Rugby player Ian Watts had only just launched his fledgling business when the Coronavirus crisis struck but has now sold two properties.

New owner who bought the business in October last year and relaunched it in January now has 37 local representatives, and 122 properties listed on Rightmove.

A traditional cold-start agency can attain profit within two years, so why has only a handful of online agencies done it many years after starting up?

eXP Realty has also announced that it has bagged Mark Bentley as both a consultant to the fledgling business and also one of its local representatives.

David Brierley, who is founder of property consultancy Evolve which bought the hybrid agency in July, explains how its new structure will work.

Dawn Griffin had been a key account manager at Rightmove before joining the outsourced services supplier Evolve Partnership, which in July bought Easyproperty.com

Rob Ellice is no longer a director at Eprop Services Ltd which since 2017 has been the holding company for both the Guild and easyProperty.

Marketing spend and headcount at online agency have been reduced and the company is now profitable but its model remains 'uneconomic' directors warn.