Online estate agent House Network has promised to amend its website after intervention from the Advertising Standards Authority.
The case was informally resolved following a complaint.
The complaint revolved around the firm’s 20-point promise. This includes a pledge to customers that if they are let down, House Network will sell their home for free, but the complaint was to do with the claim about no commission being charged.
The ASA told EYE: “A claim on the advertiser’s website for their 20-point customer promise included one which stated that consumers were not charged commission.
“A complainant challenged whether the ad was misleading because they were charged commission for selling their property.
“The advertiser explained that their 20-point customer promise came into effect in February 2018, and so consumers that sold/bought property/properties before then were charged commission.
“House Network showed us a copy of the current contract which stated that no commission is charged.
“House Network agreed to amend its website so that it was clearer for consumers.”
Rumours have been doing the rounds since last week that House Network, first of the online agents, may have hit some kind of glitch.
EYE’s requests for comment and clarification have, however, not received any response.
The firm told EYE last month that it might have to adjust its headcount.
The firm’s latest accounts, for the year to the end of February 2018, were published on Companies House in December.
The accounts show that whilst total equity stood at minus £952,709 in 2018 (compared to plus £493,229 in 2017), the profit and loss reserves went from minus £5.042m to minus £8.602m.
The accounts include an asset value of £2.6m for the business’s computer software.
The accounts said that the directors of House Network “have agreed to support the company to meet its liabilities as they fall due for a period not less than 12 months from the date the accounts are signed”.
The site had stopped tweeting for a few days last week, but has now resumed again with one prominent message declaring: “Always believe something wonderful is about to happen.”
Yesterday, all seemed well at the site, with the live chat function working.
House Network charges either £795 upfront, or a split of £385 upfront plus £600 paid on sale or six months of marketing time, whichever is the sooner.
EYE has again approached House Network for comment.
Yesterday evening, House Network had 826 available properties for sale on Rightmove, including some added and reduced yesterday.
Have a look at their 20 point customer promise. I hope they have enough staff to deal with the number of clients who have not sold who will be writing long emails pointing out they have breached at least one promise and can I have my money back now please! 826 listings is not going to make it pay, give up now!
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This should really be a trading standard issue coupled with fines. In my opinion the ASA is a complete waste of time when it comes to complaints.
These Listing/DIY/FSBO outfits, get their leads mainly from Google ad words. Which cost £5-£15 per click. So if you want these misleading companies to close down then search “online agents” and get clicking.
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Agents should have a weekly AdWords purge of fake onliners advertising their local from 100 miles away.
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Customer satisfaction guarantees are commonplace in other industries so why not ours? Ewemove does not lock its customers into a sole selling rights agreement and never charges a penny “up-front” even for enhanced services such as Rightmove premier listing – the extra cost is always incurred at the Ewemove agents risk, and becomes chargeable only when we sell the property. But we sell over 2/3rds of all the stock we list so we are happy to take the risk. Traditional agents are usually aghast at the lack of “protection” if they do not use a 13-week sole selling rights agreement, but isn’t it odd that a customer would sign a contract to take delivery of something in 13-weeks time, which half the time its never delivered (industry average) and you can’t change your mind or you will have to pay twice (second agents fee). Whichever way you look at it, it’s not 21st Century customer service.
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I dont think its unreasonable for an estate agent to ask for a period of commitment when the agent is going to committing time and money to selling a vendors home.
The sole agency contract is there to stop a vendor vendor mucking an agent around.
As for Ewemove selling 2/3rds of the stock, i doubt that is true, but if you can prove this then i am happy to correct my opinion.
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We certainly do sell 70% of our listed stock through to completion. And we lose less than other agents even tho we don’t tie people into contracts. So it is true – if you deliver what a customer wants at a fair fee (we charge similar or slightly more than the average High Street Agent), then why would the customer go elsewhere.
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We certainly do sell 70% of our listed stock through to completion.
Is this evidenced in TPFG’s next set of audited accounts and annual report, due to be published 9th April ?
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The Sole Agency agreement came into existence in order to provide a seller with a discounted fee in return for a period of exclusivity. Prior to this, agents operated in the way that you’ve described, with no tie in or multi agent restrictions, much like lettings instructions, so I’m afraid to say you’re not reinventing the wheel. More over I suspect you are just discounting your fee without benefitting from the upside offered through a SA agreement
I would also doubt your 70% listing/completion rate, as for this to be such a universal constant, it suggests its more to do with the process itself than any particular agent.
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The best protection against a customer going to a competitor is to deliver a great service, and great outcomes, not to lock them into lengthy contracts – and that’s our proposition.
And to a certain degree you’re right, it is about the process, as well as the skill of the local agent. And that’s where EweMove provides an amazing platform for good agents. We deliver a technology layer and operational process that optimises the work of an agent – giving our agents more time to spend with customers. This leads to good quality, reliable outcomes for customers, who then choose to use and stay with us, without the need to tie people in to lengthy contracts.
The fact that we consistently achieve amazing reviews and great results for our customers, suggests it is more about delivering what the customer wants, not building in protection (contract tie ins) to grow a solid business.
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Still looking for some sort of evidence that you sell(complete) 70% of your instructions. Just telling us isnt really convincing, especially when the Portals tell a different story
Ewemove Barnstaple – 24 of 75 STC
Ewemove Chidwall – 9 of 24 STC
Ewemove Corby 10 of 43 STC
Ewemove Doncaster 11 of 35 STC
Ewemove Leighton Buzzard – 27 of 54 STC
Now these are just random ones so no idea overall, but quite some way from your 70% claim
Stats from Zoopla, the above information based on their accuracy.
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Not sure your logic makes sense. If I list 4 houses from a cold start my SSTC:Listings ratio is Nil. If I then sell 3 of them my SSTC:Listings ratio is 75%.
I then list 2 more my SSTC:Listings ratio is 50%. So this metric will move around constantly.
My statement is that we complete 70% of the stock we list (bearing in mind it takes the average UK agent 169 days to get from listing to completion), so you can’t work this out from a snapshot listings roll from the portals.
By the way, EweMove has the fastest end to end listing to completion timeframe of 146 days.
So the EweMove model is very simple:
We don’t tie people in because we don’t need to. We rarely dual list. And we’re still the #1 rated agent on Trustpilot
We sell a greater proportion of what we list than the average High Street or Online agent
We sell for more (according to TwentyEA AVM) compared on like for like data to other agents
We reduce the price less often and when we do, it’s by a lesser amount than average
These statements come from a UK wide data analysis report carried out by TwentyEA, looking at every listing in the UK across every agent that lists on RM/Zoopla.
So quite simply, if anyone wants to enjoy the benefits of this kind of performance, they can come and talk to me and consider a EweMove franchise, or they can carry on as they are. It’s everyone’s own choice!
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Basically you’re offering a multi agency agreement, regardless of whether the V decides to instruct another agent or not. It’s not ground breaking at all. The SA agreement is a natural evolution of this, and offers a lower fee in return for a period of exclusivity. It’s a win/win for both parties.
Your comments suggests that Ewe Move are somehow immune to vendors who want to over price their property, or squabbling siblings who think they house they’ve just inherited is worth 50% more than its true value, or divorcees who need a certain figure in order to buy somewhere new each, blah, blah, blah.
These are all just market realities irrespective of the “software platform” you use and based on the numbers above just posted by Arthur has just posted above, you are no more immune than anybody else.
In order for your overall average to stack up at 70%, you must obviously have other offices where their SSTC rate is in the high 90’s, so I look forward to you posting the details of these soon.
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‘we sell over 2/3rds of all the stock we list‘
So you complete on around 70% of all listings – is that you are confirming here?
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A little bit of knowledge is dangerous. A sole selling rights contract is part of the Estate Agency Act options for a vendor commitment to who they are liable to. Tied-in period is not part of the Estate Agency Act and the government had several decades ago considered banning the practice but it was argued that as the industry in the main offers a “no sale no fee” and the agent incurs all the marketing expenses upfront (which vendors don’t want to pay, a free meal) it was not unreasonable to ask for a commitment by the vendor not to waste the agents time and overheads and be given a chance to sell the property. I have seen 13 and 26 week clauses with some agents and is not illegal practice. Agents that use lock-in clause do so at their peril, if another agent who doesn’t do it, pitches their business right, at the time of trying to get an instruction. The only time I have ever seen lock-in being an issue with vendors is when they service they thought they were getting ….. they CLEARLY didn’t and wanted to quickly change agent. Failure by the agent to provide as promised “service” does not mean that the vendor cannot switch within a lock-in period. It would be for a court to decide if the terms of the contract had been broken by the agent or vendor. Most vendors would rather wait for the weeks to run out before switching but I know many who haven’t and the agent (a large corporate) took no action … they didn’t dare!
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Chump E…..’Whichever way you look at it, it’s not 21st Century customer service’. Apart from having a multi-agency agreement, your’s doesn’t look a lot different from anyone elses’, what differentiates you and puts you at the cutting edge of service delivery? It ain’t having high visibility in the real world.
Saw a claim from you the other day that (the still ridicuously named) ewemove is the 4th largest onliner. You made it sound like a positive – it really isn’t, you know…….(especially after being nine million in – what’s your ROI???)
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This s..t doesn’t pay. When will they ever learn?
It just ends in tears as they struggle on until they run out of steam or cash or guff.
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Really? Give it up? So people just lose their jobs then? Please think of the people behind your comments before you leave ill informed, idiotic and pathetic statements. Yes, Everybody makes a conscious decision who they work for, but to denigrate a business, suggest it closes down and leaves another human being without a job therefore income is, to me, deplorable. Please, when commenting on another business, please think of real people, the workers, with families that lie behind the headline.
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:From the house network website:
”Quite simply if you are considering using a traditional estate agent you are going to be overcharged.”
What sort of statement is that? A statement that is designed for no other purpose than to win business away from the exact people you describe in your post. Workers with families.
What was you saying about denigrating a business?
Hypocrite.
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That’s not my point at all.
My point is that the model does not work. The cost per client acquisition is too high to run an online agency profitably across the whole country.
A model that would work perhaps is to have a local or small regional online offering. London Homes for example…..
The human consequence of businesses failing is awful, and I made no reference to any gleefulness over that point.
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The next big thing in online agency has just launched called IMove
Seemingly it is a private sellers site that Rightmove allows……but of course it provides services to consumers but not a fee!!!!
When will they ever learn – scaling up and advertising requires more cash than can ever be generated.
Firms like these simply cannot cover the ground and make any money; so they end up making huge false promises that get them in to trouble.
I look forward to seeing the first truly transparent successful online agent that either charges a low fee or nothing at all. Might be a long wait!!!!!!
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What a load of rubbish, House Network made staff redundant last week due to a lack of funds and poor management decisions due to being badly advised. Staff are still owed last months pay as they have no funds to pay them and they struggled in January to pay them then too.
They have brought in Hudson Weir and have started the process of going into Administration and have advised all staff to make a claim for last months wages via the Redundancy Payment Service, the remaining staff have been asked to work for free whilst they try and find a suitable buyer.
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We heard this type of thing going on before Christmas, with another firm didn’t we?
OK, which one’s next?
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