Franchise firm Martin & Co has said that EweMove – the hybrid agent which it purchased last month and whose agents almost entirely work from home – could expand from 90 franchisees to 800.
The company said its new purchase is bedding in well, and that it will operate from its own headquarters in Yorkshire, preserving its cultural and brand identity.
David Raggett, chief financial officer of the Property Franchise Company, as Martin & Co is now known, said: “In our sector there’s a struggle to find people who understand the technology. There is a lack of skills.
“EweMove is making headway in a way no one else is. It is engaging customers locally and providing a service 24 hours a day.”
David Laycock, co-founder of EweMove, told the Yorkshire Post: “We asked landlords and vendors, what is the most important thing to you in an estate agent.
“Price came seventh. The most important factor is local property experts, then convenience and the ability to contact people out of hours.
“Customers don’t want to go to a high street agent. They want the agent to come to their home. They want someone who can be on the phone at 8 o’clock at night. They want to ask for a valuation at 9am on a Sunday and for their home to be valued that day.”
EweMove launched two years ago and is said by its new owners to have shown “tremendous growth” since. Its purchase by the Property Franchise Company has enabled the buyers, previously focused on branches, to get into the online/hybrid space.
Comments (28)
“Customers don’t want to go to a high street agent” says Ewe Move co-founder, David Laycock. Do him and the Head Shephard, Ackroyd, not sing off the same hymn sheet?!
Ackroyd has been bragging recently that some of their ‘flock’ now have high street premises(this is revolutionary for a Hybrid agent) He is even pictured on their Facebook page outside one of them. I wonder what the Ewe Move franchisees with a high street shop think of Mr Laycock stating that customers don’t want a high street agent?!
Still amazed that Martin and Co bought Ewe Move. Their franchisees in my area are not even making a living. It’s more like a hobby to them. No wonder they can spring into action quickly on a Sunday when a Val request comes in!
Hi,
Our model allows people to set up by themselves, and use the back up of our Sheep Pen resource to fulfill the office roles of traditional estate agency teams.
Compare that to the massive cost required in staff, premises, rates and utility costs to set up an office. The average office costs £8k/m to run, before you turn a profit.
Our franchisees are provided Rightmove, Zoopla, Floor Plan, Property Management Software, Inventory, telephone teams all by us. That saves them a fortune and they can remove the £80-100k set up cost risk when they start.
Once they’re established, they bring on more people to do more valuations etc. That’s when they’ll get an office. They then need somewhere to work. But often that’s a low cost serviced office.
We’ve got branches now expanding into high street as you rightly point out, but many prefer serviced. It’s up to them to determine the size of their business based upon their ambition. But the key thing is that they can expand based upon growing a successful business from a low cost base platform, therefore reducing their risk.
Martin and Co now realised what they’ve just bought…
£1.65 million turnover..
They have 90 franchises.
£18,333 each.
Now let’s talk about costs because these are important… 🙂
Profit before tax £120,000.
A website and 800 odd ‘gushing’ reviews for £15 million.
They don’t rank on Google for sh*t, just adwords, adwords and more adwords….
Edit, sorry they do rank for:
estate agents leek 1st – a couple of customers a week..
estate agents barry 2nd – a couple of customers a week..
Nothing else of note!
Adwords on the other hand…
estate agents southport 1st
readings estate agents 1st
doncaster estate agents 1st
estate agents halifax 1st
There’s more…Liverpool, Milton Keynes, York, Reading etc etc…
Don’t these big internet, innovating, disrupting companies know how to rank organically on Google anymore?
Such easy keywords as well. no offence!
I’ve read many a comment on these forums about ‘Online Agency Disrupters’ burning through cash and not making a profit.
And that’s a valid point. But there is an exception which proves the rule and that is us.
Whilst many operators are spending millions on TV ads, burning more cash, we’ve got a model that in 3 years has now turned a profit.
And we don’t charge up front – We fund our franchisees Zoopla, Rightmove, Property Management software, phone calls, office support etc etc all up front. We only get paid when a sale/let completes and our franchisees have got their money in the bank.
That means that our interests are aligned to our franchisees and their customers – ie to sell or rent the house fast (not to list it fast).
So in terms of valuation;
1) We can predict from instructions, sales, lets and managed property, what our pipeline income will be very accurately. Given the lag (explained above) and our up front cash flow funding of franchisees, we have a great pipeline of predictable profit which we know is coming down the funnel.
2) Our growth to date has been very predictable and on plan. Therefore projecting that and using cautious assumptions allows a valuation to be derived.
3) We had interest and valuations on offers on the table by other interested parties far higher than the agreed bid.
Regarding the organic traffic, you’re right.
On SEO we rank low. Google place weight on amongst other things how many times people have searched for you historically and web site age.
We’re new in town when we open up a new branch.
But google don’t make money from organic searches.
That’s why they promote PPC. So if you look at PPC now;
– There are 4 ads at the top of each google search
– They’ve extended the description from 30 to 50 characters
– They’ve made the colour of Ad banners Green to look the same as organic searches
We have a google premium account manager (and ex google staff in our team) – So we know how to get to the top of the page and ‘bribe’ our way to No’s. 1-4. If you ain’t page 1 top 4, you’re dead.
If you’re basing your business on SEO keywords alone, then that is outdated and a bad strategy IMO. The rules on SEO are unknown and change.
PPC is trackable, measurable and you should know your ROI.
We get leads for £12 and a signed sale for £305 (currently).
Trying to measure SEO against that is impossible.
I’d rather stick to measured known, predictable, scalable results based marketing than finger in the air.
Oh god are we really comparing our industry to supermarket shopping!! Are you a countrywide agent by any chance? I think if someone is serious about selling they will find time within normal working hours to get their valuations in from their chosen agents. If they want 24 hours they can hedge their bets on Zooplas “tempt me” most people are smart enough to already know the rough value of their home, they are inviting you in becuase they want to find the best perosn for the job.
GO ON, fa88 – you tell ’em, young Lady!
I really like the new, vastly-improved ‘you’.
Nothing worse than a sycophant !
Ah PeeBee I have always been the same person we have just different views on some things! I had to google Sycophant and I’m not sure how it works in this scenario, who its aimed at or who the important one is. In any case thanks for teaching me a new word
Funnily enough, fa88, Property Paddy (it was him not me who came up with the ‘sycophant’ malarkey…) has read the situation completely wrong. (unless that is I have read this all completely wrong in which case I will just go put myself back in my box and leave you all to it…)
My comment was completely genuine – as anyone unfortunate enough to have witnessed our previous ‘exchanges of opinion’ will probably appreciate.
Maybe we’re not as different of view as was originally how things appeared.
“Customers don’t want to go to a high street agent. They want the agent to come to their home”.
Not sure there is any evidence for that statement. Agents have always done that and so vendors expect them to come to the home. However, if the agents have invested time, money and effort in establishing a high-street presence, it makes more sense for them to encourage the vendor to visit the high street office in order to find out if they can ‘work together’. The concept of a listing presentation, in the most part lasting an hour in a vendors home, is an out-dated practice that does neither party any good because it focuses on valuation and fee. If it truly is all about a ‘relationship’ and building trust, it requires the vendor to make more of an effort to uncover the beliefs, values and convictions of any agency. Visit the high-street office. Meet the team that will be working hard on your behalf. Ask questions. Vendors don’t know all the facts before they decide. The more they do know, the better a decision they are likely to make.
Hybrid agents, working from home, would struggle to offer that benefit (if it is deemed a benefit).
That said, why if price came seventh on the list of vendor requirements, are hybrids in a race to the bottom?
Some vendors, particularly landlords – and older demographics prefer to visit branches – That’s a given.
The same people buy local papers.
But both these groups are in decline.
People want access online – And more and more, in their pocket via their mobile phones.
The ideal is clicks and mortar – the confidence that high street brings, but a total end to end, 24/7 online experience.
“They want to ask for a valuation at 9am on a Sunday and for their home to be valued that day.”
I’m sorry – but any homeowner who rings up on a Sunday morning wanting their property “valued” THAT DAY has clearly had a booze-fuelled barney with their significant other – and it’ll all be smooth as an infant’s derriere by teatime.
And I would respectfully suggest ewe use the word “valuation” with extreme caution – whatever time of the day or day of the week you’re crossing the thresh…
I beg to differ PeeBee. Unfortunately we live in an age when most people want ‘everything at all hours’. That’s why Tesco etc stay open for such extended periods. And why online shopping takes off in the evenings etc.
If Ewemove or any other firm offers good service at what are ‘out of hours’ times for other agents, they may well win the business. It’s partly how Foxtons won market share twenty+ years ago…
Actually the big supermarkets went in to 24 hours (I worked for one when ours did) and of recent times have retreated from it again, on the basis that the fraction of people who want a 24 hours service don’t cover the costs and are often the people you least want in your store.
Well, AgencyInsider – we will have to agree to disagree on that matter.
There’s a surprise!
Indeed we shall PeeBee.
Anyway…
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”
24/7 Service from a one man band working from home….the two statements are a total condradiction of terms unless the one mand band is sitting in his armchair 24/7 waiting for the call never sleeping eating etc. Problem is the Consumer believes these marketing claims.
Hi Neil – ‘The one man band’ is not the case with our model.
Firstly we have franchise partners ranging from one person, through to teams with 8 people operating in a branch.
Second – our ‘person on the ground locally’ is out doing appraisals and viewings.
Behind that, fulfilling the 24/7 service is our Sheep Pen.
They fulfill these roles;
– Taking viewing calls and booking appointments into the franchisees diary
– Taking tenancy applications and credit checks
– Creating tenancy/guarantor/inspection reports
– Collecting rent/arrears, landlord payments, ARLA accounts, client money reconciliation
– Dealing with repair calls
I.e our Sheep Pen provides all the office support that a typical local estate or letting agent would provide – But we do it centrally to give us economies of scale and to allow 24/7 calls.
I agree with PeeBee – There is a huge difference between a ‘valuation’ and a ‘market apprais”l which is all these so called ‘property experts can give. Sadly it seems 99% of agents have adopted the term free’ valuation’ to get through the door for an appraisal which is simply based on ‘what the last agent said plus 15%’ to get the instruction. Challenged in court a market appraisal isn’t worth the paper it is written on. These agents are intentionally fooling the vendor and stupid enough not be able to see that if they market at a ridiculously inflated price they are wasting their own RM +Zoopla subscriptions in doing so.
Thank you, easternagent – but I must warn you that any signs of agreement with me – however vague – expose that person to a barrage of hate, scorn and… worst of all… ‘Dislikes’.
I hope you have the ‘nads to ride it out… ;o)
Thanks PeeBee. After 49 years in the profession my hide has grown thick enough to withstand any amount of disagreement. Having been through three serious economic recessions in the country in that time each of which had heavy consequences for our industry I can honestly say – ‘been there , seen it, done it.’ Still seem to be around so must be doing something right.
Can’t believe that some Plank gave this comment a ‘Dislike’.
Unfortunately highlights the type of eejit that hides amongst what is nevertheless a good & proper profession.
Why do local agents really need to join a franchise to make this work? Surely you can do it on your own. Simply join TPO and portals and away you go, no need to waste fees to the franchise company.
Most people that go for a franchise do so as they want the hand holding as and when.
Youre right in what you say as youve been in and around the property sales side for many years.
But most that go franchise dont understand the game they wish to come in to.
The whole point of franchising is investing in the brand. Sure you can do it on your own but at least I recognise the name above the door if you become a franchise. Pay extra money, but get brand recognition and expertise. Seems a fair trade off if you’re willing to put in the hard graft.
Would you want to be know as Ewe Move and have a sheep as your logo?
Would also question if the public have ever heard of them, Not much brand awareness from a poster in the spare bedroom.
I agree, you just mention Rightmove and Zoopla, I don’t think they could name any apart from PB as they are pumping so much into advertising.
Glass half full – Under M&Co Ewemove will grow, office in a bedroom means no overheads and I can spend more money on online advertising and direct mailing etc. . Good marketing opportunity.
Glass half empty – I fail to make a solid business as my Ewemove Franchise. Rest of the franchisees are succeeding and profitable… I’m probably to blame, not the sheep logo.