Referrals network reveals growth plans under new ownership
Simon Whale, who was one of the two industry figures to lead the acquisition of RAN in January this year, says the network is on a recruitment drive.
The UK’s second largest referalls network for independent agents has revealed an expansion drive for 2024 during its 30th anniversary year.
Simon Whale, who earlier this year was one of two industry figures who lead a consortium to buy the national Relocation Agent Network (RAN), says his hope is to increase UK agent member coverage from approximately 65% to 100% during the next 12 months.
This would put RAN on a similar if not equal footing to the UK’s other big independent agent referrals network, The Guild of Property Professionals.
“We’re down from our peak of around 750 members,” says Whale who, talking to The Neg, reveals that RAN’s previous owners Dwellworks, which is a global business services firm, was most interested in corporate short-lets and international relocation markets when it bought RAN in February 2021.
He says these markets took a battering during the months after Covid which ultimately helped persuade Dwellworks to exit, and consequently he wants to focus RAN’s activities once more on serving its agent members whatever market they serve, including the provision of technology.
Football club
“It’s a bit like buying a football club – it’s been an institution for years and now we want to build it back up,” says Whale, who also heads up proptech marketplace Kerfuffle.
“We’ve finished the last of the 2023 RAN roadshows, and we’ve also been busy looking at the areas where we have gaps and next year we’ll be on a big recruitment drive.
“RAN has always been about having the best agents so by that I mean mystery shopping, and checking their market performance and online reviews.
“Many of our member agencies rely on RAN for business and we’ve got one which has a £90,000 value pipeline from the network’s referrals.
“But we’re not sitting on our laurels – there is a big opportunity out there to expand the range of referrals including part-exchange and commercial leads so it’s going to be an interesting 12 months for us.”
