A service aimed at helping agents get instructions has now gone fully live.
GetAgent launched in beta version in May and has recently completed a successful fund-raising round.
The site offers a free online comparison service to would-be sellers.
Users key in details about their property, including postcode, number of bedrooms, what they think is its valuation and when they are thinking of selling.
Based on that, they are shown the six best agents in their area, predicated on average selling time, number of properties listed and percentage of original asking price achieved.
For example, the search shown below was done yesterday in an area local to EYE, based on a four-bedroom home on a large estate.
The results of the top six – selected in this case from a total of 37 possible agents – are shown in alphabetical order.
Would-be vendors are then able to get quotes, quickly and online, from whichever agent they like the look of most.
The new site does have competitors – NetAnAgent and LocalAgentFinder – but claims it is markedly different.
Colby Short, co-founder of the site and CEO, said: “We are completely objective and independent.
“The top six agents are shown whether they work with us or not.
“Our algorithm is based on us constantly monitoring sites including Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket, and then tracking results at the Land Registry.
“So far, it is proving very successful.
“Although we only launched in beta in May, we have so far worked with 492 estate agency branches in total.
“Of course, we can’t prove that we are instrumental in the sale of the property, as the responsibility for getting that through still falls on the agent.
“What we can show is that the agents our home owners instruct through our service have a proven track record of selling property like theirs, in their area, well.
“Agents pay us 0.25% + VAT which they are seemingly happy to do as they see it as an alternative to having had to flyer 10,000 homes to get the instruction.
“There is also the added bonus that there is no negative cashflow as they only pay us once they’ve been paid themselves.”
Short said that in the last two weeks, the business has helped 72 home owners find estate agents, for £35m worth of property, and signed up a further 170 estate agency branches.
He said the plan is now to roll the business out across the UK and scale up.
He said: “We are looking to engage with the best agents in the country and work with them to help them win the volume of instructions their performance deserves.”
He added: “Home owners using GetAgent do so because they want to get the best agent for their home, not the cheapest.
“They realise that there are two sides to the value proposition of an estate agent and that they are better off using a great agent even if it costs them 0.5% more.”
Although the site currently asks property owners about lettings, Short said it is unlikely that GetAgent will pursue that line of business.
He said: “In terms of lettings, we are unsure the data sources exist or are accurate enough for us to provide any discernible value to the home owner.
“GetAgent is built on the desire to help the home owner maximise the return on their property. If we can’t do that in lettings, we won’t dive in just to boost our revenues.”
The website is here
Bad idea. Agents should not be blackmailed into giving any of their commission away. Don’t help make a monster like RM avoid parasites like this.
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Message to vendors. Here’s the best six estate agencies. You’re on your own from here!! Vendors need more help than that. Further, any agency that has the best metrics (of which we’re a big fan by the way) isn’t necessarily the right agency for some vendors.
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I thought about this idea a while ago and I do like the website, quick and simple, only problem is that you need a few million quid to get it out there, joe public just wont find it. The other problem is the big boys could roll this out in a day or two, cant remember the company but a site comparison site now sells cars, taking on autotrader.
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From their website:
“GetAgent uses information from all the main property portals and matches this information with Land Registry data to provide an accurate measure of estate agent performance.”
Okay.. so this website is displaying one of my company’s recent completions as being sold by a competitor. On the basis that we achieved in excess of 105% of Asking Price, it is greatly enhancing the apparent performance of this company.
Where is the alleged checking of the accuracy of the information they display?
Suggest you all check your own area – I cannot for one second believe that this is an unique occurrence just to give me an opportunity to re-chew old ankles – the odds of that are exponential.
YET ANOTHER example of an outfit leeching off the back of our industry and fobbing prospective homesellers off with inaccurate and misleading ******** wrapped up in Christmas paper and presented as “…a transparent way to help owners find the best agent for them.”
Transparent? Paper-thin, more’s like…
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Top tip:
INCREASE your chances of being a ‘top six’ agent by uploading ghost properties and simply marking them under offer the minute they hit the portals bringing your average selling time down to 1 day.
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You don’t come to the party anywhere near often enough, matey – but when you do the gifts you bear are frickin’ AWESOME! ;o)
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