charlie wright
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Latest property news
Industry-first ‘video pitch’ service launches to win instructions
Best Agent says the videos are part of a new service that also uses industry data to whittle down the best agents to sell a vendor's home.
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It’s not a portal! BestAgent to launch prospecting ‘marketplace’ for agents and vendors
Charlie Wright's tech platform will provides easy, fast and direct contact between agents and their movers, with next to no data entry for all parties.
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BestAgent promises an end to data double-entry for estate agents
Best Agent claims 76 suppliers including nine CRM platform are to attend its technical conference in Bicester on Wednesday.
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Proptech suppliers meeting today to finalise free-to-use Best Agent platform
Single branch agents will soon be able to compete with larger and better-financed rivals via a free proptech marketplace following a meeting at the Lloyds Insurance building.
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Difficult market conditions to blame for CIELA failure, says founding agent
Kristjan Byfield, one of the founding agents of the Charter for Independent Estate and Letting Agent (CIELA) says the organisation was launched at the wrong time and that it would have been more successful if it had focussed on fewer issues. CIELA launched in January this year but after struggling to attract enough agents to sign up, it threw in the towel in June despite having a large group of experienced founder agents (pictured, right) behind it. “We just tried to launch it at a difficult time,” says Kristjan, who says he realises “hindsight is a wonderful thing” but thinks CIELA launched with too many objectives, and that difficult market conditions meant too many agents didn’t have the time or energy to commit to a new membership organisation. “The trouble with our industry is that we’re a funny old bunch. There were too many voices trying to get their points over; it would have been better to be more focussed,” he says. “Our industry is too fragmented. For example, the issues facing a Welsh agent with a few hundred properties to manage are very different to those facing a business like mine in central London. “I am disappointed that CIELA…
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The Charter for Independent Estate and Lettings Agents cancels launch
The dream of a separate membership organisation for non-corporate estate agents is over after The Charter for Independent Estate and Lettings Agents (CIELA) last night announced that too few had signed up to join for a full launch. This follows an announcement in early August that just 5% of agents who had showed an interest in joining the organisation had committed to pay its pre-launch monthly membership fee of £35. CIELA’s flame has burned bright since it kicked off in January this year with a dozen founding members led by property software businessman Charlie Wright. As well as promising to fight the influence of the big corporate agents, unfair practices within the industry and the threat of online agents, CIELA also took on Purplebricks head-on, asking it to withdraw its ‘comparative-fee’ TV advertising and submitting a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority *(ASA) about it. A decision by the ASA about the complaint is due “within weeks”, it says. But despite the founding members (pictured, left) launching a six-month consultation pre-launch period in April that finished on Saturday, CIELA says “insufficient members has been achieved for a full launch”, blaming the current tough trading conditions which it says agents have…
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CIELA waits to see if advertising watchdog decision will go its way
The rolling war of attrition between The Charter for Independent Estate and Letting Agents (CIELA) and Purplebricks has witnessed its latest battle. CIELA says it has been receiving weekly updates from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) regarding its complaint about the hybrid agent’s “misleading representations” within its website and TV advertising. In its statement released to media outlets, CIELA is clearly confident that its arguments to the ASA have done the trick, and that “we look forward to the outcome”. Although CIELA admits that nothing within Purplebricks’ communications is inaccurate, it says the company’s comparisons of its up-front flat fee with a tradition agent’s commission is “irresponsible and misleading”. Elements of its complaint to the ASA were repeated within a Daily Telegraph article published in May, in which CIELA chief executive Charlie Wright questioned Purplebricks’ high completed sales claims. Following the article, CIELA was contacted by Purplebricks’ lawyers and, after responding, CIELA says it has not heard anything since, saying it was “nothing but sabre rattling and a hollow threat”. Membership drive CIELA has also revealed why it believes the number of agents joining the organisation has not been as large as expected. “The last three months have been absolutely…
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Historic photo? CIELA members snapped at first meeting
Behold CIELA, or the Charter for Independent Estate and Letting Agents, in the flesh. This photograph was taken at their inaugural gathering in Bicester, Oxfordshire yesterday where they spent five hours discussing the challenges that smaller agents face. The CIELA members talked about the many several ways independent agents could take on the corporates including in one of the most pressing areas – communications. The group discussed how public relations could harness the collective power of independent agents and take on the “misleading marketing” put about the larger estate agency firms. Serious challenges Luke Gidney, owner of Let Leeds letting agency, said: “As an industry, we have never faced so many serious challenges at once. We urgently need a united voice now, without corporate influence.” Vivienne Harris, owner of Heathgate Properties in London, said: “Currently we are an industry that is under attack. We need an organisation that can lobby government and educate the public on what it is we actually do.” The discussions also swung round to the group’s dislike of online-only and “fake agent” agents, as well as how to use independent agents’ sales and lettings data to produce the UK’s most up-to-date and accurate house price and rental…
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CIELA kicks off with an assault on Purplebricks
Embryonic industry organisation The Charter for Independent Estate and Letting Agents (CIELA) has asked the hybrid agency Purplebricks to withdraw its current TV advertising campaign and stop making comparison fee claims. The request was made in a letter sent yesterday to Purplebricks’ West Midlands HQ in Solihull, on what was CIELA’s inaugural day. The ‘club’ also says that it will be submitting a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority about these matters if Purplebricks does not take “reasonable steps” to address the issues. The letter, which runs to some 900 words, claims that some of Purplebricks’ advertising is “misleading to consumers” even though CIELA admits they are “not factually inaccurate”. FEE STRUCTURE The letter also goes on to criticise Purplebricks for comparing its fee structure and operation with that of traditional agents and the way the company calculates the vendor savings that its adverts are based on. It also explains why Purplebricks’ business model should be looked again given current Consumer Protection legislation, and why it thinks the company’s advertising may require scrutiny by the Advertising Standards Authority. CIELA is also worried that vendors do not understand the difference between the hybrid Purplebricks model and traditional agents, in particular that Purplebricks…
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Founding members kick off CIELA club for independent agents
A new membership club exclusively for independent estate agents is to go ahead following a meeting yesterday of 11 founding members, during which they all signed a letter of intent to begin inauguration of CIELA. The aims of CIELA – The Charter For Independent Estate and Letting Agents – are to unite independent agents against corporate domination, unfair practices and the online threat says Charlie Wright, CEO of property software firm Easymatch (pictured, left) and who had the initial idea for CIELA Wright has been extremely critical of online agents such as Purplebricks, and in an open letter to agents recently said they are “undermining the whole industry” and “exploiting vulnerable first-time sellers who are naïve to the challenges and difficulties involved in a successful sale”. Wright started his business life working as a broker on the Liffe trading floor in London before setting up his first businesses for agents; photos and floorplans provider Datography, followed by thebu2iness.com, which has become Easymatch. So far eleven agency businesses owners/managers have been signed up, each to take up a regional chair role within CIELA, with a further two places exclusively reserved for women. The group will meet again on 22nd February to…
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