Would you use this?

The_Palmist

When you say local information , do you mean just your local area or my local area too ? Are you planning on covering all of England ?

Before I part with my £250, I would like to know if you are a one man band ? Do I get a no sell no fee kind of assurance ? How would generate local area information specific for me which would be different to what I can already find out using Google ?

Also if I am buying and using your site...the thought of calling using 0844XXXXXX would put me off. If the sellers are paying you £250 to basically just advertise, the least I would expect is that you make it easier for any potential buyers to contact the seller. Perhaps a free email option would do.

Good luck with the venture. Sorry to be blunt here but I have had another thought, I once bought a phone contract using a website which gave me a good deal and shut down the website when it came to cashback time and I could just never trace them and gave up. What sort of guarantees do you have in place or will have in place to assure me of your credibility.

seemore

The_Palmist wrote: »

When you say local information , do you mean just your local area or my local area too ? Are you planning on covering all of England ?.

Specific to the area I wish to target - I do not wish to target the entire UK.

The_Palmist wrote: »

Before I part with my £250, I would like to know if you are a one man band ? Do I get a no sell no fee kind of assurance ? How would generate local area information specific for me which would be different to what I can already find out using Google ?.

I hadnt planned to offer this, but I see you point. What sort of system would you find acceptable (that is acceptable to the customer and to the business)? Something like No Sale xx% of listing fee back? If so, what %?

The_Palmist wrote: »

Also if I am buying and using your site...the thought of calling using 0844XXXXXX would put me off. If the sellers are paying you £250 to basically just advertise, the least I would expect is that you make it easier for any potential buyers to contact the seller. Perhaps a free email option would do.

This was intended to avoid publishing the home owners actual telephone number. I'd be open to suggestions of alternatives & would like to know why the 08xxxx number would put off a potential buyer? I'd also provide a masked e-mail address for customers. Something like "doornumber"_"street" @ the website .com, which would forward to the vendors actual e-mail address. It would be easier to simply publish the real contact info, but I dont think vendors would want that. I wouldnt!

The_Palmist wrote: »

Good luck with the venture. Sorry to be blunt here but I have had another thought, I once bought a phone contract using a website which gave me a good deal and shut down the website when it came to cashback time and I could just never trace them and gave up. What sort of guarantees do you have in place or will have in place to assure me of your credibility.

This is a tough one as I think 'the level of credibility' required varies from person to person. The site would of course have SSL certificates which you'd usually get with an e-commerce site - even though the site will not be e-commerce. Other than that, the contact details published and the general 'feel' of the site I'm not sure. What would you look for if thinking of using such a site?
Hi there, thanks for this post. Its quite constructive!

seemore

DannyboyMidlands wrote: »

There is no point. Why look at them all individually when rightmove has alll of the same information in one place?

This is wrong. The site you mention only lists property from agents who subscribe.

googler

seemore wrote: »

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..."?

By ...
walking along my High Street?
talking to real people, rather than googling?
going out into the community?
looking at their adverts in the local press?
seeing their adverts in free papers and business guides?
etc
etc

I can name all of the agents who have an office in the town I live in, and I could take a good stab at naming all those in my county, too. I don't need to google my town to know this. This will vary according to the size of one's town, though - I wouldn't expect to be able to do this if I lived in London or Birmingham, for instance.....

googler

seemore wrote: »

Specific to the area I wish to target - I do not wish to target the entire UK.

Is the area you wish to target in Scotland, or England/Wales?

North/South/East/West?

Specific county?

seemore

googler wrote: »

By ...
walking along my High Street?
talking to real people, rather than googling?
going out into the community?
looking at their adverts in the local press?
seeing their adverts in free papers and business guides?
etc
etc

I can name all of the agents who have an office in the town I live in, and I could take a good stab at naming all those in my county, too. I don't need to google my town to know this. This will vary according to the size of one's town, though - I wouldn't expect to be able to do this if I lived in London or Birmingham, for instance.....

Seems you'd do anything and everything to avoid using a website. Interesting stance from someone who is a forum member with almost 6000 posts

seemore

googler wrote: »

Is the area you wish to target in Scotland, or England/Wales?

North/South/East/West?

Specific county?

North of England

googler

seemore wrote: »

Seems you'd do anything and everything to avoid using a website. Interesting stance from someone who is a forum member with almost 6000 posts

It's not a case of trying to avoid using a website - you ask how people would know which agents were in their area without googling - I'm telling you that, despite my user name, I didn't need to google to reel off all the agents in my town, and most in my county, and that others may acquire this knowledge by going about their normal business in the community.

I'll bet a good number of residents here could do the same. Big cities excepted, after a few months or years of residence wherever you are, couldn't you do so too?

jamesperrett

In our area, if your house isn't on Rightmove it isn't for sale. When I was searching for my current house I gave up looking at any other website as they just had a subset of the properties on Rightmove. Any sensible vendor will insist on a Rightmove listing.

James.

The_Palmist

seemore wrote: »

Specific to the area I wish to target - I do not wish to target the entire UK.

I think you will make a lot more money from advertisements. I mean charge the homeowners a minimal initially as you need to establish a brand first, create some reputation [hopefully a good one]. I am happy to advertise my stuff on gumtree as it costs me nothing but I think twice about ebay as it charges me a fee. Not the same thing but hope you get the point. Attract cheap sellers like me who hate to part with their dime and target any local businesses like solicitors, photographers, surveyors etc. to generate revenue.

seemore wrote: »

I hadnt planned to offer this, but I see you point. What sort of system would you find acceptable (that is acceptable to the customer and to the business)? Something like No Sale xx% of listing fee back? If so, what %?

Something like pay when the sale is complete ;-) I realise this adds more work in order to make sure people do pay.

seemore wrote: »

This was intended to avoid publishing the home owners actual telephone number. I'd be open to suggestions of alternatives & would like to know why the 08xxxx number would put off a potential buyer? I'd also provide a masked e-mail address for customers. Something like "doornumber"_"street" @ the website .com, which would forward to the vendors actual e-mail address. It would be easier to simply publish the real contact info, but I dont think vendors would want that. I wouldnt!

I see your point. Call a 084 from your mobile or land line and you will see what I mean. I agree about protecting identity. Why not leave the option to advertisers ?

seemore wrote: »

This is a tough one as I think 'the level of credibility' required varies from person to person. The site would of course have SSL certificates which you'd usually get with an e-commerce site - even though the site will not be e-commerce. Other than that, the contact details published and the general 'feel' of the site I'm not sure. What would you look for if thinking of using such a site?
Hi there, thanks for this post. Its quite constructive!

This will take time and patience, a robust audit and review system in business plan will definitely help towards achieving it. Good service speaks for itself.

Think again about generating revenue from local businesses especially those like self employed, small scale companies who don't have their own websites etc.