A new ‘for sale by owner’ property portal is due to be launched on Friday.
Attempting to explain his new website, Habitation Libertum (hablib.com) wealthy entrepreneur Anton Kreil (you may remember him from Millionaire Traders – he was the one who gave away pots of money for amateurs to gamble on the stock exchange) says it’s all about social networking.
It will, he says, be successful if the over 30s and 40s embrace the Facebook-style concept – provided, of course, they have property to sell or rent, and don’t want to go near an agent for fear that they might actually get a much better price for their property but end up paying a fee.
It is, of course, nothing that agents haven’t heard before.
But it turns out that Kreil’s anti-agent feelings do not, for some reason, extend to developers. Although private sellers can use his site for free, developers are welcome to become paying subscribers. “We are 70% cheaper than Rightmove,” says Kreil, hopefully.
Furthermore, developers can take a 50% referral fee to introduce other developers to Hablib. No other property portal pays their members to be on their site, Kreil says.
But agents obviously won’t be able to share in this largesse as Kreil’s whole modus operandum is to squeeze them out.
According to Kreil: “With a bit of training anyone can become a croupier in a casino. You just have to get a job at the casino first. The estate agents industry is like a casino. Traditional estate agents are the owners of the tables. The internet has created an avenue for home owners to interact with each other. The odds that the house will win are shrinking. There is only one way that estate agents’ fees can go and that’s down.”
He adds that ‘for sale by owner’ is becoming more popular and that people will “realise hablib.com is their only real online choice in the UK to avoid paying estate agents’ fees”.
Here at EAT, we’re mystified. Why does Kreil seem to think that either agents, or house buyers, or maybe both, have some kind of a gambling habit?
And why is Kreil apparently happy to let buyers purchase a developer’s property, complete with the usual enormous mark-up which means that your house is over-priced the second you buy it, and yet so opposed to estate and letting agents charging fees?
Meanwhile, Sarah Beeny who launched her ‘for sale by owner’ Tepilo site this summer is running a promotional competition. You have to answer a question about her and the prize is a visit by her to your very own lovely home, where she will advise you on your paintwork.
You can read the Kreil interview here.
https://www1.propertyportalwatch.com/2009/11/interview-with-anton-kreil-hablib-com/
Comments