Industry Interview: Nick Marr The House Shop.
Nick Marr describes himself as an internet entrepreneur with a passion for driving big audiences and a love for real estate. He is also behind one o the longest running property websites The Little House Company, online since 2000 it was one of the first sites to list on Rightmove in 2004.
The FSBO website is rebranding with a re launch with a new model and name in mid March 2015 , the site will be called TheHouseShop.
Describe TheHouseShop in a sentence?
TheHouseShop is a unique place for everyone buying, selling and renting property in the UK.
Why are you changing from a private sales website?
We have never been really been 100% about purely private sales, in fact the last few years has seen thousands of smaller agents list with us. I have always felt that we were agents dark secret with many not wanting to publicise our relationship.
Why change the name from The Little House Company?
The name really did not reflect our future plans and our research found that the “word” Little was confusing. The House Shop reflects our ethos of providing choice and a gateway to a number of services.
How are you different to your competitors, what makes TheHouseShop stand out?
We are the only inclusive platform to bring together estate agents and private sellers in the same place. We believe fundamentally in giving homeowners choice when it comes to selling a home, and we plan to change the “agent-only” status quo of exclusive platforms like OnTheMarket. We will be the first platform to provide homeowners with a gateway to access all the ways to sell a home: from For-Sale-By-Owner and online agents, to high street agents and event property auctions.
Our inclusive approach to the business means that TheHouseShop will display listings from high street agents, online agents, private sellers, developers and property auctions, giving us a unique mix of properties that won’t be found elsewhere.
You say you are pro-choice and represent more routes to market than anyone else – but aren’t you opening yourself up to potential criticism of being a jack of all trades master of none?
We have over 15 years’ experience in online property advertising and digital marketing and although The Little House Company was primarily a private sales site, we have in fact been working with thousands of estate agents for years. TheHouseShop’s new offering really has evolved naturally over time to appeal to both professionals and homeowners and we feel we are in a position to provide valuable services to all groups in the market.
How will you keep agents on side and convince them to list with private sellers?
The fact of the matter is that there will always be demand for the traditional estate agency service, even taking into account the growth of the private sales market over the past few years. We recognise the value of good estate agents and simply acknowledge that different people and different properties have different needs – and we want homeowners to choose the service that best suits their needs.
Its clear that agents recognise we are a great source of new business as our vendors generate a huge amount of enquiries from agents offering there services.
We offer a range of specialised services for estate agents and all agents who sign up with TheHouseShop will be able to offer professional valuations to homeowners and receive free valuation leads.
Agents will also be able to receive buyer and vendor leads from our unique audience of buyers, sellers, tenants and landlords.
Interview by Christopher Walkey.
Nick Marr – Founder of TheHouseShop.
Visit their website today: http://www.TheHouseShop.com
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