A new national agency is getting set to launch with ambitions to be a lettings-only version of Purplebricks.
The new business, called Accommodation, will use self-employed Local Lettings Experts across the country, who will be able to use centralised technology, build up their own businesses and make their own hires.
Accommodation is set to launch in March as a private beta for landlords in Lincoln and surrounding areas.
Aaron Short, one of the three founders, said: “This has been top secret for the 16 months we have been working on it.”
Once the team is satisfied that the product works, the national roll-out will begin.
Short said: “Depending on how our recruitment of Local Lettings Experts goes, we hope to have a complete national presence by the end of 2019.”
He said that recruitment of LLEs has already started, with interest coming from a number of hopefuls, including ex-Purplebricks LPEs.
Short said: “We are looking for the same kind of qualities that Purplebricks look for in their local experts: people of experience, who have entrepreneurial mindsets and are ambitious to help landlords build up their own businesses.
“They will be able to use our platform, which we have built from the ground up, so that they can be free to concentrate on the things they are good at – talking to local landlords, and building up and fostering good relationships to help them maximise their assets.
“When they have got really busy, they will be encouraged to hire their own Community Managers to do tasks such as viewings, check-ins and check-outs.”
Short added: “We don’t see ourselves as either online or hybrid – we don’t like those terms. Instead, we look on ourselves as the next generation letting agent.”
The business, which will start with an emphasis on HMOs, plans on being ‘super-friendly’ to tenants, who Short sees as being long-term generation renters.
They will be able to use the Accommodation platform for finding properties, viewings, submitting tenancy agreements, referencing and payments, and reporting repair issues.
There will also be an emphasis on quality, says Short: “Tenants will be assured of good quality accommodation, and of being treated well by landlords. We inspect every house to ensure it meets the standards we set out for our community of renters.”
There will be no tenant fees to pay, while landlords will be able to choose between two levels of service – part-managed and fully-managed –paying on average £20 per month per lettable room. There will be no let-only service. All the properties will be listed on Rightmove, Zoopla and SpareRoom.
As a business, Accommodation has already raised funding – although Short did not disclose how much. However, he did say that the business is now valued at £3.75m, before launch.
Aged only 23, Short and his co-founders Matthew Meekins and John Lomas – the latter a large portfolio landlord – have been careful to surround themselves with industry-knowledgeable people.
Short bought his first property while at university and let it to students: “It was through this experience that I realised there was a gap in the market for an efficient, streamlined process for landlords. However, technology is not a replacement for a business that is essentially about relationships.”
He says the key business attraction is the “lifetime value of our customers – it’s so much greater than in the sales sector”.
The business does have a website, but it deliberately does not give too much away, and a new website will launch in the New Year.
“We have so far been very careful to keep this under wraps,” said Short.
£3.75m…..seems legit….I’m in!
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£3.75m ….. £3.75m…. £3.75m….
See how it works, if I say the crazy thing I want people to believe enough times, people start to believe it, even if it’s not quite true. Donald Trump does this really well too.
Just an observation.
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£3.75m? Valued by who? His Aunt Doris?
Dream on.
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Short who bought his first property whilst at Uni….how did he do this i wonder…..with mummy and daddys money?
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They will need millions in marketingbudget to succeed past their home town. Will obvs be managing one of the directors portfolio there so will prob be ok. Took us 4 years and hundreds of cold calls to get traction without a shop front in our home city, to do that in another city will require huge marketing funds or another 4 years. National presence in a year? Lol.
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…….and the Budget being allocated to the “Complaints Department” is?
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First four comments all negative and all having a cheap dig. Par for the course.
There’s a distinct lack of respect or credit for any entrepreneurs on PIE. If someone doesn’t spend their day sitting in an office in the high street they immediately come in for ridicule.
As a non high street estate agent it always amuses me to read the desperate and ill informed ramblings of jealous and worried high street agents whose office are likely to have a Scope sign over the door this time next year. It’s just a bit difficult to take seriously the thoughts of those who know nothing of how we work. Happy Christmas all.
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I don’t think that people were criticising the entrepreneurial spirit it is more that the alleged value is already £ 3.75 million even though they have not even launched.
As an aside, it would seem that all of the previous posts questioning the emoov, tepilo, urban business plan have been proved correct.
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I agree, getting fed up of the constant negativity on here. What a moaning bunch we are! Good luck to the young lads I say !
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As a “High St” agent who is online as well, I am not desperate, worried nor jealous. This business is about the customer journey, provide exceptional service and you can expect repeat and recommended business. The first four comments aren’t digs, it’s realism in a world where claims by some online agents are frankly ludicrous, as below…..
Short said: “Depending on how our recruitment of Local Lettings Experts goes, we hope to have a complete national presence by the end of 2019.”
I wish them all the luck in the world, but I look forward to reading how much national coverage they actually achieved at the end of 2019.
Merry Xmas to you as well.
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With all respect its not just pure negativity for the sake of it, we are all experienced estate/letting agents who know the ropes and know the pitfalls. I completely respect anyone who wants to try to build a business and create employment opportunities.
However, most commonly in these situations, these “entrepreneurs” are looking to build a business with other peoples money, based on the assumption that entering the industry is easy and there is a killing to be made. There is normally a lack of awareness and skill displayed by these people leading to fall out later. As we have seen with Emoov, (lead by Russell who like it or not is a highly experienced estate agent) launching a business into a highly saturated field is incredibly difficult.
My biggest concern is the idea of the company value to create interest in investing as we have found with Emoov, often these ideas of value are based on nothing but someones hopes and dreams leading to investors to lose their money.
To enter this arena with any sort of impact hundreds of millions of pounds are needed and even with this level of investment PB are struggling to make it work.
So not negative just for the sake of it, but more experienced hands looking at this venture as unrealistic.
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Dear SLF – if you’re from Accommodation and I assume you are from the slant of your comments, there’s a lot of sage advice you can take out of negative comments from the old crusties among us. Not least, most have been through different cycles and seen new players with new ‘save the world’ ideas come and go; they know what works and doesn’t. The OC’s have been successful and continue to be so, because they know that, ultimately, lettings is a people business. Prop-tech may well be a valuable add-on, for some but it is not a replacement for being hands-on at a local level. And, surely, you should know by now that if you’re going to issue a press release, the last thing you should do is quote any valuation, even if you genuinely believe it to be true – doing so only ever invites ridicule and you lose credibility from the get go.
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No I’m not from Accommodation. I’m with what you would call an online agent.
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Then sir, you are with what we would call a call centre.
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Yep- the very agents who will losse their complete management portfolio to more efficient models. If these hight street agents even provided half competent service you might take them seriously but they dont. There are of course GOOD local agents . How is that different from a GOOD Local Expert- its not. The hight street office is an irrelevant triviality in this process- you need GOOD local experts backed by efficient and proven admin teams and compliance teams. PB has some useless Local Experts – thats the reason they cant cut this. Lettings is more relationship driven and good LE s will gain a reputation as the go to person in any area. Landlords will move (often by stealth as their high street agent will close down) . Tenants will go where the property is- and they will work this out on line. In the medium term this industry will become about the best LE’s not the best agents. Its a people business. PB just has a lot of the wrong people.
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Just have a look at the comments on AllAgents of those tenants and landlords who have already used Purplebricks letting service – property management needs a full team of staff, one LPE per area cannot provide an adequate service. As always you will get what you pay for!
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To be fair to R Quirk, I did wholly agree with him when he said lettings was almost impossible to crack online
Landlords need a more personal touch, which PB and alike, cannot provide.
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Lettings is hands-on. It isn’t like selling where the product disappears. The customer (landlord/property/tenant) can become a lead weight. Wish them luck but no-one has ever cracked on-line lettings without “service” problems.
interest coming from a number of hopefuls, including ex-Purplebricks LPEs. Now there’s a warning! I thought LPE’s were earning shed loads of money according to Dom?
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Totally ignoring Russell Quirk’s advice then.
I suspect that PB regrets ever entering the lettings arena?
Does PB even mention lettings in their reporting nowadays?
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The Main problem for the lettings side of the business is the LLE’s do not make enough money and a lot of them are still underpinned by PB.
They have averaged around 40-50 LLE’s for the last 6 years and a lot of them have left.
Hence my comment below, the recruitment of the LLE’s and then making enough money will be their biggest challenge.
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As they are self-employed, presumably they can contract their services to more than one company (highly desirable, given HMRC rules are likely to be tightened).
Thus, the LLE’s will be able to provide a more local service – and make more money?
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Lettings for PB certainly haven’t been their main focus which of course was international expansion but it has grown revenue in the UK in line with the sales side of the business…
“Lettings represented 8% of UK revenue in the First Half (H1 2017: 8%) and we continue to develop our capabilities with 5,800 units under management at 31 October 2018, up 32% year-on-year (31 October 2017: 4,400). We have recently strengthened our management of this team to examine ways to further scale the business and our national network of Local Lettings Experts. Our intention is to provide an opportunity for Landlords similar to what we offer Sales Vendors with service excellence and delivery.”
So a net addition of 1400 units in the year between the 60 (or so) LPEs?
Possibly some/most of this has been via the acquisition of the Liverpool firm’s (Venmoor?) letting business. I can’t remember when that was.
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Lol. 1400 units between 60 LPE’s. Should read 12,000 units minium. No wonder LPE’s are leaving as they realy need 500 units each to get out of bed at £50 a throw.
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Not in my area, I type in Poole Dorset, and its gives me one property in Poole Crescent, Birmingham 🙂
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Good Luck but your main problem is going to be your LLE’s potential earnings, if they are on a self employed basis with no underpin.
Especially if your landlords are paying upon completion of move in.
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and not allowed to charge extras
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If PB and Emoov thought that selling a house was a simple as sticking a photograph on the net, this guy is in for a far bigger shock with the complexities of Lettings?
Let’s hope he does what Quirk did and risk other peoples money rather than his or his parents as the case may be?
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I’m pessimistic, I know, but if the average charge will be £20 per month per property, your local property agent will need a least a 100 properties on fairly smartish won’t he/she so that they can make a half decent living….this is before costs and a percentage to the entrepreneurs of course, oh and will you be credit checking/referencing the tenants? It just doesn’t add up folks, the “negative” views voiced on here are probably realistic ones, experienced over a number of years by actually doing the job, not outside, looking in! Fair play though for attracting the £3.75 million, treat yourselves fellas before it all disappears!
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“……….£20 per month per lettable room…….”
Subtle but important difference that gives a clear indication of their target market.
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It says £20 per lettable room – whatever that means? if based on bedrooms – 2 bed property £40 + vat. That hardly competes with on the ground cheap-jack merchants, so where’s the competitive edge? Otherwise agree with your sentiments Agent D
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I hope you’re reading this thread Short – As a large letting agent owner I can’t stress enough how big of a mistake you’re making by not having a let-only option, in fact if the only option had been let-only then I could see this model having some legs.
Whilst I understand that having a constant cash flow is important hence why managing properties seems like the most sensible solution, you will need to have good quality, experienced staff who can deal with the meridian of queries that landlords and tenants will ask.
Staff will be the largest expense to your business – our lettings team is twice the size of our sales team for a reason – tenants and landlords are constant. When a boiler breaks down and the tenant is without heating and hot water you need to move mountains to make sure that it is dealt with immediately or your landlord could be left with an extremely large bill to cover their tenants expenses for an inhabitable property.
I can’t see how you can have the marketing spend of PB with the sheer amount of staff you will need employ to manage a portfolio of thousands. Minimum wage simply won’t cut it, and customers aren’t going to be happy waiting for answers when your staff can’t answer questions due to lack of experience.
Take some advice and switch to a let only platform – there’s likely going to be a lot of landlords wanting to do it themselves in the coming years.
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In the main, the posters on here are mostly on point and were very complimentary about the young lad from doorsteps until he started needing more crowd funding and believed his company value was way out there, if you look into Dragons Den you will find every deluded company value gets slated, nothing negative, just a bit of reality needed and usually that will only come from an outsider. What you, SLF, mustn’t do is slate those that have the balls to put their credit record and possibly roof over their head at risk to run a fully operative service to all from their high street whilst you could possibly, by your comments, walk away from yours as soon as you are bored or face a major problem
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‘However, he did say that the business is now valued at £3.75m, before launch.’
I was quite interested in the concept up to the above sentence. Ridiculous.
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DANGER, DANGER, DANGER.
Lettings is the tricky part of the property world for which you can still go to prison, unlike the Vince Cable deregulated sales world.
I for one look forward to Accommodation advertising for new landlords, going to meet new landlords and looking at their property, securing the instruction, doing the necessary legal compliance on Landlord and property, drawing up letting details, advertising letting details, dealing with enquiries to the adverts, multiple viewings on each property, referencing 1 or more tenants for each property, doing legal compliance checks on each tenant for each property, readvertising because the tenant failed 1 of the checks, going back to do more viewings, referencing new applicants for each property, legal compliance checks for each tenant, drawing up tenancy documents for each tenancy on each property, doing an inventory on each property, meeting tenants at the property to go through tenancy agreement, inventory, property condition, check smoke alarm is working, collect deposit, register deposit, deal with tenancy issues such as boiler not working, quarterly inspections to check on condition of property, collect rent, get quotes from for works, project manage works and pay tradespeople, pay landlord, deal with notices from tenants and future referencing, chase arrears, manage complex legal notices as required, manage move out at each property including assessing damage / deductions from deposit, potentially making representations to deposit protection schemes, consider works on properties before re-let, start over, all whilst registering your individual business with all necessary legal oversight, accounting for all rents in and payments out, deposits held, registered, then returned, bookkeeping your own business monies in and expenses out, all for… *checks notes* £50(?) per property.
Will last as long as investors are prepared to chuck money in, which will pay for Aaron’s next house.
********************************************************************************************************************************************
In completely unrelated news, I have a business that does not exist yet, but is worth £3,750,000.01.
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Some would say you are being negative but you live in the real world. Well put Mark, that is the reality.
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Get house sellers to use a commodised online agent is easy compared to getting a landlord to swap letting agents (irrespective of whether that agent is online or high st)
Most lettings agents will say, “Just get a landlord sat in front of me, let me talk to them and I will get their business”. Well if you want a landlord to talk to you, the first hurdle is to find those landlords, and just having a fancy website as we all know isnt the answer .. High st or Online.
Nobody walks around with a badge that says ‘I’m a landlord’ and the only landlords that do walk through the door of your lettings agency are those who have had their rental property on the market for 6 weeks, the tenant moved out at week 4 and they have an overpriced void property that 3 agents in the town have already tried to let.
But the challenge gets even worse. When was the last time a landlord of yours swapped agents whilst there was a tenant in the property? Precisely … not many. As there is a tenant in the property 95% of the time, the landlord is unable (without incurring withdrawal fees and hassle) to swap agents 95% of the time. The only time a landlord can swap agents, without incurring those withdrawal fees or hassle, is when the tenant hands in their notice. But how many landlords at your agency, when you informed them the tenant had handed in their notice, said to you, ‘Don’t put my rental property back on the market for a few days, I am going to see if there is any new / better letting agents in town’. Again, not many.
The problem is, unless the landlord has really fallen out with their agent, 99% of the time the rental property goes straight back on the market with their original agent… and this is the reason why the online boys will find it tough. You see the landlord has better things to do with their life than take time off work to see if there are any new or better letting agents in town.. and anyway .. all you letting agents are the same, aren’t you?
You see I believe the relationship that most landlords have with their letting agent is the same sort of relationship that people have with their own bank. People don’t love their bank, in fact most people don’t even like their bank, it’s just they can’t be bothered to swap banks, be it apathy, too much hassle etc. I believe most landlords feel the same about their letting agent – you are all the same and it’s too much hassle to swap anyway…(again another reason it will tough for the online letting agents to succeed)
However, what if there was a way that made a landlord want to come and talk to you, want to come and speak to you not when their tenant handed in their notice, as that is almost too late; but come and speak to you before the tenant handed in their notice?
Also, if you believe lettings is a ‘people business’ and ‘people buy people’, then over those months, between them meeting you and the tenant handing in their notice, you built a relationship with that landlord, never asking for the business, always interested in them as a person but more importantly, you as the letting agent were one of the most interesting people in the eyes of the landlord, there would come a point where that landlord would say, to themselves, ‘Do you know I really like that guy called Bob, he is always very helpful .. next time my tenant hands in their notice, I’Il will try him ‘’
You will never get a landlord’s interest until you get their attention and you will never get a landlord to take action until they make a decision. So how do you do get a landlord to decide they want to come and talk you before their tenant hands in their notice? Getting the attention of the landlord is easy, but it’s the obtaining and keeping of the landlords interest that’s the make or break issue here.
Letting agencies seem preoccupied with the next new entrant in to the agency market place or which portal they should use? Landlords couldn’t give a monkeys about that. They have two hot buttons …
How well is my current property doing? … and
Where is the next one I want to buy?
… it’s a simple as that.
There is nothing more interesting to a landlord than if you talk about the local property market …… remember, a landlord in Uxbridge only cares about Uxbridge property, a landlord in Bournemouth only cares about the Bournemouth property market. eg Why have yields in Bournemouth gone up to 5.5% whilst in next door Poole they have dropped to 4%? Why have property values increased by 32% in Uxbridge over the last 5 years whilst property values in neighbouring Hayes have only increased by 21%?
What you need do to is create value for your prospective landlord. Many people don’t understand the concept of creating value. Well it’s quite simple, just think about ‘being of service to a potential client (the landlord)’. If you, Mr/ Letting Agent, can create something FOR THE LANDLORD, which is designed and embedded with specific ways of serving the LANDLORD, through that service, value is created.
All of you create value with your existing clients by letting their property. But just like the chicken vs egg scenario, how can you create value if you don’t have the property in the first place but you need create value to get the property? But what if I said it was much easier to create value to a potential landlord/vendor client than an existing one? All you have to do is simply ‘be of service to your potential client’.
But how can you be of service to someone you don’t know? Finding potential landlords is easy – 60% of them are live within 5/10 miles of their rental property, aged 40 to 70 years old, hold down middle class jobs and live in the nicer parts of your town. They are obsessed about the local property market, obsessed about the value of their property(s). But how do you find them? Well, in fact , on my courses, I teach agents how to get all the email and contact details of these people – it’s like a gold mine!
Remember, something has value as long as it is able to serve. In this sense, value you must create is the potential to serve. When you build your marketing around serving your potential clients goals, aspirations and interest’s, you can’t help but create value. It really is that simple – just talk about something that is of interest to the potential landlord / potential vendor … and everything else will follow.
So, can I ask if you think these things would be of interest to a landlord?
We do cheap fees because we are online
tenants or buyers waiting
No sale no fee / no let no fee
Tailored Services
10 / 20 years experience in agency
Part of a Nationwide Company
Open 8am to 8pm
Landlords wanted
Free Valuations
No of course not .. you might be interested and probably your mum – but no body else
Why do you agents keep chucking this stuff out with such messages in your promotional material? You might be interested, but the punters aren’t. What if a local solicitors practice put in their leaflets stuff like “At ‘SoandSo Solictors’, we offer over 45 years of experience in law, with three partners, all trained in the latest aspects of law, being open from 7am to 9pm at night, our no win no fee guarantee means we are always looking for new clients.” Boring isn’t it? Yep! Interesting? Hell no! But that is what all you agents chuck out ..isnt it?
You guys are in a profession, an industry, that the British are obsessed about .. property – and all you talk about is yourselves, your company and your services. No one cares .. but they do care about their property, they are interested in what is happening to property prices in their town .. not nationally, not regionally, what is happen to the value of THEIR property.
It doesnt matter whether you are online, hybrid or high street .. until you stop talking about yourselves and and start talking about the landlord .. you will find it tough to find any landlord to swap agents
I wish this new firm well … I will say it will be tougher than you think
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Interesting, concise and to the point. This was not.
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Who the hell “valued” this??
It is not even trading!! Therefore worth nothing….big fat ZERO.
Best of luck to him, I own an online lettings and management company and it’s ****** hard work to get it off the ground.
It’s a joke they try to get this kind of publicity with numbers that just don’t make sense.
My advice would be not to trust the LLE model they’re aiming for…it’s destined to cause problems as most letting agents are not astute enough or up to date with the plethora of compliance that changes on a daily basis. Keep it local, keep it safe and provide a quality service. You’ll still make good money. Talking about going national when you haven’t even started is just setting yourself up to fail.
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Great advice from someone doing it! This sort of advice is invaluable
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Good luck – you are doing a lot better than I was at 23 but FFS – dont model yourself on Purplebricks – they are currently running out of urine with which to attack the relentless hurricane of reality and pretty much everyone who has ever used them hates them (check out their facebook comments page – its quite amusing, particularly the responses from the presumably overseas call centre that they employ to manage the massive daily barrage of abuse). Such feedback from your potential landlords would kill a lettings business if you ever did manage to get it off the ground.
Also, please be aware that managing a large number of HMOs for far less money than everyone else charges might make your life a bit s h i t.
Well done on the valuation though – thats amazing!
All the best!
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The combination of complex & (seemingly) ever-increasing legislation, the complex nature of how to ‘capture’ a landlord and the sheer back-breaking work it takes to deliver an exemplary service to both landlords and tenants alike mean there is no way you can launch/run a nationwide let & manage service for £240 a year. Even if that is split 50/50 between the company & the LPE- the LPE would need to take on, market & let 20 properties a month just to make £2400 a month (before expenses) and what marketing with the company be able to deliver for that whilst also covering the cost of operations- and that’s before we touch nationwide marketing. I sincerely hope that this company uses either a Custodial Scheme or deposit-free schemes to ensure any tenant/landlord capital is comprehensively protected.
This is no about dampening entrepreneurial spirit, nor about knocking a young starter (I started base at 24) but we are now years in to the online model attempt and whilst the message is often ‘on point’ (tech/service/ease) the financials are often baffling.
As for the valuation- I’m mystified why companies even mention this early on regardless of funds raised. Any time I hear a bonkers valuation like this I always immediately imagine them pitching the idea on Dragons Den and their likely responses.
If nothing else- it’s given us all plenty to comment on today!
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Much more eloquently put than i ever could.
Barmy idea and valuation!
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I know all three founders and directors of this business and they expertise they have ensured they have on board. Without exception they are aware of all the potential negatives which have been pointed out on here and their operating model has been designed to avoid those becoming a reality. Its unwise to judge this business from a single article in PIE- its also unwise to regard this as a business that cannot scale in the way they plan to. I would not personally have put the valuation in an interview myself, but it is based on a very sound business model- some of which for commercial reasons cannot be explained in a PIE article, and therefore has not been. This is not a here to day gone tomorrow start up that’s going to leak other peoples money like a bucket with a hole. Its also not a business that does not recognise the role that good local agents play. With the skill set the founders have and those they have on board to deliver, some of the comments made in reply to this article will look very foolish in a few years time.
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In part I appreciate your statement but it is very naïve if you believe the model will work with the stature that compliance plays within this industry. As I said in a previous comment, I own and run an online lettings management company and the pitfalls and issues are yet to come, they cannot be forecast – it is impossible. You can plan for the obvious though which is why they have the industry specialists involved.
I hasten to add that “all” three directors are most definitely not skilled and experts in the field as one is only 23! Being a landlord does not for one minute qualify you to manage a portfolio.
I also add, it is not a ‘sound business model’. Purplebricks haemorrhages money and hasn’t recorded a single profit since it started.
I think you’ll find the comments made will more than likely be very accurate, from people actually doing this already (like myself!) so it isn’t just pathetic digs towards them. I wish them all the best, I know Online management is possible, I do it. But the model they wish to achieve is a car crash waiting to happen. Make the local area work, make a sound business. Don’t run before you have even attempted to launch.
The valuation is absurd, stupid and shows distinct lack of business acumen – you cannot value a business that isn’t trading and doesn’t have any assets at all. The software they have created is nothing new, I use an identical system. The business is worth ZERO!
Sorry, I like your supportive nature but it is naïve. Fact is they have a lot to prove before they can even attempt to roll this out. Best of luck, but keep it simple….national roll out is all well and good but it won’t work – proved by numerous online agents who have much much larger budgets than these three (and they still don’t make any money – in fact most are now liquidated. PB is just a matter of time)
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Why assume that the directors need to be the experts and why assume that given the market has changed and legislation has changed so rapidly that years of experience means you are anything other than a dinosaur. There are still agents with years of experience behind them who fail their clients every single day in this industry – from the largest corporates to the smallest single office operators. In any one week I can **still** find an agent who has not served a CP12 before signing up a tenant, an agent who has taken a years rent up front and lied to his landlord and exposed his landlord to a deposit claim by the tenant, a an agent who knows nothing about planning and Article 4 and has let his clients property as a single let losing his client the valuable C4 use class – just these three examples will cost these landlords potentially sums from 30k to 200k . This is the service experienced agents (some of them huge corporates) and giving their clients. The founders of accommodation have some very influential experienced people involved in the business – those people do not need to be directors or shareholders and are not because they do not yet wish to display their cards. Do not judge this business from one press release. The valuation methodology is also sound but it would be commercially unwise to disclose it – which is why they have not.
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” some of the comments made in reply to this article will look very foolish in a few years time.”
Haven’t we heard this before… maybe you should go and speak to a Mr Quirk
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Good luck to those involved. I suspect that the success of Purplebricks in the sales market will prove far harder to replicate in the lettings world as margins are far lower and the opportunity for significant price disruption missing.
A quick check on Companies House tells us that the business has so far raised £150,000 in August and unless funded by unsecured directors loans and without any trading history I would suspect the true valuation is £150,000 less whatever has been spent to date.
PIE has a history of accepting wild claims by new business founders as gospel, perhaps some more rigorous fact checking is needed.
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