People who want to sell through the new iSold service launched by Spicerhaart in association with Tesco will have to pay an upfront, non-returnable fee of at least £299.
If they opt for the dearer packages, the upfront fees – again, non-returnable – will be £499 and £599 respectively.
In all three instances, a further ‘completion’ fee of £700 will be payable when the property is sold.
The cheapest package, costing an overall £999, will buy a listing on Rightmove and other portals, 15 pictures, floorplans and a For Sale board. The particulars will be emailed to the seller for them to do their own printing out but, said an iSold worker yesterday, can be made available in print form.
The seller will have to handle all their own viewings and price negotiation.
In the premier package, the seller will still have to do all their own viewings and negotiations, but will also get a Rightmove premium listing, local newspaper advertising plus an open house with some marketing materials.
In the top-priced package, costing a total of £1,299 plus VAT, the seller will in addition get the services of an iSold sales negotiator to attend the open house.
All properties, regardless of which package the seller chooses, will be “visited by one of our trained valuers,” said the worker.
He said the iSold service is already under way: “We have launched but our website is still in Beta form,” he said. “As we speak, our valuers are out and about visiting properties.”
A HIP service is also available to sellers, costing £329. This package includes £50 towards legal fees, we were told.
All the properties will be listed on Rightmove and other major portals, but also on the Tesco website.
iSold will also be able to access the database of Tesco Clubcard holders for marketing purposes.
Will there be Clubcard points for those who sell through the service? Apparently so, we were told: the amount is likely to be about 5,000 points, worth £50.
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Comments
Although isold.com only serve three cities in the UK, they are actively targetting home sellers in these areas with direct marketing:
www.blog.thebigpropertylist.co.uk/tesco-estate-agency-isold-marketin
I will try and be objective about isold.com-
Isold sounds like ipad, imac, ipod if it did take off I think apple might sue for breach of brand identity. Oh and I think they are in the process of doing just that..! name suggestions please.
Spicer who? Limiting it to one agent is very poor I think. I think there should be multiple agents then the price would be more competitive.
Spamming all tesco customers is very poor marketing in my opinion even if they have requested third party information newsletters.
Rightmove should not really be advertising property on their site if private sale. Using an average agent to cover the legal side for this is a very poor business model.
Looking at alexa page rank it shows rank for isold.com of 816,598 this figure has actually gone down in last few months. Anything above 10,000 is not worth bothering with in my opinion. The marketing team obviously have no clue about SEO by the looks of it and Id hate to think how much money they have wasted on this!! Don't worry if you advertise you are footing the bill for this.
All I say is good luck.
Why not try the equally terrible Tepilo site.
All these comments have amused me. Asking estate agents to talk objectively about increased competition is a bit like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas! No-one will be surprised at the response, but many will be disappointed that they dont fancy a challenge!
Whos' doing the sales progression.
I'm in Scotland - my nearest Spicer's branch is, I think, in England. I may have some time to wait before Tesco gets around to my area....
Yes, but are they providing a 'valuation' where the valuer presents what iSold will do in terms of a selling proposal, possibly to get the business later, or will customers be expected to sign up, pay whatever they're paying upfront, THEN get the valuer's visit...?
I read the article regarding iSOLD which amuses me. Obviously neither Tesco's or Spicer McColl have anyone in their business with experience to remember when SEEKERS ESTATE AGENTS were doing a similar package for less than £200 and they failed miserably. Also when the traditional estate agent experiences the total lack of sales information from iSOLD when they are involved in a chain this will result in us advising our clients not to proceed with a buyer who has sold their own property through iSOLD. I suppose we could always ask the shelf packers for sales information.
Agent Orange. Im assuming the 'trained valuer' will be a neg from spicer's nearest office.....no worries there then!
Do you sign up with Tesco before or after the 'trained valuer' has visited your home....?
Oh dear it's all about to come crashing down. OFT don't like the idea of the branding, nor do they like the monopoly, or the business plan that is frought with PMA issues. .... and all that money to set it up!
Do they know how tuff this game is?? i think you could actually pay people to sell through you and still on;y have a 10% market share....its not as easy as you might think.
fact: the media hates estate agents,,fact:most people know an estate agents personally and know its a bit of media fun: fact: anyone can sell for free on internet but dont:::i personally would kick the shit out of any idiot tesco valuer who came up against me in a valuation....you want £500 quid upfront??? garlic??with bread?? i ve never heard anything so stupid...
Correct, surveys can be made to say anything. Even with that in mind I have yet to see one that says the public loves EAs.
More a case of necessary evil with little viable alternative.
Surveys can be made to say anything and the regular daily mail bashing of EAs is just popular pandering. Foxtons have had huge public bad press but people still use them so I feel much is to do with the judgement of the public? You may remember that MPs get bad press but the public will still vote one in in May - if you beleive surveys so much do you want a wager on GB returning to power?
Thanks wow "for apparantly voicing the opinion of every single person in the uk. How on earth do you know what people think about agents".
Because it is highly publicised and every survey I have ever seen agrees. Perhaps you can point me in the direction of some stats that says the public love EA's.
This model fails on lots of levels, the OFT are turning a blind eye to a lot of issues here.
1, Who will qualify these buyers?
2, Who will progress the sale?
3, Why are the HIP’s £100 above market value?
4, Who can ensure that elderly people are getting a fair and reasonable price for their home?
5, why do they assume that rightmove is the be all and end all of selling a property? (the last audit I did, we found that only 60% of our sales came from the portal. The rest came from my pro-active Negs)
Investors must be rubbing there hands together with the opportunity to negotiate blind sellers who have put their trust in a massive brand name. Every agent on here I’m sure would of also had to deal people trying it on at exchange time. Lots of people are about to get ripped off
Why not have a promotion sell thru us, and we will pay for your Tesco shopping
I thought this thread was about clubcard points. You get £50 worth for spending £1299. You get more than that if you spent that in store, but I suppose you get 5p off your fuel as well.
VOS - I agree completely. The brand itself will achieve custom for tesco. On paper, this could be appealing, but of course the level of service provided is a massive factor. How annoying is it trying to get through to Orange to sort out a problem with your phone? Different person each time, none of which take responsibility. Unless Tesco have a specific structure to roll out, this could well be the case all over again, this time 50 times more frustrating with a far greater interest at risk. In summary, it could be a success and WILL appeal to many sellers - just make sure you adapt for this beforehand, rather than not doing anything and simply hoping they mess it up themselves.
Simply that may well be the case, but they had staff giving advice. I have had bad service from various companies but doesnt mean all in that field are bad. As shown in the thread a good business will survive because they are a good business. Online will not survice just by being cheap.
Ace, I appreicate the sentiment and anyone denying that it is an option is ignoring the truth. I think the points being made are generally by small independants not the big chains who generally speaking offer a poorer service for a higher fee. Spicer Haart are one of these and they are failing miserably at being in the high street (in my area) and have closed almost all of their branches. Tesco has only added their name and their database, which is large but national and no specific. As mentioned in my last post if you want to sell privately/cheaply there are cheaper options to get on rightmove - both upfront and deferred. Also there is the point that it will disrupt the market as you have unqualified people risking chains which contrary to OFT views is not beneficial to the system but rather want some people want.
Very interesting. I recently used an online lettingaproperty agency and the service and advice was first class and far cheaper than I paid on the high street.
Wow, spot on. Also most clients that use agents will not want an isold deal (if there is one) in the chain for obvious reasons. Basically this model offers placement on rightmove for £600 if you dont sell or £1300 if you do. For that service there are cheaper available options
You're so far off the point that you are starting a brand new discussion! Like I said, I know of excellents who earn their money. However, the public thought to EAs is not great. Various articles have come to light over recent months which add evidence to this. But yes, there are some fantastic agents, but from experience, these are hard to come by. My point, which seems to have falled on deaf ears, is that Tesco are not stupid and working alongside SP, will be offering a service that appeals to a substantial amount of sellers, of course it will. I didn't for a second say they would kill off traditional estate agency, in fact I said they never would. However, they will attract a good volume of sellers that wish to use them, which in turn wil take away instructions. The main purpose of my comments was to stress that this campaign is not as "ridiculous" as agents are making out and there is a growing curiousity to sell your house privately (let's be honest, that's basically what tesco are offering). Branding me as an "idiot", while very charming of you indeed, is not entirely fair when all I've said is that this has potential to do well, which if the case, WOULD have a knock on effect on all EAs. Unforuntately, most agents on here (rather than act pro-actively) have sat back and nit-picked at the set up, hoping you wouldn't have to change your business model, or do ANYTHING different for that matter. A good estate agent is worth their weight in gold. Fact. It is just unfortunate that there are not too many of these. Private selling is getting a lot of press at the moment and Tesco teaming up with an established company will definitely attract people to use their service and finally give it a go. I personally would never sell my home privately, but there are many people that would. There IS a marktet out there for this service.
Thanks ace of spades and tim mather for apparantly voicing the opinion of every single person in the uk. How on earth do you know what people think about agents. There are already hundreds of alternative low cost methods and yes, they don't have the same brand power as tesco, but all it takes is one search on google to find them. People don't use them becasue they don't work. People pay estate agents becasue, although at the start they moan, but in the long run, they know it is a more than worthwhile investment. Sellin houses cannot be done successfully on the cheap. How many people that shop at tesco will have any idea of what happens when negotiating, saving chains from falling through and sorting out all the other enquiries and problems after a sael has been instructed. We should be thanking tesco becasue the chances of this being succesful are very slim in my opinion and will only add more value to our services. After reading your comments and obviosuly not being involved very deeply in estate agency (at least not a good one anyway) I think it is you Ace of Spades, who is the idiot.
AceofSpades: Why do you have such a "down" on agents?
After nearly 40 years in the business (through thick & thin!) my point is that the majority of people will not want to pay that amount up front on the chance of selling. Could be wrong -but that is my current view.
Brian: The Tesco planning has been rejected again and the Waitrose plan passed.
We wait with trepidation!
I have been made aware of an Estate Agent in Lincolnshire who has been promoting a fee of £800 + vat on all properties up to £150k or 0.75% + vat over that. Fully inclusive of advertising etc. I don't think he is going to be too bothered when isold comes riding into town!
The real criminals here are Rightmove, this is a big two fingers up at agents. As someone pointed out , iSOLD is a private seller model and thus should not be allowed on the site. I reckon general house prices will fall as a result of the ‘stack em high and sell em cheap’ principle, something that Spicer are already very good at. Still when these vendors don’t sell and are reluctant to leave the tesco listing because of the initial outlay, we will get these home on a multiple agency basis, that really will cost these vendors some money. I’m making sure that I react to the news, for a start there will be some very cheap properties coming on the market soon with iSOLD and seeing as I can negotiate directly with the vendor there’s going to be some bargains about.
There is one theme that seems to be in every negative post on here. JEALOUSY !!! Come on agents if you are all that good and Spicerhaart are so bad, what have you got to worry about. Its not as though Tesco know a good idea when they see one or know how to make loads of money. Why dont you all try to move with the times. If Spicerhaart fail then they fail, what is it to you. Why dont you just stop spouting your jealousy and get on with moving your own businesses with the times. If you fail I dont think Spicerhaart will be on here having a pop at you. Why dont we all just see what happens and wish them all the best in the meantime. There, that feels better already.
There is an 'Achillies Heel' potentially to what TESCO and Spicer have done. OK the OFT insist on clarity, thats partly why we have PMA. Now descriptions must be accurate if verbal or visual. The 'AH' is simply how can you place a 'For Sale' board outside a home that clearly shows i'SOLD'. This must be confusing for the general public and neither in the interest of sellers or buyers who might just drive by. More about this on INEA.co.uk news
A good EA earns his fee, and produces a comfortable figure for his client. So ok you save some money listing your property, but most (all) vendors will overprice their properties in the 1st place, and they wont sell - so who do they turn to then ? My door will be open, but the cry will then be - i've lost 50k by selling through the EA . Its all about Tesco.com generating a few extra quid for the shareholders, they are into everything, and interested in nothing other than profit. Google Walmart, this is the UK version of it.
Ray of Sherringham, your wife must have celebrated getting a Tesco in town and then this! Maybe the planning officer hates EA!
What do you expect from 'Spicer Tarts', they would sell them themselves to anything to drum up business from their crumbling empire
Don’t worry ‘Spicer Farts’ if isold fails, you are guarantee jobs at your local Tesco stacking selves on the night shift with Paul Smithy as your team leader.
ACe, arbitary use of figures means nothing. Most hips are sold at cost or at a discount. Agents who push rates up and overprice hips are the generally the larger organisations. People who want something for nothing are welcome to use Tesco as they tend to over rate the value of their homes and dont want to pay a FAIR fee. Actual discussions with our present clients (buyers and sellers) has indicated that they would not be happy with a self progressed sale in their chain. Also dont mistake a large cahin with 'trusted'. Tesco are not trusted just cheap
Ray, you should have replaced Carol on Countdown - very sharp. Even if there is an up front cost of £628 - the total you could potentially save is massive. So, a total cost of £1500 or pay an agent £4000 + a HIP with a big mark up?? Hhmmm. People are prepared to pay money up front if it secures a better deal in the long term. In this case, based on numbers alone, it's a no-brainer. Agents fees (in most cases) have been far too high and this will deliver an alternative method to selling through an EA. I know some excellent agents, but the sad fact is the public opinion of estate agents is very low. The reputation that has been created will be enough for many people to sell with Tesco, let alone the financial gain, backed up by a massive, trusted, brand.
Now let me see....£329 for a HIP + £299 up front = £628 straight into Tesco/SP?
So...High Street Agent £0 and deferred payment for HIP and I get everything including Rightmove etc etc.....
but nothing to pay until sold.....Mmmmmh!
Voice of Sanity, I am, and then some. Others are not.
Exactly Boyd, also big figures mean nothing as of the 10 million there are only 300 looking for a particular style/location/price of which only a third statistically will be Tesco customers, and you only pay for sucess but with their model you pay regardeless and do the work yourself. Lets face it for a good agent the selling and price are a small part, the problem solving mediation and progression is where you earn your spurs, none of which are offered by isold
I am not an Estate agent and every little bit of objectivity helps. My question of any agent or Tesco is...
Why should I sell my property through you?
If you can answer this question and prove your answer is the solution to my problem you get my business.
I think that Tesco will say.
"Tesco is the only Estate Agent company that can market your property to 10 million of our own customers, in store, online and in the local newspapers for less than the price of your household insurance and you only pay a success fee that is 1/4 that of the average estate agent, saving you enough to fund your holiday".
Your answer might be any unique reason. But you have to be able to say it with authority and proof.
"Butler's is the only agency where ready and willing buyers PAY to receive information on properties exactly like yours BEFORE they are advertised."
I know from experience that if you can prove this then I will get a better price for my property and it will sell fast - saving me two months of my life.
And that is invaluable.
What reassures me about this business model is that there will be a very large amount of very unhappy vendors who have all forked out big upfront costs and then havent sold their property. The bad press off just that will undermine Tesco's efforts hugely.
Tim your are correct but as stated before if you have not done this over the past few years (or as part of an ongoing plan to keep your public happy) then perhaps you should not be in a customer service industry, or even running a business?
Ace if you have a good repution and offer a good service at a good price then you will be fine that is what we are saying. Tesco as with the stack em high agents will get a slice, thats always been true as some people want Gucci at Primark prices and they are , funnily enough, disappointed or their properties undersold. Sadly the sector of the market likely to fall for this will be those who used to go direct to Halifax and pay 2% as the recognised the brand, but there were many locals doing a better sevice for 1%. Tesco do not succeed in everything they just have a good spin machine. More importantly Rightmove need to decide if they are a private seller, which they realistically are. Tesco are not the prime motivaters here - Spicer Haart are and we all know what they have been unable to acheive in the high street.
AceofSpades is of course correct, the public are not happy with the current offerings from agents. They neither trust nor regard them as value for money. There is a demand for change. Tesco have a highly credible brand and will effect the market.Time for agents to look closely at their business madels to see how they can add value (being cheap won't work).
Tesco are a victim of their own (previous) success. People are sick and tired of their poor service and are shopping elsewhere. Thats why other supermarkets are doing so well. I never shop at Tesco and neither should you. They want to close down the entire High Street, and not just estate agents.
Sounds to me the only people who have been sold are tesco,,,spicer saw them coming!!
haa ha
leaveusagents... - Yes, these online EAs didn't cut it...but they are not Tesco are they. No matter what you tunnel-visioned people think, the TESCO brand is extremely powerful and will attract far more interest from the public than any other online EA. I know they will never replace old fashioned estate agency, but they are coming for a slice of the pie and they WILL get a decent piece. Do you have any clue of the public perception of EAs? They are fed up of paying high fees on their sale and this is a viable solution for them....regardless of what you think or even know, this WILL appeal to a substantial amount of sellers.
The only good thing about Tesco is it keeps the Great Unwashed out of Waitrose. Much as Spicer Haart do for our agencies. Marriage made in heaven.
Aceofspades. Stop panicking!! Tesco and Asda keep trying to dip into the propoerty market and keep failing. So far no one seems to have been able to take people away from good old fashioned estate agency. In my area we had two ONLINE estate agents open in the last few years who now both have offices!!
Most vendors do not want to do their own viewings, let alone negotiate their own sale and then chase it to completion. This will bring fees down slightly, but it will show our true worth to the public and how much we do, if we work hard. We all must adapt.
Ok AoS lets actually get real. Tesco went into the financial off the shelf market for life insurance products ect and have been slammed by the FSA as people are getting poor or incorrect product for their circumstance. Same with the OFT backing. People who que at Tescos argue so why do you think they will be able to negotiate with each other let alone progress a sale? We avoid private sales in chains for this reason. Provide value and service for money and you have a good business regardless of industry. Primark did not destroy M&S. The biggest downturn in prices since the war didn't stop us and a half harted money up front, no service model will not destry a valued reputable agent - that comes from our own market research. I used the valuation tool, selected two houses at 360 and 390 and it valued mine at 280. Good luck with that one. It seems this is a lance roll of the dice by Spicer more that a genuine attempt by Tesco
assumption is the mother of all mess ups- the general a lot of the general public do not know as much about agency as tesco need them to for there method to be successful. More churned internet instructions without having to validate our fees because tesco will have already done the work for us.
"All properties, regardless of which package the seller chooses, will be “visited by one of our trained valuers,” said the worker WHILST STACKING THE SHELVES AT TESCO. lol
eeewwwww! get you AceofSpades!
I'm off to Waitrose
Tesco are massive brand, bigger than ANY estate agent. They have successfully tapped into many "non-food" markets and for every £7 spent in the UK, £1 goes to Tesco - they are not stupid. This is a threat and they will pick up a substantial market share. I think the attitude on these postings has been pretty shocking and to be honest, many are in denial. Tesco are 10 times the business people that most EAs are - with massive funding. While they will never replace traditional agency completely, this is a genuine threat to your figures, if not your business. Rather than pick at Tesco to make you feel better, you should be reviewing your current business model to ensure that you are suitably positioned for this wave. The public trust the TESCO brand much, much more than EAs. Fact. Frankly, EA fees (most of the time) are far too high and the public have wanted alternatives for a long time - here is your first real challenger. Tesco are shrewd business people - A more recent examples is that they are locking horns with Vodafone & Orange in the mobile phone market and doing extremely well for themselves. While some are making themselves feel better by making sandwich donuts & tesco value jokes - it seems a waste of your time, when you could be doing something pro-active. Only idiots underestimate competition.
Wdell there is the proof that Lucifer and Co have not got a clue. My sales team has breathed a sigh of relief and not stopped laughing at the iturnip comment. The sun is out and our highly experienced and well paid sales staff are off to provide a first class service to our clients that will allow them to move home. Mind you, Tesco have already got us doing our own shopping and check-out so they can employ less staff and increase their obscene level of profit. I won't shop there now and nor should all Agents. Sadly, we seem unable to move as one entity and until we do, remain toothless. Rightmove and Tesco? Only one will still be in our market place in 2 years time.
This sounds like a typical case of the top brass at Tesco's not doing a proper fact finding mission!
I wish them well but it will all end in tears!
'The seller will have to handle all their own viewings and price negotiation'.
By definition, this makes you a private property seller. How come therefore these properties will be on rightmove?
Just sold my house on iSold and got loads of Clubcard points. Whilst I like trips to legoland & cases of wine, what am I going to live in?
Print your own brochure ?
Is it Tesco or Netto ?
Im very disapointed, I was actually looking forward to some half decent competition from tesco but wow, what a shambles.
I'm using clubcard points to pay for my degree with the OU. I think they're great.
NEWSFLASH - Agents fight back by selling groceries - www.iturnip.ning.com
Not Quite as good as it first seemed!! The question would you rather shop at a Supermarket battery farm? or would you rather deal with Marks and Sparks or Harrods............I rest my case.