x
By using this website, you agree to our use of cookies to enhance your experience.
Graham Awards

TODAY'S OTHER NEWS

Sir Stelios backs easyProperty agent with no property experience

easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has given his personal backing to the newest recruit of online agency easyProperty - even though the individual has no previous property experience.  

Norwich-based product manager Roy Marsden, 40, is the latest recruit to the agency. 

He has 20 years’ experience in manufacturing, insurance and banking, software sales and digital content companies, and says he wants to bring his expertise from these other industries to his new role.

Advertisement

Haji-Ioannou says: “When considering their next house move, buyers and sellers need to be right on top of their neighbourhood property market and I believe that Roy is just the man to allow them to do just that.

“I am confident that easyProperty offers that combination of local expertise and low-cost professionalism that takes the hassle and expense out of house moving.”

Marsden himself says: his absence of agency experience is not only not a disadvantage, but may be a positive advantage. 

He states: “I’d never worked in property, but this in fact gives me a unique perspective to the industry and changing the way things are done and the products that are used.

“Let’s make the process of buying or selling a home as easy as selling a car. 

“I see a future where the customer journey is streamlined and modified, using technology, wherever appropriate, to irradicate the overwhelming feeling of doom and gloom when you start looking to buy, sell or rent a home. 

“As we come out of lockdown, I think the world of work, services for which we pay, and life in general, has changed.”

He continues: “Most of us, if selling a car, bike or any used item, jump straight on the internet and use one of the many auction or second-hand marketplace sites, and generally have a sale within days, sometimes even in a matter of hours.

“So why is it that when we are looking to move home, many of us have absolutely no idea how to go about it? 

“Do you go straight down to the local estate agents which you remember from seeing one of their ‘For Sale’ boards down the street? Do you Google ‘I want to sell my house’ and go with whatever company appears at the top of search results? Or do you ask friends and family for their recommendations?

“Well, none of the above. One call to your local easyProperty agent should do the trick.”

David Brierley, chief executive officer of easyProperty, says: “Roy is clearly a high-energy addition to the easyProperty ‘family’ and we are delighted to welcome him aboard.

“We are growing by the month and we can be proud of the strides we are taking in Berkshire, Cheshire, Essex, Hampshire, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Middlesex, Northumberland, Shropshire, South Yorkshire, Teesside and Scotland.

“We aim to have 130 local partners in place within the first 12 months. They will have two or three territories each with individual territories comprising around 25,000 owner-occupiers.

“Through easyProperty we offer a brand that is both recognisable and trusted as well as technology that helps estate agents to do the job but doesn’t tell them how to do the job.

“It’s all aimed at allowing our partners all the independence and freedom they need to enable them to grow their businesses.”

Brierley says the strategy is to concentrate on local areas and grow organically. 

 

Jason Bull, easyProperty chief operating officer, adds: “It’s an exciting time for our industry and the past 16 months or so has accelerated and changed customer thinking and behaviour faster than at any point in the past. 

“This paradigm shift in customer behaviour is creating huge opportunities for us and the addition of Roy to our team will enable us to exploit these to the fullest.

“Customer journeys and user experiences are things Roy understands incredibly well through previous roles with blue chip companies, and by not having any previous involvement in the property industry he brings freshness of ideas and some challenging thinking to our top team. 

“This kind of approach benefits our partners and customers in equal measure and will allow us to create fantastic touch points at every step of the moving process with the merging of tech and touch and processes that will transfer from other customer centric operators in different industries.” 

easyProperty’s current charging includes an upfront charge of £795, or a split fee of £395 then £895 on completion, or a no sale, no fee of one per cent including VAT.

  • icon

    Classic!

  • icon

    Marsden himself says: his absence of agency experience is not only not a disadvantage, but may be a positive advantage.

    He states: “I’d never worked in property, but this in fact gives me a unique perspective to the industry and changing the way things are done and the products that are used.

    “Let’s make the process of buying or selling a home as easy as selling a car.

    “I see a future where the customer journey is streamlined and modified, using technology, wherever appropriate, to irradicate the overwhelming feeling of doom and gloom when you start looking to buy, sell or rent a home.


    Really PMSL

    Mike Lewis

    So by saying he wants to "irradicate" means he want to "fix firmly the overwhelming feeling of doom and gloom when you start looking to buy, sell or rent a home." Shurley shome mishtake? Or did he really use that word in his press release when he should have used "eradicate"???

     
  • icon
    • N W
    • 18 June 2021 15:19 PM

    its good to know that my 36 years agency experience gives me a clear and easy route into jobs within manufacturing, insurance and banking, software sales and digital content companies without having been trained in any of them!

    That's great news for the end of a busy week!

  • Algarve  Investor

    What can possibly go wrong? I'm just amazed easyProperty is still going. It's only every few months that I get a reminder of its existence, when it comes up with its latest PR stunt.

  • icon

    Estate Agency is changing!

    No matter how we feel as Estate Agents, there is no harm in competition within the industry.

    It also helps multi branch offices & Independents from being complacent.

    Despite product manager Roy Marsden’s lack of property related experience, it may well be an advantage, as coming to an online agency from a totally different background would suggest to me that easyProperty are looking at all different ways and aspects they can improve their online standing and presence.

    Former vice president of Planet Hollywood, founder of Screen Select (Later Love Film) & former Zoopla entrepreneurial Guru Alex Chesterman (now founder of Cazoo) also came from a tech background, but he became a leader in how to promote properties to new heights as regards marketing properties.

    We are all guilty of sticking to the traditional way we market and sell or rent homes, but we all can thank the internet for the way all our businesses have benefitted from the tech world which is forever evolving.

    There is plenty of room for both traditional agency and online agents, the younger generation seem to prefer completely different ways in dealing with their property requirements whether being a Vendor /Landlord or Purchaser/Tenant.

    Good Luck in your new role Roy at easyProperty and hope your knowledge is beneficial to the easy brand.

  • icon

    As easy as buying a car! Honestly you couldn't make it up.

    It didn't end to well for Countrywide thanks to Alison Platt did it?

  • icon

    Firstly, Countrywide are hardly a good example of a well run Estate Agency, as recently publicity would suggest.

    Lets not forget that Propertymark whom profess to be the leading membership body for property agents also appointed last year a new chief executive from a non-property background Mr. Tim Balcon (Former chief executive of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment).

    Roy Marsden was not employed to be a good Estate Agent. But for his expertise in streamlining and modifying the easyProperty website/brand with the use of technology, which I assume he did well in previous roles in other industries.

icon

Please login to comment

MovePal MovePal MovePal
sign up