Midlands-based Sheldon Bosley Knight has joined forces with Bayzos Estate Agents to develop  a new property portal and is now calling on other agents to get on board and support the new platform.

Among its features, Seeitherefirst.co.uk has the ability to create an early listing at the point a contract is signed, is close to launch.

The property listing gets added to when photographs are taken and is finally completed when the property is ready to launch on all portals.

“That delay between the signing of a contract and the listing being made live is a valuable commodity and gives serious buyers a crucial period to get their house in order,” said Mike Cleary, co-owner of Sheldon Bosley Knight. “We now regularly get strong offers to stop properties going to market… a win win.”

He continued: “Not only has See It Here First been built in such a way we can offer it to agents to join for free, if an enquirer books a viewing and click to take mortgage advice or sign up to a conveyancer, we will send the agent a payment as a share of the income. In practice the portal can be used to generate income. Compare that to Rightmove. that is an evolution.”

This is not the first time Cleary has attempted to challenge the big players in the property portal sector.

He got together with 30 local Warwickshire agents during lockdown and launched a hyper-local website, We Are The Market, with ambitions to grow outside their patch.

“For many reasons… we shuttered this portal in December but the death knell on reflection was the membership costs [only £150pm] which became hard to justify alongside the rise of other ‘essential’ portal charges,” he said.

“Agents who would like to register their interest [in Seeitherefirst.co.uk] should visit the website. Final touches are being made to grow it beyond the founding two agents,” Cleary added.