A new platform allowing sellers to compare local estate agents, including their quotes for selling the property and their valuations, is crowd-funding.
Invite Agents, launched by Bristol surveyor Stephen Berridge, by the weekend had raised over £42,000 of its £50,000 target on Crowdcube.
In return for the money, investors are being offered a 7.5% stake in the business, which values itself at £617,100.
Invite Agents says that it allows a home owner to browse and compare actual personalised fee quotations and valuations from all their local agents, all “from the comfort of their sofa”.
The service is free to vendors while agents will pay a “transparent monthly subscription fee”.
Invite Agents insists it is “not just another comparison site”, but a tool for home owners to find an agent with confidence, and an “all-in-one lead generation solution for estate agents in their area”.
The pitch says that there is a substantial market opportunity for the service, which has been beta tested in the Bristol area with agents Andrews, Hunters and Ocean, all of which have submitted fee quotations for properties in the BS3 postcode.
The service now plans to launch across Bristol before a planned national expansion in 2021.
So far, there have been some 70 investors, with over three weeks for the pitch still to run.
What an absolute joke. How can a comparison site funded by agents be impartial? Perhaps Mr Berridge ought to stick to surveying houses rather than agents. £50k isn’t going to go far. Almost makes some of the donuts on Dragon’s Den last night look like Richard Branson.
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The “Don’t just take our word for it” section has recommendations from ‘James’ in Ashton, ‘Tom & Vicky’ in Bristol, and ‘Terry & Julie’ in Windmill Hill. Now all three of these may be as real as fleas on a hedgehog…
…but ANY firm using stock photos to represent their “customers” smacks of nine-bob note to me.
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I can do a fantastic job for a client and still be told I’m cr@p, I can do next to nothing and be told I’m the only one capable of bringing it home, how do you rate that? ( emoji of stupid chick shrugging )
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Yeah, and their comments sound entirely genuine too, especially the one specifically aimed at convincing those people who already have an agent in mind!
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what a load of B*******
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