In a move that could be ringing alarm bells on both sides of the Atlantic, American portal giant Zillow has announced it is going to start directly buying and selling homes.
While it says it will not be competing with its own agents – indeed, Zillow says this is a way of delivering its paying customer agents more leads – some may see this as the first step on a decidedly slippery slope. One news source, Deal maker, says this will be in direct competition to agents.
Zillow, America’s answer to Rghtmove, has previously said it sells “ads not houses”.
Specifically, Zillow now says it will do its buying and selling through its instant offers marketplace, iBuyer, where consumers can instantly – and directly – make and receive offers.
The US market is different from the UK’s in that in America there are agents who act for buyers and agents who act for sellers, and who both earn commissions in each market.
As the owner of a property it has bought, Zillow can now effectively sell that as a lead to selling agents. If it decides to sell the property, it can sell that as a lead to buying agents.
It is aiming to buy and sell between 300 and 1,000 properties this year. If it achieves 1,000 transactions, it could make as much as $3.75m.
However, analyst Mike delPrete reckons that it could do a lot more and $150m is the real opportunity, if it decides to charge consumers currently using iBuyer for free.
But could it happen here? So far, there are no signs of this happening. The main property portals have all strongly denied any plans to become agents in their own right.
Zoopla does have a tool on its website, called Tempt Me, where people not particularly thinking of selling their homes can suggest offers that might make them decide. However, Zoopla has always said that this is in place to offer leads to agents and last year said it the tool is completely different from Zillow’s Instant Offers.
Rightmove has repeatedly come under fire amid allegations that alleged re-sellers of space on Rightmove may not really be agents – claims which have been strongly denied.
delPrete told EYE:”Tempt Me sounds a lot like Make Me Move, which Zillow tried with limited success a few years back. Going deeper in the transaction by buying and selling houses is really the only way to monetize it so strongly…but with a TON more risk!”
Zoopla always follows Zillow. Just saying.
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zzzzzz
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Rightmove & Zoopla say, quote:
But could it happen here? So far, there are no signs of this happening. “The main property portals have all strongly denied any plans to become agents in their own right.”
A sure sign they are looking at it seriously !!
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Pretty sure they all have plans in place for us all to become ‘Appointed Representatives’ of their brand.
There is a way to combat all of this. It’s called Collective Marketing.
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There is a portal chucking millions around on acquisitions, like its loose pocket change, with the backing to make a failed offer of £460 Million for GoCompare.
Anyone hazard a guess what just 0.1% of all UK property transactions amounts to? Here is a clue, its a big number north of the GoCompare offer.
If you were a portal making a comparatively measly £37 Million profit in 2017 would you have a look?
So to answer the question;
Is anyone motivated and looking for a way to get themselves between the agents and every UK property transaction?
Nah, probably not.
Don’t have nightmares. Sleep well.
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