New service launches giving high street agents chance to take on the onliners

A new internet package aimed at high street agents who also want to give sellers the opportunity of using a separate online service launches today.

Called love2move, the stand-alone service is designed to let high street firms offer a fixed price service under a different brand, at £895.

In the same way that agents can also offer the Fine & Country brand, Love2move is designed to sit alongside the agent’s existing brand.

The idea is that it enables them to compete with online firms without eroding their traditional offering.

It is being promoted as “your high street agent online”.

It was originally designed for MovingWorks, a high street agent covering Preston, Chorley, Burscough and Southport in Lancashire.

MovingWorks launches it today, with a national rollout planned.

Preliminary talks with local estate agents have apparently been positive.

Love2move is aimed at predominately internet-savvy ‘millennials’ looking to save money by taking control of their sale.

The founders say that many young couples are attracted to internet estate agents because of their low fixed prices. The package enables local agents to offer a fixed price online service under a different brand.

It combines the functions of Rightmove and Tinder, adopting the Tinder methodology of swipe and select so buyers can view potential houses easily and quickly by opening the love2move website on a phone or tablet, browsing properties and swiping the ones that match their requirements.

They can then communicate directly with the seller through an online chat function. Sellers have the opportunity to pay an additional fee to access other services, such as sales progression or help with negotiations.

The idea for Love2move came from Mark Worrall, sales manager of MovingWorks, and his wife Rachael, pictured below.

The couple, both 30, moved house last year. They say this prompted them to realise that other sellers in their age group would be attracted to online agents, losing out on the valuable local knowledge that helps both sellers and buyers.

Mark was also aware that online agents often fail to offer any back-up service.

This sparked the idea of launching a fixed-price online service, delivered locally.

The concept of love2move was developed by Mark and Rachael with Mark’s mother Georgina Cox, founder and managing director of MovingWorks.

In the process, the trio realised that the model would also work for other high street agents, giving love2move national branding – again, similar to Fine & Country.

Like MovingWorks, all agents taking up the love2move brand must be members of NAEA Propertymark. Only one agent per region will be eligible to join.

NAEA Propertymark managing director Mark Hayward said: “The way consumers interact and engage with different services is constantly evolving, and property professionals need to adapt and evolve to meet these demands; a large part of that is embracing technology.

“Any model that can enhance our agents’ offering is a good thing.”

Georgina Cox said: “MovingWorks has always recognised that nothing can beat the local expertise, professionalism and knowledge of the traditional estate agent. However, the marketplace is changing and customers want more choice.

“Mark and Rachael represent the next generation of sellers, internet-savvy, cost-conscious individuals used to working in real time.

“Love2move combines a cost saving option with the peace of mind of local expertise, whilst preserving the domain of traditional agents.”

www.love2move.co.uk

x

Email the story to a friend



16 Comments

  1. PeeBee

    Oh, great!

    Just added all the ‘extras’ that we do AS STANDARD – apparently I’m undercharging by over two hundred quid on a ‘minimum-Fee’ deal – and I’m the most expensive Agent in my patch!

    I’m sure some will love the idea – but I’m out!

    Report
    1. Bless You

      Somehow the industry needs seperation from just selling a house to  the whole process. i.e sales chasing, renegotiating of price etc.

      The staff I have should beon 50k just for their tact skills.

      Just rang Yopa for chain details…guess what..no answer…

      Online agents are just skimming on a budget at moment,,cant keep it up…just need a daily mail journalist to use them and it will be over.

       

      Report
  2. smile please

    Love2move is aimed at predominately internet-savvy ‘millennials

    Many of these millennials have houses to sell?? Are most not still living in student digs drinking cheap cider?

    Think I will allow another agent to claim my postcode. Maybe the agent that has opened up selling houses for a fixed fee of £500

    Report
  3. AgentV

    Mr Hayward seems to be encouraging of any offering that lowers the fee charged by full service agents. Perhaps the NAEA should be looking to do the same in response…….what’s good for the goose!

    Report
    1. AgentV

      How about instead promoting the true worth of full service agents and the reasonable fees charged to do the proper job?

      Report
  4. Trevor Mealham

    There are only 3 needs for agents doing very low fees.

    1. They have trouble selling themselves and know no other way.

    2. They buy into a budget franchise as they have very little experience in proper agency

    3. A £200-300 service for the DIY / FSBO sellers who feel they just need their details on RM and Z

    Low cost agency means you have to sell 10x / 20x more listings compared to higher fee agents. Plus budget falls over on service. Especially on sales progression.

    Report
  5. Thomas Flowers

    I agree PeeBee.

    As I have posted previously, full service estate agency, in the average market in the UK simply cannot be done cheaper and make a profit?

    When you strip out the actual cost of listing per call centre company by taking out ‘investor’ backed cash are they actually more expensive than you local, branch based agent, for a less compelling experience?

    PB accounts show that during their last accounting period it cost them close to £2,800 per listing?

    My average fee is around £2000!

    That is why I find Housesimple’s statement of ‘we can save on average £5000’ so misleading.

    As shown by yesterday’s postings, around 50% of my clients do not risk losing their upfront investment either as I am a no sale, no charge agent?

    There is clearly a fee divide between north and south in the UK and none of the regulators are allowing for this fee differential.

    When will any of our sector memberships start banging the drum to point this out?

    The huge cost of national advertising could be the undoing of these call centre agents.

    That is why they may have to ally with the main two portals via additional prospecting products to enable them to directly target your existing and future clients drawn in by your own upload data and paid for property adverts.

    Essentially, traditional agents are now paying for the privilege of supplying the likes of PB, YOPA and Easyproperty with their own real time homemovers data?

    How fair is that?

    Are we so stupid as to allow this to continue?

     

     

    Report
    1. Bless You

      Yep,,,NAEA need to be issuing average fee’s and see LONDON as a seperate area…which it is..

      Average fee in rest of uk must be around 1% or £1500 up north.

      So basically by paying upfront your getting no viewings and gambline. Mind House simple isnt working..people dont like smug bloke trying to con them. Bless him

      Report
      1. Trevor Mealham

        A portal or body cant recommend a common fee structure Robert.

        Could get the portal or body in trouble with CMA for market fixing, plus many older agents will remember Monopolies Commission out ruling recommending same fees

         

        Report
  6. lettingsguru

    Why is Mark Hayward endorsing such a product / service? That isn’t the role of NAEA Propertymark is it?

    If we are charging the vendor £895 (I assume including VAT) which is £745.83 without, what as agents are we left with after Love2Move have taken their bit?

    IMHO, any agent who adopts an on-line facility such as this is instrumental in their reduced profits and ultimately their downfall, and the NAEA are complicit in that for endorsing the same.

    Report
    1. AgentV

      With the NAEA complicit in allowing our favourite online lister, through TV advertising, to very publicly denounce and ridicule the offerings and businesses of the majority of its other full service members……and now this endorsement……are they now shifting their emphasis to where they believe their future representation will mainly be?

      Report
      1. lettingsguru

        I don’t think they know what their mandate is at the moment, a re-brand to a nonsensical #propertymark was poorly timed, marketed badly to the membership, and frankly unnecessary and pointless. Couple that with these comments and AgentV you may well be correct!

        Report
  7. htsnom79

    The right hand side of the heart in that photo reminds me of one of the wonderfully named villages that I’ve dealt with, Bell End, which pretty much sums up my opinion of the talking head from Propertymark, seriously, and his is a salaried position?

    Report
  8. Blue

    Another blatant lie.  Using the slider “how much will you save” tool , on their website, if my house is worth £400k and the traditional agents fee is 1% then I will SAVE £4k !  How so ?   Do they not charge a fee ? what about the…  from £895 ? forget that did you ?

    Report
    1. PeeBee

      You’ve nailed it in one, Blue!

      EXACTLY the lack of attention to detail and straying from reality that the public are, I would suggest, becoming well-accustomed to from the Call-Centre fraternity of our industry.

      Maybe one day they will vote with their feet – but not as long as efforts like this which suggests it is a superior fish to the rest of the pond…

      …as they all do!

      Report
  9. PeeBee

    Not forgetting the fact that some 6500 Independent High-Street Estate Agency branches are excluded from this ‘venture’ – where are its’ “partner agents” going to come from?

    Report
X

You must be logged in to report this comment!

Comments are closed.

Thank you for signing up to our newsletter, we have sent you an email asking you to confirm your subscription. Additionally if you would like to create a free EYE account which allows you to comment on news stories and manage your email subscriptions please enter a password below.