Online agency Hatched has announced plans for significant expansion next year as it looks to recruit more local property consultants.
All will be fully employed.
Hatched was acquired last year by Connells Group and since then has more than doubled headcount.
Adam Day, founder and director of Hatched, said the business has had “immense support” from Connells Group, adding: “We fully expect 2017 to be an even bigger year for us.”
Connells Group made it clear that as well as driving forward the online side of its business, it will also be expanding its high street presence.
The business recently announced three major internal promotions.
Ian Fry and Giles Hart have been promoted to the newly created roles of national operations directors, covering the south and north respectively. Simon Arnes has been made Connells Group estate agency operations director.
This year, Connells Group has made 15 acquisitions and added 57 branches with new openings and acquisitions, plus 28 new lettings offices.
Comments (12)
Love the enthusiasm. in a challenging market with tighter controls, crippling sdlt, abolition of fees, removal of mortgage relief. how is it possible for these guys, purplebrick, yopa, emoov etc… to grow and expand, or even make any money in what looks like a shrinking market. there will be one or two winners in a crowded market but I suspect a lot will struggle next year. Good luck to them.
In the words of the song ‘I’ll be there’.
Why would an agent, never mind the public, want another portal?
Do these people do any market research before launching?
Whilst RM and Z get huge traffic, and produce their fair share of leads, we all know that the vast majority of the millions of page views are from non serious buyers and sellers i.e.., property voyeurs or nosy neighbours.
Even with serious buyers, a disadvantage of the portals is that your properties are competing with all others for eyeball attention.
We don’t need more portals, we need more valuation leads and faster sales.
The way to do that is to get more eyeballs to your own website where, apart from generating more valuation leads, buyers can look at your properties exclusively without being distracted/tempted by those of your competitors.
I achieve that via my PPC campaign which generates c10,000 site visits a month in peak season and even now is receiving c150 visits a day, and the quality of visitor means the ROI is so high it is nigh on incalcuable. Whilst I continue to use RM and Z I don’t depend on them to anywhere near the degree that most agents probably do, and my RM rep especially has been made well aware of that.
I would like to set up a nationwide network of agents using my PPC system, each with an exclusive area. In my humble opinion it is by far a better way of combatting reliance on RM and Z than with, dare I say it, a ‘me too’ like OTM.
I’d like to set up a meeting of interested parties in the New Year to explain how my system works. If you are interested email me at agentpink92@yahoo.com. For those who have already contacted me; I will call you early January.
“the ROI is so high it is nigh on incalcuable”
Oh my word I just snorted so hard in my office that people had to ask if I was okay.
1. Your post is not even relevant to the article.
2. You have advertised like this before.
3. I think you have an arena forum post going on which is about the same subject.
4. You do not know what you are talking about and agents listening to you should be very careful. I don’t agree with a lot of what you say and the rest, well, it’s just plain wrong.
5. IF I had an idea like this I would employ 100’s of local property experts, work your magical PPC system nationwide and become a millionaire within a few months. After all you have a lot of cash flow it seems. Why do you not do that?
6. Lastly, at least use some of that incalculable ROI to expand the number of branches you have which at the moment stands at one!
Sick of self-promotion, especially where it can potentially hurt an agent investing.
What I don’t understand (and perhaps someone can enlighten me) is why large companies pay lots of money to acquire online agencies when, with the resources they have, they surely could design their own from scratch.
Hybrid and online is a race. If you spend that time and money on your own proposition you’ve already fallen behind the guy who already has his own product and is already making it better.
Seems pretty obvious if you ask me.
Hmmm pretty sure I could design one from scratch a lot better. You don’t have to be the first…. just the best. ‘iphone’ v ‘blackberry’, ‘facebook’ v ‘ MySpace’ , ‘google’ v ‘yahoo’. Any other examples?
VHS v BETA….shows how being first and with momentum can win. The first to market and got the stranglehold even though Beta was superior in terms of tech..old skool! Got to be in it to win it.
Brand separation.
Let’s hope they make a better job of their online business than their high street ……
No. let’s hope that they don’t!!