The Guild of Property Professionals has called on members to square up to Purplebricks and take the 10% market share that the online agent has said it is targeting.
Speaking at the Guild’s annual conference yesterday, chief executive Iain McKenzie described Purplebricks as “just a franchise” and said the network’s members would actually make up the largest agency group based on new instructions.
He said: “The Guild is currently a fragmented collection of fantastic agents.
“The consumer doesn’t recognise that agents are selected as the best in town.
“I say we beat Purplebricks and take 10% market share.”
It comes as the Guild outlined a range of new partnerships and launches for members.
The network has launched a partnership with property management sales and lettings platform Reapit, and members will also be able to get properties advertised on social media with a new service from LeadPro.
The Guild also outlined plans to launch a new service based on the quick sale iBuyer firms in the US.
The new service called Offerhive links sellers with a Guild agent who can then find an approved property buyer to purchase the property at a discounted market rate.
Phillipa Legg, group operations manager at the Guild, said the service is aimed at repairing broken chains or securing fast sales and means that agents can be involved in the transactions unlike in the US where they have been excluded.
The service, set to launch in May, will use an automated valuation model to provide an offer range online for sellers.
If a seller agrees, an inspection then takes place by the certified property buying partner who will make a final offer that can then be accepted or rejected.
The agent will receive commission on the initial sale and the property buying partner will refer the onward sale back to the agent, giving the agent further commission.
All property buying partners would have to be members of a redress scheme and be part of the National Association of Property Buyers.
This is the Guild that got into bed with easy property.
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Who hasn’t woken up with metaphorical beer goggles on the bedside cabinet at some point in their life?
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That’s quite a simplistic response. The Guild for me lost all credibility when it saved Easy Property only 2.5 years ago when it was running at a loss of some £12 m a year. The Guild could have invested that money/time/resource back into branch, fuelling their members up for the current landscape, yet a business decision was made to invest in this route with easy property.
Let’s not forgot to Easy property’s funeral procession through town thinking we estate agents would be better off dead – a crass move by a crass company then ironically saved by the ‘old school’ agents being represented by a body who should in my view be focusing on the strength’s independent agents can deliver in their own right, not dilute their core offering through an Easy brand DIY model – genuinely who ever thought it was a good idea needs to for their own sake question if they are right person to work in a group that should be promoting independent estate agency.
I don’t think there has been any property review/scrutiny of the Easy Property deal – happy to proved wrong, but I think this needs to happen before faith is restored and not just dismissed as ‘beer goggles’
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My post to Smile was not supposed to be anything more than light-hearted , certainly not a serious comment on the Easy Property deal but as you’ve opened it up let’s put the whole City group-think charge into disruption of agency into perspective.
Led of by James Caan followed by Stelios, Charles Dunstone, Woodford et all, there were very few people at one stage who wanted to get left behind if disruption was going to be a thing. Countrywide, Connels, Savils PFG all threw their support behind having a go at the new model that was apparently, according to everything that was being said in investment circles at the time, going to sweep traditional agency aside. As Mr Bruce pointed out investors fear missing out more that they fear loss so it is no surprise they tried.
If disruption had taken hold and the executive hadn’t tried, they would have faced more criticism than they should face for trying.
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Whatever our position on purplebricks is, they have quickly gained traction mainly with effective national media messages. It would be beneficial to Guild agents if our collective national message could have as much impact.
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Easy now
Is this another cash grab from it unsuspecting friends ???
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He said: “The Guild is currently a fragmented collection of fantastic agents.
“The consumer doesn’t recognise that agents are selected as the best in town.
Me neither
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Agent in my town has just been accepted. Closed one of their 2 branches in the last year. Outdated service and individuals but happy to pay the £500 per month ……. Wonder why they were accepted?
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incisive as ever sp
……always that “monthly fee”
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We were with The Guild because we were prepared to put our hand in our pockets. We found it to be a complete waste of money and when we left The Guild they simply chose another agent that was prepared to pay (the other agent being the worst in the town with a dreadful reputation). Their claim that Guild agents are they best in the town is utter rubbish.
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Interesting that Vic Darvey with no agency experience thinks he and a team of executives with zero agency experience can double their market share when a team of highly experienced estate agents couldn’t do it the 5 years previous to his tenure with a firm that was new and exciting!
The hilarious comment that purple bricks has great tech should be met with nothing but laughter… working on a monolithic system which hasn’t been updated in 6 years and can’t be updated without starting from scratch! This is the same joker who thinks it’s a good idea to remove die hard purple bricks agents to make way for those whose faces fit! So much for getting rid of the ‘Bruce’s boy club’
they have now lost all the culture they once had, all trust in senior management and executives has gone following this latest cull and they are now scraping the barrel of whoever they can beg, borrow and steal from the high street… stick them on a less then average version of the original training course and hope they can get to 10% market share. The mere thought is an insult to all agents in the Uk!
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I don’t know who you are but were friends.
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