Traditional estate and lettings agencies have for a number of years been under pressure from new technologies aimed at ‘disrupting’ them.

With online agents helping to lower fees and increasing regulation increasing costs ­ like the new Right to Rent checks ­ many agencies are looking for additional sources of income.

Companies like Zoopla are offering ‘referral’ fees for agents who recommend services like uSwitch for changing energy suppliers.

Others are partnering with mortgage advisers and conveyancers to both provide a higher level of service to customers – buyers and renters in this case –as well as increase the amount of revenue they make per customer.

A service called Homeshift – which launched in August 2015 – says it is currently being used by over 300 estate agent brands across the UK, including independents, franchisees and national chains.

The solution: Additional revenue from referrals to utilities and financial services

Homeshift’s sell is that it helps agents better communicate with their customers – although in most cases, that is going to be buyers and not sellers.

The service offers assistance with moving into a new home, including setting up internet access, council tax, energy, insurance and more.

After customers move in, agents use Homeshift to keep in contact with a monthly home valuation and a (hopefully helpful) breakdown of household expenditure on utilities.

Tom Kelly, Homeshift’s head of marketing, said: “Free valuation visits have been great for estate agents, but that consumers need to know the value of their home doesn’t end after their purchase.

“Agents using Homeshift can maintain an ongoing relationship with consumers by using Homeshift’s data to estimate home value and keep track of household expenditure (which consumers opt in to by giving Homeshift permission to get that data from utility companies).”

The company is financially backed by Seedcamp, a London-based venture capital fund, and other investors including Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn.

Kenny Alegbe, Homeshift’s founder and CEO, said: “For our customer agents this is a reputation play.

“By keeping in the loop, agents can maintain an ongoing relationship and a position of trust.”

Agents using Homeshift are rewarded with referral fees for any products – for example, utility switching and insurances – that the tenant or home buyer signs up to.

Alegbe hopes that agents receive at least an additional £2,000 per branch each year, stating his free product “pays for itself”.

Andy McGarrick, director of Northwood Leicester, is one customer. He said: “Homeshift enables us to maintain an ongoing relationship with our clients.

“The consumer landscape is changing and we have to use digital services like Homeshift in order to monetise our relationship with out client base; sensibly offering better service and better value.”

But when canvassing industry opinion, it seems the young start-up has some convincing to do, with some puzzlement as to what Homeshift actually does and whether home owners really would be happy for the estate agent who sold them their house to know what they were spending on utility bills.

As Rightmove has dis-intermediated the relationship between consumers and agents when searching for a home, Homeshift could do the same post-home sale.

The up-side is that agents as an industry have historically not kept in touch with previous home buyers and sellers,  and could gain an easy way to increase their customer loyalty. Are utilities the way to do it?

Cost: Free to use

Benefits: Additional agent revenue from comparison referral fees, better ongoing communication between agents and their customers

Possible downside: Questions over privacy, increasing commoditisation of agency contact with consumers

The verdict: As yet an unproven concept for both agents and consumers, but offering a product that agents could be genuinely interested in.