A firm has hit back at claims that online estate agents are the “noisy neighbours” of traditional high street firms but nothing more.
In his most recent blog, published on Eye here, Cheshire’s Maurice Kilbride argued there is a huge flaw in the online agents’ business model – and that a home is unlike “any other commodity which you can buy and sell on the internet”.
He suggested computer algorithms cannot identify a property’s shortcomings, interact effectively with the seller, or negotiate with a potential buyer.
He concluded: “What irks me more than anything is that most of these online/low cost agents don’t seem to realise or more probably care that they are cheapening the image of estate agency, making out anybody can sell a property: it is easy and tempting to devalue the excellent work many agents do.”
However, David Rook, managing director of Esaleuk.com, said Kilbride’s arguments were “fundamentally flawed”.
He said: “Mr Kilbride’s premise seems to be that few, if not all, online agents have little or no experience in estate agency.
“He seems to be happy to tar all with the same brush, suggesting they should be given no more credence than your average ‘cowboy’ trader.
“In reality – whether online or on the high street – we are all of us in the same business and many on either side of the fence have similar experience and knowledge. It’s just that we have chosen a different business model. Nothing more and nothing less.
“Contrary to Mr Kilbride’s erroneous perception of what we deliver for our clients, we consult at length with each one on their property’s best points, arrange floor plans and photography, deal with the marketing, highlight all new properties to the market on our social media feeds, negotiate with potential buyers and even help manage the moving day.
“We offer detailed advice on how to prepare for or conduct a viewing – we even have our own YouTube channel which includes handy How To… guides.
“Mr Kilbride suggests only high street agents can feel a client’s ‘pain and anguish’. Indeed, we hope our customers feel neither in their dealings with us.
“If they do, we offer a no-quibble money-back guarantee. If they’re not happy with our service, all they have to do is tell us within 30 days of engaging our services and we will refund any money paid directly to us.”
However, Rook said he does agree with Kilbride’s view on the future of traditional high street agents.
He said: “In ten years’ time, more online competition will probably mean estate agencies from both sides of the technological divide – to quote Mr Kilbride’s blog –‘go the same way as the proverbial dodo’.
“We acknowledge that quality of service will remain the key to success in the industry and that will mean good estate agents will survive – regardless of whether they are online or on the high street.”
Esaleuk claims to have 30 years’ experience in the property market and a turnover of £8,000 per month over the last year.
* Meanwhile, although probably no reminder is needed, Monday night is Beeny night.
Sarah Beeny and her C4 series about online agents is expected to feature Adam Day’s Hatched tonight.
Her latest tips, according to the Daily Mail’s This is Money, are to: ditch wooden floors for carpets, take decent pictures, and don’t pay traditional estate agency fees.
The first two points are spot on – Eye has always taken against wooden floors (noisy things), and our highly successful Picture of the Week shows just how important good photos are. The third point is, of course, to be expected.
But we were a bit surprised to find out that “a Prime Location report recently said that buyers are now spending 17 hours on average each week looking at properties on the internet”.
Really?
It would surely be a lot quicker to go up and down a couple of high streets, a few times. And stop off for a coffee.
Beeny’s latest tips are here
Comments (25)
It's interesting to hear different people points of view. I left a high street firm and set-up a new company just over 18 months ago working from home, but offering a full service (accompanied viewings, quality brochures and so on). 18 months on we are now a team of 6 and have the biggest market share locally (according to you know who). We now operate from a 'non high street' based office.
I am a true believer that it is possible to be market leading in your area, and not be on the high street (as we have clearly proven) but it takes more than a one man band approach to work. For example, how many of your clients would be happy to know that the phone isn't going to be answered whilst you are out on viewings/market appraisals and so on.
I think the national online model will work for some, but if I was selling my house I would like an agent to be answering the phone who has seen the house, knows the area, and would be meeting me at the property for the viewing. Also to be there throughout the conveyancing process to deal with the usual problems. With the larger national companies having just one major account with the portals etc I can't see this happening for some time.
Perhaps there will be more discussions going forward involving 'High Street' V's 'Online' V's 'Local Non-High Street' agents?
I am sure there will be more hybrid models Mark, it works well in the USA so maybe here too, although we are much more conservative and reluctant to change in the UK. However since we are essentially a "people" industry, I believe your type of model has more potential to grow than the faceless online agencies.
Well said Mark. This is what i'm banking on and aiming the business towards, we will be able to produce a 100% complete estate agency business model with professional website every 48 hours.
Thanks Maurice. I agree that 'people buy people' over anything else. I also agree that the majority of clients still base their decision on the correct factors such as service, local knowledge and reputation. Being a local 'non high street' agent enables us to still do all of the above but offer the additional advantage of a cost saving. We offer all of our clients exactly the same commission rate, openly promote this and receive great feedback on the transparency that this brings. I now consider us to be as effective as any other local agent (with the added bonus of free parking for staff and clients!).
If most agencies were to suddenly ditch the high street office and relocate to a well placed 'non high street' office location do you think they would get any less business? I think the problem going forward is that very few companies would be willing to do this as it would be seen as a backward step.
Thanks Trevor. Interesting to hear that you are now supporting the non-high street approach over traditional services. It is surprising how many companies there are which are similar to Treagust & Co within the local area + 50 miles. Generally the successful ones are those where the directors/owners have worked for a number of years within their area and already have an established client base/network. I think an individual would struggle starting from scratch in the same way that many franchise on-line start-ups never quite get off the ground.
Well we support both but changing the way that high street agents have worked for years is not easy, I think that it's pretty easy to get going locally, as long as you are professional and offer a great service and commission fee you will be onto a winner. It's much easier to start a local business than a national one, too much comp and faceless, also as you mentioned, franchise, they cost a fortune, with our model we can get people moving from £99 a month no upfront payment needed. Interesting times.
I think if you are a forward thinking business person you have got to be prepared to face challenges head on and never say never to anything. As I said earlier Britain is quite conservative and resistant to change, but if your success starts to be replicated around the country I am quite sure progressive agencies, in particular smaller ones would take a look and make a considered business decision in respect of the way forward. Ultimately it is about delivering the best consumer experience. I for one would look at consumer trends and if I felt that was the way to go in the future, I would have no hesitation in adapting my business model. However at this stage I am not sure consumers are prepared to make that quantum leap! The relatively small numbers still using online agents would suggest not.
Just out of interest. Have you been "invited" to join agent AM with this model?
Hi Zed, Yes we have been 'invited' to join OTM as we are a full service agency with a manned office which the public can visit at any time during trading hours.
Interesting. Thanks for the reply.
Maurice – If I was still working at a high street firm I too would be very hesitant to change the approach if it was still working OK. It is all about consumer experience and I have found that in working with a different set of figures being 'non high street', has enabled us to offer further options to our clients that we would not have been able to have done previously. For example, we now have a full-time in-house professional photographer (degree qualified) which is something none of our local competitors are able to offer their clients.
Hopefully my posts here will encourage people to see that there are a few of us out there who comfortably fit in between the ongoing Online V's High Street battle!
Complaining a traditional agent is making a sweeping statement about online agents is rather hypocritical. Onliners seem to only sell by attacking high street agents, do not be surprised if some bite back.
Oh dear, poor Mr Rook of Esale.com? you obviously have a really chip on your shoulder don't you! At no point in my blog piece did I mention or discuss the backgrounds of anybody working for online estate agency models, nor did I describe them as cowboys. What I said was the model constantly sells itself on the savings it can allegedly make for consumers on fees whilst doing the same job as high street agents – which is simply not true.
You also state and I quote “Mr Kilbride suggests only high street agents can feel a client’s ‘pain and anguish’. Indeed, we hope our customers feel neither in their dealings with us. Again my point being that an online model does not have the personal interaction with clients, the inevitable ups and downs of moving home that you suggest your clients don't experience with you – which is naïve beyond belief or tells me you clearly do not understand the process as well as you claim.
As I stated in my piece, I believe there is a niche market for those who want a cheap, do it yourself model and some online firms use technology extremely well. I believe there is a place for both models and choice is good for the consumer. So far despite all the talk though, online agents still only account for between 3-5% of all house sales in the UK and there must be a reason for this?
Nope. No chips here. We read an article which we felt needed a response from an online agent and the Property Industry Eye editorial team were fair and allowed us to present one. Simple as that really. Not for one minute do we expect our high street friends to agree with us – but neither do we have the time to become embroiled in a protracted debate. To be honest, we doubt our customers are all that interested in inter-agency bickering about who has the best business model. In our experience they're more interested in quality of service and value for money – and our feedback suggests we can get that right
What never ceases to amaze me is that if I had an office that was doing less than £100K in 2013, the most prolific year for some 5 years previous, then frankly I would be closing it, not giving it a mouthpiece as any sort of spokesperson for an industry. There are people at car boot sales that will have generated more revenue.
This is exactly the attitude that makes people want a less expensive alternative to a high street agent. Good luck to Mr Rook and may you soon have your M3 repossessed.
How can you even make a comment like that without knowing HOW much it costs me to ensure my vendors and landlords get the sort of service they need from ONE office. Once you have that information then make a judgement!!!
But did you not make a judgement on the other guys business without knowing anything about his financial commitments. Anyway it was the tone of your reply that I objected to, it made you sound like the archetypal money grabbing agent of old, scoffing at the new guy.
Firstly Zed, my point was simply that as the article lead was detailed relating to the fact that small online only agents are given a disproportionate amount of airtime compared to their turnover. And turnover isn't about flash cars, its about HOW many transactions and therefore customers one deals with. This agent offered his turnover up as a yard stick to be judged by and I did just that. Secondly he isn't new, he's apparently been in the property business for 30 years, so I was hardly picking on the newbie either was I. My mother makes about £150 a month for the church selling sticky buns but that hardly makes her a spokesperson for the cake industry.
'Zed' – "But did you not make a judgement on the other guys business without knowing anything about his financial commitments." Okay – HERE'S what you can pick up in a minute's glance on his website about his "financial commitments" – SIX members of staff; monthly payments to Rightmove and Zoopla of probably a couple of grand a month or more; and some kind of 'local Agent' to drop a few quid to for every out-of-area instruction. Sorry – but the figures simply DON'T STACK.
Just for the record the turnover quoted was for 2013 with one part time member of staff. It stacked up quite nicely.
"Just for the record the turnover quoted was for 2013 with one part time member of staff. It stacked up quite nicely."
ONE part-timer? REALLY?
Well… just for the SAME record, according to your website the company was "founded in 2010". So… what you are saying is that in three years of trading you'd only hired half a body – despite in 2012 stating your Agency extended coverage to include "Harrogate, North Yorkshire… East, West and South Yorkshire"?
Poor bu99er must have been kn@ckered!
No wonder, then, when you fluffed up your feathers and went "national" you went on a hiring spree – and how quickly the results showed… by 23 January you apparently had yourself a "team" which included at least one "Dave"(that would be YOU, I expect…), a "Mark" and a "Tim", that customers were already raving about on your reviews.
It's funny, but you'd almost think from reading the remarks of these satisfied customers that they'd been there and dealing with the clients for quite some time!
I'm quite sure of course that isn't the case – otherwise you would have said so.
I'd hate to think that what you state above as fact could in any way, shape or form be just as spurious as others made by certain online Agencies who couldn't lie straight on a granite mattress…
Not so quick to respond this time, Mr Rook…
“What irks me more than anything is that most of these online/low cost agents don’t seem to realise or more probably care that they are cheapening the image of estate agency"…….It irks me as well……yet your homepage, selling page and everywhere on your site is "savings…..our customers save on average £3k ish, we save you money etc etc……. Why, if you really MEAN what you say in this article, don't you lead with SERVICE over savings…….you see the main reason that online agents (whatever model) are failing is because they are distancing themselves from the high st agents rather than trying to tell would be customers that they strive to actually be like them. On the one hand you say that many online agencies "cheapen the image" of agency……..yet this is exactly what you are doing. You may increase your 8k a month (nationally I assume) if you actually looked at this.
The online guy does 8k a month, nowhere does it state Mr K's turnover.