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EstatesDirect.com, a hybrid agency that operates online but has regional staff who work in the style of a traditional agent, has beaten its crowdfunding investment target of £1.25m.

As of this morning it has £1.263m from 249 individual investors using the Crowdcube crowdfunding platform. The single largest investment is £75,000 from an unidentified investor.

The EstatesDirect team is headed by Steve Smith, the founder of Poundland and Darren Richards, who came up with the idea for Datingdirect.com which has now become Match.com.

EstatesDirect operates with a website as its shop window but then has what it describes as qualified regional agents to value property, prepare details, and handle appointments, valuations and viewings - hence it claiming to be a hybrid between the online and traditional estate agency business models.

Smith says the firm has spent over £1m on future-proofing the firm's technical capabilities; it currently operates chiefly in Wales, the Midlands and some parts of London but the crowdfunding investment will be used to start a three-year expansion programme to take the service across most of England and Wales.

Cardiff estate agent Terrence Barrett is the latest to become one of EstatesDirect's regional experts, and Smith claims there are around 130 others waiting to operate the brand in different parts of the UK.

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