The Guild of Property Professionals parent company eProp Services yesterday urged members to “ignore the headlines,” insisting it is set for a profitable 2019.
Speaking at the Guild’s annual conference in London, Jon Cooke, chief executive of eProp Services which also includes Fine & Country, and easyProperty, said: “As a group, contrary to headlines, we are in great shape and on a solid financial footing.
“We now have more than 800 member offices.
“Our business will be profitable in 2019 even with more than half a million pounds worth of spend on core technology.”
It comes after accounts filed at Companies House earlier this month showed that subsidiary E-Prop Limited lost £9m, with liabilities of £22.8m, in the period from October 1, 2016, to the end of December 2017.
The period covers the time when easyProperty merged with the Guild parent company in a £60m deal.
There was no mention of easyProperty at the conference but Guild chief executive Iain McKenzie said this was because it is a legally separate company and not related to the conference.
However, he quipped to agents that the organisation had chosen purple-coloured seating at the event so agents would know how it feels to be on top of Purplebricks.
However there was very little sign of the easyProperty shade of orange.
McKenzie said: “We want the Guild to be the ultimate toolbox for agents that lets them show the value they can offer.”
The trade body unveiled new tools such as a relaunched member portal, market intelligence tools, social media support and a partnership for agents to access the new-build market.
The Guild also announced yesterday that it has agreed a partnership with web chat provider Yomdel.
Under a scheme initially only open to the first 50 applicants, agents will pay nothing until there is a sale resulting from a lead captured by the service. All other leads will be free, and Yomdel will also handle all customer messages free of charge.
In the event of a sale, the Guild agent would receive 70% of the sales commission, with 25% going to Yomdel and the rest for the Guild.
Below – a purple haze at yesterday’s Guild conference
Why are companies like Yomdel and other suppliers who were at the conference shouting about the freebies and “exclusive” discounts to Guild members, given they have one agent in a location, talk about alienating every other potential client because as an agent engaging with these suppliers about their offerings, I’m going to tell them to clear off as they’ve clearly made their bed by giving preferential treatment to the Guild agent or is it just marketing bo**ox. As usual the Guild will be creaming a nice bit off the top on everything as they do with all of their services. Members really must be stupid to fall into the trap. The Guild seems to pick and choose when it is associated with Easy Property because within the same ownership, they rallied all of their members together to try and push members into taking the licences – for this reason I disassociated myself. Now it’s all gone to pot, they conveniently aren’t anything to do with it and have the audacity to make a cheap joke about sitting on Purplebricks.
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