Franchise agency Martin & Co has set up an online property sales service and becomes what is thought to be the first traditional agency to offer vendors a virtual alternative.
For an up-front fixed fee of £499, vendors will be able to advertise on Rightmove, Zoopla and other major portals, and get the benefit of traditional shop window advertising in local branches and advertising to a database of registered buyers.
As part of its online service, Martin & Co will handle the initial stages of the sales process, including advising vendors on valuation and how to achieve the best price for their property, completing photography and particulars for the customer and relaying enquiries from potential buyers.
Martin & Co will not charge commission on sales through its online service. If customers decide to switch within the first two weeks to Martin & Co's traditional services their up-front fee will be deducted from the commission payable on sale completion.
While we believe the traditional service will continue to be the norm, a growing number of people are choosing to personally manage the sale of their property through online platforms. Our new online offering will provide vendors with the highest quality service to market their property effectively and help them to achieve their desired valuation says the firm's chief executive Ian Wilson.
Last December the shares of MartinCo Plc, the holding company of Martin & Co, began trading on AIM, the small company market of the London Stock Exchange.
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Comments
Re the guest comment below.
I don't think offering my customers a more basic option devalues my brand any more than BMW's brand is compromised by offering approved used cars, or Waitrose's brand is compromised by offering an "Essentials" range of budget foodstuffs (though I always smile at Waitrose including "Balsamic vinegar of Modena" in their Essentials range).
And note that I said "A more basic option". In common with most "on-line" offerings mine is only cheaper if the vendor a) Does some of the leg work, and b) Successfully sells their house for at least as much as my staff and I would have achieved for them under the traditional model.
As I said in my earlier posting I'm sceptical about the entire concept of on-line agency. I think that when presented with enough information to make an informed choice most of my customers will decide that the traditional model offers the best value.
But I'm smart enough to listen to my customers. If a significant number of them decide that the on-line service is right for them I'll happily admit that I was wrong.
What a great way to give your customers a cheaper option! No one should compromise their brand in this way....
This is the future - a combination of the two. Like Michael says below, some agencies have been doing this for years!
I'm a Martin & Co franchisee and I'm delighted. I bought into the brand 11 years ago when it was a very different animal to what it is now, and I'd be really p1553d off if the brand hadn't moved with the times and developed.
Adding an estate agency offering was a logical progression at the right time - as a business owner I was getting really fed up with answering the question "Can you sell my house for me please" with "No I can't, try the bloke down the road".
As for on-line sales, I'm sceptical about the entire concept. However, being in business is about giving customers what they want. I'll give my customers a choice and if a worthwhile number of them want the on-line style service I'll give it to them, because over the years I've found that giving customers the service they want (as opposed to the service I think they should have) works pretty well.
yawn... more letting agents "having a go" at sales. I use apostrophes because invariably their vendors will be having a go, with nothing to lose my M&co... can't lose really, apart from reputation. They are a "proper" letting agent as opposed to a "DIY list on portals and hope to get lucky with crap cameraphone photos taken by a landlord/vendor on one leg in the dark." Why then this rubbish approach to sales. Devalues the brand in my opinion.
Michael Nyman where are you now Michael was the founder of Seekers 'The No Commission Estate Agent' I bought their Putney Franchise in 1988 and eventually converted their approach to an upfront fee plus reduced commission(1%) on sale. The formula was commitment+incentive = effectiveness. This formula was designed to weed out time wasters and give value and quality to serious sellers. Our slogan was 'our aim is to provide a quality Homesales service to the serious seller at low cost' basically the same philosophy behind HIPS before it was contaminated by a political agenda. We completed over 6000 sales using this formula and only gave it up when volumes in the market sank so low that our niche disappeared. However, perhaps now is the time to bring it back as an internet based national service! On reflection I think I'll leave that to someone else...
So, the 'specialist' letting agent which famously claimed it would NEVER enter the sale arena has now gone for the worst possible business model undermining the few offices which actually have started to do sales. It's not innovative, it's what Seekers were doing over 30 years ago and which Peter Jones described as paying for 'tyre-kickers'. The Martin & Co network must feel very let down as this wasn't what their franchisees signed up for. High Street lettings franchise offers on line sales!!
Agency down the road from where I live has been offering this service for last 2 years! Is this really newsworthy