Mystery surrounds the Houser set-up. Three other property portals appear to be operating in tandem with it, while the company that we were told ran Houser has been dissolved, according to Companies House.
Altogether there appear to be four inter-connected portals which are still publishing listings, although not, it seems, always taking down old ones: Houser, NeedaProperty, Overstreet and LetOrSellProperty.
Houser, which was launched by founder Rocky Mirza in January 2015, acquired that same month the assets of failed portal NeedaProperty. NeedaProperty was not finally dissolved until February this year.
The NeedaProperty website is still up and running and, although its news blog has not been updated since 2014, the property listings look similar to those of Houser. There are also messages on the NeedaProperty site dated seven weeks ago, apparently offering to get Houser users on to NeedaProperty.
The two other property portals, Overstreet and LetOrSellProperty, that appear to be connected with Houser, paint a picture of all three taking property listings from agents and also from private sellers and landlords.
Overstreet and Houser have near-identical terms of use, and give the same address in High Road, Dagenham, Romford.
LetOrSellProperty says that properties will be listed on its own site, plus on Houser, Overstreet and NeedaProperty.
LetOrSellProperty appears to have no connection at all with a similarly named business, Let Sell Property.
It is not possible for us to give further details as we could not find terms and conditions, privacy or cookie policies, or contact details on the LetOrSellProperty site.
A company called Houser Realty, incorporated in September 2014, was dissolved in April last year, according to Companies House. Its only director was Charles Berisford Andrews, who Mirza himself named in an email to EYE in January 2015.
Houser Realty is specifically named in the final liquidator’s report last year of NeedaProperty.
The report states:
“Sale of Assets
“After reviewing an article in a trade publication regarding the liquidation of the company, an independent third party, Houser Realty Limited, approached the managing director, Scott Green, expressing an interest in purchasing certain assets of the company.”
The sale was completed on January 20, 2015, with £7,550 being paid for “chattel assets, databases, work in progress and goodwill”.
Readers may like to check on Houser, NeedaProperty, Overstreet and LetOrSellProperty to ensure that your own property listings are not there without your knowledge or permission.
We have attempted to contact Mirza, pictured, but without success.
However, we have found a possible link to a website registered to a US address in Tampa, Florida. https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/8955626/
Clicking on the link to the company website brings up a beta version of Houser, https://www.houser.co.uk/
Houser was yesterday back in the headlines after it continued to list a property that had not been on the market for two years. It was reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority, which was also unable to make contact.
https://www.houser.co.uk/terms-of-use
http://www.overstreet.co.uk/terms-of-use
http://www.letorsellproperty.co.uk/
a non story………
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But it is a very good example of how not to be a service supplier to the property industry
Treat agents with respect or fail!
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On whois.net, LetOrSellProperty.co.uk was last updated in 2015. Also seems to have been registered by a “Anu Aujla” who also is the registered holder of Houser.
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Rather than, as ‘surreyagent’ suggests, this being a “non story”, I would suggest that it is a prime example of one of the most valuable benefits of EYE to our industry.
This shenanigans has been ongoing for over two years now. The bloke behind it is clearly some form of silver-tongued chancer who – whilst obviously having made himself quite a few bucks out of his dabblings for what seems little investment – has jumped on the ‘pwoperdee bandwagon’ and crashed and burned… the money of many Agents having fuelled his feeble effort and his lifestyle to boot.
It is clear that he took in many – some with larger gobs than others who were prepared to hail this outfit as the real “disrupter” to the industry – at least the portal side of it – and who now have a large dollop of rotten egg on their face, although I’m certain that will slide off and be brushed under some rug or other in their minds at least.
Point is – this was supposedly YET ANOTHER “disruption” to our industry. And what did it disrupt? Bu99er all, in the eyes of many as ‘surreyagent’ would see it. “Houser” seemingly came with a bang and went with a squeaky f@rt – no-one ever mentioned it… no-one seemingly used it – except of course Mr Shinerock (but then he WOULD – being Rocky’s Number #1 Fan and all)
…and then there’s THE OTHER Estate Agent by the name of Shinerock (or ShineRock, apparently) that was featured on the site.
That’s nice, as Agnes Brown would say…
BUT – had it not have been for EYE none of us would have known about the most recent incarnations. Maybe this will keep us all off the site (apart from the obvious notable exceptions – presumably still under the Mirza spell…)?
Maybe it will remind us all that our industry isn’t as ready for – or as easy to execute – “disruption” as those that aim to profit from said change would have us all believe.
I see the occasional shooting star pass by. A speck of light momentarily leaving its’ trail in the vast darkness.
I don’t see any asteroid coming our way anytime soon.
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