Estate Agent Today

This week, I was asked to say what I thought would happen with the property internet industry between now and 2015.

This is what I wrote. But am I along the right lines? I’d be interested in your thoughts.

 Over the next five years, a battle royal will be fought between traditional high street estate agents and newer models. Both will become increasingly internet based, but the former will continue to have a physical presence, and will offer physical services such as accompanied viewings and face to face valuations, advice and negotiations, and will employ increasingly professional members of staff – well-trained people who must obey the full letter of the law when it comes to consumer protection, and belong to an ombudsman scheme.

But will consumers pay for this gold standard? Or will they opt for cheap (but maybe not so cheerful) online services which may do little more than provide a marketing service whilst sellers and buyers do all their own viewings and negotiation? And which, by the way, will be only very lightly regulated by the law (the OFT’s own words).

Some of these cheaper  services may not be just cheap – they may even be free, as per Sarah Beeny’s website Tepilo –  or monetised in a different way. But how? And will the consumers know?

However, the real battle will go well beyond the legalities and will be all about disintermediation.

It will be fought as to how well private sellers and buyers can deal directly with each other, and in particular how well they can handle the intricacies of holding together chains, gazumping, gazundering and the timetables imposed by lenders, surveyors and conveyancers – not to mention people who simply change their mind.

My suspicion and hope is that just such a battle is necessary in order to expose the value of the service that estate agents offer. Over the years, the industry has cleaned up its act. Personally, I would never want to handle the sale or purchase of a property, and I would certainly expect a high level of service, for which I would positively want to pay, to incentivise that service.

After all, why save an average of £1,500 estate agency fees when you might get an extra £10,000 on the price someone else could negotiate for you? Also, I have never understood why many consumers understand that they must pay legal fees but not estate agency fees.
However, as a property editor in the ‘trade’ sector, I may be too close to the industry, and no doubt, over the next five years, others will decide its direction.