Cut-price online agent I Am The Agent is expanding its marketing push in London to plaster its message over 250 buses between now and the end of the year.
Its ‘click.let, click.sold’ campaign is the latest in its bid to push up listings and raise awareness.
The service, which charges from £99 and puts its property listings on Rightmove and other sites, claims to attract more than 20,000 visitors per month.
The site, whose motto is ‘Be your own agent’ and which plans to take on the likes of self-service letting agent Upad, currently has around 51 properties for sale, of which 34 are in London, and 456 properties to let, of which 412 are in London.
To mark the launch of its bus advertising campaign, the London-based firm is offering anyone who spots an I Am The Agent bus ad a free listing on the site.
Rebecca Peach, managing director, said: “We’ve been amazed by how quickly our great value approach to sales and lettings has caught on and see an influx of new members looking to find a home or sell or rent a home each week.
“Our London bus campaign is a fitting way to end what has been a very busy, productive and extremely successful year.
“With over 200 London buses bearing our branding, we’ve also made it really easy for landlords to try being their own agent with a free listing just for spotting one of the vehicles around London.”
https://www.iamtheagent.com
Comments
Chris, I have news for you online agents already use Rightmove......its is only FSBO sites that can't
At least you are honest enough to admit your fear is that the portals now hold the key (if only percieved by the vendors) to selling property.
You should not be so alarmed though there will always be market for a full EA service, most people do not have the time, knowledge or motivation to sell there own property just like most people dont have the time, knowledge or motivation to service their cars.
My point is that I think FSBO should be allowed to advertise properties on RM, no vendor trusts a descrpition or photo anyway the amount of business lost to an the tradiional EA business will be minimal more likely it is te online agents that will lose business to FSBO crowd
I foresee a potential time bomb here for the portals. At present, each “traditional” agent has to pay a subscription for each of their individual offices. In other words, the portals are charging you for the right to operate in each of your areas.
However, the “Online” agents are able to cover multiple areas for just one subscription, as technically they only have one office. This gives them a huge and unfair advantage. Using this logic, what’s to stop all of the traditional agents scrapping multiple subscriptions and instead running with one central subscription? This would result in a minor headache as all the calls would come into one central number but they could easily be distributed to the relevant offices using automated call handling software.
Currently, an agency with 50 offices will be spending around £600k a year on portal advertising. This would come down to £12k a year by running with the central subscription model. You don’t have to be a genius to work out what this would mean for the portals.
Therefore, going forward, RM etc will have to provide a level playing field for all and charge the online agents a subscription for each area they wish to cover (which would render their business model useless) or accept that traditional agents will opt for the one subscription model. The former protects the portals business model, whilst the latter would ruin it.
The changes to the PMA law don't effect traditional agents as they still need to abide by it. This amendment simply makes it easier for so called online agents that never visit properties, but accept property details by email from the vendors, to advertise without the need to be PMA compliant.
That change alone won't change anything as this sector of the market has been trading like this for years already.
The real change would be if online agents (That never visit the properties) can start using the major portals like RM and Zoopla. If RM & Zoopla refuse to allow them on their sites on the basis of accuracy (Or in their case, lack of it) then little changes. Vendors want to get their properties onto the major portals, not one of the hundreds of tiny websites available.
I believe that if the big portals allow the online agents to advertise then yes, it could spell disaster for thousands of traditional agents. I also think that if one of the big portals open the doors to the likes of Tesco or other online only agents, the traditional agents would immediately move all their stock to the portal that guaranteed that they would only allow traditional agents on their site. This would be bad news for the portal that has just lost all it's stock as it is a long climb back up with only the online agents to supplying them with stock and a smart move for the portal that stuck by the traditional agents!
I curently use RM, but not Zoopla as i have been happy with the service from RM, but should they open the doors to online agents, (Those that don't go out to take the photos themselves etc.) then I would cancel my contract with them that month and go to Zoopla if they guaranteed to stick with the traditional agents. It really is that simple.
Oh and competition laws do not work in the way that has been suggested. No one can force RM or Zoopla to allow online agents onto their sites in the same way we cannot be forced to take somone's house onto the market if we don't want to. Businesses are allowed to make business decissions based on risks and profits. If the big portals feel that inaccurate advertising could contaminate the quality of their existing websites, they are allowed to refuse entry.
Lets see how things unfold, but the industry is worth billions of pounds to the big portals and I can't see things changing too much over the next 12-months while the dust settles.
No one is circumnavigating the the rules.
The rules have are being changed by the goverment.
The PMA was pointless anyway no one buys a property based on description and pictures. I dont care who has advertised the property EA. Owner or anyone else until i have seen it and had survey done i am not buying it.
Why does valuation mater some agents value to get instructions etc and many here claim its greedy vendors that set the asking price.
You must all wake up to the fact that the world in which you trade is changing and people are very happy to pay for the £100 on line deal as they see the £3000 one and compare the two and make the only decision they can come to..I would be mad not to give it a try...
Martin and co will be agents on the ground, agents inspecting and valuing just as any other agent would, they are not set up to circumvent the rules they just happen to charge differently.
The issue with online add it to the portal only listers is that they, as Chis explained, don't really exist. Spot of bother peonix and do it all again with a new URL..
Perhaps it would help Happy if you explain if are a transit traveller listing company or a Estae Agent without investment in premises.
Chesterman is unlikely to refuse any deal 180 offices has to offer.
Hi Chris, I would describe you as a traditional agent you you offer a full estate agency service but at cheaper price due to reduced costs, well done. Clearly you and I disagree wih the anon poster when he says it needs between 1 an 2% fee to do the job properly.
My contract with BT is direct....I dont need an agent to alk to them......If I want to advertise my property with RM I have to use an agent.
Remember the PMA and EA act have been amended or repealed. despite this because of RM's and Zoopla's dominate position they are dictating what type of agent the Vendors choose.
Is this fair or anti competition? It will be interesting to see if Zoopla allow Martin & Co to advertise now that they have entered the market with an advertising Only pay monthly model (see other thread).
Eloquently put but unfortunately for you there is not enough gap between your style traditional Estate Agency and those that are simply flogging a service designed to circumvent the Agent /PAAS relationship.
Without staff qualified to inspect property and fulfil the role of an Estate Agent as typically understood by everyone. one who acts for and on behalf of their clients' interest; marketing viewings and negotiation. This sub set of online property listers should be separately defined for the service they offer. Remove the credibility of the term Estate Agent, as that does not accurately describe the service they offer.
A loan shark might lend out money but that hardly justifies them calling their business a Bank.
What defines an online agent?
I set our business up in 2004 from an extension on the side of our family home, on a main road. We had a proper office with desks, computers, photo copiers etc. I would go out and value properties, measure and photograph any listings, put them in the local newspaper, on RM, erect a for-sale board, maintain a mailing list, send out brochures, negotiate offers and manage the sales through to completion. I have always charged no sale, no fees and have been roughly 0.25% cheaper than the traditional agents on the high street.
I consider myself to be an online agent because I don't have and office on the high street with a big glass window and lots of window cards that few people actually look at.
Apart from some rent and some higher business rates, my running costs are similar and save about £15k a year, but I am still operating in pretty much the same way, operating under the same rules, regulated by the same ombudsman and get my vendors onto RM at a slightly cheaper price.
These websites that allow vendors to send in their own photos, room sizes etc. will never leave their office and can't verify that the photos are actually of the property they are advertising or that the measurements are accurate within the minimum standard of 3-inches. These website owners have no knowledge of the housing market and are not regulated.
RM's Terms and Conditions currently state that every photo being used must be from that property/ related to the property in question. As the estate agent that took the photos and measured the house, I can safely state that my properties are accurate and are not misleading the general public, whereas the owners of these property websites who have not left their office cannot qualify what they are uploading.
It's not about whether competition laws are being broken, it is about the company uploading adverts to RM/ Zoopla and the accuracy of those adverts!
Sorry Chappy, vendor's don't decide how agents spend their money. Some agents just used Globrix which was free, some used the newspapers, some have their own websites and some use RM or Zoopla. Ulimately all money in business comes from customers in some form or another and while it is this money that has helped create companies like RM, it is the agents that have decided where to spend it. Please don't demand that British Telecom should give you cheaper calls because you once sold your house through an estate agent and they have routinely paid BT hundreds of pounds per month doing their job while you were on the market. They will simply tell you where to go.
the whole point I would make happy is that they very vast majority of Traditional Agents have been the small guy at some point, up against more established competion and strong corporates.
Perhaps it isn't fair but what the small guys need to learn is that the cheap deals can only last as long as the novelty outweighs the lack of cash
Some will suceed some will fail but those that do make it eventually come to the conclusion that Agency costs between 1 and 2 % to do the job properly.
Newspaper and portals have and continue to punish the small guy, that is just one of the barriers to entry that Mr Small has to overcome.
"You side with the big boys Happy let's see who needs who most" I think you interpret my rambling incorrectly, I am saying the small guys should be allowed access to the portals,as well as traditional agents. It's the big boys that are preventing this i.e RM and Zoopla
I am not changing my point of view, PAAS are only that they are a service industry to a service industry.
Any service industry that shows arrogance or lack of loyalty to its customers can do just that but the need to understand what the alternatives are.
Evening Standardgate bitch slapped Chesterman into place and sooner or later same will happen to RM.
You side with the big boys Happy let's see who needs who most.
They probably wish you would shut up every time you tap tap tap on your keyboard you make it so much easier for for me to message Traditional Agents that they don't have to put up with an abusive unhappy partnership.
Thing is Happy every traditional agent that leave the Duopoly just sticks an inflationary pressure on the subs you pay.
Unlikley any wife of Slappy will have a smile.
Now you are changing your point......first you argue that online agenst should not be allowed on portals as they have not invested in them.....now your argument is it's not your choice anyway. So I take it you agree the investment argument is a dead duck!
Yes the portals decide for now this is a fair point, however, considering the EA act and PMA have been changed and repealed. Could these barriers to entry put up by the portals (now a duopoly) be seen to be anti competition and thus fall foul of the laws and regs covering this or not? Can anyone advise ?
The thing about my tools and my toys is that I get to decide who uses them and who gets to play with them.
it isn't down to Rightmove or Big'n'Bouncy to decide on my behalf.
They can try but as there isn't enough online agents to keep Shipside in Church Brogues I doubt very much whether that is a game his shareholders want him to try.
*her face whoops!
So to the poster below would start up traditional agent be welcome by you on the portals by even though they had invested no money in the development?
I take they would also be allowed to play with your wifes breast enhancements too!
(p.s my wifes is perfect no enhancemens required)
(p.p. s she might read this so hopefully that has put a smile on he face)
It is my commission and therefore my money!
If I choose to invest in my wife's boob job I would not be best pleased to find Happy Chappy playing with them.
He might have got a point and gawd knows we will keep on getting it chucked at up but it isn't a valid one.
Robert Wiseman Diaries might treat the Diary farmers like crap but at least they don't keep a bit back so a few online farmers can sell milk in competition with the blokes who have invested in cows!
"It wasn't the vendoers cash that was being spent on the portals , the money came from the agents. Given that 50% of properties don't sell who do you think was speculatively paying for the portals advertising? not the vendor that's for sure."
So - where do the Agents get the money from to pay these portal costs? Or their rent and rates? Wages? Utility bills? Fuel for their fleets?
Come on - like it or not you have to admit that HC has a point...
It was and still is is possible to access the portals at a fraction of the cost of as traditional agent via onine agents.
Bit of a grey area isn't it? How do you spot the difference between an online estate Agent and a Portal upload facility for FSBO. RM conveniently can't spot the difference and Zoopla openly power them.
I am possibly the most stupid person posting on here but as long as I respect what belongs to others that puts me head amnd shoulders above anyone who is happy to trade of other peoples' investment.
Online Agents simply would not exist without Rightmove and Zoopla and although they might be paying a subscription now Traditional Agent were funding Homes on Line and asserta then Rightmove long long before the cut price parasites fell out of the back end of the industry.
The Online Agent is going to be the first victim when traditional Agents get their collective acts together I can't see Rightmove, Zoopla, Tescos or Google being too compassionate towards their first line competition..
"Estate Agents are not car salesmen they are smart business people who can sniff out a bad deal before walks through the door." Some are and some are not.
I have not described on line agents in the way you claim t all. On line agents fall under the EA act just like traditional agents. They have cut price models due to much lower costs. There is a demand for them and many provide a good service what is your problem with that?
You describe a vendor that does not need a full estate traditional EA service as a smart arse....they are just vendors with different requirements... that does not make them smart arses maybe they are just smarter than you !
Perhaps Autotrader is a warning from the past and one Agents should be mindful of.
Everyone is trying to "own the desktop" The whitbread model of business with every eating place in the town being owned by Whitbread, it doesn't then matter to Whitbread where you eat Microwaved Mush the cash is headed to Whitbread.
Autotrader is the same it doesn't matter where you get your clocked, cut and shut Autotrader has them all.
GMG bought into Vebra, Core and CFP to try the same thing and have failed.
DPG- same thing buy up everything merge it into one (too early yet but will fail)
Rightmove same thing from a different angle.
Estate Agents are not car salesmen they are smart business people who can sniff out a bad deal before walks through the door.
I am sure the online Agents will be real happy that you are exposing the truth about their services, simply a means to bypass Rightmove and Zoopla rules against FSBO. Sorry mate if Rightmove and Zoopla want FSBO and online Agencies. Then that is what they can have. Let them survive and profit from a few cut price listing agencies and smart arse vendors.
If RM and Zoopla want a free and open relationship then they need to find partners happy to let them sleep around.
It was and still is is possible to access the portals at a fraction of the cost of as traditional agent via onine agents. But that aside by your own admission anyone that sold a property once advertised on a portal can claim some of their money was used to develop the portals maybe not directly.
I wonder if RM agree that either vendors or the agents paid for the development of the site?
Jonnies comparison to the car industry is a good one Autotrader allow private and trade listings why should a portal not be the same?
???? Well done mate, the vendors chose traditional Agents it wasn't possible for them to use any other access to RIghtmove, Zoopla or DPG.
It wasn't the vendoers cash that was being spent on the portals , the money came from the agents. Given that 50% of properties don't sell who do you think was speculatively paying for the portals advertising? not the vendor that's for sure.
Vendors have contributed to that development of the portals as much as agents. So they should be allowed in the future to decide what type of agent they choose.
However, because of their dominant position by restricting the access to the portals to only traditional and on line agents, The portals are forcing vendors to choose only these models.
Vendors can still choose an online agent for a fraction of the cost of traditional so why not extend this to PI and FSBO there is now no legal reason they should not be.
With more types of agents using the portals perhaps the portals fees could be reduced (thats a good thing for Agents right?)
Obviously though with the portals being owned by traditional EA's competition is prevented from entering the market.....perhaps the anon poster is right, maybe competition law could be used by the PI and FSBO companies
care to explain why PI's and FSBO looky likey agencies should have access to the portals which Traditional Agents have paid to develop?
Hi Trevor ......you are a little off topic but please tell me why Mansion tax is bad idea, what about LVT? Should only people that require the assistance of government money feel the effects of austerity?
.
I agree though Stamp duty should be revised to flat rate across he board or abolished completely.
Please note I have always said there is a need for all types of EA, traditional, online and Intermediaries, but these should be given equal opportunity to advertise via portals.
These are ones who launched a "refer someone to us, and we'll pay you" scheme in early August ....
http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Online-agents-launches-referral-service-to-boost-listings
Sounds like they have remortgaged and gone to a PR company.
Work it out, 50 properties on RM with the crappy ad ons works out about £750.
So if they do 100 fee adverts thats going to cost £1500+vat per month, they will be overpriced so maybe 5% will sell, the rest will sit their for a year, costing £18000, that's without TDPG robbing them as well. Also, they would have paid for someone to visit those properties to take the details. So, say £50 per visit.
Grand total for 12 months
RM £18000
Visits: £5000
TDPG £3600 (Guess)
Total: £26,600 thats without the buses paid for.
Gr8 business idea, Miles and Ed will be billionaires soon.
Talk about a drop in the ocean. Might aswell get billboards in the tube too. Beginners mistakes. Where are they getting this cash to burn, if it's investors money i'm amazed they're allowing such a throw away. Someone needs to explain the marketing pyramid to them.
Also if you look at Alexa.com these guys aren't even ranked in the UK for audience. 20,000 visits a month would put them around 30,000th website in the UK which would be fairly impressive considering they're small size but strangely they don't seem to be ranked.
Even if portals decide to ban this one from stopping, there'll be another one along in a minute! Have a good week fellow floggers and letters! Big T
(at least George has seen sense on the Mansion Tax - hopefully Stamp Duty too soon!).
Can someone please answer this very simple question:
If there is so much more to successfully selling a house than simply finding a buyer; if there is really so much specialist knowledge and expertise required to value, market, negotiate, secure and progress a sale through to completion - then why, oh why is everyone so paranoid about private sellers?
Old news, they've been on buses for weeks if not months... another method for the public to attempt to cock up the letting of the most expensive thing they'll ever own, only to come to the realisation and use a proper agent after they've failed miserably.
RM and Zoopla need to be careful, the recent change to the EA act was done to promote these sort of business models (non traditional). They may face investigations under competition laws
(Excuse the pun) to give private advertisers a means to get their properties onto Rightmove and Zoopla!
Lets see if Mr Shipside or Mr Chesterman or one of their reps read this admission for what it is and ban them.
Agents have paid for the development of RM, Zoopla and DPG and they repay us by this blatent theft of our resource.
That sort of advertising must cost a fotune?! Anyone have an idea?