The online agent, Housesimple, is bolstering its product development capability with the hire of industry veteran Hannes Buhrmann.
Buhrmann has spent the last 14 years at Rightmove where he held a range of roles, including Head of Innovation for 5 years.
He joins Housesimple on June 1st 2020 as Product Director.
Commenting on the new hire, Housesimple CEO Sam Mitchell said:
“We are delighted to welcome Hannes to the Housesimple team.
“Having achieved the audacious ambition of selling homes for free, we are committed to taking our platform to the next level by creating an industry leading user experience that is simple, intuitive and friction free.
“Having worked with Hannes previously I know he is exactly the right man to help us achieve these goals.”
Hannes Buhrmann, said:
“To make Housesimple’s ambitions possible will require inventive, innovative, cost effective and scalable solutions that combine user-friendly technology with fantastic personal service.
“With years of digital product experience in the property industry and deep understanding of the issues in the selling/buying process, I am really excited to join the team, and to help turn their vision into reality.”
Buhrmann’s LinkedIn profile describes him as:
A seasoned and versatile digital product leader / product strategist with a strong track record in conceptualising and delivering useful and attractive digital products to market (B2C, B2B and B2B2C).
I love creating and evolving innovative products that are, or have the potential, to be commercially successful, loved by customers, and loved by the teams who create, support, promote and sell them.
After a career break, I am now actively looking for an interesting product challenge.
When I don’t work, I cycle (a bit obsessively)
It also shows that since August 2019 he had been on sabbatical at the ‘University of Self Indulgence.’
In September 2019 he undertook a 3,500km solo cycling tour through Poland, Czech, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and France.
The real news in this story is that Rightmove has a ‘innovation department’. Being head of such a quiet department must have been like being semi-retired.
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That made me chuckle! He is responsible for ‘Featured Property and Premium Listing’.
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And adding company logos to listings. So innovative.
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This chap has not been busy over the last 5 years
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That isn’t his fault though, it must have been the most frustrating job in the world. All that cash and resource, the user base, the listings … to be forced to sit on your hands and not touch anything that might impact the profit margins must have been hell but what’s worse is the ridicule he’ll attract for doing his job perfectly as per instructions. Don’t break it, don’t do anything that will dent profit.
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Exactly right, when the cash keeps flowing in, and you don’t really understand what you’re doing right, best change nothing & keep stroking the rabbit’s foot. Good to see Hannes moving & shaking though, he’s a good guy & smart. Let’s see what he does next.
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“Buhrmann has spent the last 14 years at Rightmove…”
Erm… sorry for being a pedant – but that’s not what his LinkedIn profile says.
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“he had been on sabbatical at the ‘University of Self Indulgence.’”
This makes me want to punch myself in the face.
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It makes me want to punch him in the face.
(This is not intended as an incitement to violence)
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““Having achieved the audacious ambition of selling homes for free, we are committed to taking our platform to the next level….”
The next level for most of these outfits is NOT a good place!
I see that UK Settled have published their accounts today – another £million+ down the pan.
It must be so much fun playing ducks ‘n drakes with other people’s money.
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I don’t see what value and credentials the guy has to be of any use to a company that is loosing money and failure. Surely they need someone inspirational and successful, but then anyone that wise knows a frying pan.
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Charles Dunstone is looking for his Ben Ainsley to help him turn things around; he took on the seemingly impeccably CV’d Mitchel in 2018. They tried to give the service away and that’s not paid off so my guess is the tech platform is getting the blame.
What needs to be realised is, as I have said so many times before, it is not possible to compete with #local. Inspirational and successful will not fix a flawed thinking or business model
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Housesimple CEO Sam Mitchell said:
“Having achieved the audacious ambition of selling homes for free…”
“Audacious ambition”? Jeez – ANY EEJIT can do that – but they’d cease to exist in business very quickly indeed. The only thing allowing you to continue with such “audacious” *********** (credit: Jonnie) potentially being you’ve got a multi-squillionaire bankrolling it at the minute, Mr Mitchell.
And just to correct the statement, you aren’t “selling homes for free” – you are LISTING them for free. If and when any of them actually ‘sell’ and legally complete – those vendors get an unexpected bonus.
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I thought this website was about estate agents not a free listing service.
Estate agency is the act of getting a fee for successfully selling a third party’s home.
Housesimple is just a free listing service trying to run with other people’s data and using other people’s money.
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