The man behind online agent easyProperty, whose business model is to charge 0% commission, says that traditional agents are putting themselves in danger.
Robert Ellice, founder of the firm which he expects to launch in the week of September 15, said: “I think the days of a standard traditional agent, who has little web presence and who expects customers to walk in through the door, are numbered.
“Unless they adapt, they will simply not be around in a few years.
“I believe there were will be a shift to an online market share of between 25% and 50% within four years. I think you would have to be pretty brave to think that won’t happen.
“I also think there will be two or three more big national operations like us – and obviously, with up to half of the market between us, that adds up to a very healthy business.
“At easyProperty, we are most certainly not in this for the short term.”
In an interview with Eye, Ellice said he did not think easyProperty has any comparable competitors at the moment.
He said it had raised over £5m in eight days earlier this year, and added that his property management business, Clarke Hillyer, will continue.
Ellice also revealed that former Countrywide boss and Rightmove founder Harry Hill is not chairman of easyProperty – despite early discussions for him to take the role.
Ellice himself is acting chairman of easyProperty, pending a decision in the near future.
Hill does, however, remain chairman of Clarke Hillyer.
Ellice also confirmed plans to expand quickly into sales and, within three years, to take easyProperty – for which he has a 20-year brand licence – into Europe.
Ellice also said that he thought it was “nuts” of OnTheMarket to ban online agents.
He said: “It’s very short-sighted. But I suspect they won’t be around for long enough for me to worry about it.”
Read the full revealing interview below.
Comments (22)
Online agents will end up fighting other online agents rather than normal agents. People will either want one or the other.
Agreed, Stevep316 – but look at the weaponry they have against each other: Discount… Reduce… and Slash! It'll no doubt get messy… ;o)
It’s an interesting and ongoing debate! We hosted a roundtable debate last July on the topic ‘online vs traditional agents’ which came to an interesting conclusion. Please feel free to find out more http://vtuk.com/-VTUK-Round-Table-Debate-Full-Write-Up.
"Users posting comments on the site may not post direct hyperlinks to other websites and especially may not do so by use of their username."
Oh, yeah – that was the "full write up" of a three hour debate that takes one minute twenty eight seconds to read – and four times longer to correct the grammar. "Interesting" isn't a word that I would use…
PeeBee – I have just sprayed coffee on my keyboard. 🙂
Sorry Mr Walker – send me the bill c/o Ros ;o)
Hmmm… I'm adding "27/8/14 – Made Eric Walker spray coffee on his keyboard" to my CV. Got to be seen as an 'achievement' by Those In High Places, hasn't it… Hope you don't mind, Mr W! ;o)
P.S. Not Found
The requested URL /-VTUK-Round-Table-Debate-Full-Write-Up. was not found on this server.
Apache/2.2.22 (Ubuntu) Server at vtuk.com Port 80
Benay – the write-up IS there …unfortunately… try again without the full stop. The poster should have known it would cause ****-ups to have one there…
To be honest, these two articles enabled me to write my blog piece this morning ARE EASYPROPERTY AND PURPLEBRICKS A THREAT TO OUR INDUSTRY? hope you find it inetresting reading? http://how-to-grow-your-lettings-agency.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/are-easyproperty-and-purplebricks.html
Did Ros sanction you posting a link to your blog? Bad form if she didn't.
Did we sanction Ros to spam us with marketing email **** from her advertisers?….
No, so bad form there too.
Er – yes. Assuming you registered and didn't hack in 😉
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Aluminium saucepans?
If you have ever seen any of Chris Watkins Blogs or insight into the market or how to raise revenue you know he needs all the help he can get. To say they are a very basic view of the industry is an understatement.
err Web advertising has been around since the late 1990's and with big portals so for over a decade they still haven't been able to corner the whole market. On-line agents just can't get over the fact that the cheap quick fix model doesn't work as history has proved and some important facts are not everyone is on the internet, we are seeing more people are coming off and consumers dislike call centres even more than estate agents for not being able to offer anything like the service a high street agents does . High Street agents have nothing to fear, but need to be on the game. On-line portal people need to stop bickering over their dislike and trying to stuff high street estate agents, they should be more worried about the expansion of on-line portals competing against their small chunk of the market.
Really interesting that OnTheMarket get a big thumbs down here. The big portals have of course provided the means by which online agents can say "we can market your property just like these local guys". No exposure with OnTheMarket is clearly a frustration/risk for the online model. Advertising monopoly costs are one reason to support OnTheMarket, but a far bigger reason to support an agent owned portal is to push back and say "buzz off back to cheap flights and hotel rooms".
People will always need people ! adjust-adapt-overcome !!
Great last sentence… I love the part about "won't be around long enough for me to worry about it".
N.Ireland / Ireland have already an Online Estate Agent called Sure2Sell.co.uk they have been in operation for the last year or so, they are certainly the largest in Ireland with over 1000 properties, you can add your property from home, choose your extras like , sales board, EPC, video tour, etc.. I do believe with the big boys now getting involved it will be the end of the smaller high street agents to start with, but i feel the larger agent will try to re-create themselves to the public. unfortunately for them the new generation are coming along whilst they still rely on the old.