselves yet again, delivering astonishing results for the business and our sellers. And 2024 already looks to be an even bigger and better year.

Winning instructions.

Selling homes.

The real mark of success for an estate agent is how many homes you sell. This year, we’ve handed over 511 keys to excited families, couples, newlyweds, and more who have found their perfect next chapter with Stephensons. The feeling of watching someone’s eyes light up as they step inside the home of their dreams for the first time never gets old.

Or receiving that heartfelt “thank you” from a seller when you deliver the news that their dream offer has just come through. These moments are why we continue to do what we do and why our team go to work every day. We share in our client’s wins, aspirations, and happiness, and it’s as powerful now as the first home we sold over 150 years ago.

Dominating social.

We understand the importance of social media and content, and in 2023, we’ve prioritised our social presence more than ever. Our content attracted 755,708 views this year across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and in July alone, over 160,000 in four weeks. For our clients, these numbers mean that your property will get the maximum exposure it deserves, reach the biggest audience, and ultimately secure the fastest sale and best price.

In 2024, our growth plans are even more ambitious, as we aim to become the first and only estate agent in North Yorkshire to land over 1,000,000 social media views in 12-months. We’re proud that our social and content stats continue to sit heads and shoulders above our competition, and we can’t wait to see what the next year brings.

Growing on Instagram.

In 2023, over 9% of our homes sold off-market before they even hit Rightmove directly through our Instagram. It’s our most beloved and popular social media platform, and this year, it attracted 316,590 video views. That’s well over a quarter of a million video views from just one social channel!

We recently had the pleasure of selling a beautiful property, Ridgeway, Gate Helmsley. We shot a bespoke full video tour for the property listing and our YouTube and a series of social reels to market the property on our social accounts. This home attracted over 18,000 views on Instagram alone and sold phenomenally quickly. That’s the power of social media.

Launching on TikTok.

In May 2023, we launched our TikTok account. We’ve created and posted over 200 property tours on TikTok, as well as behind the scenes content with our team, and even some spooky Halloween and magical Christmas content. The account has since become our biggest social media platform, attracting 349,242 views in eight months.

Rose Villa Farm, a stunning four-bedroom home with a pool we listed, hit over 100,000 views, whilst The Old Vicarage was viewed nearly 50,000 times. No other estate agent in the area is delivering these kinds of views for their clients, and as we continue to grow our presence and experiment on social media, we can’t wait to see the results.

Launching on TikTok.

Creating showstopping video.

We continue to invest in spectacular video for our clients to give their homes first-class marketing. We combine our incredibly talented team of videographers, with our expert drone pilot, to produce video that gives potential buyers the most unique, real-life, and high-quality view of a home before they book to view. These videos not only sit on Rightmove and other property listing channels, but also our dedicated YouTube channel.

Our channel has doubled its subscriber count and smashed 89,876 views in 2023. Our premium video tours were watched for a total of 716.4 hours. That means that our videos were watched for the equivalent of nearly 30 entire days!

Welcoming new faces.

To top it all off, our team of expert agents has continued to grow throughout the year. Every single one of our team members deliver the absolute best service for our clients, and make Stephensons what it is, and for that, we thank them tremendously. Iain Jarvis was promoted to Head of Residential Lettings earlier this year and Alex Copley re-joined us to assist him in the building and development of the lettings area of the business.

We also welcomed Amber Young and Amy Collings, who joined our York sales team, and Philippa Sanders to Easingwold, Nathan Plowright, to Boroughbridge, and Maxine Smith and Paula Sumner to our commercial and development team. As we welcome new faces, we also bid one farewell. We wish Barry Hall a very happy retirement in 2024 and beyond, who has been a pivotal and much-loved member of the team since 2018.

Welcoming new faces.

Here’s to the new year.

“As we reflect on the past year, it is with immense pride that I acknowledge the outstanding achievements of each team member. In this ever-evolving housing market, their adaptability, market insight, and customer focus have been instrumental in navigating challenges producing amazing results for our customers. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to our teams for their unwavering commitment and congratulate them on a stellar year. Together, we look forward to building on this success and reaching new heights in the coming year.”

Looking forward to what’s in store in 2024.

After such a fantastic and successful year, we can’t wait to see what’s around the corner in 2024. As we wish our teams a very happy Christmas, we’re preparing for a busy next year with some incredible properties ready to hit the market as 2024 rings in. Thank you again to everyone who has and continues to support us. We couldn’t do it without you.

Stay up to date and see the first sneak peeks of new properties by following us on Instagram and TikTok @stephensons1871.