Website for privately selling a property

Trollfever

Is this similar to your business model?

http://home-garden.shop.ebay.co.uk/Residential-Property-/10542/i.html

googler

What are the unique selling points that you will offer that will tempt people away from the existing 5 or 6 agents? You're free, and they charge? Well, if all that being free gets is a listing on your new, untried and probably little-found-by-google website, that doesn't seem a good deal to me. We can return to SEO and how you get your web traffic later, but on the business itself;

If the only way that you make money is through the 'extras', then if all of your customers forego the extras, you'll be running at a loss straight away, won't you?

Here's one way of looking at it - there's 5 or 6 agents working your 'area' at the moment - I don't know if this is one town, or a county, or some other subdivision, but - go to zoopla, and look at how many actual sales there have been in this area in the last few months. Take out the new-builds, if any, that have been sold from site cabins and not through the agents. Take out re-mortgages and purchases of local authority housing, and note how many sales are left, and the total value of those sales. If you want to estimate what the existing agents seem to be making at the moment, apply their average commission percentage to the value of the sales, and divide by 5 or 6. If that figure doesn't come up to what you want to make from your business idea, you'd probably best stop reading now, since you seem to want to earn less than them, and possibly give your services for free....

How much market share do you project that you'll take away from these 5 or 6 agents in the first year or two? 10%, 15%, 20%?

Apply this percentage to the value of the sales in any one month from the recent months, and apply an assumption on how many customers will purchase your extras to this figure.

That would seem to indicate your income whilst you build the business, and chip slowly away at their market share.

Does this match what you want or need to make from this business?

googler

Oh, and another thought; if people are placing their properties For Sale on this website, they're selling them publicly, not privately......

googler

I take it you do want to run this as a business, and not as a hobby...?

littlened

Thank all, there's been some constructive feedback given. It seems this idea wouldn't go far, so far now I think I'll knock it on the head.

chickmug

littlened wrote: »

Thank all, there's been some constructive feedback given. It seems this idea wouldn't go far, so far now I think I'll knock it on the head.

Unless you can link in with someone with the 'know how' on house selling like an agent who sees a benefit by attaching to their existing business? I found myself into major web spend every 2/3 years and the last time was getting quotes of £6,000 - £10,000 so if you can offer something where you do this as part of the deal they could be interested. I would of been if I was still in the business.

ali-v-8

just so you know i work on netmovers
This is a commision free estate agent.
Believe me when i say estate agents dont like you.
You need to rethink you business model.
Either you do the same or your just an estate agents directory.

googler

ali-v-8 wrote: »

just so you know i work on netmovers
This is a commision free estate agent.

If it's commisson-free, how do you make money from it?

HomeBuy3780

I think this is an excellent idea. I would go ahead with this.

The first reason for this is, I just hate estate agents...
Second reason is I don't like to pay someone for just talking...

I, my self, am developer and would love to do something like this and I am a FTB looking for properties now.

Cheers for the great idea.

jago25_98

Ad supported? Go for it :-)
Put search results from other sites side by side and with your results at the top. This could even be done with frames, but better with javascript.

Then hopefully do the same with ebay and all the monopoly sites.

If the monopolies object the OFT need to grow some balls and support the economy for once in one of the few ways we can.