An online agent has received significant new investment to launch officially to consumers in the new year.
The backer is behind one of the all-time success stories, lastminute.com
It has included the usual “disruptive” word in its news statement.
Settled, which has received the investment, is run by brother and sister duo Paul and Gemma Young.
Gemma Young was one of the first 100 people in the UK to work for Google. Before that, she was an estate agent with Connells.
The amount of the seed investment has not been disclosed, but is unlikely to be loose change, and is from incubator firm Garage Soho.
Garage Soho is run by global advertising legend Sir John Hegarty and Thomas Teichman, who was recently named by the London Evening Standard as Britain’s most successful digital start-up backer.
Teichman is also chairman of Spark Ventures, the venture capital company which backed lastminute.com
Hegarty, whose CV includes Saatchi & Saatchi and who founded world-wide creative agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, said: “We love Settled because it has the potential to be a disruptive brand and a disruptive business.
“It’s a double win.”
Teichman said: “The Youngs are a great team. They have selling home as their blood. If anyone can help people have the confidence to sell theirs, it’s them.”
Gemma Young said: “There have been several online agencies in the real estate space which have emerged over the past 18 months offering consumers cost savings but still the need to rely on a middleman.
“We feel technology has a much larger role to play in innovation than we’ve seen so far.
“With Settled we’re passionate about building the tools that will empower sellers and buyers giving them more confidence and making buying and selling much more enjoyable with a vastly reduced price tag.
“We’re thrilled to be working with the Garage Soho in what we think is the perfect business and creative partnership.
“The Garage team’s knowledge of consumer brands combined with our drive to build a brand that will stand out in the market will help us propel Settled into the consumer property space.”
Settled launched in January this year and says it has grown its users organically.
It charges sellers £299 and lists properties on Rightmove and Zoopla.
Yesterday on Rightmove Settled had ten available properties.
Separately, Purplebricks has launched into Scotland, ahead of speculation that it is to make its stock market debut early next month
Founder Michael Bruce said: “The Scottish property market is booming right now and out potential to save sellers money is huge.”
Purplebricks says the average estate agent’s fee in Scotland is 1.8%.
Looks like another copycat springing up in hope of being acquired by an incumbent or an aggregator. If you haven’t built any tech by this point then you’re rather later to the party.
As for the importance of investment – there’s cash around for any old thing in this space at the moment
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I thought you were off Tristram? Never mind, welcome back!
Building Tech! I think that’s a fancy way of saying we’ve blown a shed load of cash on a website that sticks stuff on Rightmove and Zoopla where it can be seen, we’ve also devised a cutting edge OBGVS* that links directly to Z-rng **
*optimistic best guess valuation system ** Zoopla random number generator
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You’re right Robert, what am I doing here? The article about Facebook is simply absurd
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Property industry eye is addictive, as are the characters, the conversations but mostly the passion. That’s what you are doing here.
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I’ve got an old ZX Spectrum up in my loft and have a bit of experience in estate agency too; anyone care to invest a few million?
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Why do we say Real Estate now? Before you know we will all be saying awesome!
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Hmm clicked the wrong reply button!
I really need to not post before 10am
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Worth noting, no need to dust off the old system Chris. Like most things these days you can just play ZX games online (even your mobile via an app) and load in 1 second not 5 mins. Things are just better online these days
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I couldn’t agree more Stephen, my business and customers properties have been on-line since 2001 😉 x
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““With Settled we’re passionate about building the tools that will empower sellers and buyers”…..What about supplying the extensive skills to use the tools?…..Where will they come from?
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Purplebricks.com? 1.8% in Scotland? Can PIE ask Purplebricks for their evidence of that 1.8% as I need that for my ASA/Trading Standards Submissions.
Also, I’m launching a New Estate Agency Service which uses the latest available Technology/Digital Marketing plus a Revolutionary Element which Saves Homesellers Money over Online Property Listers.
I can exclusively reveal it here!…… its…… Human Beings!!!…… skilled, experienced, professional, breathing humans….. and they are Real Estate Agents!
Use a Real Estate Agent and potentially save thousands of pounds by selling your home for the best possible price……. or hand it to Cheapn’Cheerful.com who will take your money whether they sell it or not!
Using an Online Property Lister is rather like paying a Tradesman to do a DIY Job for you…… whether they actually do it or not.
And well done Lastminute.com founder…… that was a fantastic time to be in business….. thedotcombubble!…… or as we call it in Scotland……LuckyWhiteHeatherClub!
Why did they call it a bubble? Amswers on anything other than a Balloon!
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I must say, calling UK Estate agents Real Estate Agents is too American for me.
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Wilko….. I don’t mean the American terminology, however appreciate how it reads or could be read….. I simply mean R E A L as in the genuine thing, not Realtor.
Just for clarification……. if you’re taking the p^ss then you know what I mean already.
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Sorry GPL, I fully understood, and agreed with your original post…..I just couldn’t think of anything to add so I ended up being flippant ! Sorry.
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Wilko…..at least we never mentioned OTM in this post….
Doh!!!
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@agent_peebee on twitter has an extensive dossier of information you might wish to consider in your submissions GPL. It will mean both of you sharing anonymities but the sacrifice will be well worth it
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Cheers Robert…… an anon Scotsman…. that would be an unusual character trait.
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They call it settled: like settlement? or signs of settlement? or needs underpinning? Oh I forgot they just been underpinned by by lastminute.
Yes they will no doubt bring a new dimension to the party. I’m gonna start my own property website and I’m gonna call it.
howtogetfinanciallystuffedwhensellingyourhome.com
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I love ‘Realtors’ lol, especially their cheesy photos.
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Could the word disruptive be removed from all next BUDGET disruptive models and the words ‘yet another cheap budget model’ go in.
No doubt 2nd week of December the next ‘disruptive’ model will be announced and some B or D celeb who once had a BTL will come to market and cut this ones £299 fee to £199, followed in jan by a £99 – leading to a £9.99 so long as you take up one of their services.
The main disruption of real budgets is the sellers ability to achieve a decent price.
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