Estate agency comparison website wins Channel 4 backing to launch TV advertising campaign

GetAgent, the data-driven estate agent comparison site, has today announced a “substantial” investment from Channel 4’s Capital Growth Fund.

A media-for-equity deal, this will allow GetAgent to advertise itself to the millions of home owners watching channels such as Channel 4, E4, Dave, Alibi and many more through a ten-month TV campaign. The deal is thought to be worth at least £1m.

This investment by C4’s Capital Growth Fund mirrors that speculated yesterday in the Sky News story that Emoov and Tepilo are merging. Sky reported that the new merged entity would receive exactly this type of C4 backing, with free advertising running into millions.

Partnered with 6,000 estate agents across the country, GetAgent says it aims to match vendors with the best estate agents in their area based on recent performance.

GetAgent CEO Colby Short said: “We all know that estate agents as a whole don’t have the best reputation, but many estate agents work extremely hard to help home owners get the best value for their home.

“At GetAgent, we are passionate about helping these great estate agents stand out from the crowd and demonstrate their superiority and value.

“We feel the war on fees will not benefit home owners and that agents should focus on demonstrating quality instead. That is where we can help.”

The advert starts screening on Monday, and can be seen via the link below – and it really is all about estate agents

https://www.getagent.co.uk/tv-ad

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17 Comments

  1. ArthurHouse02

    Ok so having dealt with GetAgent, here are the ups and downs

    Ups – They do provide leads and this has turned into business, they also quote a decent fee for potential vendors

    Downs – Because GetAgent then want 0.25% of the selling price from the agent, (in my experience) most agents recommend by GetAgent never contact the vendor, leaving said vendor still wanting to compare my valuation etc to other agents. This inevitably has lead to our fee becoming pressured.

    So overall a company with some potential, but most estate agents arent interested due to having to give away a huge proportion of their fee.

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    1. Garret2

      Open question – in the normal course of business, what % of a standard fee goes on acquiring a new vendor client?

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      1. Bless You

        This will be the new rightmove … be careful. Also they still rate the agent on how close to asking price they got… this means nothing as all agents who try to achieve the best price for their vendors know.

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        1. Bless You

          Why not use home.co.uk clever algorithm and use quickest agent stats.?

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      2. ArthurHouse02

        Thats a fair question Garret, and one i cant exactly qualify, but i do take your point. The problem i have experienced so far is that securing the fee quoted by GetAgent has been problematic as although the email claims vendor is happy to pay the stated fee, upon appointment this is often the case. I am left with the option then of either turning away the business, or negotiating but then paying GetAgent a higher % of our own fee.

        There is a place for these companies, but the debate in my opinion would be, is the effort to generate the lead proportionate to the cost demanded?

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        1. Garret2

          “is the effort to generate the lead proportionate to the cost demanded”….I guess the answer to that is the same as what would be the answer to my initial question.

          Anyway, seems to be a moot point as I’ve just checked their website and they seem to be charging “per lead” these days – £50+VAT.

          All that said, in the past I’ve been happy to pay 1/3 of my fee away to introducers that have provided new business.

          Perhaps I’m a mug but if I’ve had to do nothing to get the new client, it’s always felt like an equitable deal to me. What are you thoughts?

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  2. Tim Higham

    1. only Agents who sign up, so any recommendation is made from a tiny ‘we signed up to be recommended’ pool

    2. I consider middlemen – on the whole – to be parasites

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    1. Colby GetAgent

      Tim, this is just not true. We assess the performance of every agent in the country and show the best 6 to vendors.

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      1. Bless You

        ‘Best…. ‘  so you scan their ratings on Facebook, you check their after sales service? 

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        1. ArthurHouse02

          As we also know, the % of asking price if often the last listed asking price, not the original one. Hence why so many call centre agents have been “told off” for the way they quote this.

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          1. Colby GetAgent

            We match the initial asking price with the Land Registry price to ensure an accurate representation of this metric.

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            1. Ostrich17

              Just checked half a dozen postcodes in our patch and the results are riddled with errors – would not use.

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  3. Sunbeam175

    The public have a dreadful habit of choosing the agent that charges the least and values the highest. GetAgent doesn’t help here as they quote agent fees as part of the decision process prior to knowing what the agent has to offer. The decisions of the public are getting worse and worse as the culture is heading towards ‘cheap fees only’ irrespective of the outcome and it’s such a shame. Choosing a ‘better’ agent (despite them being more expensive) will more often than not achieve better results and put the vendor in a ‘better’ financial position.

    Swerve the cheap options and choose better agents all the time 🙂

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  4. dannymagix79

    Anyone who can get my feet through the door are worth their weight in gold, as it is up to the Valuer to impress, so if you don’t secure the business then look at where you went wrong, rather than blaming a “poor” lead.

     

    I think most smaller agencies problems are getting feet through the door and certainly in outer London where listings are particularly tight, I am more than happy to pay for something that gives me a chance!!

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  5. Property Pundit

    Imagine a service where agent performance data (how close to initial asking price, length of time to sell, etc, etc) was made freely available to the general public with no obligation by agents to any third party company. How would such a service provider get paid I hear you ask? Simple – it would be rolled into a range of services that the provider offered to agents.

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  6. jamesnames35

    With collecting and publishing data such a hot topic at the moment does getagent have an agreement to draw this information from Rightmove? I am sure I saw someone ask this before but missed the response.

    Also, if one agent updates the portals in a slightly different manor or time frame, this will surly effect the data shown on the site. They would in effect be publishing false info. Just a thought, but would my branch then be able to seek damages for misrepresentation.

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  7. PaulC

    Data is out in my opinion, when I have checked

    Nuttall Parker in Newport have supposedly sold 230 homes in the last 6 months.

    But Rightmove reports only 119 sales agreed in the last 12 months and 58 sales agreed in the last 6 months..

    So there a bit of a difference!

    Our agency doesn’t appear in the short list of recommended agents for homes in NP10 despite selling 22.7% of all homes in that area according to RMintel.

    I don’t mind comparison sites bur it needs to be accurate.

     

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