Promoting an Online Estate Agents
Discussion
surveyor said:
Long time ago now, but there was an agent in Doncaster who had built up a relationship with the local paper. Every week there was something about the buyers flocking up from London following the electrification of the East Coast line. Was not happening but certainly talked himself and the market up.
We have a local EA who's in our local paper every week, whether it's commenting on the local property market or quite random other stuff as well. He's the head of the Local Chamber of Commerce, is a member of Rotary and attends lots of local charity events. Seems to do quite well out of it.Edited by surveyor on Tuesday 2nd October 15:19
Blown2CV said:
QR codes on the boards is a great idea. I can certainly look at that aspect being (supposedly) tech savvy. He loves a bit of PR and showed me a massive mugshot in the paper when he did some editorial or other recently...
Worth searching for the thread on QRs earlier this year - posted a few links that suggest that usage isn't anywhere near as high or trending in the way that techies like to assume it is.Having looked at the online EA marketplace a few years ago, I think you need to be quite clear with the market about what the model is. I.e. is it "full service", true "FSBO" (as the Americans would say), or somewhere in between. With a few FSBOs around now, it's possible that people might get the wrong end of the stick if you don't make it explicit.
LooneyTunes said:
Blown2CV said:
QR codes on the boards is a great idea. I can certainly look at that aspect being (supposedly) tech savvy. He loves a bit of PR and showed me a massive mugshot in the paper when he did some editorial or other recently...
Worth searching for the thread on QRs earlier this year - posted a few links that suggest that usage isn't anywhere near as high or trending in the way that techies like to assume it is.Having looked at the online EA marketplace a few years ago, I think you need to be quite clear with the market about what the model is. I.e. is it "full service", true "FSBO" (as the Americans would say), or somewhere in between. With a few FSBOs around now, it's possible that people might get the wrong end of the stick if you don't make it explicit.
surveyor said:
Nobody has to use them. You can talk about them in the press and they look cutting edge!
I'll think you'll find QR codes are a thing of the past now, a "look i've got a scanner on my phone" ap thing, as you know they can count how many times they been zapped and it's not many now.I worked in estate agency for a decade and during that period I often thought that online agencies would be the death of traditional high street style agencies and I am really surprised that it still hasn't taken off in a big way. I recall quite a few articles in industry publications which talked about this online future but it still has not materialised and I can only assume that it's the 'personal' thing that people like, for example, you go to an area you want to move to and you wander in to a few local agencies and you can then build a rapport with an agent etc. The same probably applies to selling as well.
I'm not saying it can't or won't work but I am yet to see it being done in a massively successful way.
I'm not saying it can't or won't work but I am yet to see it being done in a massively successful way.
Not sure if it's been mentioned but could you not sell a subscription for getting private houses listed on rightmove via the estate agency.
£50 a month to get your house listed, if anyone phones the estate agency then you forward them onto the customer who then shows them around the house.
I honestly don't understand the need for estate agents. The person who knows the most about the house and area is the person who's lived in the bloody thing for a few years. Estate agents seem totally redundant, and I've now opened myself up to posts from estate agents telling me how redundant they're not.
Maybe I've only been dealing with crappy estate agents but I've looked at maybe 10 houses in my time and not once has an estate agent even known the council tax band of the house I was looking at, nor what the neighbors are like, etc.
£50 a month to get your house listed, if anyone phones the estate agency then you forward them onto the customer who then shows them around the house.
I honestly don't understand the need for estate agents. The person who knows the most about the house and area is the person who's lived in the bloody thing for a few years. Estate agents seem totally redundant, and I've now opened myself up to posts from estate agents telling me how redundant they're not.
Maybe I've only been dealing with crappy estate agents but I've looked at maybe 10 houses in my time and not once has an estate agent even known the council tax band of the house I was looking at, nor what the neighbors are like, etc.
FrankTing said:
Maybe I've only been dealing with crappy estate agents but I've looked at maybe 10 houses in my time and not once has an estate agent even known the council tax band of the house I was looking at, nor what the neighbors are like, etc.
Council tax they should have on the details. As for what the neighbours are like, I do think you have your expectation unrealisticly high!Most of them (in fact all of them) are pretty poor at letting. Mind you, at least they can make a sort of a living at it. Don't think it would be possible to make an online-only estate agency work well, though I'd be interested to hear to the contrary. Plenty have tried, but I don't know any who've succeeded.
groak said:
Most of them (in fact all of them) are pretty poor at letting. Mind you, at least they can make a sort of a living at it. Don't think it would be possible to make an online-only estate agency work well, though I'd be interested to hear to the contrary. Plenty have tried, but I don't know any who've succeeded.
well, he's done some lettings... not as a managing agent or anything but had some minor success to compliment the main businessGassing Station | Business | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff