Online agency’s surprise claim that it’s made industry ‘more trusted’

An online agency has issued an outlandish statement that it, and other online agencies, have made the profession more trusted amongst the public. 

99Home - which on its website describes itself as “one of the UK’s fastest growing online real estate agents” - has issued the results of a survey based on only 182 responses.

The survey appears to have been based on just one question and was conducted only online anyway. The low response came from 1,000 questionnaires sent out.

The first question was: Do you think the birth of ‘Online Estate Agents’ has changed the market from the ‘least trusted professionals’ to the ‘most trusted professionals’? 

According to the statement, of the 182 replies, some 57 per cent apparently say that “estate agents are now trusted since the birth of ‘Online Agents’. 

In another, separate exercise - this time receiving 805 responses from some 79,000 visits to its website - the agency claims that 52 per cent believe their property has more visibility thanks to online agfents, and that trust in their agency is greater. 

Over the past year 99Home has been in the news for offering its customers a kind of ‘fall-through insurance’ after over 100 deals collapsed between mid-March and mid-July 2020 - it is thought they collapsed for Coronavirus-related reasons.

The agency also recently teamed up with the Mortgage Advice Bureau offering Just-Sold, an online property auction service owned by 99Home.