American Realtors
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Michael Bruce raises £50 million from City for Purplebricks USA
Hybrid agent Purplebricks has raised funds through a share issue to help the company break into the US market and launch Purplebricks USA. The funding move raised £50 million pounds via AIM by offering shares at £2.20 each, just under its current share price of £2.26p, which rose by 2.1% during late trading yesterday. The placing was over subscribed and raised several million more than Purplebricks had sought. The company says the cash will be used to set up operations in several key US states during the second half of 2017, and estimates the potential commission cake in the US is approximately $70 billion or £56 billion. The move into America follows Purplebricks’ entry into the Australian market in August last year in Melbourne and Brisbane, which by October it had deemed to be a “great success”. The company currently has 437 properties for sale on its Australian website, up from less than a 100 in October. But unlike in Australia, where the estate agency business is very similar to the UK one, in the US properties are sold in a way that could suit the Purplebricks model as many realtors there are self-employed. “We are confident that with our understanding…
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Agencies & People
American realtors – the same as us… but different
We Brits often look cynically at the way USA estate agents work. American Realtors go to great lengths to deliver extraordinary customer service, yet some of the initiatives employed might be regarded by some as cheesy or outdated. I wanted to investigate whether the latest techniques and concepts used by agents across the pond might be usefully employed in the UK – the National Association of Realtors annual conference was the place to find out. NAR, the largest estate agency trade show in the world, is inevitably focused on the US market. Nevertheless I spotted a handful of progressive British agents there. Interestingly these tend to be agents who are successful here, in part due to their open-minded approach to embracing ideas they see working overseas (eg Newmans, Sarah Mains, Robinson Jackson, Martyn Gerrard and suppliers such as Reapit) and they continually research new approaches to differentiate themselves. The four-day event, in a 1.1m sqft venue with 400 exhibitors, attracts 20,000 delegates attending seminars presented by over 200 speakers, including astronaut Capt. Mark Kelly and former US President Bill Clinton. There is clearly an appetite for personal development and the best attended seminars were those by high profile trainers such…
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