By 2020, they say 50% of house sales could be done via Online Estate Agents?

February 3, 2016

An interesting piece that I read online via by David Clensy in the Bristol Post highlights the growing trend of sales happening via Online Estate Agents. Obviously, as more and more online / hybrid estate agents then the inevitable outcome will be that more sales happen via them, but is this a trend that is actually growing in strength over statistics?
The Bristol Post states: “Increasingly the For Sale signs adorning properties up and down the city are not those of the traditional high street estate agents.“

It is somewhat not exactly clear what falls in to ‘Online Estate Agency’ as ultimately it could be any ‘estate agency‘ that is online which would account I would say for more than 99% of all the industry? Though I hear more and more that online does not include traditional estate agents, ie those with an office / high street presence – It does include online, hybrid, do it yourself…

We must all agree that no matter what industry you are in, from takeaway pizzas to car insurance, online has and continues to change and shape industries with the way it offers businesses a vast array of opportunities for marketing and generating business.

I think we can safely say that online only estate agents are all about reducing fees for the end consumer, this may entail a reduced overall service and additional costs for extras which would normally form part of the whole package from traditional estate agents, but the appeal to the consumer is that % saving which is often in the £1,000’s. Importantly, with online estate agents, their property will still be appearing on property portals like Rightmove & Zoopla.

 

A recent, widely reported survey by Face For Business, showed that from 1,000 members of the public questioned about using online estate agents, 60% would still prefer to go with a traditional estate agency… Depending how you read this and which side of the fence you are on when reporting on it, it still shows a massive 34% would go with online estate agents (6% stated ‘Don’t Know’).

I do recommend to read the full report from David Clensy on the Bristol Post website here.

 

Christopher Walkey

Founder of Estate Agent Networking. Internationally invited speaker on how to build online target audiences using Social Media. Writes about UK property prices, housing, politics and affordable homes.

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