You have to hand it to Russell Quirk.
Not only is he currently advertising on the front page of the Sunday Times, but he has the accolade (and the budget) to be the only advertiser.
And he gets a second bite at the cherry when Sky News discuss the papers with a massive blow-up of the front page.
As Quirk tweeted out yesterday, his eMoov advert was shown “loud and proud”.
However, the Sunday Times iPad edition was somewhat less successful, with its unusual call to action: “Get free a valuation.”
It’s reminiscent of that Morecambe and Wise sketch where Eric played the piano brilliantly, just with the notes in the wrong order.
Incidentally, in case you missed this in yesterday’s Mail on Sunday, you might be interested to see how one couple saved a mass of money by selling through an online agent, YOPA, for only £780.
The house sold for £2,000 less than the asking price within just two days.
Comments (20)
OKAY…
Here’s the thing.
A couple of weeks ago there was an almighty hoo-hah on a story relating to press advertising. Comments like these were made:
“What a complete waste of money! Mind you it’s not surprising they still believe in newspaper advertising after all they bought in to the whole OTM thing …….”
“These kind of Agents that have opted for their ridiculous mini revolution to ‘On The Market’ are the same agents that still believe in newspaper advertising and don’t know what www stands for.”
“Dinosaurs!”
Funny, is it not – that something that exists in cyberspace ‘cos it’s all going online, innit…’ needs to resort to good old-fashioned PRESS advertising to push its broken nose in front of the masses in the hope of a few desperate souls falling for the MDT it spews in copious gushes.
These Call-Centre Agents – who many would argue simply stack shelves for a living and wait for buyers to order their goods – would shrivel and die OVERNIGHT if their constant stream of free column-inch billshuttery was dammed.
But of course that won’t happen – because it sells papers.
NOT HOUSES.
But, then – that’s not what either party in the relationship either wants nor needs out of the alliance – is it.
There’s a reason I never got into online agency. It aint that I’m provincial, it’s just that online are terrible at agency. Dude it’s like social media, ephemeral by design with the only thing keeping it relevant is Russ. Jeez you gotta hand it to him (just once I’d like to beat the skirt off that guy) always choking the narrative.
Ok if you strip away everything that surrounds ‘online’ and the gross culture it’s built, it’s a pretty cool concept but right now it’s just agency in transition. You gotta know when to trade horses dude. No doubt that down the stretch you’ll see these guys integrate high street’s core values but don’t expect to see high street just fall off the page.
Here to stay? Dude. Right now my pocket’s are turned out because I’m fresh out of f*cks to give.
Tuf Luv are you smoking something? That sounds like something out of Bill & Teds excellent adventure.
Welcome to the world of ‘Tuf Luv’.
Trust me – you’ll get used to it once you acclimatise to whatever’s in the air he breathes… ;o)
It’s a shame that ‘J1’ hasn’t returned to the thread yet – he/she has left loose ends that would be far best tied up and boxed off.
Doing some research for my own (possible) version of the bunker spoof which had the entire industry in stitches on Friday I had a look for some quotable facts. It’s interesting what a bit of research throws up, what was said and what was predicted what was confidently claimed ahead of the Purplebricks launch.
I ended up feeling thoroughly sad (but no pity) for Russell Quirk and think it’s best to leave him be to enjoy all he has created for himself. The things that really stand out; how his register has shrunk and how in order to win listings he is currently doing a deal on fees with £220 being knocked off what I consider to be an non-viable fee structure (even given to services offered).
A volume reliant business model needs to increase volume to increase profits. Reducing fee income and fee volume? I really don’t know how that is sustainable.
That also sounds like what’s happening to the high street agents in our towns
lower volumes drives lower fees to win instructions with lower profits or worse – no profits
almost everyone is lining up to jump off the cliff
not all of course
For sure transaction volumes are down but rising HPI insulates traditional fee structures from the full ravages of a volume contraction. Having a register only 80% of 2 years ago and then for no explainable reason pulling 37% off an already cheap fee is just lunacy which smacks of utter desperation.
Being the ’73p shop’ is unlikely to win more customers for the £1 shop.
That crowd funding money will be running seriously low, time to ask for some more yet Russell?
I had an interesting sale in one of my offices last week. Client had 3 vals. We were all around £165k. Client then asked online only receptionist to quote. They asked “what did the other agents say? Then basically told them to put it on at £160,000 to sell quickly! Luckily they put it on with us. It then sold after being on the market for two weeks at £164,000 (after opening bid at £155 and being skilfully negotiated up by the neg). Then the surveyor came in to the office to say that he was struggling a bit to get it to £164k The manager had a chat with him and gave him 3 other comps that had sold within the last 3 months. Job done. If that client had gone with the CCEA they would have saved the princely sum of circa £1250. BUT, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it would have a) started at £160 ((4k loss) b)sold for less than £160k as it wouldn’t have been negotiated properly, if at all c) would possibly have been downvalued without any meaningful dialogue between CCEA and surveyor and then either renegotiated or fallen through.
SAVING BY USING A PROPER AGENT AROUND £4000 – £7000(?)
As a high street agent of nearly 30yrs; I am starting to wonder how long it will be before the approach of simply slagging off on line agents as being rubbish liars will continue
they are here to stay and are gaining traction
just a thought
Ps
every instruction uploaded to RM yesterday in two neighbouring towns in Yorkshire was with online agents
go figure
over 100 high street agents with no instructions – perhaps they were closed
J1, I doubt you are a high street agent, number 1, Number 2 all those “instructions” were probably just re-listed by portal juggling. If you are a high street agent you need to consider what you are doing. You are obviously not performing in the way you should be which is offering a valuable service to your clients. Please check my post in todays first story in EYE. Its a true story and demonstrates exactly why using an online receptionist is, at best, very risky.
Sorry, story below!
I am
and don’t disagree
my point is that simply sniping etc is not in itself professional
Some or all of these properties may well be genuine however, have you ever heard of portal juggling?
J1
In response to you first post – the fact that they are here is not in dispute – as whether they are here to stay surely depends on whether they can trade viably. Numbers are their game – nothing else matters. HOW they GET those numbers is what this is all about.
In response to the add-on post – what numbers are we talking here? Two instructions? Three, maybe? What about a week’s results? A month? Or are you simply wanting to use a Sunday to add weight to your argument – which seems awkwardly slanted away from the High Street you state you trade from?
You sound like you’ve already given up and given in.
That may sound like an unfair assumption – but if you were to read what you are saying from someone else would you not think the same?
I would appreciate your advising us which two towns you refer to in order that an analysis can be produced for the readers.
I have run detailed numbers on the best of the online internet listing firms (572% of Emoov by listing, 13600% external investment) currently charging 200% more than Emoov. The listers are averaging just 2 instructions per week each. It’s probably not a great idea to try to top trumps traditional agents based on volume, service, performance, listings integrity or price achieved. Their only advantage is cheap but as the savings equate to a net real term loss that isn’t something to shout about either.
They are here to stay for as long as selling within a couple of days with little effort is required continues.
Beyond that…..They will go away until the next period of “anyone can sell” comes around…..
And during the “Harder to Sell” period we can enjoy the HPC Nut Brigrade gate crashing EYE.
A strong market levels the playing field for all agents and a bad market sees the cream rise.
Either way they are here now and not to be ignored, so simply adapt in this busy market and save well for the tougher market.
He finally did get his piece on sky news.
The fact that he is full of lies mean nothing.
“The house sold for £2,000 less than the asking price within just two days.”
That being the case, then their chosen CCEA did a grand job of COSTING them £2000.