A 26-year-old online estate agent says he hopes to float his two-month-old company on the stock exchange by the time he is 30.
Tom Webster, named by the Huffington Post as its young entrepreneur of the week, launched Market My Property this summer.
He revealed that he set it up in order to produce leads for his financial business.
The site currently has four properties listed – but three are under offer and only one, a £950,000 property, is available.
He said: “I first saw the concept of online estate agencies about four years ago and knew that this was the future of home-selling, but it was early days for the market so I thought I’d keep an eye on how it develops as a viable service.
“As an owner of a financial advice practice, I know that having multiple revenue streams is key to success, I started to look into estate agency franchise schemes and partnerships but none of them impressed me and they were wildly overpriced for what I knew I could do better myself.”|
Webster also said that Market My Property was launched with help from a government-backed start-up loan.
He went on: “Our team is made up of digital marketing experts, an estate agent with over 30 years’ experience and me running the day to day of everything.
“I have found that selling houses is actually really easy as long as the price is right and the marketing is perfect. The rest just falls into place because of the property portals Rightmove and Zoopla.
“The tricky thing for us is getting properties to list!
“Most estate agents are complaining of a lack of stock at the moment so for us our challenge is to prove to people that we can do a better job than the high street and still save people thousands.”
He said: “I’m currently working on a unique franchise scheme for Market My Property which will mean we can be a national operation in less than 12 months.
“I would love to float Market My Property [on the stock market] before my 30th birthday that would be a great achievement for me.
“I need to hurry up but I think I’m still on target to be the youngest entrepreneur on Dragons Den. I want to sit there in shorts and flip flops and invest in everyone that walks through the door!”
The full interview is below.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/08/22/young-entrepreneur-tom-webster_n_5697529.html
Comments (30)
As for WordPress – The senior Google SEO guy Matt Cutts has often said that WordPress is a great platform as WordPress now allows many templated sites that often do the SEO for users.
Just looked at the property that is available and it quotes the 1991 PMA Act which went some time ago.
"Just looked at the property that is available and it quotes the 1991 PMA Act which went some time ago." It really boils me when websites are crammed with lazy inaccuracies. Worst of all is when, again out of plain laziness, website Wallys simply cut and paste information or content from those that have actually taken time – and paid money – to have it done right in the first place. For example, imagine how ridiculous and unprofessional it would look if a website OTHER THAN ZPG had something along the lines of "The Services and all content on our website, including but not limited to design, copy, search results, images, graphics, structure, layouts and the underlying software code are protected by copyright and trademarks and are subject to the intellectual property rights of Zoopla Property Group Plc and its licensors." as part of its Terms of Use…
I'll take it as read you agree, then… ;o)
"Online agent plans to float on stock exchange within four years". What in? A rubber ring?
Come on Chris, you have 30 years marketing advantage over me and sufficient experience to comment so please get on and address the point raised. Surely you know what the Easy usp is and enough experience to handle a polite request for information.
Granted you can probably see this getting out of hand if you don't come up with something good, but surely that is better than simply not replying. (That would mean not being able to comment on here with any credibility at all)
Sorry Chris neither of those are service industries comparable to Estate Agency, have another go.
As for the welcome you can thank Harry and Robert for that, you chaps come here with fighting talk and you can expect a scrap.
I am not sure if you will have access the full staff chart but Googling McCall and Easyjet should give you a heads up on who she is. A bit more research will show how GMG off loaded Think Property and about 10,000 agency feeds that turned into the £1 billion Zoopla within 5 years and how they have subsequently offloaded their crown jewel data set for an equally small amount of money to Lloyds bank. Now you might not regard Lloyds bank as a brand worthy of note but none the less they are competition for your ambitious plans. Perhaps no-one there twigged that little development in the industry?
In terms of £5million, that is an embarrassingly small amount of money to be crowing about, one chap I know is pulling that commission into a single office firm every 17 weeks. Another would be disappointed if that was his annual profit. To give you some idea where that places the firm and its ambitions you are circling the Sun out about where Neptune is.
Now then, back to this USP which you have managed not to include again. There is no shame in not having one, it just means firm that isn’t apparently going to charge anything and doesn’t have the world’s greatest reputation for service or quality has got to work quite hard to expand a 2% market share to 25% inside 4 years especially given corporate cleverness (Google Harry Hill) have taken 30 years to get to 10%.
@peebee if you read my comments I wasn't referring to Tom being a success in particular rather in general terms any market attracting fresh young thinkers will change the market in one way or another and usually to the benefit of the end user. Also to put your mind at ease, easyproperty is founded by an estate agent Rob Ellice so not quite a novice pilot rather an experienced one who has a vision for where the estate agent market is heading and wants to be part of that change.
@benay I never claimed to be a property expert rather a marketing one and one with sufficient experience to be able to comment on subjects that interest me and my business. Chris Welch Chief Marketing Officer easyproperty.com [ which is rather more transparent than "benay" 🙂
If you have an experience of marketing you ought to understand the importance of etiqutte. If you want to promote Easyproperty do the decent thing and cough up some of your marketing budget. Stop freeloading!
In respect of where the market is headed you probably ought to understand that despite how great your recipe for pork sausages you won't be selling many in Golders Green.
Mr easyproperty – try as you may to skew your original comment second time around – you are still ****** *****. "…any market attracting fresh young thinkers will change the market in one way or another…" ANY way of change for the better is welcomed – it is the "or another" that is the problem. Your 'welcoming' of any Tom, **** or Harry is a ridiculous gesture – but of course we all have figured it is simply an attempt at upping your SEO ranking. You can't get PR of your own so next best thing is to hijack everyone else's. Keep it coming – your lack of knowledge and ill-founded comments will no doubt be doing your brand the power of good ;o)
'Changing the market' was the breathtaking innovation of Amazon, PayPal, eBay and Apple Store – I am not sure this is quite the same, but I wish him all the best in his venture nonetheless.
@peebee if you think posting here will improve our "seo" ranking you are sadly misguided and need afew lessons in how to improve your google score. I was trying to give some encouragement to startups in this space,pr will do me little good since we have yet to launch.
@benay I think you will find our recipe goes down well everywhere especially in Golders Green.
What about Tesco? they have a brand name and failed with estate agency, also I cant really agree that purplebricks sticks in the mind, when you think of easy you think of flying, or a past girlfriend haha, just adding some humour.
@trevor Tesco failed for reasons beyond the brand. Purplebricks is distinctive wether its memorable is open to debate ,my point is a generic brand name has a harder task to standout from a crowded marketplace. As for the"easy" brand we think it works well in this space but we don't take our task for granted,as for your ex-girlfriends I assume there is a reason they are exes 🙂
"Tesco failed for reasons beyond the brand." Well… there's the 'No $h!t, Sherlock' statement of the week! So do ALL failures, Mr easyproperty.
"As for the"easy" brand we think it works well in this space…" Yet you have just stated that BRAND equals squat "in this space" as you so interestingly put it. Beggars belief…
TESCO failed to look into the law and launched a FSBO model that left it open to being classed as an agent under the Town and Country Planning Act/vis FS boards and thus PMA (Property Misdescription/ now superseded by CPR's). Their budget model of sell for a few hundred pounds left them under the cosh of Vendors creating PMA errors opening TESCO then to potential £5,000 fines. the model and law at the time made it unviable. Their legal teach ****** up big time.
Sorry to come back on this sufficient experience bit, I had a dig around and can't really find anything you could stick on a CV that I would class as relevant. You should be good at this; how about a 30 second elevator précis of ‘sufficient experience’ to convince us to cut you some cred and reinforce Easy ’s decision to give you a job.
It isn’t going too well so far; Easy are entering a challenged micro niche of an industry they don’t properly understand alongside a whole Drift of influential types eager to shove their collective snouts in the trough. Other Corporates have had 30 years at this game and have only built up a 10/11% fingertip grasp on the industry. The online PI industry can only muster 2% volume despite having all the same advantages as their retail decimating cousins and for equally as long so what is the Easy USP that should give established agency any cause for concern?
@benay well 30 years in marketing must count for something I guess. We have over 30 people working for us from property to digital to tech backgrounds . Online is growing fast but has been inhibited by a lack of brands investing in the space,that is changing as we speak. We don't underestimate our task, neither should you underestimate us. Time will tell who is right,the market will decide 🙂
Let's focus on the property experience bit and why brands have not invested in the space. Why do you and the board think that is? The opportunity has existed for 17 or 18 years and has been mature for at least 10.
Now I am sure you can correct me but is Ms McCall anything to do with this little foray? She had a go at this once before. Built a huge data empire to feed Think property and promptly gave it to Zoopla just as it had a chance of working. Let's have a run through a list of brands that have had every chance of being in this space but decided there wasn't any money in it; Prudential, Black Horse (They are having another go by the way), Woolwich, Halifax, Guardian, Daily Mail, Tesco, and Google.
I am not disrespecting 30 years marketing experience just asking for one example of something someone has spotted that will make confidence and cash succeed where folk with more cash and confidence have already failed at multiple times.
Can you name a single service industry that has transitioned to online to the detriment of its traditional base industry?
"…well 30 years in marketing must count for something I guess."
NOT a satisfactory answer I would suggest, when the original statement that was queried by 'Benay' related to your statement
"I never claimed to be a property expert rather a marketing one and one with sufficient experience to be able to comment on subjects that interest me and my business." You have MARKETING experience – NOT property industry, from your answer. In fact, your response indicates you're not even certain yourself. Let me confirm that point – you know squat about the subject yet you try to take on industry professionals who in many cases proudly wear decades-worth of hard fought scars from this industry.
Good luck – you're gonna need it. But, from what I have read ("…Chris Welch, who has a background in online poker businesses, is chief marketing officer…" – EYE, 19/3/14) – gambling is your chosen subject so maybe you'll be in your element with this duff hand you're holding.
@peebee@benay what a warm welcome to the property world 🙂 No idea who Ms McCall is sorry to disappoint you.
Markets change and evolve. Examples in the service sector are obvious travel agents and banks both still have a high street presence but much reduced. The world is moving from the physical to the digital like never before, does that mean the death of the high street agent no of course not ,but we would argue that more business will overtime move online and that this rate of change will increase as more people try it and like it.
Online gaming is one of the most sophisticated in terms of online marketing,you can apply the same marketing logic to the property sector,of course there are added components and complexities but bottom line in lettings landlords are looking for the best return on their investment if they can reduce their costs they make more return…thats easy maths in anyones book.
As for easyproperty being a gamble,well there is no such thing as a surething but odds are pretty decent on it succeeding where others have failed,we have think we have a great hand and as I know you play the hand your dealt. Indeed we are fundraising soon so perhaps you should hedge your bets and consider investing ,who knows you actually maybe wrong 🙂
"…what a warm welcome to the property world" I'm sorry – you come barging through the door, chuck in a lit firework then run back outside waiting for the bang – and you expect to be greeted with open arms? Blimey, mate – your thirty years of 'marketing experience' hasn't prepared you for the real world at all – has it? Lucky you're not in a public-facing environment then, innit – you'd get spit-roasted on a daily basis. ;o)
"Online gaming… you can apply the same marketing logic to the property sector" Oh I love it when the next Ratner enters the room! Keep teeing 'em up, Mr easyproperty… I'm getting my swing back thanks to you!
great to see new young entrepreneurs entering the property space. It will bring fresh thinking innovation and deliver better value to the consumer. In every market scale is critical in the online space unless you can carve out a specialist niche that will be Toms challenge , you can have the best site in the world but if nobody knows about it you will struggle to grow. My only other constructive comment would be that branding especially in online is key, having either a well known brand like "easy" or something distinctive like purplebricks makes you memorable and searchable, marketmyproperty is somewhat generic and sounds too similar to other brands in the space,look at amazon,google and ebay for branding inspiration 🙂
chris@easyproperty.com
"great to see new young entrepreneurs entering the property space." WHY is that, Mr easyproperty? To state "It will bring fresh thinking innovation and deliver better value to the consumer." is complete MDT – you have clue not one as to whether this latest offering will be a success… or monumental disaster… for its clients. A bit like your Mr Stelios welcoming in a new breed of pilot – they've never actually flown before but are much cheaper than the qualified ones who have actually landed a plane successfully…
"clue not one" ? Learn how to write/type PeeBee and stop polluting legitimate comments with your inane dribble
You call those above from the easy guy "legitimate comments"? You're having a laugh.
It is just as well you do seem to know something about portals – because you consistently demonstrate zero understanding in relation to pretty much anything else you care to comment on.
How ironic; the bloke who abhors stupidity demonstrates a gossamer thin level of understanding.
You might get away with pulling the wool over an industry ignorant client but your ignorance and arrogance is all too obvious for this audience.
Not only is easyproperty disregarding the site etiquette of not using URL monikers and including email addresses it is quite obvious he has very little knowledge of the Property Industry.
Sadly, an "entrepreneur" has become defined in Western culture as somebody who gets rich quick (often at the expense of others) and has an enlarged ego. If this young man wants to be an credible entrepreneur he should focus on doing something great. Something that improves peoples lives and the world we live in.
You can't knock his confidence but I won't be holding my breath.
And unless he has a time machine he's unlikely to be the youngest entrepreneur on Dragons Den either.
Haha, using WordPress and Expert Agent to power your website…. Good luck with that. Invest some real technology and perhaps you will see the benefits.