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New agent platform to charge £30 for early property viewings access

ViewRabbit says it also wants to help agents earn income, weed out tyre kickers and prevent property viewing 'no shows'.

Nigel Lewis

viewrabbit property viewings

A former Savills estate agent has launched a platform that will help sales and lettings agencies weed out tyre kickers and ‘no shows’ and also help serious buyers secure guaranteed early property viewings slots for £30.

ViewRabbit also asks agents and their vendor clients to honour paid-for viewings even if a strong offer is received for the property before their appointment has been completed.

The launch of the service has prompted claims that agents are to ‘charge viewers for viewings’ which is partially true; ViewRabbit leverages buyer demand for hot properties by charging a ‘nominal amount’ to be one of the first to view it.

The service also has a charitable angle to its offer – agents’ income from the service during the first month will be donated to one of three national charities after which agents can choose what they do with their commission payments.

Uber and Airbnb

Like Uber or Airbnb, ViewRabbit both takes a platform fee before passing the remaining income to the agency and asks people using the service to rate the agents they meet.

The company has signed up several agents including LeaderFox in Poole.

Michael Riley (main pic, right), CEO of ViewRabbit, says: “We strongly believe that buyers, tenants, owners and agents can benefit from evolving how agents get paid.

“Agents provide a service to two separate sets of people for one transaction.

“How agents get paid around the world and what share is paid by whom, creates a huge difference in how owners and viewers are treated and therefore how agents are perceived.”

To be one of the first to pilot the service visit its website.

Read more about property viewings tech.

July 25, 2021

One comment

  1. What analogue agents have to understand is that we now very much live in a shared economy, where people increasingly pay for a service or the use of a physical asset.

    The idea of ‘paying’ to get an exclusive time and day to view, knowing that they get to see a property, is very much in tune with the modern buyer. I know of many tenants in London, finding it impossible to rent as the properties are let before they even see them being advertised, could ViewRabbit even up the playing field, and also give the landlord a better pool of tenants to select from?

    Speaking personally, both as an ex-agent of 30 plus years, and as a buyer, my most recent experience was when trying to get viewings, three agents never came back to me so I never got to view a property, on two viewings it took over three days to book a viewing, with myself doing all the chasing, £30 to have an immediate booked slot, that sounds like great value, instant service.

    Having to fight to get into a property is madness, yet happens countless times each day, is this in the vendor’s best interest? The better the consumer UX, arguably the happier they are, and happy clients are easier to deal with.

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