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Elliot Ness

Managing Director

649 Profile Views

About Me

Have been in the industry for over 20 years.

my expertise in the industry

FRICS

Elliot's Recent Activity

Fact 1 – There are now only 11 UK market centres claimed by KWUK. Down from 12 at the start of the year. Bristol & Warwick have gone. Exeter has been added. The reality is there are only 9. Weybridge exists only in name as it has no leadership team, and the agents have all gone to the Marlow centre. Edinburgh is merging with Glasgow (see LinkedIn today). The number of market centres is shrinking. Ben Taylor’s goal was to sell 25 new SLAs this year. HE’S SOLD 1, LOST 2 AND 2 MORE ARE PHANTOM CENTRES. Fact 2 – KWUK claims to have over 400 agents. A simple tally of the agents on the KWUK website shows about 333. When you factor in agents that are also in leadership or who have left then it’s about 320. THE AGENT COUNT IS ALSO SHRINKING DOWN 20% YEAR ON YEAR. Fact 3 – If you look up the relevant limited companies that are involved with the market centres and the KWUK region the debt issues are plain to see. Grifettey Limited owns the UK license – it is carrying a significant 7 figure debt. Taylor Maximus Group Limited will point you in the direction of others (cross reference with Ben Taylor’s name to see other appointments held). You will notice a lot of juggling to say the least. This article is entitled ‘blame game’; but that’s not the point. It’s about the truth. So, here’s an invite to Ben Taylor. Why don’t we meet face to face, Chris Watkin can chair and record it for all to see. We can then let the court of public opinion decide. I might be who you think I am, or you may be surprised. The only way to truly know is for us to meet on Chris’ sofa…

From: Elliot Ness 03 September 2022 02:54 AM

Bit of a misquote there Chris, perhaps check your source. You don’t debate, that’s the point. You just state an opinion - this is very bad… blah, blah blah. Evidence is never offered, and debate is never encouraged. So why not provide your evidence and encourage a logical discussion. Without evidence you’re simply trolling and coming across as quite bitter and really rather negative. You’re not helping anyone.

From: Elliot Ness 28 April 2021 23:44 PM

As my grandmother used to say, 'if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." I've watched your posts for a while and whenever Keller Williams is mentioned you spout fatuous drivel about them. What is clear is that you clearly don't really know what you're talking about and never offer any evidence to support your obviously very ill-informed opinions. We're know what they say about opinions... They're like ..., everyone's got one and most of them stink. In this case, I'm afraid that very much applies to you.

From: Elliot Ness 28 April 2021 07:31 AM

Murray, how can I say this politely... When hell freezes over!

From: Elliot Ness 27 February 2021 01:48 AM

To paraphrase James Carville; “It’s the data, stupid”! Purplebricks sits on hod loads of data but built a platform that was so poor they still can’t do anything with it. After his train set was taken away by the board, he went away to sulk and think, he’s now realised that he can do better and get other agents to give him all of their data for free. Clive Humby (a British mathematician) said back in 2006, “data is the new oil”. Clive Humby also set up Tesco’s Clubcard. With Boomin, Michael has created a Clubcard for agents and customers where they give Boomin all of their data - for free. Great idea… For Boomin! Google “data is the new oil”, there’s great article from The Economist in 2017 and one from Wired in 2014. The same CIO that built the atrocious Purplebricks platform, is building Boomin; it will be built as a minimal viable proposition, it will not be good tech. Your most valuable asset is your database, please don’t give it away for free.

From: Elliot Ness 27 February 2021 01:29 AM

PB agents have no authority to issue any form and refund to a customer. Any refund, partial or total, has to be authorised by a Regional Director or the Customer Experience Team.

From: Elliot Ness 04 August 2020 10:07 AM

The interview was nothing more than a PR exercise. No insight here - just MB stating ‘it’s true because I say it is”. Commisery was misleading as was a great deal that PB did and does. It was openly accepted that they regularly travelled below the integrity line. 38 complaints to the ASA – do the math. MB was pushed out because his arrogance got in the way of reality. Failure in Oz and in the US was inevitable with a model that lacked any substance or integrity with a blinded belief that spending circa 35-40% on marketing of your baseline income would eventually buy you a market share. Other agents were cheaper but not when you compare what the average PB agents was expected to do for the income they received. They work ridiculously long hours and it often means they are doing it for an hourly rate that is less than the minimum wage. TV adverts help get you through the front door. When you join PB your taught ‘a pitch’. Your taught a very specific way to explain the fees, to say that it’s opaque is in itself rather opaque. Why do you think PB get so many complaints? Have a look a Trust Pilot – you’ll see many negative reviews where the reviewer states the fees were NEVER clear. Rapid expansion was always part of the PB MO when MB was in charge. Rapid expansion with a disproportionately high marketing budget? At one point there was 3 different marketing heads at the same time. James Kydd, Joby Russell and Ed Hughes – what does that tell you? The foundation is a Trojan Horse to gain credibility and trust. It’s marketing under a different name.

From: Elliot Ness 27 July 2020 06:56 AM

Michal Riley - Axel invested in PB, nothing to do with KW so what's your point? Equally KW is privately owned. Arthur Balfour - pyramid scheme - how so? Church of Scientology - equally how so? I feel a more substantial response that because I say it is, is warranted to support such a statement. All I seem to be reading is that anything new is bad and it is because I said so from the middle-aged male and pale fraternity. The traditional model is failing. Standards are poor. Change is needed and will happen if you like it or not. My question - still unanswered BTW - is what IS the way forward?

From: Elliot Ness 25 July 2020 10:14 AM

I rarely, if ever, comment on these forums but today I've decided that I will. Every time I see a post about a novel business or tech etc, the comments are hardly ever, if at all, positive. All I read is a barrage of negativity and unsubstantiated opinion as to why that will never work. So, riddle me this Batman; i.e. all of you keyboard uber experts - what will? The wind of change is upon us; ROPA is coming, standards in the industry are lamentable, tech changes every industry sooner or later and the general public has a very, very poor opinion of what we do.

From: Elliot Ness 24 July 2020 12:24 PM

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