The Rook Report Radio Show cover art: a gold rook chess piece broadcasting radio waves on a navy background

    A SalesRook production

    The Rook Report Radio Show

    Every Rook Report, turned into a conversation. Hosts Sky and Sterling unpack what UK estate agents and mortgage brokers are actually getting from AI, one true story at a time.

    Hosted by Sky and Sterling. A new episode with every report.

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    Latest episode

    Episode 03
    17:05 listenStrategy14 Aug 2026

    Why We Went All-In on WhatsApp (And Not Voice AI)

    A software company explaining, on the record, the product it decided not to build. The busiest minute on the biggest property website in the country is 8.48pm on a Wednesday, an hour when a phone call is socially impossible, and Sky and Sterling argue that the industry answered that shift by automating the agent's oldest habit rather than the customer's actual behaviour. SalesRook prototyped voice AI, watched the improvement curve flatten short of the bar, and shelved it. Two synthetic presenters then take the obvious objection to themselves head on: the line that matters is not machine against human, it is whether a thing is disclosed, chosen and easy to step past.

    8.48pm

    Wednesday, the busiest minute on the UK's biggest property site

    7 in 10

    Britons rarely or never answer an unrecognised number (YouGov)

    64%

    of 5,728 customers would rather companies did not use AI in service (Gartner)

    3 days

    how long one London agency group kept its new voice AI switched on

    In this episode

    • Why the nine o'clock ring-round is heritage rather than failure, and what automating it really automates
    • Why we built a voice AI and shelved it, including the London agency group that switched theirs off within three days
    • The uncanny valley, named in 1970, and why a better synthetic voice makes the moment of discovery worse rather than better
    • Two AI presenters answer the objection to themselves: disclosed, chosen, escapable, and why an interrupted message is only paused

    Who is in this episode

    • Sky and Sterling — hosts, SalesRook
    • Sebastien Lewis — Managing Director, Warren Powell Richards. In his own words, used with permission
    • Ed Gain — formerly of Rezx. An industry peer, not a customer of ours. Used with permission
    • Tom Doyle — Founding Director, Moove Happy, previously Client Relationship Manager at Duncan Yeardley. In his own words, used with permission
    Read the full written reportEpisode audio (MP3)

    Every figure in the episode is sourced and explained in the report.

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    Episode 02
    11:55 listenMarket analysis23 Jul 2026

    House Price Index July 2026: The Agent's Playbook

    UK asking prices fell 1% in July 2026 to £372,359, five times the usual July dip, and Sky and Sterling argue the price isn't even the story. With around 65 homes for sale per agent, close to a twelve-year high, the real headlines are underneath: the time to find a buyer has fallen from 81 days in January to 62 in June, nearly three-quarters of the homes that sold this year did so without a single asking-price reduction, and on a typical first-time-buyer home it is now around £110 a month cheaper to buy than to rent. Then the playbook: three moves for the week ahead, and a dare involving last night's enquiries.

    £372,359

    average asking price, down 1% (5x the usual July dip)

    65

    homes for sale per agent, near a 12-year high

    74%

    of homes sold this year had no asking-price reduction

    £110

    a month cheaper to buy than rent, typical first home

    In this episode

    • Why a bigger-than-usual July dip is a story about choice and distraction, not a market in crisis
    • The speed tell nobody puts on a national headline: 81 days to find a buyer in January, 62 by June
    • The regional split (Scotland 29 days, London 70) and why the map you hand a seller should be their region, not the national average
    • The July playbook: price it right on day one, answer first, and the sellers hiding in your enquiries

    Who is in this episode

    • Sky and Sterling — hosts, SalesRook

    Chapters

    • 00:00Cold open: the July guess-game (1% down, £372,359)
    • 01:24Why the dip is bigger: distraction and choice (65 homes per agent)
    • 02:48Choice, not crisis: the speed tell (81 to 62 days) and the 74% who never cut
    • 04:09The regional split (Scotland 29 days, London 70)
    • 05:32Buying now beats renting: £1,180 vs £1,290
    • 06:44Price it right on day one
    • 07:45Answer first, and the sellers hiding in your enquiries
    • 09:22The July playbook, and the dare for the week ahead
    • 10:41The close
    Read the full written reportEpisode audio (MP3)

    Every figure in the episode is sourced and explained in the report.

    Episode 01
    14:42 listenCase study18 Jul 2026

    The Year Michael Poole Stopped Losing the Leads They Already Paid For

    Michael Poole, an award-winning family agency on Teesside, were already paying for every enquiry that reached them. Sky and Sterling walk through what happened when those enquiries finally got read properly: a fast first month, then a full year counted against the agency's own CRM. Same portals, same Rightmove bill, same team. The episode is unusually insistent on its own honesty, spending real time on why the two sets of numbers differ and why the year-one count was kept deliberately conservative.

    97

    instructions surfaced in year one

    40

    exchanged or completed

    18 to 206

    off-patch referral log in ten months

    4,246

    hours of enquiry handling saved

    In this episode

    • Why the agency that grows is rarely the one that bought the most enquiries, but the one that lost the fewest
    • The two sets of numbers, month one and year one, and the honest reasons they differ (the month sits inside the year, so they never add up)
    • Rich Poole, Managing Director of Michael Poole, in his own words on what changed for his team
    • Why the referral log and the valuation numbers are kept strictly apart: neither produced the other

    Who is in this episode

    • Sky and Sterling — hosts, SalesRook
    • Rich Poole — Managing Director, Michael Poole. In his own words, from his Relocation Agent Network interview, cleared and credited
    • Remi Remington — co-founder and Commercial Director, SalesRook. From a presentation he recorded at the time, walking through the first month
    Read the full written reportEpisode audio (MP3)

    Every figure in the episode is sourced and explained in the report.

    Your Presenters

    Sky and Sterling are SalesRook's AI presenters, and every word of every episode is put together by the team at SalesRook. That is the same honesty rule the show applies to its numbers: nothing is quoted on air unless it has been counted, sourced and published in the written report first.

    Sky, host of The Rook Report Radio Show, in a black SalesRook polo against a black-to-gold gradient

    Sky

    Marketing Executive & Team EA, SalesRook

    Sky is a virtual colleague at SalesRook. Marketing executive by title, and the team's executive assistant in practice, she's who the whole company works with on comms, operational admin, and a fair amount of the actual code (a capable developer, too). She hosts the Radio Show with the same across-the-business view she brings to every day: what's really working for agents, and why.

    Never sleeps. Never forgets. Runs on zero coffee.

    Sterling, co-host of The Rook Report Radio Show, in a black SalesRook polo against a black-to-gold gradient

    Sterling

    Co-host, The Rook Report Radio Show

    Sterling is the newest virtual colleague at SalesRook, brought in to help launch the Rook Report Radio Show. His job is to keep Sky honest and ask the questions estate agents and mortgage brokers actually want answered. We're rather looking forward to seeing the double act develop.

    Strong opinions on 'we'll be in touch.'

    When you hear a customer's voice on the show, it is the real person, cleared and credited. When you hear a figure, it is one we can defend line by line. The episodes exist to make those stories easier to take on a commute, not to soften them.

    It starts as a report

    Every episode begins life as a fully sourced Rook Report, written and published on this site.

    Then it becomes radio

    Sky and Sterling talk the story through, with real customer voices where we have permission to play them.

    The detail stays written

    The full workings live in the written report, so you can check every claim at your own pace.

    Heard something you want for your own business?

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