EweMove has dramatically cut its price for established estate agents wanting to take on a franchise, in a bid to challenge Purplebricks ‘head on’.
It is charging £1,995 plus VAT – way down from its normal advertised price of £19,995 plus VAT – for a territory of around 20,000 households.
EweMove – which is planning to double in size over the next 18 months – also normally advises new franchisees to have working capital of at least £2,000 per month for the first year. However, the latest franchisees will be given help with their cashflow in the form of £250 per listing, repayable when the property is sold.
The franchise business, launched in 2014 by Glenn Ackroyd and David Laycock was last year acquired by the Property Franchise Group, owners of Martin & Co.
Ian Wilson, chief executive of the Property Franchise Group, yesterday confirmed that the new strategy is to allow EweMove to take on Purplebricks “head on”.
He said: “Historically EyeMove did not target estate agents, but the success of Purplebricks in recruiting over 350 Local Property Experts has been a wake up call.
“There is clearly a demand for a local business opportunity for estate agents disillusioned with the big corporates. EweMove will be offering franchises at £1,995 +VAT to experienced agents. They won’t need a shop and their monthly licence fee will include advertising on RightMove and Zoopla. Crucially, EweMove will pay its new agents £250 upfront for every listing, which matches the Purple Bricks offer to its agents.
“However, unlike Purple Bricks, the EweMove customer charging model remains commission based, no sale no fee. So when properties sell, the EweMove local agent pockets the commission, less a £250 completion paid to EweMove HQ and repayment of the initial £250 listing fee.
“EweMove management believe that this is a compelling offer which will allow its local agents to build themselves a business of enduring value, unlike the Purple Bricks listing only model which could leave a lot of dis-satisfied customers in its wake.”
The existing 90 franchisees, who largely work from home, have paid the higher price to join the EweMove business, but Wilson pointed out that all had needed full training in estate agency – something the new recruits would not need.
He said that there are a large number of good estate agents on the market, including those who have lost their jobs with corporates. He said: “There will be a lot more people in the weeks and months to come.”
Wilson also emphasised that the planned expansion of EweMove would not be at the expense of its Martin & Co and the four Xperience brands,
He said that new managing directors are being sought to head up each of these businesses, which would also be supported by the appointment of a new digital director.
Wilson said: “Our regional brands have a strong estate agency focus. Collectively, all five will be known as our ‘traditional’ brands and share a conservative heritage of suited and booted property professionals working out of high street offices.”
Glenn Ackroyd, self-styled ‘Head Shepherd’ of EweMove, said of the new offer to agents: “What’s clear is that estate agency is changing and that’s driven by the demands of consumers. They want 24/7 service and real time updates. Booking viewings online needs to be as simple as ordering from Amazon.
“Today’s customer doesn’t want to be tied down to phoning up during office hours.
“Sadly, most agents can’t meet these challenges. Transactions are down, fee levels are dropping and hardly anyone turns up at their swanky branches for a frothy cappuccino. Unless they change, quickly, they risk joining the ranks of Woolies, BHS and Blockbuster.
“In the three years since we launched, we’ve seen thousands of agents lose their jobs and this will only accelerate. But our low-cost, high-profit model has proved to be a winning combination.
“That’s why we’re reaching out to estate agents who are looking to safeguard their future by becoming part of our revolution.”
He said franchisees could look to achieve six-figure incomes. They would also have to buy into a culture where no pun is left unturned when it comes to sheep and EweMove.
Wilson said: “It is a funky brand, but people seem to like the jokey side of it. But no one loses sight of the fact that selling homes is a serious business and the firm is totally committed to customer service.”
Hey listen….I think we can do this for ourselves without shelving off income into another franchise organisation, and becoming a bunch of sheep all following the same flock, when we want to retain our individuality. You can be quirky with some of the people some of the time, but…!
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There is strength in numbers, I agree with that, but something is coming…wait and see.
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When someone describes something as a “funky” brand then how can one really ignore such a positive endorsement.
However, personally I think I will wait until the “Groovy Gang” offer a franchise before I sign up.
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It’s so good and so successful it’s been discounted by 90% and the online Jonnies whinge about high street agents overcharging! Not so much blaa blaa blaa as baa baa baa . . . .
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Are vendors about to be fleeced?
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Reminds me of the list of ‘consultants’ at Keller William UK of hundreds of agents with 0 instructions. No sure what these consultants do all day? Probably have a 2nd job tossing burgers in the evening.
http://www.kwuk.com/office-detail.html?office=victoria
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Try looking some of them up on LinkedIn – very ‘interesting’ results…
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And LO! and behold – waiting for me in my Inbox this morning is a message that states
Only Stupid Estate Agents Will Ignore This
from none other than the Head Sheepsh***er himself.
Well – call me stupid all you like, Sir – but I will be ignoring your email. It’s trash already.
I won’t be joining your bunch of sheep – in this pasture or any other. I don’t care how green you claim your grass to be.
You and your proposition can flock right off.
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‘Flockrightoff’
Worthy of a # in its own right I think.
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So… do you think I should give up my day job and become a #logo generator, AgentV?
#whatthechuff
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Just got this email tonight
Did you see the game changing news for estate agents in Property Industry Eye?
Read it here now:
http://www.myagency2017.com
When you’ve read the news, I’ve got something very exciting to share which I think will be of interest to you.
Hit reply and I’ll let you know what it is.
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Thinking #flockrightoff myself. They must be scouring the web to find who they can spam with this junk. I expect I’ll get another one at my other email address later on….
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And the race to the bottom has begun in earnest………………………..
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I’m a bit disappointed that I can’t see the phrase ‘disrupt the market’ anywhere in the above article.
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Wonder how deep the pockets are if they are inducing new franchisees with £250 per new instruction. IF they attracted some bright sparks across the whole country, imagine how quickly they would be paying out this incentive and I wonder how long their cash flow could maintain it…..bearing in mind how long sales and chains are taking to reach contract and they have slashed the franchise price which will cover 7.98 instructions let alone the background costs.
Whether this is real worry for them I don’t know, but bearing in mind in my area they currently have 9 properties for sale in the whole of Hampshire and a 15 mile radius…this is a big county with lots of chimney pots it doesn’t look good.
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If anyone out there wants to pay me £200 I’ll list their property for them…and they can keep the commission in their own right. I’m not charging a franchise fee either….because all the new properties will be growing my brand name and awareness!!!
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I can finally say publically how this lot got in to a full on war “in written words” with me over the value of a property.
They defended their online valuation of the property wishing me good luck if I achieved anything close to or over £250k for a property after a viewer used their valuation tool before viewing a house with us and I queried their result. Instead of a considered response it was a full stop I know nothing.
I was stupid at the time to react perhaps but as they “in writing” claimed my 24 years of local expertise meant nothing and I had no chance of selling this property, whilst sarcastically wishing the vendor luck and myself in our attempt to get the impossible, I could not help having a petty debate.
All in writing and kept to this day as they became pretty foul in their email, about how I should get with it and stop being a dinosaur with no idea of how to help this client and no wonder extra advice was required.
We exchanged contracts in December and completed on the sale at £280,000 -v- their £250,000 and in fairness our fee was 0.75% plus VAT as I knew the owner very well and wait for it….. is an estate agent himself, but wanted to keep private from business and trusted my name, so I did him a deal (I know…. 0.75% how low….. well perhaps not in this instance, although his other option could have been sell for free with his company)
So…… £30k more than this bunch claimed would ever be possible….. I even pointed out this house was bigger and detached and the reply was “definitely overpriced and hence the customer (he refers to a viewer using their online tool) was concerned and wanted a proper valuation I guess…. I can’t blame them”
oh well….. save a few hundred and lose £30k……. numpties. (sorry for any typos, between appointments and didn’t want to miss the chance to comment today)
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Ric
Maybe they wouldn’t have challenged you if you had been properly experienced..at least 25 yrs, 24 is just not enough! Your client/agent competitor did well by getting the £30k extra for just 0.75%…the best money he has ever spent!! Now you know you are worth considerably more…well done for keeping the paper trail….
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Indeed, such a shame 0.75% has become the new 1.00% around us! Just glad things are getting a touch tougher as it seems gradually fee’s are creeping back up again as vendors realise listing on a website alone is not enough and having brilliant staff to guide you through the sale and potentially get another 30k for you means a lot.
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Agreed….a tougher market will help us differentiate ourselves more. Just need a bit more supply…..but I have gleamed some cracking ideas from other people to get it.
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Well done Ric. There are thousands of these stories being left in the online agents wake, Ive explained one of my own classics on these pages previously.Whats different about yours is that you entered into recordable dialogue with them where they prove how ineffective they are at being “estate agents” and solely rely on digital vals thinking thats all we do.
£30k is a great result. I bet you couldnt wait to tell all!
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I am just considering now how to make a poster type advert for marketing purposes…..even some online Facebook Advert to tag on to every EweLoseThousands advert I see……. now I have something which I can substantiate if questioned as lets be fair….. Reduced Service Agents continuously saying “save thousands” based on a 2011 Which report, means my “Lose tens of thousands” based on a 2016 email seems to carry more weight if you ask me.
Certainly something we now need to get out there and ensure it is not just a “well done secret” in my business.
Perhaps that’s it…… “Did EweLoseMoney? Our Client Didn’t by going FullService with a real local expert! – 30,000 reasons to choose us over EweLose”
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Hi Ric,
Great story and well done!! If you use twitter please consider putting a brief summary on;
#independentestateagentsvalue
This is exactly what we need!!
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Puzzled as to why any agent would want to join the ‘flock’?
Are there any Ewe Move franchisees who are the market leaders(main agent) in their Town or area? Not a single one! I struggle to see the attraction and will watch this story with interest. Will we have a report from Ewe Move with the numbers of agents who have joined the ‘flock’? Be interesting to see if anyone signs up….
As for taking on PB, good luck with that!
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“Only Stupid Estate Agents Will Ignore This”
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Yes Chris just what I thought, sort of answered their own question !
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As a small independent working 7 days a week to keep my staff in their jobs and my modest business afloat this is what I do to keep the call centre agents at bay in my area.
If us small independents all adopt these ‘disrupter’ strategies we can stop the call centres getting market share, or ever being profitable. That way we can keep our businesses and our staff in their jobs.
When a call centre lists in my area I immediately write to the vendor and offer a High Street presence, local knowledge and personal service for the same fee. I remind them that they have 14 days to come out of their contract with the call centre. Whilst this might not make you any money its about keeping your market share. I have taken instructions from the call centres using this strategy.
If strategy one doesn’t work I have set up accounts with the main call centre agents and I book viewings at their listed property. I ask friends and family to do the same. These bookings are of course ‘no shows’. I sometimes book second viewings as well. After 3 of 4 ‘no show’ viewings I write to the vendor again to offer my reliable services, where all viewers are contacted and screened.
In parallel with action one and two I use my dummy email accounts to book Valuations with the call centre agents at random addresses to waste the ‘local’ account managers time and make them unavailable for anything else.
Another strategy is to contact the vendor when you see the call centre reduce the sale price. I highlight the loss of value and the fact that a local agent knows the real value of their property and what people will pay for it.
Whilst these actions do take up time these companies are trying to destroy our businesses and our livelihoods – ‘disrupting’ them from getting market share is worth it in the long term. The more of us that implement these strategies the better. Protect your business – Act today.
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And that my friend is exactly why the industry is in desperate need of a shake up. You must go through a hell of a lot of Horlicks because I don’t know how you sleep at night. If you are having to work 7 days a week to make ends meet I suggest you find something you are actually good at and give that a try.
Maybe if you spent more time giving your clients a better experience rather than wasting it in vain (and quite frankly moronic) attempts to throw stones across the playground you would see better results and get a day off once in a while.
It’s interesting that you have replied to an article about Ewemove and spewed a load of bile about call centres. That tells me you actually know VERY little about Ewemove and how the business model works. Indeed the vast majority of posters above don’t have the first clue either.
Good luck with the inevitable liquidation
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