A new agency is starting up, with some ex-Purplebricks people at the forefront of the business.
Knock Knock has Michael Booth and Nick Yuen as agents, and Stephanie Walker as strategic consultant.
Yuen and Booth were both Territory Owners with Purplebricks, while Walker was head of recruitment in the US and before that, head of UK customer support.
Knock Knock, which Walker said yesterday is about ten days off launching, will operate an online hub-and-spoke type of model, with self-employed agents in different locations.
Unusually, it will charge fees to incentivise both seller and agent: £3,000 payable on completion; plus £2,000 if the home is sold at the agreed valuation; plus up to £1,000 if the home is sold for over the valuation, with the difference split between vendor and agent, capped at £1,000 for the latter.
The business will be full-service, offering everything from photography to accompanied viewings.
It also suggests that its agents will individually have fewer properties on their books, but have greater focus on each one.
Virtual pre-viewings are also cited on the website, which went live yesterday, to ensure that only interested and proceedable buyers go on to have physical viewings.
Walker said that a number of agents are expressing interest in joining the start-up and said they were not just from Purplebricks, but other backgrounds.
The business says on Facebook that it is looking for valuers or branch managers “who want to do what they do best, without conforming to the High Street or online mentality of quantity over quality. You will be supported with all the tools and tech you need to build your own successful estate agency with no costly overheads”.
The business’s director is Ian Townshend.
Comments (26)
I can see this working in London and the South East.
Not sure what USP it offers though.
Where does the ……
people flock to new start-up
come into play here .Does three ex PB Onliners make a flock ?
“Does three ex PB Onliners make a flock ?”
It’s not a million miles from the word I’d use… (insert cheeky emoji here)
If you have to incentivise your “Estate Agent” to get you a better price then you best buy a bag of carrots for that donkey who lives in your attic for free.
As I told clients years ago, when we started sliding scale fees in Scotland –
“If you want a performance related fee because YOU want to see a bona fida incentive in action, here you are ……or pay me this fee, and I will work just as hard. I don’t need an incentive to work for you to get the best price, if I did need an incentive then you are best choosing another estate agent”.
Very few clients opted for performance fees ….after I explained what I actually do for a living – work solely in my clients best interests!
Innovation seems to be recycling what has already been done, and often the innovation fails, because it isn’t …….an innovation.
Don’t get me started on these honey pot businesses/websites that fire in a lead that we would probably of got anyway on the condition they get .25 or whatever when we sell it, earning off the back of others, parasites.
What they are saying is, we can jump on the hub band wagon and earn off the back of others, without having to do it themselves? When will these people come to terms with estate agency is a service industry that requires dedication and devotion to employees to be successful. All that have tried the short cut have FAILED.
Self employed agents would be FAR better off working for themselves from home. At least when you burn out, it would be of your own doing!
There’s a nice incentive to undervalue!
What he said!
I thought that at first, however Highstreet Agents often overvalue during their first appointment to win business. (Average is an overvaluation of 15%).
It would be difficult to deliberately undervalue properties when all of your competition is slapping on 10% extra to convince customers to instruct them.
I’ll always remember being younger and my dad saying to me “I’m going to go with Smith and Co rather than Jones and Co because Smith and Co will get me £175,000. Jones said they could only do £160,000”.
People still genuinely believe that estate agents have the power, or the salesmanship skills, to consistently sell houses above their real value. For most people, they will not go with someone with a comparatively low estimate.
“…however Highstreet Agents often overvalue during their first appointment to win business.”
SOME High Street Agents “overvalue”. Many don’t – but some of those will allow vendors to ‘test the market’ at seemingly inachievable figures (either quoted by others or simply the owners’ inflated idea/hope of their home’s worth).
But here’s the perverse thing. Sometimes, those properties actually sell for the inflated figures. Maybe not often… maybe just once in a blue moon does this happen – but when it does, then it sets a new bar for that street/area.
And just for clarity’ sake – remind me…
…isn’t that the job of the Agent – to secure the best outcome for their paying client?
“…isn’t that the job of the Agent – to secure the best outcome for their paying client?”
Hear, bl00dy hear. According to some past commentators on here, agents should be castigated for selling a property for too much and “ripping off” a buyer and also castigated for underselling a property (actually, I agree with the latter!)
Praise where praise is due – the incentivising commission structure related to price achieved is a Good Idea. That said, I cannot see the model succeeding in sufficient volume to earn a decent living for everyone involved.
“Praise where praise is due – the incentivising commission structure related to price achieved is a Good Idea.”
Hmmm… according to their website,
“if we sell over the valuation we split the difference with you, but we cap our fee at £1,000”
So I’m not seeing any “Good Idea” (ie incentive) to encourage the Agent to overachieve by any more than two grand, AgencyInsider.
Happy to reconsider that opinion if you can convince me otherwise – but I just see this as marketing bu11sh!ttery…
Hang on, wasn’t one of these on here only a few months ago saying accommodation.co.uk was the next big thing? What’s happened to that?
The prospect of a ban on referral fees must be a concern.
One thing has been proven this last few years and that is that the public do not require their agent to have an office anymore!!!!! Not all of them anyway.
A capable work from home or serviced office solution is acceptable nowadays.
PurpleBricks and Emoov etc struggle/d financially due to the stupidity of their charging practices and their lack of empathy for their clients and engagement with their clients’ neighbourhoods oh and poor service.
Clearly trying to rip off our usp. But obviously not as high tech as us at Ding Dong Estate Agents.
Surprised to see negative comments already (actually, no I am not surprised).
You get berated if you do a pay anyway model and berated if you do a No Sale, No Fee model – what do you want from people?
Good luck to them! It’s a unique model! They’re not trying to ‘disrupt’ or ‘revolutionise’ Estate Agency so will be interesting to see how they take off.
Knowing both of the agents, they are both smart and good with customers so it’s a good base to start with for Knock Knock!
” Good luck to them! It’s a unique model”
Nothing unique about it at all .Many agents agree “incentivised fees” and have done for years . Fell out of favour many years ago when somebody got found out deliberately undervaluing the property so as to look as ift hey had done a great job getting the price and maxing out the fee
This type of fee structure is unique that is what I am saying.
Past experiences do not always mean it will be the same in the future.
Lighten up!
Again it’s not unique at all just different to Purplebricks Incentivised fees structures have always been around and as another poster suggested it’s potentially open to abuse .
Yet another best next thing !Don’t go knocking at the crowdfunders door again They have had a gutful
“This type of fee structure is unique that is what I am saying.”
No.
It.
Isn’t.
I was doing Fee deals like this in 1993 – and I very much doubt I was first… or last… to do it.
*Slaps forehead
Good luck!
What a game changer! How ever will I, a traditional agent with offices and a website, compete?
Well while everyone was feeling sorry for the ex pb staff these guys have gone straight to another model that won’t work, beggars belief
From….. Frying Pan to Fire.
Like the name tho.