A new property portal, with a very different business model, is set to launch into the UK market.
Unlimited advertising on One Property will be free to agents, but paid for by other services available across the rapidly growing One Network.
Co-founder Dean Thompson revealed that One Network, quietly launched in 2007, now has around 6,500 member agents who already buy from it services such as HIPs, conveyancing and surveys.
“The network really began because we found we were quite good at getting agents sales leads,” said Thompson, “including instructions for repossessions and investment properties that their owners wanted to get rid of quickly, at a discount below the RICS valuation. Everything went from there.
“2010 always was going to be our year, and we’ve been working towards that.
“When we asked our members what they wanted, we were amazed when they said ‘a free portal’.
“It seemed like quite a crowded market to us, with Rightmove the clear leader. However, I think a number of agents had high hopes of other free sites which hadn’t really taken off. We reckoned that if we could find some way of subsidising the site by at least £50 per month, per agent, we would have a viable business – and one that doesn’t have to make us a huge profit, because our real focus is on all the other services we offer.”
The deal with the new portal, One Property, is that agents must agree to buy at least one service each month from One Network, whether this is one conveyance, one survey, one HIP, etc. Other services include utilities and lettings management, with a courier and removals service to come.
In return for a minimum one-off monthly purchase, agents can advertise as many properties as they want.
The site will not include any outside advertising, and profits generated will be directly reinvested to increase awareness and site traffic.
A radio and tabloid newspaper advertising campaign is due to launch, and the site is planned to go live on March 1.
Dean Thompson has the role of CEO and his co-founder is managing director Richard Burke.
New free portal gets set to launch
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Comments
I cant even be bothered to say anything else apart from...
what a waste of time!! Complete Shambles!!
im just starting a new FREE website, as soon as im let out of the mental institution, its £30 a month.
Interesting..............regarding www.one-property.co.uk. It would appear that Globrix are in the process of "passing over all the listings carried by them & on March 1st, we'll publish them all on our web site".
MMmmmmm..... more food for thought!
Try clicking on the SELL MY HOME button. It's inviting private vendors, however you wish to view it! Even more food for thought!
I'm informed that they already have "masses of enquiries from vendors & masses of new properties signed up"........oh realllllllllly ??
Correct.....this is no free ride. My advice to One Property, is don't do it, unless you have several lorry loads of cash to throw at the project & then watch Google step right over you.
We have always used Elsan - that's as good a portal as you will find anywhere.
Fair point Big Al. Just for the record, nobody actually asked you though ;)
One-Property spent a lot of time 18 month back trying to poach instructions from estate agents round our way as a whole new way of selling homes, a kind of private sale site, then when that failled it started trying to sell agents HIP services etc. This sounds like another attempt to get as many properties details so they can contact them to get a private sale deal set up. I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole!
For the record, only a handful of portals are truly free at the moment:
Globrix, Mouseprice, Home, Google.
Sooo many freee sites, globrix, nestoria, propertyfoyer.com, .... and now oneproperty
I cannot understand why people still insist on wasting time creating new portals. Dean, have you not read the 100's (literally) of articles on this site that all have hopes of becoming the next big site and all promise something different. None of them lead to anything whatsoever, please wake up, smell the coffee and put your efforts into something else. Unless you have millions of £'s spare, your efforts will be completely wasted because you will not be able to generate anywhere near the amount of traffic needed. I am not trying to insult you. You would be far better investing your money into advertising services that you already offer. Offering agents accounts on a website that nobody has heard of is not a good incentive for anyone.
CROCK OF SHIT IF YOU ASK ME!!!
This is odd in that it is a FREE portal BUT you have to pay too!! Is it me? This is just one more attempt at yet another website and will probably be overtaken by the FREE Google site.
Afternoon all,
I thought I would try and set the record straight on this, direct from the horses mouth.
You are absolutely correct in your findings, in that our current property search facility is powered by Globrix. We have been extremely happy working with Dan and his team in this area as it has proved a very useful resource and I would like to thank him for his assistance in this area. Over the past 6 to 8 months we have received growing requests from our member agents requesting a new facility powered and created by One Property, hence why we are now launching our own advertising tool from 1st March.
In response to the facility not being free of charge, this is the case for our existing members who currently use our management area when ordering, HIP’s, Conveyancing, Surveys, EPC’s, mortgage leads and other key services. For these agents they will see no difference in pricing on these services, nor will they be required to order additional services from us, so for them, its completely free. If other agents want to take advantage (thank you for your overwhelming response everybody) then they have an option to order an ancillary service from us to cover their advertising costs. But you are not directly paying for this service, we subsidise the cost from our own margins.
We also do not act as a private selling site. We do however provide a management service to homeowners who ask us to manage the process for them. We take the instructions directly from the homeowner, we then pay two local agents to attend the property and provide us with a valuation. If the property then instructs, we will pass the instruction to the same two agents for them to try and sell the property on our client’s behalf. Once a buyer has been found, we will then take over management of the sale and progress it through to completion and pay the successful agent for their services. We never try to take business away from agents, but try to drive more business back to them/you.
I hope this helps cover off a few of your questions/concerns, but please feel free to ask any additional questions or contact me directly.
Thanks
Dean Thompson
CEO
One Property
Any relation Richard, Karen?
It's a bit naughty to advertise as 'free'...it clearly isn't as money MUST be transferred from the user to One Property. Free, would mean you sign up at no charge and start using the service right away. Tesco do hundreds of bogofs all the time. It's advertised as 'buy one get one free Pepsi' and NOT 'free pepsi'.
Well said Mrs Burke, do you work in One Property too?
well it is free really isnt it, because if you purchase a HIP, then your client pays for the HIP, which you will also make money on! Come on, surely being in agency you should have some common sense on how to make money!Makes sense to me!
if it is www.one-property.co.uk, then i woudl be shocked as as stated it is powered by globrix whcih most agents already are members of.
i would assume that they will be launching thier own search engine in time or they are not hosting on this domain
Terrible choice of domain name, www.one-property.co.uk is the correct one but www.oneproperty.co.uk just goes to a holding page. Also not difficult to just put the Globrix engine into a frame on your site, anyone can do this.
Free only after you have paid?Yet another site to confuse the public assuming they can find it? Be nice to see a viable challenge to rightmove, guess google has that covered.
"However, I think a number of agents had high hopes of other free sites which hadn’t really taken off. " I wonder why? Without a huge advertising budget any new portal will fail as they won't attract enough visitors to make it relevant for estate agents to upload their properties to (whether free or not). Without a massive ad budget new portals might as well just put a sign up in their office window - they may get more visitors that way!
Powered by Globrix:
www.one-property.co.uk/home.asp
Hardly a revolution then.
Buy / Rent search currently powered by Globrix.
Surely shome mishtake?
I hope this is not Patel running this as in the old ONE network.
For the last 4 years I have worked to provide a free to list portal for Manchester agents. (There's a one-off setup fee). I wish these guys all the luck in the world ... they might just need it.
Guess who comes top of the organic search for 'One Property'? Yep. Rightmove. They aren't even on 1st page for their own name.
Agents need more instructions and valuations, not more portals. We give valuations and instructions to our member agents and you don't have to pay to be a member. It's all about working together not just listing on more and more portals.
Sorry, should have read, 'Set to revolutionise the way property is bought and sold in England and Wales'
Appears to be taking private ads and bills itself on its website as 'Set to revolutionise the way bought and sold in England and Wales'. Mmmm.
How can this be pitched as being free, when in order to get it "free" you have to buy something. Doesn't add up.
So its not free then..