A property business hoping to raise £200,000 via crowd-funding is forecasting that 7,000 high street agents could shut.
Honest Homes, which values itself at £2.5m according to its Crowdcube page, describes itself as a proptech platform that aims to cut out the high street agent by providing landlords and tenants with the tools to manage the letting process.
It says its platform does everything from listing properties and tenant-finding to automating the move-out process.
It says it saves landlords weeks of time, and cuts admin costs from as high as 12% down to 3%.
Honest Homes says that the future tenant fees ban will raise high street agents’ fees, adding: “The property market is moving online with 7K high street agents at risk of closing.”
The business is led by Lucie Nguyen, who has been a landlord for over ten years.
By yesterday, Honest Homes had raised £80,410 from 38 investors, 40% of its target. The campaign still has 26 days left to run.
It says that it has already built a beta version of its platform, and will use new funds to build a commercial version in the second quarter of next year.
https://www.crowdcube.com/companies/honest-homes-ltd/pitches/bMp65Z?evnt=update_viewPitchCTA
Comments (15)
So where did she get the 7000 figure from? Plucked it out of the air? This crowdfunding lark sounds brilliant. Think of a stupid business idea to solve a problem that doesn’t exist then get a load of gullible people to part with their money.
Nuts, absolute nuts of an idea. Another one who thinks it can be done while sat in an armchair and rake off the profit from the misery they will cause to both landlord and tenant. If they think its such a good idea, why cant they fund it themselves or get a business loan …. or is it a business plan (that’s stretching the imagination) that’s doomed to failure like all the others that have gone before. I notice that the founder of Honest Homes has no previous experience within the sector, search of the company and her previous company she set-up, doesn’t appear to have employed anyone …. says it all?
It predicts 60,000 properties in 5 years time!
There a three main reasons why an internet letting agency is not nor ever will be a good investment / business proposition:
1) The cost of marketing for new business is prohibitive when trying to create a national brand.
2) The margins in lettings are already low. (Some properties yield £50 per month – how much less do you want to charge??) If you do charge less you are guaranteed to lose money, irrespective of model.
3) Landlords either will do it themselves (fb or similair) or they will use a local agent. Local agents on a national level (not just London/s.e… yawn) are not that expensive for the work involved. I dont believe there is a market for part service in lettings except for the very determined or ill informed. These types of landlords are few and far between.
Computer code works fine when everything is black and white. Unfortunately people are not black and white, we are not just dealing with bricks and mortar we are dealing with peoples everyday lives. These all singing, all dancing, industry revolutionising business’s fail to see the inherent fly in their ointment. Business with succeed or fail on communication. Emails have a function but do not meet the needs of the majority of peoples wish to physically speak to someone who understands their situation.
Self service automation is about as much use as my windows help button.
It those fancy buzz words again…proptech, crowdfunding and ‘values itself 🙂
I think if recent history is anything to go by, it is these types of companies that are at risk not high street agents. Tepilo, Emmov etc on the verge of going bust, PB still losing money despite the hundreds of millions invested, Doorknobs not getting anywhere near escaping from his bedroom.
All this “tech” they talk about…no actual tech is ever explained. Just bang it on RM & Z that is all.
Pretty sure “Honest” Homes isnt exactly the right name for the company
……and “Honest Homes”?
Dis!
There should be a Law against this practice of “sweeping/unsubstantiated” statements which form a central part of a Crowdfunding pitch.
Such a law would allow those Investors who are suckered into investing to take action to recover their money when it transpires to be no more than a fake dollop of honey to attract their money.
……or do the daft investors simply deserve all they get when the opt to throw money into a dark pit?!
There should be a law against this being newsworthy.
” Honest Homes, which values itself at £2.5m according to its Crowdcube page ”
I’m an experienced valuer, I value Honest Homes at 3 marbles, a conker and a button.
Sorry, htsnom79 – but you’ve just delivered the stereotypical overvaluation that gets our industry all the bad press
;o)
haha. Love it, very funny.
Made me smile and reminded me of the brief stint I had in the footballing world and someone said “Ric will be worth a million one day…” and the first team Manager (famous to some people) at the time replied “he will, a million rice crispies”
That much? Looks a tad high to me.
Worth about the same as Foxtons or Countrywide then ….
This is possibly the most confused thing I have read; a lettings platform to cater for To Let by Landlord that’s promoting itself with a claim about the closure of sales agencies that seems to have overlooked that established firms like UPad already offer the service and do it very well.