online agents
-
Latest property news
Online estate agent share of market has levelled out at around 7%, says new research
Report by TwentyCi shows gains for online and hybrid agents in sub £200,000 market but shrinking share of market elsewhere.
Read More » -
Latest property news
Has online and hybrid estate agents’ market share grab run out of steam?
Figures from research firm TwentyCI reveals online and hybrid's share of the property markets has slipped by 0.4% to 7.2%.
Read More » -
Latest property news
HouseSimple’s new #whosderek TV ad wins online praise
Not many estate agents venture into the expensive world of TV advertising, and even fewer make much of an impression with the public. But online estate agent HouseSimple appears to have cracked it with its new ‘Who’s Derek?’ campaign, which warm-heartedly embraces the unfashionable name of Derek. Its hilarious 30-second advert, which as well as underlining the speed of its sales and taking a pot-shot at Purplebricks’ fee structure, has been met with mirth and approval online from members of the public. The TV campaign has also been backed by HouseSimple with an offer to sell anyone’s home for free if they are called Derek, dropping its usual £995 ‘no sale, no fee’ charges for the dwindling number of Dereks in the UK if they sign up before the end of June. “For all those Dereks out there who dream of one day seeing their name rise to prominence again, we’re delighted to do our little bit to help raise their profile,” says HouseSimple CEO Sam Mitchell, who previous role was Head of Lettings at Rightmove. His PR stunt may be counting on the unpopularity of the name Derek to prevent too many people taking up the firm’s free offer.…
Read More » -
Guest Blogs
Online agents – the missing link
A new report by Rix & Kay solicitors, suggests that traditional estate agents have to step in to support clients who have chosen to be represented by online estate agents to ensure that chains do not collapse and that sales complete.
Read More » -
Resources
Selling the service angle will win more business
"Imagine, says Adam Walker, that you owned a Michelin-starred restaurant that served delicious food at £100 per head and a new McDonald’s (other brands are available) opened opposite you?"
Read More » -
Latest property news
A Question of Property: Liz Brown, MD of Connells, Midlands
How big is your part of Connells? I look after 55 branches and approximately 140 staff in the Midlands for Connells including land, new homes, mortgages services, sales and lettings. Are online/hybrid agents making headway? They were during the first six months of the year when the market was more buoyant, and the instruction-to sale conversion rate was high up at the 80%. It’s then that we saw a considerable take-up among vendors for hybrid agents. But as the market has become tougher, so this has changed. Vendors are realising the hard way that in more difficult markets, you need a little more expertise and proactive support to achieve a sale. You’ve got to know your customer base much better and be able to be able to put chains together. We are picking up instructions from online agents, which fall into two categories. These are either failed online attempts to sell – people who’ve tried online and haven’t sold and who are then seriously annoyed when they have to pay twice. Then there are the people who do get an offer via a hybrid-type agency listing, but the sale goes nowhere, and they have to abandon the offer and start…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Student lettings app launches promising to improve student credit scores
An online-only student lettings agency that The Negotiator revealed was preparing to launch has now gone live, although with a new twist to its business model. SPCE, which has an inventory of 50,000 student rooms across the UK and partnerships with six universities plus institutional property investment firm Hines, says it is to also offer students the opportunity to improve their credit scores via credit agency Experian. Other unusual features of its service include enabling landlords and tenants to rate each other and the use of single tenancies rather than joint agreements. SPCE, which enables student to find and sign contracts for properties, set up rental guarantors and talk to their landlord all through a single app (pictured, right), is burning through the £280,000 it received from funding platform Seedrs earlier this year. It also about to launch an online service and dashboard for landlords. “Not only are we going to make it easy for students to find desirable properties and for landlords to locate new tenants, but we are also going to make communication between both parties throughout the tenancy absolutely effortless,” says CEO Leon Ifayemi (pictured, left). “By enabling students and landlords to receive ratings we are also…
Read More » -
Features
We are not all the same
Behind the digital ‘shop front’ each online estate agent business is a completely different beast, says Mark Readings, founder and CEO of the UK’s first online estate agents, House Network.
Read More »






