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An investment newsletter has given details of the start up costs of one of the newest online agencies, Houses.co.uk.

The service, opened earlier this year by internet entrepreneur Peter Thornton and estate agent Russell Bennett, is based in Essex and had to spend £40,000 acquiring the apt internet name.

An additional £100,000 has been spent on start up costs and working capital according to the newsletter Angel News (not related to Angels Media).

Thornton has previously worked for NASA as a project manager, set up car price comparison site Vroom Vroom Vroom, and now operates websites in the US, Australia, New Zealand, UK and Canada.

Comments

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    have you still got readers,,this new website hurts my head,,comments page a pain in the ass to read..

    • 27 March 2014 21:22 PM
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    Why are news groups taking so much interest in budget models that claim they save clients thousands, when many fail to sell homes, that then end up with traditional agency models who often sell for more.

    • 26 March 2014 17:54 PM
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    Ahhh... thought this one sounded familiar - it was yet another 'scoop' for EAT way back - in February, that is:
    http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/486-another-day-another-online-launch-part-2

    I ask the same question I did a month ago:

    Who gave these monkeys a PC to play with

    • 26 March 2014 17:39 PM
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    Brian
    "With James Caan and Stelios now involved, the online estate agency business has just got interesting."

    I think that Mr Caan will find with this latest venture that there are some things that his (self-believed) Midas touch simply Caan't stretch to. He is simply a wheeler and dealer, and wheeler/dealers all work on the same principle: Some you win; some you lose. His successes are well (self) publicised - but one has to wonder just how many failures lie in the dust behind him.

    This one could go spectacularly bad. Coming into the market when it is poking its nose out of the sh!te won't hurt, of course - but had he done it when we were all three foot under the surface of the brown and nitrogenous not only would he have been able to get himself a better deal; I also suggest that he would have also have gained more kudos within the industry for showing he had the cojones to take a bigger risk! As it is... he slid in on the probability that things are only going to get better - not exactly much of an 'entrepreneur', then...

    • 26 March 2014 17:08 PM
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    Anyone heard of UBolt online agency I think Branson is going into online agency ;)

    • 26 March 2014 09:04 AM
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    100,000 to set up and run an online estate agency They are throwing their money away I'm afraid.

    The new participants such as Purple Bricks and easy Property have raised millions and I suspect that such a small sum from the Houses team will be woefully inadequate in striving to become a serious player like existing leaders eMoov and House Network. The site build and ongoing development, staff, marketing and not to mention the Rightmove and Zoopla fees will eat into that within weeks.

    With James Caan and Stelios now involved, the online estate agency business has just got interesting. And only serious entrants need apply it seems.

    • 26 March 2014 08:50 AM
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    40k is way overpriced, if anything the domain will work against them with google, also looking at the site it is rubbish, if i landed on that site i would leave immediately.

    • 26 March 2014 08:15 AM
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