Online agent changes fee structure to pay-as-you-go

Online agent HouseSimple has launched a new fee structure.

Customers can choose to have one week’s free trial, followed by a weekly pay-as-you go charge of £9 plus a “success” fee of £495 if the property sells.

Or they can pay £395 as a lump sum on completion of the sale or after 12 months – whichever is the sooner.

Fees reduce if sellers use the firm’s conveyancing and mortgage broking services.

Vendors are not tied in to any contract, and under both payment plans vendors receive services including valuation guidance, photography, floor plans and marketing on Rightmove and Zoopla.

HouseSimple.com also arranges viewings, and manages the negotiations and sales progression through to completion.

Alex Gosling, CEO, said: “Unlike high street estate agents, who stubbornly refuse to change their commission model to provide a better value service to home sellers, we are continually striving to meet the needs of our customers.

“We recognise there is still some uncertainty amongst home sellers around online estate agents, and the existing up-front fee model can dissuade people if they’ve never sold a property online before.

“We wanted to address that concern and make the service more accessible to all.

“The free one week’s trial and pay-as-you-go payment plan that we’ve introduced gives home sellers the opportunity to see how selling their property online works.

“Once they’ve dipped their toe into the water they’ll wonder why they never tried selling with an online estate agent before.”

Gosling went on to claim: “Consumers are fed up with paying the exorbitantly high fees that traditional estate agents charge.

“Many home sellers are paying through the nose for a poor quality customer service experience from a high street agent.

“Online estate agency is the future of this industry. Not only do we offer an equivalent service to the high street agent for a fraction of the cost, but we also secure more sales than high street estate agents and achieve a higher asking price on sales.”

Sir Charles Dunstone, founder of Carphone Warehouse and Chairman of TalkTalk and of Dixons Carphone, together with his business partner, Roger Taylor, recently invested £5m into the HouseSimple.com business.

HouseSimple claims to have sold or let more than £bn worth of properties to date, and to achieve an average 99% of asking prices.

It says its average selling time is 20 days.

EYE has asked Gosling, pictured, whether he would re-consider a no sale, no fee pricing structure.

Alex Gosling - image - May 2015(1)

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58 Comments

  1. PeeBee

    “Fees reduce if sellers use the firm’s conveyancing and mortgage broking services.”

    OKAY… that being the case here’s an open question to HouseSimple:

    So…just to clarify… you are getting paid a commission from these “services” which you are giving back 100% of to your clients by way of a “reduction” on their Agency Fee – yes?

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    1. PeeBee

      And the ‘Dislike’ would be why, precisely…?

      Come on – grow a pair and debate the matter!

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      1. Robert May

        There isn’t a ‘debate’  button Peebee.

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  2. julianodell

    Great question PeeBee (although a closed rather than open one to be pedantic).

    My question about this article relates to the seemingly somewhat bold statement that “Not only do we offer an equivalent service to the high street agent for a fraction of the cost, but we also secure more sales than high street agents and achieve a higher asking price on sales” (I assume he means “selling price” as achieving a higher asking price is hardly anything to crow about) – can this comment really be justified???

     

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    1. wilko

      “but we also secure more sales than high street agents and achieve a higher asking price on sales”…..Impossible to prove to prove in my opinion but I’m sure Mr Gosling will read this today and tell me how it is true before I go to the ASA.

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      1. TiaWright

        Again, all bark and no bite. Frankly, I think it is incredible that HouseSimple have saved their customers on average £5,899. Their website also states that they sell faster (20 days versus 68 days with high street agents). That’s 48 days quicker then the high street! The only reason all of the rest of you don’t say these things is because you can’t substantiate it. The ASA monitors all claims closely so any claims made have been backed up with data.

        Grow up and stop being bitter about the fact that HouseSimple have taken your ancient estate agency model and reinvented it for the 21st century.
        Again, Property Industry Eye highlights everything that is wrong with the estate agency industry. Lots of people making threats “before I go to the ASA” *yawn* and not one of you with the balls to do anything about it.

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        1. Robert May

          How is that possible Tia?  The average UK sale price is about  £180,000  (Land registry stats) the average UK commission 1.23%  (Stephen Yayter average) £180,000  x 0.0123 = £2214 plus vat a total of  £2656.80. To save their customers an average of £5899 Housesimple must be giving everyone  £3242.20.

          If the ASA are monitoring claims backed up by data they are rubbish at maths.

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          1. Robert May

            Tia, I am  just a bit concerned by your figures; To average  a £5899 saving per customer  the average sale price of  property must have been 2.356 times higher than the national average.  Reworking the numbers, the average saving  is 1.13% (your numbers not mine) If one of your clients under sells their property by  10%  (8.87% net) because they are using an agent without a demand curve valuation model,  it is likely the average  Housesimple vendor could easily  be  £37,853 out of pocket by trying to save 1.13%
            What point were you trying to make?

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        2. wilko

          @TiaWright.I wasn’t being bitter, just asking for proof of the claims? Can you give proof to back up these claims or not?

          You see one of the biggest problems with online agencies is that many think they can succeed by just “having a go” at the traditional full service agency. But the public over the last 10-12 years have not taken the online agents seriously(just 2% of the industry to date)……..and I would guess that’s, in part, to do with the unsubstantiated claims made on their websites and advertising.

          What is wrong with online agents simply saying “we feel we offer a great service for the fee” instead of trying to compare with high street agency.

          Trying to say that the high street agents are useless and overcharge for their service clearly isn’t working-the public don’t believe it.

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        3. PeeBee

          Ms Wright – whatever your connection with HouseSimple or those mentioned in the article that has stirred you into action (most likely a reaction to an ‘URGENT’ email or phone call…) your attempt to add weight to the ******** by stamping in it with both Jimmy Choos has simply torn holes in the Christmas paper it was loosely wrapped in and exposed it for what it actually is.  Thanks for that.

          Suggest next time they send someone in who knows which one of the two is their elbow…

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      2. Robert May

        My experience of ASA is a happy  one.  Good luck with it, you are wasting your time!
        I emailed for a simple definition of the word “local”. We can not answer that without  you making a complaint.  Made a complaint (didn’t want to but hey ho that is their system)  Is 73 miles local? We can’t answer that unless we can publish your name, you are too learned  in the subject to be  the public , we won’t answer  your very simple question unless we can publicly name you for making a complaint. A month on I am still waiting to find out the name of the head of ASA to see if they are a bit more sensible.
        Just out of interest is it  sensibly possible to be “local” to  14 Towns and  100+ villages in an area which is 70+ miles end to end? ASA think local is a subjective thing.

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        1. MF

          Isn’t the head of the ASA Guy Parker?

          https://www.asa.org.uk/About-ASA/Our-team/Senior-management-team.aspx

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          1. Robert May

            Thank you MF,  it is strange you can find the information yet the staff and supervisors can’t. I could have found it but was expecting the usual courtesy of a reply to an email.

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    2. PeeBee

      Hi Julian, young fellow-me-lad – hope this finds you well!

      Apologies – I didn’t mean it was an “open question” in the sense of a training context – it was asked openly to the company in the hope of receiving a response.

      In respect of it being a “closed question”… I didn’t say it was my ONLY question – did I?

      You may not have previously witnessed a ‘PeeBeeing’ (credit: Robert May) taking place – it always starts with an easy-peasy one to help warm them up for the fun to start…

      YOUR question is also a very good one – but one that you should be asking the question to perhaps is the ASA who should be monitoring such claims – by virtue of the fact that these ‘Press Releases’ are simply dressed up ‘adverts’.

      ONE day, they’ll be made to answer for these claims I have no doubt.

      Keep on truckin’, mon ami! ;o)

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      1. julianodell

        Hey PeeBee

        Serious chuffage this end at being referred to as “young”. That hasn’t happened since well before the turn of the century. As a result, I will be “trucking” with an extra spring in my step today.

        Have a marvellous day…and if you ever want to know about question types (TED and Scenario anyone?), you know where I am…

        x

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        1. PeeBee

          Never one to miss an opportunity as always, Mr O’D…!

          I’m off now to practice some NLP, OHT, & FU2 on my next B2C victim… ;o)

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    3. fluter

      “Not only do we offer an equivalent service to the high street agent for a fraction of the cost”, Lets see if that claim is misleading: The advert, sorry article then advises they “also arranges viewings” but no doubt do not accompany, which most good agents will do as part of their normal service and something most applicants state is their preference. That being the case how can their claim be anything other than misleading?

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      1. observer

        I bought my home two years ago and went on 14 viewings. 11 were with the vendor only and it was great. The three my wife and I had with the agents were terrible. They didn’t know any answers even to basic questions like “which direction does the garden face?” I eventually received an answer to that question. They told me the wrong answer.

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        1. wilko

          Observer, what happens if you have to sell a vacant property for whatever reason?

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  3. surreyagent

    I just cant see how they make money charging this little…………….????? unless its just Alex working from his mums spare room!!!

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    1. Robert May

      They don’t make money from listing and selling, that is a loss leader to get  access to names and addresses to flog services to.

      The ?(Insert big title) negotiators sit there working from home , being their own boss, earning what they earn, trying to compete with traditional agents who have a solid local reputation and a forest of boards in the area, they look up the valuation figures  spewed out by the AVM systems, guess at a bit to add on top and hope  carm and ‘much cheapness’ will will the instruction.

      It doesn’t matter whether or not the neg wins or loses the instruction; list or not Head office has  the details of someone  on the move or thinking about it.  Those are the data opportunities everyone is after; utlities, financial  and insurance services et all.

       

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      1. Paul H

        Robert’s right on this. I’m very much swaying to the conclusion that many online agents/property listers see the return not in listing properties for peanuts but in the additional add on’s they can get from the property/data.

        There are some smart people ploughing money into online and we all know there is no money in selling for £395 so they must be planning on getting there money from somewhere else.

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  4. Trevor Gillham

    ‘EYE has asked Gosling, pictured, whether he would ever consider a no sale, no fee pricing structure’.
    Well, what was the answer?

     

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    1. Disillusioned

      He didn’t feel the need to answer, he was just heard muttering under his breath as he walked away ‘there’s barely a fecking fee in the first place!’

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  5. Property Personnel

    Another quick question about another of their statements “we also secure more sales than high street estate agents” – I thought OEA (by their own admittance) only had about 2% of the market?

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  6. AgentBennett

    Sir Charles Dunston and Roger Taylor will be waiting a very long time for a return on their 5 million pound investment in House Simple with those ridiculous fees. Plus these Internet Based agents just don’t get how important being local experts really is to a vendor.

    Most clients we speak to in my three offices want accompanied viewings with a full time member of staff not a part time negotiator who effectively acts as a door stop. Something that an internet based agent can’t offer on that fee structure.

    I do believe sadly though we will see fees go down continuously over the next 10 years but they will have to reach an equilibrium to maintain the traditional service seller want given we are all cash rich to a point and time poor working three times harder than we used to in order to maintain the same lifestyle.

     

     

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    1. observer

      You can work harder or you could work smarter… In 2000 the number of homes sold was just over 1.1m. In 2014 the number was 1.2m. In 2000 there were 299,000 estate agents. There are now 550,000. All numbers from ONS and Land Reg. Maybe you should query why there are so many more estate agents to sell the same number of homes… Is it because they are supported by the fact that fees have stayed at the same % despite house prices rocketing in this 15 year period?

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      1. Robert May

        they haven’t rocketed, they have  followed a demand driven trendline. In London  prices are   above the trendline elsewhere they are below.

        London is over inflated and could fall back leaving lots of recent buyers with massive negative equity  and large mortgages at  a time when BOE is facing pressure to increase interest rates. That’s right PANIC!

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        1. observer

          A trendline can still be rocketing…You can have an exponential trendline. My point was that there are nearly twice as many agents in 2015 as there were in 2000 to sell pretty much the same number of properties.

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          1. Robert May

            The  trendline it isn’t rocketing, it isn’t exponential  it is plodding away (linear) at the same rate it was since before I was  in the industry  29 years ago. Plod plod plod boom and bust boom and bust

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            1. observer

              280% growth in 15 years may well be linear but equally it sounds like rocketing to me. Either way the increased prices have just brought more agents into the market to sell the same number of homes. That’s why outsiders don’t like the industry as increasing prices should have led to a reduction in the % charged given that your costs have only gone up with inflation which is a lot less than 280% over 15 years.

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              1. Robert May

                This thing about outsiders  don’t like the industry, I am not sure that is correct I never had a single vendor complain about my service and still get Christmas cards from some of them. I saw some fairly green legal bods on the telly the other evening  and I know from first hand experience how little respect Digital and media types have for Agents  but in general you are promoting a hollow stereotype that doesn’t stand scrutiny.

                782% sounds much more rocketing  but it is still  the same compounding 7.1% but for 30 years, tying in with net population growth, some people have, some people don’t,  that is the country we live in.
                Commissions have reduced down from  1.5% average to under 1.25% around here sub 1% is the norm.
                Trying to argue fees is a nonsense,  if you are using an agent that isn’t covering their fees and then some, you picked the wrong agent. As you point out there are plenty to choose from and it is that increase in competition that ensures commission levels haven’t fallen in proportion to  HPI  with consideration for inflation.

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  7. Robert May

    @CodingDobby  can we meet in Barnstaple High Street ( outside Carphone Warehouse) instead of me buying in a broadband service to run  the business I have decided to piggyback borrow Charles Dunstone’s WIFI  in a sort of mutual sharing arrangement. (I’ve not asked him btw)  The great new is we can  just nip inside and use the various phones and tablets on display to test Rummage without investing in our own.
    Don’t boast about a business that is effectively “borrowing without asking” the basic tools of the  trade.
    And as for £6 billion of property sold or let, what sort of nonsense is that? without qualification of break down (sales and lettings measure differently) and without  a time frame it is just ******** (credit Peebee)
    Each year traditional agency sells about  £180 billion worth of property and rents  about 4 million properties worth   about £720 billion which bring in  rents of about £38 billion. Multiply those numbers by how long House simple have been about and you get some idea of how insignificant they are; about  0.33% if they cover a single year.
    As a boy my infant school was told “If you are going to wave your John Thomas about make sure  you are not embarrassing yourself”
    I am in the middle of unravelling a spaghetti nest of  apparent data  retention sharing , scraping and phishing,  When agent realise how deep that goes and how  data entrusted to service suppliers is fuelling aggressive, boastful businesses like this ,  they might start to wonder if the benefits of looking and using the  data themselves is as beneficial to them as it is to  the much weaker competitor who undercut them.
    I got challenged about this yesterday; “ but traditional agents are using the data too” as I said “let them but make sure they are not looking at your dead files”

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  8. glee

    Apparently the investment from Sir Charles Dunstone and Roger Taylor is about to be unleashed on TV and an underground advertising campaign, so their backing is going to be put to the test.

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    1. PeeBee

      “Apparently the investment… is about to be unleashed on TV and an underground advertising campaign…”

      Funny, innit – according to all these Onlinies, something like 161% of pwoperdee searches begin and end online – yet they feel the need to rely on advertising themselves using traditional OFFLINE sources…

      …something just doesn’t stack up there somehow – does it?

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  9. Jonnie

    Millions thrown at the budget model and looks like it’s all a bit of an ask to get a single one of them upto holding much more stock than 8 or 9 real estate agent branches?

    So, the race to the floor on fees within the budget lot has moved on a notch.

    ……the carphone bloke made his money through a business model whereby when he sells all his Nokia whatevers allows him to ring up and order more, you cant ring a magic warehouse and order more three bed semis in Loughborough when you sell out, as they seem to be finding out

    Jonnie

     

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    1. Robert May

      And it isn’t a retail industry where cheap is good and small margins on  multiple sales can be made. There is no  bulk buying power so  his experience of retail is alien to a  one to one service industry.
      The only advantage COAR online agency  has is that the media industry is desperate and I mean really desperate for it to succeed and will publish anything no matter how bonkers to help the cause and the ASA are embarrassingly out of their depth with it all.

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      1. observer

        Neil Woodford, Sir Charles Dunstone, James Caan, Stelios – these guys are pretty smart and they all see the future as online. I query how anyone who has time to spend on a comments board on a trade website can think they are smarter than these guys…

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        1. wilko

          Observer “these guys are pretty smart and they all see the future as online” I don’t think anyone is saying they are smarter than these guys……its just they know more about estate agency…….

          I’m sure stelios could find fault in my budget airline model (if I decided to do one) but just take a look on the “easyproprty” website and let me know what you think of the marketing/photos of the property they are trying to let/sell!

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        2. Robert May

          I get up at  4:30am work through til 6:30 so I am ready for Ros posting new news, I then work through to 10:30 pm  and beyond; effectively posting on here is my job.

          I had about £18 billion going through my system when I retired in 2009, an audited  43%  market share of  the UK market, a sector I dominated for 9 years straight. My legacy in  two firms means that figure is now  £26 billion annually, a 68% share (un-audited)

          Woodford, Dunstone, Caan and Patsiatzis are good at what they do but this is my industry and I do know it better than them. What gives me confidence is that for the past 6 years of me posting virtually every day I have called it right time and time again.

          I  don’t think what I do is smart, I am certainly not as wealthy as any of them fellas  but I  have achieved as much as them  in my indusrty as they have in theirs.

          Does that answer your query

           

           

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          1. observer

            I completely agree you know more than them about the traditional estate agency model. It sounds like a pretty incredible career to be honest. What they are doing is looking at estate agency from the outside and trying to see if there is a way of disrupting the industry. 5 years ago would you have believed that you would willingly do your banking on your phone? Technology disrupts markets, that has been proved from everything from insurance to travel to taxis to communication.

            I completely agree that easyproperty are doing the stack em cheap model but quite a few of the other online agents have good photos, descriptions etc. I understand there is a lot more to it than that but from the outside it is hard to follow the reasoning for why they can’t be a success. Tepilo, Purple Bricks and eMoov all have over 1,000 properties on their books. That sounds pretty good to me

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            1. Robert May

              The individuals themselves won’t fail, they are each the High profile investors designed to be the candle to attract moths.
              It  is the moths who are going to get burned along with the vendors who sell with them.
              Selling property is a supply/demand economics service industry, which is  centred on a fiduciary relationship between agent and customer; Agents have to get the best price for their client’s property in a time frame to suit the client.
              Central office area rep agency can not do that, it is wholly reliant on historic comparables data algorithms that are flawed because of the way data has been knitted together. There is no demand curve  to valuations and so valuations become a guess; the fiduciary obligations on the Agent can not be met.
              At present the only way a central office agency can value property is  getting proper Estate Agents to be duped into valuing and  inadvertently taking along the demand knowledge to ratify any form of valuation.
              Up above Tia  made a really great point, the only point such an agency can make, an average saving of 1.13% on the sale price! Having crunched her numbers their average customer is risking nearly £38,000 to save net £5,000. Very few people are prepared to take such a risk especially when the  area reps are operating at negotiator level and are fighting for instructions against mangers  partners and Directors who are known and respected in the community.
              I’m more than capable of  starting an online agency better than any of those passive intermediary agents you mentioned and capable on paper of going up against the very best Agents in the land, I won’t do so because on a local level I can not compete.

              From the outside it is easy to understand, without knowing who a property is going to sell to you can’t know what it is going to sell for.

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              1. observer

                Just on those numbers. the £38,000 is a completely arbitrary number with no empirical evidence. Also in a Which? survey they found the average estate agent fee was 1.8%. Also the only value of a house is that of the bricks and mortar and land. The price meanwhile is agreed between the buyer and the vendor with the estate agent providing advice. In the latest data from Rightmove 33% of properties placed on the market see their asking price reduced. It therefore follows that in a minimum of 33% of cases estate agents are wrong with their valuation of homes.

                I fully understand what you are saying and in some instances estate agents are very knowledgeable, know their area and will have a good idea of who will buy a property. The problem that outsiders see (this isn’t just a media, digital thing – estate agents are nearly always voted in the top 3 of most hated professions in the UK) is that most of us have to deal with 19 year old kids who don’t know any more than we do and yet are still taking 1.8% (plus vat of course). These people are able to exist because of the inefficiency in the market. It is this inefficiency that online agents are targeting.

                 

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                1. Robert May

                  It is based on the figures Tia supplied, an industry average for commisions based on 100,000s of actual conveyances (not extrapolation of data from an anti agent consumer firm with an agenda) and the same land registry data you were quoting.

                  You can’t go accepting Tia’s averages as factual and then claim a  formula rework is incorrect.  Maths is maths

                  According to Tia in order to have a £5899 average  it says what their average sale price is. but to keep you  happy  re-working the numbers to cope with the Which average commission, the  net 8.3% risk on £350,000 average  sale price is  £29050.  That is a fair chunk of wedge to be trusting to a negotiator level rep with no local reputation, standing or investment in staff or premises. Perhaps you are saying that the area reps of these Central Office firms are all of a sudden not the same  age and level staff  as employed by traditional agents?

                  I have to say your arguments are a bit contradictory, do you work for the ASA? Your confusion over basic agency, numbers and logic remind me very much to the person I was dealing with  over whether 73 miles really constituted local.  If I asked you to visit your local GP, Dentist  or shops  would you think I  was being reasonable asking you to drive 73 miles?

                  I really do hope you are not ASA that last paragraph is very revealing and would explain the bias I encountered trying to deal with ASA.

                   

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                  1. observer

                    It is the 10% number I disagree with. That has been plucked from the air. Given that estate agents are wrong at least 33% of the time you could do it the other way around… Or you could focus on the fact that buyers actually set the price a property is sold for not an agent and not a vendor.

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                    1. Robert May

                      Plucked out of the air? It has not, before this story appeared I have posted the  devation graphs for various parts of the country showing how the AVM models are incorrect and why.
                      Buyers always set the price that is the whole point;  AVM  models ignore that fact and the COAR agents do not have a pro active applicant list so  demand knowledge is a mystery to them.
                      Where the real issue comes is that it is never the poorest applicant who gets to buy, rarely is it someone in the middle, just 1 lucky sole, the one with the most  favourable terms to suit the vendor is the one who get to treat. A simple standard deviation graph explains why most people  miss out.

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  10. Property Ear

    I don’t know why so many of you guys are taking the bait – cheap (sub £1k) on-line agency and a professional estate agency service are as different as chalk and cheese – it is a flawed business model and very shortly these online cheapskates will go down like ninepins.

    A couple of days ago a seller left Tepilo to come with my firm. Their details were trash with a flawed foorplan, hideous photos and not a single viewing arranged in 6 weeks. We agreed a sale within a week, having received multiple offer,s for c£10,000 more than the their asking price.

    Stick that up your blouse and smoke it Sarah Beeney!!

     

     

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    1. PeeBee

      “Stick that up your blouse and smoke it Sarah Beeney!!”

      Would there be room? ;o)

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  11. Harree

    Gosling says ““Consumers are fed up with paying the exorbitantly high fees that traditional estate agents charge.

    Err … no there aren’t.

    This is a well worn statement trotted out by OEA’s that gives the impression that sellers nationwide in their droves  are constantly moaning about traditional EA fees. Untrue.

    Yes, a small % of sellers may choose an agent solely on fees but if Gosling’s statement was true it would be a doddle to set up a high street agency and instantly dominate the market simply by undercutting the local competition. If any would be new agency thinks the locals will beat a path to their door simply on fees they are dead wrong.

    Fees will play a bigger part in agency choice going forward … but only once OEA advertising becomes far more powerful, persuasive and trust inspiring than it is now.

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    1. PeeBee

      Well said, Harree.  I’m with you 92.7% of the way.

      Bet you never expected to see THAT! ;o)

      (The 7.3% doesn’t matter – let’s save it for another discussion, shall we…)

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  12. Robert May

    More maths; average wage £26,000=  £500/ week  500/£9 = 55

    To earn an average wage a Housesimple rep needs to have a constant register of 55 properties and has to be collecting all £9 of the weekly fee.

    How is this supposed to work?

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    1. observer

      They take a payout at the end so it is £9 a week plus the end payment. Plus all of the subsidiary revenues.

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      1. Robert May

        what subsidiary revenues? are you  saying that  on top of the £9 there are extra charges or are you confirming the £9 as a loss leader.

         

        If the charge to the vendor is £9/ week what is paying the fixed cost of the business or is that the bit that is crowd funded, investors are  buying administration  and wages?

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  13. PeeBee

    Okay… I’m going to try to be reserved.  Polite, even.  Non-contentious.  Wish me luck.

    Above, in response to Robert May’s logically worked example that the model is financially inviable, ‘observer’ made the comment

    “They take a payout at the end so it is £9 a week plus the end payment. Plus all of the subsidiary revenues.”

    STILL doesn’t add up.  You think you know better – show us all how it possibly can.

    Further up the page, ‘observer’ states

    “In 2000 there were 299,000 estate agents. There are now 550,000.”

    NO THERE AREN’T. If you’re going to quote ‘facts’ – at least get them somewhere close to correct.

    In another Comedy Gold moment, ‘observer’ stated

    “It is the 10% number I disagree with. That has been plucked from the air. Given that estate agents are wrong at least 33% of the time…”

    So… a statistic “plucked out of the air” at random and portrayed as material fact by ‘observer’ is hammered home as the basis of an argument against another statistic you don’t agree with – so it’s wrong – end of, yes?

    THEN, of course – ‘observer’ tries to hump the old shinbone like a demented Jack Russell with the other pearler plucked from obscurity

    “Also in a Which? survey they found the average estate agent fee was 1.8%”

    to which is added

    “estate agents are nearly always voted in the top 3 of most hated professions in the UK… and yet are still taking 1.8% (plus vat of course).”

    Sorry?  WHERE did the “plus VAT” come from?  The 2011 Which “report’ you make reference to?  It can be seen here  – http://www.which.co.uk/news/2011/03/estate-agents-fees-exposed-248666/ – which actually states

    “The national average is around 1.8%.”  NO mention of the dreaded VAT there… but based upon what is assumed to be a selection of property types in a dozen locations with VASTLY differing pricetags, and included ‘fixed fees’ as a PERCENTAGE OF VALUE of the cheaper properties, I can guess that for shock:horror effect they simply added together the percentages and divided by twelve,

    Looks like a big number – mugs drink it up and ask for more, and those with agendas these “statistics” suit play them like junkshop fiddles for whatever they think they can gain out of someone else’s ********..

    But for people like ‘observer’ – it highlights true genius in action.

    Actually – I’m failing miserably to keep it ‘nice’, aren’t I?

    But that’s because ‘observer’ isn’t observant in the slightest.

    Just a prolific spreader of ******** – and can’t even be @r$ed to wrap it in Christmas paper.

    Your audience deserves better, ‘observer’ – but then, that being the case, you simply couldn’t come up with the goods…

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    1. observer

      That figure on estate agents was taken from the may 2015 ONS job market report.

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      1. PeeBee

        READ THE REPORT.

        It quotes the number of people employed in “Real estate activities” – NOT “estate agents” as you claim.

        Best you get your head around what the ONS define as “Real estate activities” before relying on it to be accepted as gospel when spreading your ********, or continue to get shot down – you’re presenting far too easy a target.

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  14. Robert May

    Light bulb! I posted on Twitter yesterday how Outsider reminded me of someone,  a creepy Mrs DoubtFire feeling. We have heard this tale before.

    This isn’t the  petulant, illogical person from ASA I have been dealing with, this is someone  who can’t  now use their own name as a positive. Because of the job they are employed to do they have sacrifced their options.

    I really hope you have made the right choice. Personally as I have posted to you  before I don’t think you have.

    Outsider I enjoyed chatting with you yesterday!

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  15. Robert May

    15 months ago Peebee posted

    I REST MY CASE, m’lud.

    You keep pushing that $h!t up that hill.

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