Online agent Yopa says it has had a strong start to the year, taking seventh place on Rightmove last month for the highest number of listings, up from eighth place in January last year.
It also claims that it increased revenue by 38% and has reduced costs by 40% year on year with a “record low customer acquisition cost”.
Yopa reports that there has been a 43% increase in income per listing, and that agent tenure – the length of time that one of its local agents stays with it – is up 29%.
Agent earnings are also up 74%, it claims, adding that an average of 9,414 new buyers registered with Yopa each month last year.
Former Countrywide boss and now Yopa chairman Grenville Turner said 2020 has been the company’s strongest start to a new year: “We’re delighted to see that the strides we took in the second half of 2019 are turning into real results.
“Re-launching our ‘pay later’ product whilst gearing up our No Sale No Fee bundles gave our customers the greatest possible choice in terms of fair fees and helped us improve our share of listings.
“By introducing a bespoke mortgage proposition, Scout Financial Services, improving engagement with our legal services and successfully implementing key contact centre tech helping us have more conversations with more customers more often, we have surpassed personal bests for revenues from both instructions and ancillaries.
“Yopa’s performance in January is very encouraging – as is the business pipeline.
“It’s pleasing to see that revenues for our business partners and Yopa itself are ratcheting up whilst we continue to deliver an award-winning service to our customers.
“Further, our business partner base is both increasing in tenure and expanding, and agent earnings are up 74% year-on-year.”
Turner went on: “It appears that the current window of political and economic stability is tempting both sellers and buyers into the market, and we are in a fantastic position to service this demand.”
Yopa said that it has agents across the country who are backed by two state-of-the-art contact centres in Watford and Hinckley.
It also claimed that it is continuing to save customers money with its “fair fee” model.
Based on what it says is a typical high street commission of 1.2%, Yopa’s figures claim an average saving of £1,780 for customers.
Yopa has also pointed out that its Trustpilot score has remained Excellent, at 4.7/5 from over 9,000 reviews, and that 88% of all Yopa reviews are 5/5.
Turner said: “At Yopa, we are committed to offering a complete, end-to-end home selling service for a fair, fixed fee.
“Our focus has always been helping both vendors and buyers enjoy a smoother move by taking some of the worry and hassle away from what can be a very stressful and expensive process.
“We’re delighted that our new measures are already yielding fantastic results for our customers and we’re in a great position to continue this success over the year ahead.”
Yopa’s last filed accounts show losses of over £30m for the year 2018, which it described as a “year of investment and strategic change”. However, yesterday Yopa told us that it has made significant inroads into reducing its losses over the last 12 months.
A spokesperson said Yopa would not quantify figures for the moment.
Backers of Yopa include the investment arm of the Daily Mail’s owners, plus Savills and LSL.
LSL is currently in talks for a possible takeover of Countrywide – Grenville Turner’s old firm.
Yopa losses widen to over £30m as it predicts ‘significantly improved performance’ ahead
Comments (11)
And in other news, PB drop below a quid, just over 95p at the time of writing, still overvalued and still rubbish at the job.
This is the biggest story of the day – a PB share price collapse – is it being driven south prior to being brought back in to private ownership?
YOPA may be turning a corner in terms of instructions numbers up but it maybe into a blind alley. It has never made a profit and is unlikely to and without extra funding in 2020 it is unlikely to continue in its present form. How many decades to see a return on investment of £90M, how many ‘traditional’ cold start branches would that have bought, how much profit would they have generated to date.
Other clouds on the horizon, like many online agents its fee options to the vendor are likely to be tested, in the sense that the Competitions and Markets authority recently stated ‘“Competition law exists to ensure businesses compete fairly and customers are protected from getting ripped off.’
For example, YOPA offers three types of fee option.
Option one pay upfront, £999. If your home fails to sell, YOPA keep your £999.
Option two pay later, so if it sells or does not sell you pay £999 later, so a 50% chance YOPA keeps your money for not selling your home.
Option three, no sale no fee – no fee quoted you have to talk directly to the local YOPA agent. This appears to be akin to the traditional no sale no fee option.
On top of this – in option one or option two if you want accompanied viewings there is an additional charge of £300 to £399. So you could if you take option one or two pay £1398 for not getting your home sold, if you are one of the 50% that do not get to exchange with YOPA.
Am I being unkind to YOPA? No many, but not all online agents have a low teaser rate advertised which becomes a bigger transparent fixed fee, which must be paid – but is the vendor aware that they have a 50% chance of paying for nothing? And then paying a second fee to the next agent that gets them to exchange.
Last year nearly 22,000 Purplebricks vendors took their property off the market with Purplebricks. At an average fee of £1300 that is more than £28M of fee, paid out for zero houses being exchanged. For sure Purplebricks converted more than 50% of their instructions to exchanges, but an awful lot of folk paid out and then paid again when they used a second agent.
Some say it is about choice, I am all for that, but an informed choice for the consumer would be an honest transparent approach.
Imagine that I owned a second house. I plan to move into this second house and I pay a tradesman to fit a new boiler, another tradesman to fit a kitchen, a roofer, an electrician, a plumber etc. etc.
They have all finished and are stood at the front door with their respective agreed quotes asking for payment.
I say “sorry lads, I’ve changed my mind, I’m not going to move in after all! I know you’ve done the work already, but I’m not going to use any of this fancy new kit anymore so naturally won’t be paying.”
The concept of paying for the work provided, on a direct “Cash for goods/services” basis is everpresent in society and far more common than paying on a NSNF basis. It shouldn’t be a shock to anyone.
So you’d pay for your new boiler, let someone come in, drill a couple of holes in the wall then disappear into the sunset never to be seen again – and be happy with that outcome?
You need to work on your analogies.
Increased revenue from the dire previous performance given marketing spend in the tens of millions? unsurprising.
Basically reads as a press release that their agents will then be putting on linked in etc and PIE should be applying higher standards of reporting if they want to be an actual source and agenda setter in the property press.
PropertyIndustryEye are reporting the ‘news’ as it is – as others will be seeing it elsewhere.
It alerts our industry to what is being said – how can you have a problem with this?
It is hardly a glowing advert – the word “claims” appearing four times in the article speaks volumes in my book.
As you have said, YOPA will be shouting this nonsense from every rooftop they can – and it’s YOUR potential business they will be chasing.
To be forewarned is to be forearmed, surely?
Not forgetting any imminent potential round of fund-raising, plant ‘good’ press before getting out the begging bowl.
i expect a trade publication to hold to account agent’s claims and provide context. Not act as a mouth-piece to a press release.
Yes, you might analyse it and look at the connotation of ‘claim’ etc, most people don’t. There will be regional managers on their Linked In accounts trying to recruit agents in good positions from independents to join this cash burn as we speak.
The industry has done us all a massive disservice from Rightmove to websites such as these, as they act to amplify the heavily invested sector of proptech against the merits of independent agents that actually a) generate real wealth and b) employ people over the longer term and don’t just bring them in and out because it suits stock market plans.
Perhaps if Eye were really on the pulse they would have a good look at the Barclay /Ritz story in today’s Times and be asking what ramifications this might have for YOPA and the timing of this press release.
“There will be regional managers on their Linked In accounts trying to recruit agents in good positions from independents to join this cash burn as we speak.”
PropertyIndustryEye are not responsible for career decisions made after swallowing ******** on LinkedIn or any other platform. And they certainly haven’t given anyone with half a brain a reason to depart for pastures greener with their coverage of the subject in this article.
Frankly, the YOPAs of this world are welcome to any Agency staff whose heads they can fill with magic with their ridiculous drivel – promising limitless wealth and a grandstand seat to witness the imminent demise of the industry that had no doubt carried these gullible individuals.
I would suggest you find some of these “agents in good positions”, shake a cloth bag in front of their noses – and tell them you have some beans for sale…
…I reckon they’ll be the easiest and most profitable sales of your life.