New industry ratings site launches charts of ‘best performing agents’

A new performance-based estate agency comparison website launched at the weekend, aiming to deliver vendor leads to agents.

The launch came without any pre-publicity.

The site claims it can identify the country’s best-performing agents.

Called estateagent4me, it is owned by a firm that for the last 12 years has been running eConveyancer, an online tool which enables customers to compare the cost of conveyancers.

ULS Technology floated last year, valued at £36.57m, and claims to be the UK’s largest handler of conveyancing work in the UK.

Its new estateagent4me rates agents in England and Wales – and says it has every agent on its database. It plans to expand to Scotland and Northern Ireland shortly.

The site allows would-be sellers to enter their postcode, size of property by bedrooms, and what they think its price is.

In return they get a list of the local “top” agents, with the ability to contact them through the site.

These rankings are based on the percentage of properties that agents have sold, average time taken to sell a property, how often they achieve sales at or above asking price, and the number of properties each agent has listed in the location.

As well as ranking, users get an indication of the fee level, a profile of agents in terms of their average property price, and what portals the agents are on. Would-be sellers who do not know the value of their home are guided to properties currently for sale in the area, and recent local sold prices.

ULS Technology managing director is Ben Thompson, pictured below, who was previously a director at Legal & General.

He told Eye: “The new site is very consumer-driven. It is all about accentuating the positives in the estate agency industry. Anyone can go down the other route, but we are not going that way.

“We are trying to take a really proactive, collaborative stance with the industry.

“We know there is a lot of noise about online versus traditional agents, but we are ambivalent. We take the view that there is a damn good reason why traditional agents are still around, but we also take the view that it is up to consumers to decide.”

Thompson also said that it is undecided as to whether estateagent4me should open up to become a site where the public can post their reviews.

He said: “We are keeping that option under review.”

The site is free to use for the public, who have the option of conveyancing at a £250 discount.

Estate agents have an opportunity to earn referral-type fees should vendors who sign up with them through the site also decide to use the related conveyancing services.

The new site will also monetise itself by charging agents for successful vendor leads.

According to estateagent4me, the top agents in the UK in terms of getting the highest amount over asking price are – not surprisingly – all in London.

They are: the Rotherhithe office of Hastings International, with an average of £31,105 over asking price, while Winkworth, Palmers Green, achieved £16,215 over asking price, and Douglas Allen, Dalston, achieved an extra £15,083.

“This compares very favourably to the UK average performance of £12,742 below asking price,” the site says.

According to the site, the three agents that scored the best individual percentage increase over asking price were Whitehouse Estate Agents, Bournemouth (108.9%), Hastings International, Rotherhithe (107.7%), and Connells, Southville, Bristol (107.2%).

In terms of time to sell, the “quickest” areas were Reading (26 days), Bristol (26 days) and “outer London” (43 days), while the slowest were Liverpool (85 days) and Leeds (62 days).

The fastest agents for selling, says the site, were Lawson Rose, Southsea, Portsmouth, and Leaders in nearby Waterlooville (both eight days).

Thompson said: “Our research shows that the average UK house seller would have received an additional £27,456 had their estate agent performed as well as the best.

“estateagent4me aims to give sellers the hard facts so they can find the best estate agent.

“Comparison-based technology and algorithms have revolutionised the way we choose our holidays, buy our insurance and choose our tradesmen, among many other things. We think the estate agency market is ripe for the same kind of innovative thinking, especially given the sums of money involved per transaction.

“Estateagent4me provides impartial information about estate agents, regardless of whether it’s a high street brand or an online agent, national firm or independent.

“Our function in the market is to provide agency performance data in an easy-to-access way and let sellers decide who they wish to instruct to sell their property.  Our aim is to help sellers match their needs to the best performing estate agents, for the benefit of all.”

However, while the site pitches itself in a positive light for both consumers and agents, it clearly has some glitches.

When Eye entered vendor details for our own postcode, the top agent came back as a budget agent of whom we had not heard, who does not sell in the area and never has done. Its nearest properties appear to be are some five miles away. By contrast, a dominant agent in the area did not feature in the list at all.

The online pricing tool, to help vendors estimate the value of their property, was accurate in terms of properties currently on the market, but very out of date in terms of prices achieved on properties sold.

The ‘indicative marketing fee’ is shown as plus VAT, rather than inclusive as is required.

One agent who also visited the new site at the weekend reported inaccuracies to Eye, saying that the site lists some agents as advertising on portals that they do not advertise on. Some agents, he said, are listed as advertising on Zoopla, Rightmove and OnTheMarket.

For example – see illustration – this agent, Peter Lane, is not on Zoopla, but is on Rightmove and OnTheMarket. However, this website says the firm is on all three.

peter lane

The website is here

Ben.Thompson

USL Technology managing director is Ben Thompson

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19 Comments

  1. PeeBee

    Anyone care to tell me how the above company is listed on OTM, RM AND Z?

    Report
  2. PeeBee

    Oh, dear – what a joke of a site.

    Shows my local LSL Agent as advertising on ALL THREE portals!

    My question above still stands, however…

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  3. Gump

    Brilliant, we need more sites like this one, we should all open one each

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  4. easternagent

    I agree with PeeBee. What a complete joke of a site.  I have checked the postcodes of my five offices and in every case agents are shown who have never ever sold a property in the area!  How can they publish such erroneous information whilst purporting to be assisting the buyers and sellers.  It is totally misleading.

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  5. PeeBee

    You simply have to wonder how long it will be before one of these companies get sued for the “advice” they give, don’t you!

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  6. Eric Walker

    I tried it for my house. Top 6 agents were in Eltham not Chislehurst – its seems distance from postcode has more weighting than who is actually market leader. I suspect some agents will feel misrepresented.

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  7. wardy

    Couple of bits of dodgy code, a couple of press editorials, couple of weeks on a crowd funding site and jobs a gooden.

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  8. wilko

    I’m going to start a new website that rates the “rate an agent” websites…..just need a good name and crowd funding starts next week.

     

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    1. smile please

      ‘Rate a rater’ ?

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    2. wardy

      I’m already one step ahead of you with my new rate the rating site rater concept.

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      1. smile please

        Is it going to disrupt traditional rating sites?

         

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        1. Gump

          Will be a game changer I reckon. A rate a rater rating site ran by the rated for the raters that love to rate!

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    3. PeeBee

      How’s about “www.pickanagenttoutofthinaircoswegetfiftyquidbungwhenyousignup.con”

      ;o)

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      1. PeeBee

        Good news – the domain is available!

        You see – I DO have the occasional lightbulb moment! ;o)

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    4. B6RKY

      Rat on a Rater- ‘your chance to be a rat!’

      Report
  9. agent orange

    Just checked my area, by business is not listed in any price range. Apparently I don’t exist………

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  10. agent orange

    One agent, which no longer exists is ranked higher than me!

    Report
  11. PeeBee

    Above, the article states “For example – see illustration – this agent, Peter Lane, is not on Zoopla, but is on Rightmove and OnTheMarket. However, this website says the firm is on all three.”

    Erm… actually, and as I said earlier, I think you will find they are –

    http://www.zoopla.co.uk/find-agents/?company_name=peter%20lane&radius=0&search_source=refine

    http://www.rightmove.co.uk/estate-agents/find.html?locationIdentifier=OUTCODE%5E1975&brandName=peter+lane

    https://www.onthemarket.com/agents/search/?agent-name=Peter+Lane+%26+Partners&agent-search-type=branches&sort-field=update_date&view=grid

    They even display OTM, RM AND PL logos on their site.

    Someone please tell me why we are playing the game by the rules yet others clearly aren’t!!!

    Report
    1. Robert May

      True story  it seems  being “a highly qualified acedemic in a particular field” bars one from complaining about shenanagins and goings on!

      Report
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