A new fundraising round by Viewber, the outsourced property viewings service, has been over-subscribed with pre-registration interest inside a single weekend.
The 3,000-plus freelance Viewbers who show people around homes for sale and rent were among those invited to take part in the crowdfunding, as well as customers such as estate agents and developers. All were invited to participate at up to £100,000 each.
EYE spoke exclusively with high-profile co-founder Ed Mead who yesterday said that “take-up immediately reached capacity at pre-registration with individual Viewbers and customers offering to invest amounts ranging from £100 to £100,000”.
The bulk of this third funding round has already been taken up by existing Viewber investors, including industry luminaries Peter Rollings and Bob Scarff – with Mead stating: “So we won’t need to go to any private equity or venture capital houses.”
He went on to say that the resultant amount raised from the ‘crowd’ could be “a little bit less, could be a little bit more” than 10% of the total fund-raise.
Mead was tight-lipped on the amount to be raised, with the round closing in February. However, on the figures given, the sum could perhaps be easily into seven figures, and possibly more.
Mead and his co-founder Marcus de Ferranti say the money raised will be spent on “major IT upgrades, increased marketing, enhanced service support and corporate infrastructure”.
They went on to say that Viewber has “outperformed all expectations at this stage and its range of services now includes many over and above viewings and inspections, including basic photography, waiting in, key safe fitting and even document signing”.
This latest fund-raise was first announced in an email to Viewbers seen by EYE on Friday, entitled ‘Crowd Funding offer to Viewbers’.
It says: “As a Viewber you will already be aware of the company’s progress in bringing the power of the sharing economy to property viewings.
“The existing investors are now putting more money into Viewber and we are inviting you to co-invest in the funding round at the same price as those investors.
“The money will be used to accelerate the growth achieved to date with additional marketing, major IT upgrades and additional front line support for Viewbers and customers alike.
“Please let us know if you are interested by pre-registering here viewber.co.uk/investments.”
The same invitation for Viewbers to take part in the fund raising round also says that an “impressive’ number of new agents – both high street and online – have signed up for the service.
Mead and de Ferranti also say there is interest from asset managers and auction houses – “So 2018 looks like it could get busy”.
Viewbers are generally paid £20 plus travel expenses per viewing.
Mead, who is still a director of London agency Douglas & Gordon where he worked for some 20 years, and who is also a director of Agents’ Mutual plus on the board of the Property Ombudsman, launched Viewber in 2016 with digital entrepreneur de Ferranti.
Last autumn they claimed to have over 500 registered clients. Peter Rollings, former boss of Marsh & Parsons, became an investor just over a year ago.
Freelance personnel showing your home? Any qualifications required? Are they vetted? May as well get a robot to show over!!
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I think that it will take a lot more viewings to let or sell here as basically, these people are walking keys. Our sales people local knowledge is what shifts property, these are people that know the area and the industry. Its more where the house is than what the house is that seals the deal, i.e. schools, commute, bars, restaurants, parks, museums etc. What you will have is someone stood outside playing on their phone while the viewers walk around on their own and all questions redirected to the office.
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I think the naysayers might be surprised to hear that the feedback we have received from both agents and ‘Viewbers’ is pretty universally positive – the Viewbers love it and it frees the agents up to concentrate on what Stokeagent51 lists in his comment.
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I wonder seriously how this stands with the agents responsibilities under CPRs. If one of my staff says something inaccurate or untruthful about a property, no matter how jokingly, then I am liable under CPRs as well as the staff member. I would hate to think of a complete stranger showing someone around my client’s homes.
Not everyone is a criminal but a passing comment to another unconnected party could be overheard in a pub, restaurant or the like indicating the property had something of worth inside and hey presto you have a break-in and theft. I do not what levels of security checks and training are undertaken by Viewbers when taking these people on but I for one would not countenance risking my reputation on an unknown.
One other thought – are these people to be classed as self employed? If so they will very soon find out from HMRC that if you derive your income form a single course that you cannot be self employed. Will Viewber then be classed as their employer and liable to give sickness benefit, holiday pay, stop tax etc. I quote Uber as the example.
Perhaps this is something other online agents (no names no pack-drill) will then offer as a bolt-on at an big mark up not caring what happens to the client’s property.
To my mind this is just another attempt to pretend to the public that traditional agents are not the best value for money.
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We are trying this service for the first time with an investment property that is a bit out of our area. So far they have been very helpful in setting up but the first viewing slot is not until next week so can’t comment on performance yet.
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I am not knocking the offering, but I believe a viewing is one of the most important parts of what we do…it is the point at which the property is sold and bought!!! It is also a great time to promote your brand and pick up new business. That’s why I try and do as many of them myself as I possibly can. Does anyone disagree with how important Viewings are?
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Sounds to me like the old boys club trying to make some money out of their redundancy payoffs.
Agency isn’t about properties in the window and standing on your chair punting at 9am to hit your vauxhall corsa target it’s evolved.
People care more about service and relationships these days.
They want to see real innovation not ‘viewbers’ whom they have no relationship with.
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