Unlike traditional agency, however, the online auction process clearly had the upper-hand even back then. It was a clear proposition and some clever people had got in early and built proprietary technology that was starting to really drive that side of the industry - unlike some of the online agents today with surprisingly little, or no technology whatsoever...
Therefore, I read with interest, this week, about a solution launching here in the UK called Offr. It has its origins in the world of auctioneering with one of the founders, Robert Hoban, originally heading up Allsop in Ireland. Another director is Philip Farrell, a veteran auctioneer.
Ostensibly, Offr is a range of online and digital tools that will save buyers (and therefore vendors) a huge amount of time in terms of submitting offers and then transaction time to SSTC. At least in Ireland.
In Dublin, transaction times are around 5 months, 7 months in more rural areas. Offr is looking to reduce it to just 3 months.
According to one report: “The software will connect estate agents to banks and solicitors to ensure that all the documentation required for a property’s sale, including title deeds, are ready before it goes on the market.”
“Sitting on estate agents’ websites, Offr will store bidders’ identities and proofs of funds in advance of the acceptance of any offers, in an effort to improve the transparency of the sales process.”
“Prospective buyers can use their smartphone to book a viewing, make an offer, pay a deposit, connect to a solicitor and sign contracts. Bidders will also be instantly notified of any new offers on the properties they are pursuing. Sellers can also track the progress of a sale on their mobile device or laptop, with alerts about new offers, upcoming viewings and updates on legal documentation.”
This is all well and good. I completely see the value proposition. As it launches here in the UK, it claims to be able to reduce fall through rates by 50%, a claim of which I am more sceptical.
This is also mirrored by the Founder of View My Chain: “The claim that this would reduce fall-through rates by 50% is an interesting one as it doesn't appear that the product can access any data around the key causes of a fall-through such as chain length, sales progression and mortgage applications”, stated Sohail Rashid.
Having been a huge advocate of the word ‘interesting’ in my time, masking my true feelings, I think I know his.
I also dispute the claim made that it “will drive more traffic and buyer engagement to agents’ sites.” While it is a white-labelled widget that can sit on an agent’s site, it is simply not going to drive traffic in your direction with perhaps one exception.
“You want to submit an offer?” I used to say. “Let's go back to the office and fill in some paperwork and we can put it forward”.
This would take time, the passion would ebb, the emotion decrease and sometimes offers would be withdrawn by the time we got back to the office. This may just mean, in this ‘always on’ society, that speed-to-offer will be increased upon a viewing being complete.
This might mean that the friction between intention and action is taken care of. Hopefully.
There is, however, one more sticking point that will take a while to overcome, in my opinion.
Buyers and sellers are lazy until the point where they have no choice but to take action. The possibility of them loading up all documentation and being organised ahead of time is somewhat wishful thinking.
Yes, there are some who are uber-organised, but the bulk will realise house buying and selling is a somewhat drawn out process and will not see the importance of firstly putting this documentation together initially and secondly, this sort of PropTech firm.
“To speed up the house buying and selling process, it’s essential to bring information about potential buyers into the offer process earlier and, among many things, weed out the tyre kickers,” says Phil Farrell.
He is right, and it will filter out those serious and those not, but this will take time and work on the agents' behalf to ensure that their buyers and sellers understand the benefits.
This isn’t the panacea of PropTech solutions, but it is certainly hitting on some of the points I’ve been trying to make over the past few weeks. Let the technology help the paperwork side of things while you concentrate on managing the people involved in the deal and the deal making. That’s what you are really good at.
We will see more of these solutions in due course and, certainly, lessons from auctioneers should be viewed positively. They know what they are doing when it comes to smooth transactions and improving efficiency.
Definitely one to watch but only as potential customers realise the importance of being organised and so they start seeing the benefits of this sort of approach. This isn’t a quick win.
*James Dearsley is a leading PropTech influencer and commentator, and is co-founder of PropTech platform Unissu. You can follow James on Twitter here.
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I must profess a personal interest with Offr, in the sense that two of the directors Phil Farrell and Robert Hoban, were plying me with several pints of Guinness recently in a hostelry in London Bridge. Putting that aside, and unlike Guinness which is said not to travel well across the water, Offr certainly does.
I have been following the fortunes of this company for some time, and as a person very much in the know as my day time job is networking with all sectors of the proptech and real estate industry, meeting CEO’s, project managers, data scientists, captains of the finance, banking and legal industry and more, I love it when someone gets it right.
And Robert, Phil have definitely got it right, with their offering – Offr.
In between the pints Phil and Robert said their biggest problem was articulating what their service was. I suggested it was ‘two taps – Offr’ – meaning with two taps of your smart phone you can offer on a property, this is an integral part of their service. It also suggests that the service is instantaneous and seamless, the modern consumers touchstone.
Phil rightly said, two taps seems more like Michael Flatterley, but after another pint of the black stuff I said well what is the Offr proposition?
With an Irish gleam in his eye, Phil then said that Offr is a service for agents that runs alongside their existing business, it enhances it, and gives transparency to all parties, with a dashboard system that allows all stakeholders to be super connected.
They went on to say that they had looked at the slow model of real estate, all the sticking points, and they had digitally engineered a better model with the buyer and the vendor at the centre of all things. Also, a transparent and time specific way of agreeing sales, still on the traditional private treaty basis. But, where buyer’s are pre-qualified before they offer (Offr), and at point of sale, within seconds the memo of sale can be produced, and all parties who offered and were unsuccesful would be instantly told.
Then the proptech in the Offr solution really kicks off, with all ther stakeholders in the sale, buyer, seller, solicitors, all on a dashboard system able to see in real time the progress of the sale.
For me – though I am no longer selling property, if I was I would use Offr (not the drink talking) because – it works – at point of pitching for the business in front of the vendor the Offr solution will gain vendors, and it will run along the existing way the agent works, it will also support a higher fee.
So, more instructions, a better listing fee, a quicker sale being agreed and a speedier more transparent route to exchange. And a great experience for the buyer and seller
My advice – look on the Offr website today and get in contact with these two Robert or Phil, they may not buy you a pint, but, they will transform the bottom line of your business for the better.
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