A new property website is handing out money to home owners who may be thinking of selling at any time within the next 30 years.
The incentive appears to encourage possibly reluctant sellers to put their homes on the market, as long as they use a specific agent.
The payments vary from £150 to £825, and go to vendors using a panel of local agents on the Loyalty Street W1 website.
The sellers may be thinking of selling at any time within the next 30 years, but its payments seemly chiefly focused on those selling with the next five years.
The website is also focused on getting instructions for high street, not online, agents.
It targets people by using ‘life trigger events’ in Big Data that, for example, shows if they have had baby and are living in a one-bedroom flat, have recently moved, or even if they have spent time visiting Rightmove.
The business is fronted by its brand ambassador, former film star and property columnist Fiona Fullerton.
It sets out its stall firmly in favour of traditional, and not online, agents.
Justin Jordan, the site’s founder and a former estate agent with Cubitt & West, told EYE last night that the site is completely independent and charges agents nothing.
The site does, however, take part of the agent’s commission.
Jordan said that the site is a “club for better agents”.
The agents chosen to go on the panel are selected for a number of reasons, including time taken to sell and price achieved.
Jordan told EYE: “We don’t think that online agents will work in the UK.”
He said: “What looks like a cost saving could end up costing thousands if the property is marketed incorrectly.”
Comments (3)
Cost saving based on an average sale price is £960,482… where the hell did this figure come from?
I thought a 20 week sole agency agreement was harsh…. but 30 years?! Whatever next?
What other industry is stupid enough to PAY to sell their product – why not just go round an estate and, together with the touting mail, chuck a £50 note through the letter box as well?
Selling houses in the USA may be schmaltzy but they certainly know how to charge!
So what happens when the agent that has the greatest market share and get the best prices, doesn’t want or need to go on the panel?
Doesn’t that blow a hole in their carefully selected panel?
Good luck but its just another in a long line of people wanting to cream money off the back of the agents that are already spending money, working hard to be the best at what they do…..
If someone wants to know who is performing well in their local area, check out the boards (not the Christmas Fair ones though!)