A new company has launched, providing information about home owners to sales and letting agents and anyone else seeking that information.
traceWise offers a tracing service to help find a property owner quickly. It provides an up to date set of contact information including names, addresses, telephone numbers and even mobile phone numbers.
Estate agency veteran Michael Day, of Integra Property Services, has been acting as a consultant to the company.
He stressed that the service is completely legal.
He said: “Obviously I can’t give away our intellectual property but we basically aggregate dozens of databases including Land Registry to get owner information.
“Lots of agents currently use the Land Registry to get an owner’s name and address but this information is often out of date, and traceWise are supplying additional information on over 75% of cases – names, addresses, telephone numbers (often including mobiles).
“It is all completely legal as it is what is called ‘consented data’ which is the criteria required to be met by the Data Protection Act requirements.
“We live in a world where people are freely consenting daily to giving their contact info. Have you ever read the terms and conditions pages on Amazon or Tesco, for example, when ordering?”
He added: “The days of putting rain forests of leaflets through doors, particularly where the target isn’t in occupation, are about to end.”
The cost is usually between £15 and £25 per trace, depending on the amount of data supplied and any volume discount. Traces that produce no data are not charged.
Day said the service is likely to be of particular interest to letting agents and others who find it difficult to identify and contact landlords of properties that are vacant or tenanted, as the owners themselves are not in occupation.
He said it can also be used by people searching for owners of abandoned or derelict properties.
Gavin Nathan is managing director of traceWise, which has been quietly trialling the product amongst a few agents for the last 12 months.
He said: “Having fine-tuned our proposition to clients and established a foothold in the property market, we now plan to rapidly grow the business.”
Fellow director Juliette Chan said: “The traceWise service is of huge interest to estate and letting agents as it enables them to identify and contact potential clients in a highly targeted and professional fashion.
“The days of randomly dropping leaflets through doors, particularly in regards to letting property, is ending, and the ability to use a guided missile to hit a target rather than a scatter-gun approach is the way forward.”
She added: “External consultants Michael Day of Integra Property Services and leading business mentor Chelsey Baker have been working with us over the last year and are totally convinced that our products and services are revolutionising the way in which enlightened agents operate their businesses.”
Both directors are pictured.
https://tracewiseuk.co.uk
Comments
Maybe I just don't have my arithmetic head on today, but
"66% of property is owned and available to sell. RM reckon 14,000,000 are looking to move each month so you have 1:4 chance of finding a place that is not on with Rightmove
Zoopla and DPG reckon on another 14,00,000 so now it seems you are down to 50/50 chance of finding an available property this way. Every other Property is an opportunity to win an instruction."
Am I the only one who can't fathom this out?
POTW .... Exactly so.... They all seem to do the same job - stick your house on the portals, prepare details etc
Until someone shows them otherwise.
Whatever happened to the data protection act? I sure as hell dont want my private details banded around. I choose who I give my details to.
For the laster couple of posters. It is obviously down to agents how they use this information, but I seriously doubt that agents are going to pay £15-£25 per lead for homeowners/Landlords properties that are not on the market. Unless of course their pockets are hugely deep.
Which then really takes us back to touting, doesnt it. People are only going to buy information to tout what they see.
If the direct approach is what somebodys looking for, go knock on a door, its cheaper.
Were you not aware that the data protection act does not apply to property, lead by the Land Registry and followed by every Jo Blow with a pony tail no property information is secret
sold prices, offer prices everything is being made available on line, with the electoral role being published electronically too none of this stuff is hard even if it is just wrong
"How will this tell me when the owner is ready to move?"
66% of property is owned and available to sell. RM reckon 14,000,000 are looking to move each month so you have 1:4 chance of finding a place that is not on with Rightmove
Zoopla and DPG reckon on another 14,00,000 so now it seems you are down to 50/50 chance of finding an available property this way. Every other Property is an opportunity to win an instruction.
"Excluding the finding of absentee landlords, does this service do anything to help target the homeowners who are actually thinking of selling?"
Are you sane, a mind reading web site!
@Which One Is It
"Histrionics"?
I assume you mean the question on DP Act and compliance as claimed by Michael Day but so far no confirmation by responding to the simple question I asked for proof it is actually compliant.
Histrionics - only on the end of the line when an agent makes one of these totally unsolicited and unwanted calls.
I apologise for picking up a pit of off topic discussion but I know why agents advertise in Newspapers, it helps to sell property!
As an Applicant and an Agent I know why it sells property and how.
POTW
"If you ring me up at home and ask me if I am thinking of selling or letting my house, you will receive, I am afraid, a rather curt reply probably with some invectives thrown in."
Exactly the response I would give, and what I would expect to get if I phoned a homeowner up out of the blue.
Excluding the finding of absentee landlords, does this service do anything to help target the homeowners who are actually thinking of selling?
4 agents in our little High Street. I regularly get a leaflet through the door from all of them - some more than others. 'We've just sold the house up the road, we could sell yours too' etc.
I find it weird. Everyone in the town knows who/where the agents are. When it is time to sell most of them we all know where to go. I don't care if someone has put a leaflet through my door every 3 months for the last 10 years, I'll still base my decision on who to ask for a valuation on:
How many boards I see up
Their reputation
Recent, local sales that I have noticed
They all seem to do the same job - stick your house on the portals, prepare details etc. - so my buying decision when I select an agent will be based on:
The person who does the valuation - what he/she says, how they present themselves etc.
The valuation
Their fee
The leaflet dropping really is a waste of time and money. If you ring me up at home and ask me if I am thinking of selling or letting my house, you will receive, I am afraid, a rather curt reply probably with some invectives thrown in.
W .... please tell me you are not an estate agent.
Tell me if I'm missing something.... This service will help me find the details of the owner of No 33 Acacia Avenue
How will this tell me when the owner is ready to move?
Why all the rantings about leaflets and touting letters through the door ? totally off subject. This company will give you the telephone number of the person you need to speak to.
As paid "professional" marketers, salespeople and killer negotiators you really don't know what to do ?
*Morning NOT *money, in my last paragraph
AC - excellent post.
Your exactly right, touting in whatever form, a letter, knock on the door or now either with the owners contact details doesn't really work.
You are right, you pick off the odd one here and there. The main reason why majority of vendor/Landlords don't contact you back when you bomabrd them in the first place with letters, they never wanted to really use you in the first place and they dont want to be directly sold to.
They ultimately want to make their own choice.
It would be interesting from any other agents that have been testing this to come forward and let us know if they actually have had any success.
First poster of the money claim the lead quality and info is good, but doesnt actually go onto say what the succeses have been, would be good to hear of lead to conversion of Market Apprisal ratio????
The torrent of leaflets / business cards / Homeowner letters and properly addressed letters that go through the door every time I get instructed on a new property is ludicrous.
I reckon that (on average) in the first two weeks of me taking a new house on the market somewhere between 15 and 20 tout letters get sent to it.
Each one must cost an absolute minimum of £1 to get through the door.
If my competitor has gone to the effort of getting their name & home address (if different), writing a nice letter, putting in a glossy marketing brochure and hand delivering it, then it will certainly have cost £15-£20.
But I have been doing this for 20 years and have tried numerous different styles and methods and found touting to be a pointless exercise.
Yes you get instructed every now and again, but for every one that earns you a commission you still end up with a couple that don't.
Given the hours scouring Rightmove, the driving around, the petrol, the leaflets, the business cards, the follow up letters, envelopes, postage, (wo)man hours etcetera I am convinced that has not been worth it.
Not really.
I just wonder "what if".
You know:-
What if I had been in the office instead of driving around?
What if I had spent the money on other advertising?
What if I had just not bothered?
Would my business have suffered?
Probably not.
Yet we all still do it.
It's a bit like newspaper advertising - obviously pointless, but for some reason we just can't help ourselves!
There you go Mr Day...
A bunch of pompous idiots arguing the toss over a common sense solution.
Good luck anyway.
Nice to see the hoiler than thou brigade out again.
Data is being bought and sold everywhere. A lot of the time it’s not even being bought, it gets nicked. Our listings get nicked, our company details, director’s addresses. You name it, somebody is collecting it for their own good. Then there’s touting, call me urgently compliment slips, aggressive home owner letters which the ASA have proved they are not prepared to do anything about.
Is it not better to have the opportunity to present your company directly to someone who actually needs your services? Is it not better that the information is gained by someone with regulation and data protection in mind?
This is no differnt to getting in a car and knocking on the door ethically.
“The days of putting rain forests of leaflets through doors, particularly where the target isn’t in occupation, are about to end.” - Michael Day
"No-one is suggesting this will replace other forms of marketing/canvassing but it can compliment". - Michael Day
"It will be unpopular with the very people it is designed to enable you to contact". - Industry Observer (great comment but stop with the histrionics please)
So it is 'compliant'. So what.
Whatever it is it is a blatent infringement of peoples privacy and more.
Agents, put yourselves in the shoes of these property owners - would you like it?
This company provides a service and thats information, how we use it is up to us. Agents tout, not these companies so aren't we really angry at ourselves?
The U.S has many deaths due to firearms but they don't prosecute the manufacturers, they prosecute those who misuse the products.
Touting is a problem thats 'in-house' and although this company will in effect make it easier, Its us as agents who have an obligation to act responsibly. The only 'ethics' and 'values' that need to be questioned are our own.
Michael - you are struggling. Stop digging!!
It will be unpopular with the very people it is designed to enable you to contact.
And it is touting even if targeted
End of.
But here's an opportunity for you to clarify.
Why not publish here the definitive statement that you hold from ther DP Commisioner's Office that categorically atates what you are doing is 100% DP compliant and that none of the acticitiers in any way breaches any DP provisions - even in spirit.
You do hold such a definitive statement and in effect authority to trade from the DPCommisionewr I assume?
Leads are really valuable and expensive at the same time. I understand it though if homeowners won't like this idea.
http://www.cromwood.co.uk
Interesting debate and all opinions appreciated.
On the basis that it is the points of differentiation between businesses that matter, then this can help provide a point of differentiation.
No-one is suggesting this will replace other forms of marketing/canvassing but it can compliment.
Obviously not for everyone but lots are making very productive and effective use of data.
LEts be fair here, this is just another form of touting, its not accepted by the TPO and to be honest vendors/Landlords dont like either.
Yes, you are going to pick off the odd landlord/vendor here or their, and maybe im just old fashioned, but shouldn't a client want to use you because they have seen your eye catching advertising, or have ben recommended, which is surely more satisfying.
Before anyone comes back and says it isn't touting, it will be, as agents that use this,will only be trying to contact homeowners/landlords whose properties are currently on the market.
Better off sticking to blanket canvassing, as its always been a numbers game.
Snooping and touting! I agree with Patricia another nail in the agents coffin!
Words fail me. As if agents don't already have a bad enough name. Everyone is plagued daily by unsolicited and unwanted calls and letters from companies selling their wares, this will aggravate Vendors and Landlords intensely. We wont be using this company.
All data complies with DPA and if someone registered with TPS then phone numbers will not be available.
Land registry data is often out of date (address given at time of registration has been let and owner moved elsewhere for example) and no phone numbers. Time is often of the essence in getting to a potential landlord or property owner and this service can provide an answer.
Cost may initially seem high but not when you look at cost of sending a negotiator out on a largely futile mission to deliver 100 leaflets in an hour, it isn't. As with everything, it is not cost but value that counts. One commentator mentions Rightmove - not cheap but clearly providing value.
Targeted data - not for everyone but for those that want to obtain and who use it well - it can be very effective.
I think i will stick to looking up Landlords details via the Land Registry at £4 a pop.
£15-25 per lead !!!....nearly as expensive as Rightmove.
“We live in a world where people are freely consenting daily to giving their contact info. Have you ever read the terms and conditions pages on Amazon or Tesco, for example, when ordering?”
No people are not freely consenting - to turn your question around have you ever actually tried to read the entire contents of a terms and conditions statement on a major website?
So because we live in a world where people play fast and loose, look for every angle and advantage, it's OK for you to have the same ethics is it Mr Day?
I know I'm an old dinosaur with ethics ands values that sadly are in a minority these days, but is this your proudest moment?
Anyway correct me if I am wrong but isn't touting (even if 'targeted') still frownerd on, at least by professionals?
Mr Day one question for you - your system does recognise and exempt those who are registered with the Telephone Preference Service and Fax Preference Service I assume not to receive unsolicited sales calls?
This applies to mobile as well as land lines, and is definitely not 'consented data'.
Care to comment?
As a landlord, I really don't want my personal details ESPECIALLY mobile phone number being sold to some random agent because I happen to have several properties. What would I have to do to ensure my details are NOT sold via Tracewise?
I have been using Tracewise for the past eight weeks and can testify the quality of the information recevied from Tracewise. I have received mobile numbers, addresses and names of landlords and in some cases landlines. This is a good product and I wish them well for the future