Would you use this?

jjlandlord

seemore wrote: »

* A sigle up-front fee - circa £250 tbc
- versus the typical agent fee of between 1%~3.5%+vat of the selling price. On a £150k sale @ 1%+vat thats £1.8k in fees!

You're comparing your fee for online ads only (as far as I understand) to the fee estate agents charge to market the property, conduct visits, deal with offers, etc. That's not the same.

seemore wrote: »

* No contract & No cancellation charges

Contract for what, cancellation of what?

seemore wrote: »

* People who may already be with an agent & who want MORE marketing for their property

If they are with an agent, their property is already displayed on the major websites (Rightmove and co.). Why would they pay £250 (which is a lot) to have it on one (currently unknown) extra site?

evoke

What about EPC certificates and photography? You would be legally bound to display the EPC summary graph. This is a service that EAs provide, and a good photographer ain't cheap. What about floorplans? Who's going to measure up accurately?

googler

seemore wrote: »

Main Unique Selling Points (USP's) of the proposed site would be:

* It specialises in local property from just one region
- catering for people who want to buy/rent but stay in their region

So why would anyone from outside the region look there? They'd look at the existing portals and sites, surely? How would they know you existed? Google? How many people search for property through Google in preference to established agency sites and portals?

seemore wrote: »

* A single up-front fee - circa £250 tbc
- versus the typical agent fee of between 1%~3.5%+vat of the selling price. On a £150k sale @ 1%+vat thats £1.8k in fees!

* No contract & No cancellation charges

You're comparing apples and oranges with the fees. Different service, different fee. No cancellation fee isn't unique. A single up-front fee isn't unique either

seemore

GAH wrote: »

I can see what you are trying to suggest, trying concentrate locally, but your target audience won't really care about that if you are solely internet based.

I dont have stats at hand but I should imaging the lion share of people moving would be moving to a new house within the same region.

There is lots of info available which shows that most people search on-line when looking for property. If that is the case, wouldnt they Google a phrase like "Property for sale in.." and similar?

GAH wrote: »

Plus with all the points below from what you have suggested, you will have find lots of properties to make a living, £250 minus Advertising - Professional photo's, other overheads, won't leave you much in way of profit.

Depends on how much you think is a good salary... 200 x £250 = £50k. 200 properties over a year is only 16.odd per week.

googler

Would this website be defined as acting as an Estate Agency for the purposes of the Property Misdescriptions Act?

jjlandlord

seemore wrote: »

There is lots of info available which shows that most people search on-line when looking for property. If that is the case, wouldnt they Google a phrase like "Property for sale in.." and similar?

They do.
And obviously Rightmove and friends know that because that's how the market works: You want to buy or rent in a specific place, not "in England".

If I google "to rent/for sale in <my town>" I get exact matches from all the big players and results for my town only.

DannyboyMidlands

"wouldnt they Google a phrase like "Property for sale in.." and similar?"

Absolutely not. Have you ever searched for property in this way?

I just tried it for my local area and got a list of local EA's, findaproperty, rightmove and zoopla etc. It's a silly way to search when I can simply go straight to rightmove and search for whatever I want. Even down to a particular street.

wastedtalent

A bit like this? http://www.rightmoveplaces.co.uk/

evoke

Jeez.

OP: you have your answer now. Try another enterprise... LOL.

Kudos to you for being thrown into the lion's den and fighting your corner like a man. Respec' n 'ting.

seemore

DannyboyMidlands wrote: »

"wouldnt they Google a phrase like "Property for sale in.." and similar?"

Absolutely not. Have you ever searched for property in this way?

Yes.

How else would you get to know which agents operated in your area if you didnt start with a search like "Property for sale in..."?

DannyboyMidlands wrote: »

I just tried it for my local area and got a list of local EA's, findaproperty, rightmove and zoopla etc. It's a silly way to search when I can simply go straight to rightmove and search for whatever I want. Even down to a particular street.

...and if within those results there was a listing for 'the proposed site', why wouldnt you look at it?