Estate Agent Today can exclusively reveal that allAgents has secured what is described as a six figure sum of new investment, which will involve an expansion of the site including the recruitment of 40 new staff.
allAgents describes itself as an independent directory and review site allowing consumers to search for and write reviews about estate and letting agents in the UK. It carries reviews of agents, operates a performance league table based on those reviews, and gives agents the right of reply online in the event of complaints.
Now Vincent Friel, director of Glasgow and Edinburgh letting agency and property management firm 1-2-Let, says he is injecting a six figure sum into allAgents - which already operates from Friel's business centre - and will become one of its directors.
This is an excellent opportunity for me to play an active role in developing the business in order to achieve its objective of becoming the UK's number one provider of vendor & landlord leads says Friel.
allAgents spokesman Martin McKenzie has told EAT that the site is now looking to recruit 40 new staff within the next six months and that it has embarked initially on a recruitment drive for in-house web developers.
allAgents also claims that it has been approached directly by both Rightmove and Zoopla - although it would not reveal what the approaches concerned.
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Comments
cant see why zoopla or right move would invest in this site! It's nothing more than a scam forcing agents into paying for a service! Ask any agent who has a bad review if they are able to reply or have them removed. None of them!
This is a joke! [b]"which already operates from Friels business centre - and will become one of its directors"[/b]
Vincent has owned All Agents for years which is why it operates from his business centre!
I bet they are will sell out to one of the portals by the end of the year.Agent reviews is the only content that they dont have yet.
This is such a lame duck site. I'm not sure where the revenue stream will come from...
Unless they are about to launch an internet only sale site to rival established agencies.
Read more about Vincent's 'wealth of experience' here!!!
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2010/nov/20/small-claims-court-stewart-family
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.phpt=1917591
This investment comes as no surprise as the influence that the internet has over people's choices is inevitably growing. Although some reviews can be damning for estate agents, this website provides a platform where comparisons can be made. Giving the agents a right to reply to any complaints on the website is also encouraging!
Congratulations to Vincent on his investment and appointment to the Board of allAgents, he has a wealth of experience in the Property Market and will be a real asset in the future growth of the company.
My approach to this has been 'if you can't beat them join them'. As with the Internet in general, social media being another case in point, the 'trip advisor' phenomenon has to be embraced. We have done very well out of reviews, both externally, our customers perceptions of us and internally, the self esteem of our people. After an initial reluctance everyone has embraced the concept with overall positive benefits. On the other side of the coin, we have found that just getting good reviews doesn't in and of itself increase business and I think allagents have some way to go in order to fully develop their proposition, they have definitely been the leaders though and hopefully the additional money and support will help.
This sort of thing makes me slightly uneasy - this kind of Tripadvisor for the property industry. I'm not sure a league table based on reviews is entirely fair either. Estate agents are never going to please everyone they deal with and two or three bad reviews could ruin the reputation of good estate agents.
On the other hand, some people might argue that having reviews of estate and letting agents will be a good way to weed out those who are not offering a good enough service. It will give consumers the opportunity to see who the best estate agents are, like a school or university league table. In order to not get bad reviews, more agents would go the extra mile, standards would rise.
It seems unfair and silly to judge estate agents on reviews alone, but that is the way of the modern world. With so much competition, and so much information now readily available thanks to the internet and social media, people will no longer settle for second best.
I still have reservations about this kind of website, although the right to reply function is a welcome feature.