Yopa reveals plans to help vendors prepare for Covid ‘second wave’
Plans are outlined in latest results for the company including the claim that it's now firmly the UK's No.2 hybrid estate agency.
Yopa is the first estate agent in the UK to reveal that it’s preparing customers for a second wave of Coronavirus with a special pack of advice and tech to help them sell their homes should it occur.
Details of the ‘just in case’ preparations are within its latest results published this morning that, it claims, makes it the No.2 hybrid in the UK behind Purplebricks.
Yopa has also said it supported the company’s local representatives financially by paying them ‘beyond the limits’ of their licence agreement during the lockdown.
Also, it secured the second highest share of new listings during lockdown and listed more properties than all the other hybrid agencies put together, excluding Purplebricks.
Tech preparations
Its Chairman and former Countrywide boss Grenville Turner says the company’s performance can be attributed to its pre-Covid technological preparations to ensure appraisals, new instructions and viewings could continue during the travel ban.
He also says not having high street branches helped, as did enabling its customers to complete their own photography and virtual viewings.
“We took steps in late February into early March to ensure we were prepared should the country go into lockdown and the market conditions deteriorate,” says Turner.
“As a priority, we ensured our teams – from the central office and contact centre staff to local agents – were fully briefed and equipped to work from home by 17th March.
“By 24th March, when the UK lockdown was implemented, all staff were working from home and our contact centre staff were only booking virtual valuations and viewings.”
Well YOPA seem to be thinking ahead and planning their risk strategy, to be applauded, I am a little unsure that there business model though is GDPR compliant. Maybe they can let me know?
I ask as on the YOPA website it says …’Yopa will let you know as and when buyers enquire about your property, and pass the details to you if you wish to get in touch with them directly before or after the viewing.’
So there are quite a few issues around this – not least client confidentiality, but also the broader implications that GDPR is built upon. Also on their website they say they helped 10,000 homeowners sell their home last year, is that exchanged properties, or people who listed and maybe failed to sell? As again a bit ambiguous?