High Street versus online Estate Agents.

September 23, 2015

News on the subject of online estate agents has taken a bit of the limelight so far this week, eMoov has reached their funding target with Crowdcube, £1m is the target and that figure has been surpassed with just a few days to go. The online agent Easyproperty, sister company to Easyjet, are offering a new budget online estate agency to complement its online lettings business brought to market in September last year.

Another agent to add to the list of online agents is Tepilo which is headed by Sarah Beeney the TV property Guru, her online agency allows users to sell their house using technology that means being able to follow the property sale through an app.

They all have something in common and that is they want to take the place of traditional high street estate agents over the next few years. They are challenging the property sector by cutting agency fees so that customers benefit by considerable savings when selling their home.

eMoov are presently raising funds using the crowdcube platform, the fundraising target was set at £1m, that figure has now been reached and is currently still being added to, that amount represents 5% of equity according to the platform, that values the business at a cool £20m. Russell Quirk, eMoov’s chief executive and founder, reportedly justified the valuation by saying that as his agency is a “disruptive business” it has what he calls “aspirational value”.

Easyproperty will operate with the same approach as the airline offering customers a no-frills service, they will be able to pay extra to upgrade according to their needs. Chief Executive Rob Ellice reportedly says “Transparent fees ensure customers are able to tailor the service they need.
“The success of our model will wipe out overpriced high-street estate agents as consumers cotton on to what rip-off commissioned based fees are.”

Tepilo is the hassle-free modern route to selling houses according to Sarah, she does not go along with the idea that you have to sell your property with a high street agent and pay more in the process of doing so. During the month of September anyone who purchases a sales package through Tepilo will automatically be entered into a competion whereby they stand the chance of having Sarah popping around to the property and offering personal tips on their the home and garden.

We at EANUK welcome any feedback from High Street agents who have views on whether they are expecting any disruption to the conventional High Street Estate agent by the online agent? how do they expect their business to be affected in the longer term? would online agent fees be sufficient to support their business model? if so what does the high street agent have to do to compete against this?

Allen Walkey

Highly experienced businessman with a successful career in property sales and investment both in the UK and abroad. Now a freelance writer and blogger for the property and Investment Industry, keeping readers up-to-date with changes and events in a rapidly changing world.

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