Zoopla reports that it has delivered almost £80,000 in agent fees through Modern Method of Auction [MMoA] sales seven months on from establishing its partnership with iamsold.
The portal, which claims to have recorded more than £12m in auction stock via iamsold, says that its success indicates that demand for MMoA sales is growing.
To encourage more agents to sign up, Zoopla says that it is offering what it describes as an ‘auctions bonus’ to agent partners, which comprises a 10% discount on portal fees.
This applies to agent customers who sign up or have already signed up to the MMoA service via Zoopla since the launch of the partnership, and complete three sales through iamsold in any given year.
“We established our industry-first partnership with iamsold in July 2020, and it quickly delivered dividends to agents and consumers alike,” said Zoopla’s chief commercial officer, Andy Marshall. “The benefits of selling at auction for agents are clear.
He added: “Faster sales, higher completion rates, leading to an increased rate of return. It’s also a great way to offer choice to consumers, empowering them to select a sales method best suited to their circumstances, whether auction or private treaty.
“Modern Method of Auction sales have recorded an uptick over the past seven months, proving to be a very valuable resource for agents and homemovers alike.”
Jamie Cooke, managing director at iamsold, added: “The project teams at Zoopla and iamsold have formed strong relationships, as we work towards our shared goal of driving consumer awareness around the benefits of the Modern Method of Auction.
“We’re already seeing success for our mutual clients and only anticipate this to grow further, as we implement our future strategy. A core component of the partnership is focused around our industry-first Best Practice Guide, helping to ensure consumers have a positive and consistent experience of the MMoA and there’s transparency throughout the process.”
Rghtmove last week announced that it is now developing a new digital feature for MMoA to help agents who would like to offer clients the option of this method of sale.
Rightmove is developing a new digital feature for Modern Method of Auction
Comments (4)
MMOA needs investigating and should not be missold.
You do get paid faster, fees are paid as soon as sale is agreed or the following month because buyer pays buyers’ premium as soon as sale is agreed..
However a minimum of £6k or 4.2% including VAT is a huge fee whichever way you look at it.
Whether traditional private treaty, for sale by tender or MMOA, someone pays a fee and this forms part of the total price agreed. Buyers have a limit as to what they can / will pay and the fee paid will be included in any offer calculation they make.
There will be some people who NEED to unload property fast for myriad of reasons. However, agents should be very selective of who should be sold MMOA and the reasons for recommending it.
The 2 big winners are auction provider and agent who split a huge fee.
On RIghtmoves Advert Email for MMOA they state as follows
✓ Get paid faster with a quicker sale
✓ Reduce the risk of fall-through
✓ Use as an alternative selling option, eg. a back-up for properties that have not sold through private treaty
✓ Fees are paid by the buyer, so no added costs for your vendor other than the provision of an auction pack
You dont get paid faster – you get paid slower – normal auction buyer gets 14-28 days to complete MMOA is 56 days.
The risk of fall through is higher as for the first 28 days contract has not exchanged – in a normal auction contracts exchanged immediately.
Fees paid by the buyer are still paid, fees in a MMOA are exhorbiant, if you sell though allsop a 30K property you pay 2% which is £600.00 with MMOA its £6,000.00 any buyer will deduct this off there max bid.
A lot of agents partner with IAMSOLD as they get 50% of the exhorbiant fees, so if agent fees normally £1,000.00 (in the north east) here they get £3,000.00. they openly admit that its not an efficent way of selling a property for the seller but when you get “HUSH” money who can do better.
MMOA uptick over the last few month is a lot slower than regular auction uptick. Its not even an auction as rarley more than one bidder its just a bunch of paddles from staff members bidding a proxy up to the reserve.
anyways have a lovely week everyone
have I got this correct; £12,000,000 of properties @ 2% commission to the buyer is £240,000 fees to the buyers, of which £80,000 1/3rd is paid to the listing agent?
If that’s the case 2/3rds is effectively a fee paid to the franchisee?
Wouldn’t it be better for agents who don’t usually auction properties to go 50/50 with an agent who does or have I got the wrong end of the stick based on this press release?
Bashing out sales at the expense of the vendor who believes, I guess, they are saving money is a risking strategy for the listing agent who might not be aware duty of care and skill is a time bomb that could explode beneath them.
A known and understood forced sale is one matter but if all the buyers in the room a ringing their offer based on the fees they’ve got to pay ( a bit like Copart car salvage auctions) I’m not sure MMoA is something I’d consider using to buy or as a way of shifting stock in a hurry.
There might be a different and compelling reason why MMoA is great for all concerened but its not clear from this press release
£12m is a BIG number, is that total fees to agents or the value of properties listed? It’s not clear
£12m divided by the current transaction average of about £300,000 is 40 properties.
£80,000/ 40 is a fee of £2,000 which doesn’t seem very much.
Obviously this is prepared PR rather than a researched story, is requesting some clarity of what the numbers mean & how MMoA benefits agents an unreasonable thing to do?