Agent Provocateur: This is the future, but could it be here sooner than you think?

Try and imagine the future, and that you have a magic wand so you can create it exactly as you’d like it to be.

Mine would be a future where all properties agents advertised were in one affordable place where we owned the data being submitted.

I would want anyone coming to the site – portal is an old fashioned word and am struggling to think of an appropriate name – to be able to compare estate agents by what they have actually done and not what they say they’ve done.

I would want to know at the click of a button how many they’ve let/sold, in what price ranges, how long they took, how many price reductions, and when, so that I could see patterns of agent behaviour, how often they re-listed the same properties, ratings and comments from those who’ve used them and selling prices compared to the original listing ones.

I would want a guarantee that all this data and comment is verified.

I would want my properties to be naturally on page one of any Google search and I would want punters who click on my properties to go to my webpage, not a page owned by the site.

I would like a simple, safe and affordable software CRM system – owned by everyone – that was capable of talking to other agents. This would naturally facilitate simple chain management.

The word that comes to mind is a level playing field, not just for estate agents but more importantly for anyone looking to buy services from them and enable them to, at last, make objective and unbiased decisions.

This may well be Utopia but could it be here sooner than you think?

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9 Comments

  1. AgentV

    I like ‘Gateway’ as opposed to site.

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  2. Adam

    As software vendors consolidate and vertically integrate through the process it will become increasingly harder to break their monopolies…. less competition is a bad thing as it leads to increasing cost and lower service. So the next time a young, enthusiastic tech engineer approaches your branch with a new piece of software which you think has the potential to benefit the industry as a whole (and doesn’t try and marginalise the role of the high street agent), then why not support them and give them a proper fighting chance… with your engaged involvement it may just work.

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    1. AgentV

      Well said Adam, can I contact you when our new app is ready?

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    2. PeeBee

      Are you having a pop at one single branch, Adam, a few… or have you been through the door of every one in the land?

      If the latter be the case I don’t remember you – so I would suggest you need to up your presentation skills somewhat!

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      1. PeeBee

        Not to mention, judging by the above, working on your ability to accept playful criticism!

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  3. mrharvey

    Well this was a pointless read.

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  4. Moolamarkie

    I’m thinking it must be a slow news day…

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    1. mrharvey

      Yeah… for an agent provocateur Ed manages to be the least provocative author on EYE – unless it’s people criticising his writing style or lack of evidence ha!

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  5. Russell Williams

    Many moons ago I was a guinea pig for Market view at TDPG, at their swanky Regent Street office (albeit in a dark basement room).

    They were looking at doing almost exactly what you have described here, showing stats about number of instructions, time to sell/let, area/s covered, membership schemes, customer service rating (based I think on feedback and tracking if emails were opened and phonecalls answered etc).  I can’t remember everything, but they had some grand plans.

    The plan was to put it onto Findaproperty, but in the end they stuck to just keeping most of it for us agents.  I think this was partly down to portal juggling and being able to verify everything.  When testing MV with them I could see that there was a lot of work for them to still do and they explained that combatting juggling (they called it rogue agents) was a big task.

     

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