Estate Agents to benefit from UK’s first online ‘Storage Sharing’ Scheme

Storemates.co.uk  - the UK’s first ‘Storage Sharing Scheme’ - will provide Estate Agents with a unique new service to help them improve sales and market visibility through:

• The improved marketing and sales of newly de-cluttered properties.
• The provision of much cheaper, greener storage for their customers as an alternative to expensive self storage 
• the opportunity to earn a healthy additional income through their generous affiliate partnership programme 
• Association with a growing brand that continues to attract a lot of positive media attention

Storemates – the “eBay of Storage?”

Last year Storemates.co.uk launched its unique online service - a website that safely connects people looking for affordable local storage with households with extra space to rent. Households throughout the UK are now earning an extra income through renting out part of their loft, garage or spare room to local people in need of cheap storage. The press have describe d them as the “Community alternative to self storage” and the “eBay of Storage”. 

Storemates are now seeking to work with Estate Agents to expand their offer to those moving home or marketing their properties.

Better, Cheaper, Greener than Self Storage..

Storemates Director Ben Rogers outlines some of its benefits:

“Storemates’ new approach has distinct advantages over self-storage for its customers. Costs are less than 50%, there is no VAT to pay and no hidden fees, plus the service is better for the environment as it uses existing space. It also provides a great way for neighbours to connect with each other.”

How it works

On the website, Storemates’ users can list or search for storage space locally for free. Like a dating site once a match is found storage seekers and providers become ‘Storemates’. With the help of their downloadable legal ‘storage contract’ and strict codes of conduct, users can safely put in place their storage arrangements. The site has a review system and strict safeguards built-in to protect both sides, and so far boasts 100% positive feedback from its 2000 registered users.

Set up, to sell a flat... how Storemates started.

The site was set up by Shaff Prabatani, who needed to de-clutter the small flat he was trying to sell after his girlfriend moved in with her many belongings. They were keen to upgrade to a house so they could start a family but needed to move quickly as they were expecting their first baby. 

Shaff said “ Our small flat now contained two lifetimes worth of belongings and looked over-crowded when prospective buyers came for viewings. We desperately needed to sell, but did not want to drop the value. We knew if viewers could see how spacious and light the flat they would make us a good offer. So, we decided to do some ‘extreme de-cluttering’ to help our agent market the flat for the right price. We decided to put all our non essential items in storage.”

Put off by the high prices and the inflexibility of self storage companies, Shaff posted homemade flyers through the doors of his neighbours. He offered to pay a small rental fee in return for storage in someone’s house so they could de-clutter. He was inundated with offers, and after storing in a neighbours garage, was soon able to sell his now spacious clutter free flat for almost the asking price.

The idea for Storemates soon followed and now covers the whole of the UK. Along long with many emerging websites, Storemates has captured the public’s appetite for sites that encourage the rental or sharing of household assets peer to peer like spare rooms and parking spaces. (e.g airbnb.com (rooms), parkatmyhouse.com (parking spaces), Landshare.co.uk (gardens)

A new opportunity for Estate Agents

Storemates’ innovative idea received vast media coverage in the mainstream and property press as well as on TV, radio and through online money advice sites like Money Saving Expert and Which.  They failed to receive investment on  BBC’s Dragons Den in 2012, but then went on to become the fastest start up to receive investment through new crowd funding website Seedrs.com by reaching their full target in only 6 days as opposed to the normal 3 months.

Buoyed by their success and exposure, the Storemates team are now scaling of up the business by working alongside Estate Agents.

Co-founder Ben Rogers sees this new affiliate scheme as a unique ‘no risk’ opportunity for Estate Agents seeking a competitive edge. He says

“Estate agents can now offer the full range of Storemates services. Customers seeking to ‘store to de-clutter’ or who are in between properties can now find cheap, flexible local storage through Storemates while also doing their bit for the community and the environment.”

What’s in it for Estate Agents?

The benefits to estate agents are significant...

1. The site takes a storage admin fee from the storage provider equivalent to two weeks rent which it will share 50:50 with the Estate Agent if they were involved in signing up either the storage provider or seeker.  The average fee the agent will earn is £20 a transaction so just three storage arrangements made a day for a typical Estate Agents could net them up to £1500 a month.
2. Besides the income, the other critical benefits to Estate Agents include being able to offer a wide range of complementary service to customers. A one-stop approach where flexible local storage can also be offered - and which works out to be a fraction of the price of self-storage - is likely to impress many customers who are trying to manage tight moving budgets.
3. Also letting agents can sign up new and existing landlords who have space in their properties as potential storage providers too. By helping them to earn an additional one to two thousand pounds a year through renting out space in a loft or garage, this could be presented as a way of offsetting the agency fees already levied for letting or selling their properties.
4. Storemates do not charge any affiliation or franchise fees and provide a quota of free marketing resources so there is no financial outlay or risk involved. Plus they are regularly featured on television, radio and money and property websites, as well as in the mainstream and property press, so any association with their innovative approach is likely to rub off favourably.

New enterprises like Storemates and other ‘Collaborative Consumption’ services are at the forefront of changing consumer patterns. Time magazine saw this as one of the top 10 trends to watch for this year and is optimistic about the growth and demand of more peer-to-peer initiatives like Storemates.

With the property market suffering so much recently, Storemates could provide early adopting Estate Agents with a new USP. Customers will soon learn to love their space as well their neighbours too!

Contact Storemates on 0800 001 6720 or email Ben@Storemates.co.uk for more information or to join the scheme.