The organisation that calls itself the UK's first hybrid' agency, chaired by Poundland founder Steve Smith, has received £660,000 of crowdfunding investment.
EstatesDirect.com listed on CrowdCube in March with an initial target of £250,000. Within 10 days of the pitch going live the company hit the target and extended its pitch.
The firm, which currently has 14 franchises across the UK, has also received more than 125 requests to become a franchisee or licensee since listing on CrowdCube.
EstatesDirect was founded by online dating entrepreneur Darren Richards along with businessman Ben Grove. It describes itself as combining an online estate agency model with regional property experts who meet customers face-to-face.
The business launched in 2012 as a regional pilot and now says it wants to become the UK's largest, single branded, personal estate agency network.
The reason so many people have invested is because EstatesDirect is not just another online agency. We have franchised businesses, licensees and local agents, who provide the expertise and personalised service of a high-street estate agent, says Smith.
EstatesDirect uses the traditional portals to market properties for sale from £195 and to advertise homes to let from £45. The firm says it has marketed, sold and let more than 450 properties in the Midlands during the past two years.
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Comments
policy palys an essencial role in both the real market and online market:(
Clever wording - marketed, sold and let 450 properties in the last 2 years....So basically what that means is marketed 450 properties (of which they sold X and let X). So on average they have been taking on 18 properties per month, just over 1 every other day, not particularly busy then. Even after all this publicity they're still only taking on about 25 per month. The 3 big names Housenetwork, Emoov, Housesimple are between them taking on 800 new properties per month. Almost 30 new properties every day. A fair amount of catching up to do then...