EweMove, the online agency business bought last year by The Property Franchise Group – owners of Martin & Co – yesterday evening said it has repositioned itself as it concentrates on recruiting experienced industry heavyweights.
It said it “believes in traditional no sale, no fee” and that it has recently recruited agents from Countrywide as well as Countrywide brand Hamptons, and Foxtons, to join its ever-growing ‘flock’.
Hannah Pepper, franchise sales manager, said: “Our business model is unique – we generate over 40 quality valuation leads on behalf of each franchisee every month. And, because our marketing is ‘done for you’, turning up the supply of leads is literally as simple as turning the dial on a radio.
“Our top-performing franchisees receive over 100 valuation enquiries per month, and so the only limit on a franchisee’s earnings is his or her ambition.”
She added: “The property industry is continually evolving and those who survive and thrive are those who have the foresight to move along with the times.”
Last month, The Property Franchise Group announced that EweMove founders David Laycock and Glenn Ackroyd are leaving the business, walking away from £6m that they could have gained in a three-year earn-out.
The City has since been buzzing with rumours.
Yesterday evening, EweMove quoted Mark Holmes, an ex-Countrywide regional director, and now owner of EweMove Basingstoke in Hampshire.
It said he has signed up over £18,000 of commission income in his first month with EweMove, and quoted him as saying: “We looked at four or five different franchise opportunities, but it was clear to us that nothing comes close to EweMove’s offer.
“A customer being able to speak to someone 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and book a valuation online, to an agent who works with innovative cloud-based software, EweMove is truly embracing technology to its fullest.
“This is absolutely the way that the industry is heading and I’m delighted to have made the decision to join.”
In January, EweMove announced a cut-price deal for experienced agents to sign up as franchisees.
Ian Wilson, chief executive of The Property Franchise Group, has earlier expressed frustration that EweMove’s franchise recruitment programme has been ‘anti-agent’.
Last night, however, he told EYE: “EweMove might be an online estate agent but its model is no sale, no fee.
“Listing-only online agents only use a fraction of their local market experts’ ability.
“Listing is a key skill but so is negotiating a price and progressing a sale to completion.
“Our EweMove agents pay a completion fee to their franchisor of £250 which means the remainder goes into their pocket giving an incentive to list better than average properties at better than average fees.”
Forty valuation leads a month are generated by paid for ‘collective marketing’. It has been said on here many times before that if we as independent agents did the same……we could obtain a lot more than that.
We are looking very seriously at doing something along these lines. Is anyone else interested in joining us?
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
AgentV makes a good point. If independents came together to share a website that was optimised to convert traffic to leads, this would work far more effectively if they all agreed to use and promote one brand. They could agree not to infringe in each others trading territories to avoid disputes over leads. It would be beneficial if they could collectively agree on service standards and compliance because that way the customer would receive a more homogeneous service, and referral and recommendation business would increase. We would have to think of a name for this new approach – maybe “franchise”?
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
i wouldn’t worry, the whole online model is flawed…cant put my finger on why but the public seem to sense its cheating… The herd smell it and know what it is….luckily for us genuine agents who put necks online every day to provide a real service. Bless you all
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
To get an idea on what the future looks like (entirely my opinion ) take a look at your Testimonial history. Look at what really made a difference to the client. The real successes came when we were ‘all over it’ when the pressure was on. Will Online agent clients be expressing themselves in the same way? As the demands of the customer continues to rise so will expectation on online agents to deliver on all levels just as High St agents do. Let’s see them do that for 700 quid or whatever. Happy Easter.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register