YOPA
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Latest property news
Online agent YOPA investigated again by advertising watchdog
Online agent YOPA has been investigated by the advertising watchdog just two weeks after being reported for potentially misleading claims on its website. This time the London-based sales and lettings agency was reported by a member of the public for a mailshot sent to them that advertised its sales service but, they claimed, wasn’t clearly marked as marketing material. After being approached by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), YOPA has now promised not to repeat the mailshot and that future advertising of this kind would be clearly marked as such in future. YOPA has been reported five times since it started two years ago including three times this year and once in 2016 and 2015 all of which have been informally resolved, although this hasn’t deterred investors – both Savills and LSL have put substantial amounts of money into the firm. Online agents Among the online agents, Emoov leads the pack for complaints to the ASA with ten referred to the watchdog so far including two serious complaints, one of which was upheld and another upheld in part, and eight informally resolved cases. Not far behind it is Purplebricks, which has had been referred to the ASA nine times including…
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Two high-profile agents investigated by Advertising Standards Authority
Hybrid agency YOPA and London agency Marsh & Parsons have crossed swords with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) this week after promotional material they had produced were objected to by members of the public. YOPA was reported to the watchdog about a data table published on its website. It featured comparisons of different estate agents including their number of properties for sale and average listing age. Two complainants, who said the comparisons were based on YOPA’s national figures against their competitors’ local one, challenged whether the comparison was misleading “We raised these concerns with the advertiser,” the ASA says. “YOPA confirmed that the ad had been removed and that they would not compare their national data with competitor’s local data.” Advertising Standards Authority A direct mailing by Marsh & Parsons, which is owned by LSL, was referred to the ASA after a letter addressed to a complainant offered to rent out their property because “we couldn’t help but notice that your property is currently on the market for lettings”. “I’d love to meet you and let you know how Marsh & Parsons… can expose your property to the widest range of tenants,” the letter went on. The only trouble was…
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A Question of Property: Russell Quirk, CEO of eMoov
Are online agents like yours really gaining market share? Yes, Rightmove figures show the share of online agents has increased from 2.5% in early 2015 to 6.5% today – that’s an increase of more than 100% in two years. We have data that shows, depending on area, the propensity for people to use an online agent is increasing at a significant rate. I believe it’s all about tipping point. If you talk to business experts, they believe it’s somewhere around 12% market share. We are rapidly moving towards that. Where’s this growth coming from? Look at Countrywide and Foxtons. Their listings and revenues are dropping while the decent online operators such as Purplebricks, Yopa and ourselves are growing our share and numbers in absolute terms in a market that is down by 30%. Some say it’s all fuelled by investors’ cash Yes, it is a question of cash but it’s also about proposition and execution – I think there will be two or three winners in this market. Investors are getting fickler and I know of one online agent which is struggling to raise funding now. But it’s more about that if there are ten competitors in a new market,…
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How much bigger are Purplebricks’ catchment areas than high street agents?
How important is local knowledge to vendors? It’s a question that hybrid agents such as YOPA and Purplebricks are putting under the spotlight right now as they attempt to claim ‘local experts’ with large patches. But research just out suggests that local knowledge really is very important to vendors. So how local is local? Agent comparison site GetAgent looked at national data from 14,000 branches and over a million listings to find out. On average properties listed with traditional sales agents are 3km away from the high street branch they are listed with. But it’s the stark difference in catchment area size that sticks out from the GetAGent research – Purplebricks LPEs operate within an average catchment size of 10km while traditional agents’ areas are no more than 3.8km wide. “Being local is so important,” says Matthew Cousins of Surrey-based Inspire Estate Agents. “I don’t understand how an estate agent can add value if they don’t know the area, the people and the properties. “I know I can value a property accurately in the area I cover as I am likely to have sold a property very close by.” It is also clear that Purplebricks take on twice as many…
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Latest property news
YOPA ditches Village People for surreal testimonial TV ads
Online agent YOPA has launched a new set of TV adverts that replace its previous ‘Village People’ approach, featuring what appear to be customer testimonials of people recommending its services. But instead, the characters featured in the ads turn out to be in bizarre situations that stop them using YOPA. This includes a woman stuck in a boring dream (right), a seaman entombed in ice on his sailing ship (see below), and a man who is only two inches tall and lives in a bean tin. But unlike competitors such as Hatched and Purplebricks, YOPA stays clear of making price comparisons with traditional high street agents, as its previous ads did. The new ads, which include the firm’s recently-launched new logo and colour scheme, instead focus on how YOPA’s ease-of-use, latest technology and a “dedicated local estate agent” make its offering irresistible, as well as its “low, fixed fee”. All the thirty-second long ads sign off with the line “I’d definitely use YOPA to sell my home, but unfortunately….” Followed by a voice-over that says “Seriously, Why Not?”. The campaign will also appear in print and on the radio. The TV ads, which were commissioned by YOPA’s Chief Marketing Officer…
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Latest property news
YOPA raises another £15m
Online hybrid estate agent YOPA has raised a further £15 million from investors including the Daily Mail’s parent company DMGT and Grosvenor Hill Ventures, the investment arm of Savills.
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YOPA claims hybrid agents will handle 50% of sales by 2020
Online hybrid estate agent YOPA has announced that it has raised a further £15 million from investors including the Daily Mail’s parent company DMGT and Grosvenor Hill Ventures, the investment arm of Savills. The company has also made some punchy claims within the statement accompanying the news of its Series B funding, which follows the £16 million investment Savills made in the agency in June last year. This includes that its market share is increasing rapidly and that hybrid agents like it and Purplebricks will handle 50% of all sales by 2020. YOPA, whose founders are Daniel Attia, Andrew Barclay, David Jacobs and Alistair Barclay (pictured LtoR), also claims that the hybrid agency is one of the “country’s top three agents for successful property sale” based on percentages of sales agreed against listing data from Rightmove data. YOPA has a national network of 75 local agents who work exclusively with the company but are freelance not employees, plans to use the new investment to double the number of agents working for it by the end of this year. “After a strong first quarter of trading, we are delighted to have closed our Series B round of funding,” says Daniel Attia, co-founder…
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Advertising watchdog tackles three companies for misleading ads
Three different property firms including two agents and a developer have made it on to today’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) naughty step after complaints were made against them for publishing misleading ads. The most serious is against London-based agent Harper Brooks, whose website for a 98 unit, £18m new-homes development in Manchester called Grove House was investigated by the ASA following a complaint. Its website for the development, www.grovehousemanchester.co.uk, claimed to offer two-bedroom properties for rent from £650pcm but the complainant said no properties were available at that price, and that no “manned concierge desk” was available, as claimed. The ASA upheld the complaint but also heavily criticises Harper Brooks – which trades as Cambourne Properties Ltd – for not responding to the ASA’s enquiries quickly or adequately enough, which itself is a breach of the ASA’s code. When The Negotiator visited the website earlier today the advert had yet to be amended. The other complaints about misleading ads were less serious and were informally resolved. Hybrid agent YOPA was reported for failing to make it clear that VAT was not included within its ‘savings’ calculator, which shows potential clients how much less they might pay using YOPA compared to a traditional high street agent. YOPA…
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Are the online-only agents gaining traction?
After reading the criticism of online-only agents by their traditional counterparts on Twitter it’s clear that much of the industry dislikes and fears the way these digital ‘disruptors’ do business. High profile operators such as Purplebricks, Easyproperty, emoov and House Network regularly feature in the national press and, helped by their extensive PR outfits, are hard at work persuading the public that online-only agents are the future. Research by The Negotiator into the market reveals a different picture. The online-only agents have a fair way to go yet before they can claim to be a major threat to traditional agents, industry data reveals. With the exception of hybrids (i.e. staffed but without high street branches) such as Purplebricks and YOPA, they have yet to gain a significant foothold in the market. There are 21,925 properties currently listed on Rightmove by online or hybrid agents which is 4.03% of the market based on Rightmove’s current listing of 543,612 (minus the online agents). Purplebricks dominates the online sector with 44% of all listed properties listed followed by HouseSimple (12%), emoov (9.8%) and Easyproperty (7.2%), Housenetwork (6.4%) and YOPA (5.5%). Most of the smaller online agents including recently-launch Settled, which lists 316 properties for sale, have the same inventory of a five to…
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Latest property news
Hey, young man? YOPA hires Village People for TV campaign
On first viewing the new TV advertising campaign by hybrid agency YOPA looks like a good idea, but will many of the target audience – 30-somethings looking to save on their house move – recognise the stars featured in it? YOPA, which clearly has cash to spend following Savills’ recent £16m investment in the business, has filmed three ads featuring 1970s/1980s disco group Village People – best known for their hits In The Navy and Y.M.C.A. During the first ad which is now on TV the six ageing members of the group are shown discussing whether to ‘move on’ while sat around a kitchen table. Two more ads are to be aired later this year. “The concept of The Village People needing a helping hand to move on proved irresistible for these ads,” says Daniel Attia, co-founder of YOPA (pictured, left). “Aside from the comedy that the situation presents, it’s a message that fundamentally rings true: so many of us delay moving home because the process is so stressful, not to mention hugely expensive.” YOPA started out as an online-only agent and its acronym used to stand for ‘Your Online Property Agent’ but in August last year it changed its business model…
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