New industry ratings site launches charts of ‘best performing agents’

A new performance-based estate agency comparison website launched at the weekend, aiming to deliver vendor leads to agents.

The launch came without any pre-publicity.

The site claims it can identify the country’s best-performing agents.

Called estateagent4me, it is owned by a firm that for the last 12 years has been running eConveyancer, an online tool which enables customers to compare the cost of conveyancers.

ULS Technology floated last year, valued at £36.57m, and claims to be the UK’s largest handler of conveyancing work in the UK.

Its new estateagent4me rates agents in England and Wales – and says it has every agent on its database. It plans to expand to Scotland and Northern Ireland shortly.

The site allows would-be sellers to enter their postcode, size of property by bedrooms, and what they think its price is.

In return they get a list of the local “top” agents, with the ability to contact them through the site.

These rankings are based on the percentage of properties that agents have sold, average time taken to sell a property, how often they achieve sales at or above asking price, and the number of properties each agent has listed in the location.

As well as ranking, users get an indication of the fee level, a profile of agents in terms of their average property price, and what portals the agents are on. Would-be sellers who do not know the value of their home are guided to properties currently for sale in the area, and recent local sold prices.

ULS Technology managing director is Ben Thompson, pictured below, who was previously a director at Legal & General.

He told Eye: “The new site is very consumer-driven. It is all about accentuating the positives in the estate agency industry. Anyone can go down the other route, but we are not going that way.

“We are trying to take a really proactive, collaborative stance with the industry.

“We know there is a lot of noise about online versus traditional agents, but we are ambivalent. We take the view that there is a damn good reason why traditional agents are still around, but we also take the view that it is up to consumers to decide.”

Thompson also said that it is undecided as to whether estateagent4me should open up to become a site where the public can post their reviews.

He said: “We are keeping that option under review.”

The site is free to use for the public, who have the option of conveyancing at a £250 discount.

Estate agents have an opportunity to earn referral-type fees should vendors who sign up with them through the site also decide to use the related conveyancing services.

The new site will also monetise itself by charging agents for successful vendor leads.

According to estateagent4me, the top agents in the UK in terms of getting the highest amount over asking price are – not surprisingly – all in London.

They are: the Rotherhithe office of Hastings International, with an average of £31,105 over asking price, while Winkworth, Palmers Green, achieved £16,215 over asking price, and Douglas Allen, Dalston, achieved an extra £15,083.

“This compares very favourably to the UK average performance of £12,742 below asking price,” the site says.

According to the site, the three agents that scored the best individual percentage increase over asking price were Whitehouse Estate Agents, Bournemouth (108.9%), Hastings International, Rotherhithe (107.7%), and Connells, Southville, Bristol (107.2%).

In terms of time to sell, the “quickest” areas were Reading (26 days), Bristol (26 days) and “outer London” (43 days), while the slowest were Liverpool (85 days) and Leeds (62 days).

The fastest agents for selling, says the site, were Lawson Rose, Southsea, Portsmouth, and Leaders in nearby Waterlooville (both eight days).

Thompson said: “Our research shows that the average UK house seller would have received an additional £27,456 had their estate agent performed as well as the best.

“estateagent4me aims to give sellers the hard facts so they can find the best estate agent.

“Comparison-based technology and algorithms have revolutionised the way we choose our holidays, buy our insurance and choose our tradesmen, among many other things. We think the estate agency market is ripe for the same kind of innovative thinking, especially given the sums of money involved per transaction.

“Estateagent4me provides impartial information about estate agents, regardless of whether it’s a high street brand or an online agent, national firm or independent.

“Our function in the market is to provide agency performance data in an easy-to-access way and let sellers decide who they wish to instruct to sell their property.  Our aim is to help sellers match their needs to the best performing estate agents, for the benefit of all.”

However, while the site pitches itself in a positive light for both consumers and agents, it clearly has some glitches.

When Eye entered vendor details for our own postcode, the top agent came back as a budget agent of whom we had not heard, who does not sell in the area and never has done. Its nearest properties appear to be are some five miles away. By contrast, a dominant agent in the area did not feature in the list at all.

The online pricing tool, to help vendors estimate the value of their property, was accurate in terms of properties currently on the market, but very out of date in terms of prices achieved on properties sold.

The ‘indicative marketing fee’ is shown as plus VAT, rather than inclusive as is required.

One agent who also visited the new site at the weekend reported inaccuracies to Eye, saying that the site lists some agents as advertising on portals that they do not advertise on. Some agents, he said, are listed as advertising on Zoopla, Rightmove and OnTheMarket.

For example – see illustration – this agent, Peter Lane, is not on Zoopla, but is on Rightmove and OnTheMarket. However, this website says the firm is on all three.

The website is here

USL Technology managing director is Ben Thompson