From the agents I speak to regularly, winning the chance to get out and complete valuations is the big challenge for agents in early 2010. The big firms are having to fight as hard as any independent.
It was along these lines that I had a chat with Mark Holt of SwapProperty last week, although I will admit to being sceptical of how a website designed to help people swap (rather than sell) properties was going to help estate agents.
The conversation was actually a bit of a surprise. Mark, an ex-estate agent himself, acknowledges that the swapping side of his site is a bit of a red herring. The business model is actually to qualify the potential vendors that register with the site and push out valuation leads to his growing network of independent estate agencies.
If the agent manages to get instructed and sell the property, Mark's firm take a slice of the commission.
That left me thinking. It is a very similar idea to how Zoopla started out. They focused their advertising budget on people looking for an idea of what their property is worth - i.e. those just starting to think about moving. Until then, that demographic was largely untargeted by portals, so competition for traffic was less fierce.
It also gave them something of a USP and put them in a nice position to introduce estate agents for valuations.
Most pro-active letting agents will acknowledge having used their local classifieds as a source of leads for years - indeed, many are doing the same with Gumtree and the like.
Yet how many sales agents are doing the same with for sale by owner websites? There's probably a fair number of would-be sellers out there who are disillusioned by the lack of progress they have been able to make on their own and who could therefore benefit from being up-sold a professional service.
Take a look at Steve Hatch's blog for Zoopla last month: 8 reasons to use an estate agent. Present a convincing argument and fee and the business is there to be won.
A quick Google search for "for sale by owner" or "sell my property" gives a whole lot of sites that you might be able to target.
Why not start the fight back against the likes of Tepilo?
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
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2 comments:
Hi Martin. Although the aim of our public site defiantly to achieve a sale/swap/ or part exchange, we have rolled the concept out to our growing membership. We are finding that vendors are more comfortable with a local agent dealing with their day to day needs rather than someone remote. So together we can offer the best of both worlds, online agency and a good quality independent. Our High Street members are mentioning more than ever about the increasing threat from a redundant estate agent who has started an online agency from a spare bedroom, more to do with driving down fees than anything.
Since our chat we have taken on another 4 agents and in discussion with an independent in Devon/Cornwall with about 9 offices.
Thanks for the comment Mark.
The growth of online estate agency is inevitable and, as in so many other industries, will almost certainly push fees down due to lower costs.
An increasing number of PropertyADD clients are reflecting this trend.
Congrats on the extra offices. I mentioned you to HomeXperts - a 'personal estate agent' franchise network who are a customer of ours.
Will continue to watch with interest.
Martin
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