Tesco's EA charging £199

dnwilliams

FindaProperty and Primelocation support Tesco's private seller website.
The Mail on Sunday reported this week that FindaProperty and Primelocation are supporting Tesco's entry into the world of estate agency. Tesco one of the UK's best known retailers, has announced plans to enter the estate agency market by launching a service that allows private sellers to sell their property for only £199.
The new site service titled Tesco Property Market is due to be launched this month and will be supported with a website. Eve McGowan, of The Mail on Sunday reported "Those who fear Tesco is taking over the world may not be impressed by the supermarket chain's latest venture – a property website". The site allows homeowners to sell privately, complete with Tesco branded For Sale boards and viewings and offers arranged online. McGowan goes on to report that the site "will include tens of thousands of properties from all the major property portals including Primelocation and FindaProperty".

epz_2

Two hundred quid seems a pretty decent pricepoint for a telephone answering, appointment booking and website listing service with some boards thrown in.

i imagne the real money for tesco is trying to set up a listing site and the cheap rates are to build a critical mass of properties for sale, they will make a lot more money from other EA's listin on theres site eventually.

The internet killed the traditionally EA business, valuations are about the only thing they are needed for and HIPS will probably end up with a valuation service as well meaning they are basicly just there to answer the phone to buyers and bull$!t them, not exactly a long term business model when you charge £1000's.

wecanhelpu

I dislike the massive power and influence that companies like Tesco have in the retail market for various reasons which I won't go into now.

What I will say is that during the last housing boom, estate agencies were a sought after business and many large companies (particularly banks) spent millions buying up small to large chains of estate agents, hoping to cash in on the frenzy of activity taking place.
Many of these got their fingers burnt during the subsequent crash and lost all of their money.

Of course, in the late 80s we didn't have the interweb.

If this report is correct, Tescos have gone a step further and are hoping to build an agency from scratch using their popularity and brand name as a way of making even more money. The fact that the interweb is now available means their costs will be a lot lower, so they may be successful.

But then again, they could end up losing money and jumping ship if the market crashes again.

Who knows?

thelawnet

not on rightmove?

amcluesent

With the average house price of £189,000 that should mean lots of Tesco Clubcard points!

Doozergirl

Interesting, but a 'for sale' carrier bag on a stick outside your house?

Not for me!

Phirefly

I'm inclined to agree with Epz, sounds to me like they're not taking on the EA's, they're trying to go head to head with Rightmove themselves.

Usually I'm in complete agreement with wecanhelpu regarding my feelings toward Tesco taking over UK retail, I personally suffer because of this (Cherokee & Primark hand in hand killing the British Fashion Industry :mad: !!!) BUT in this case, I'm interested to see big guns out and aiming for Rightmove.....

CB1979_2

£199 service you'll have a Tesco "Value" for sale board
£299 service it'll be the Tesco for sale board
£399 service it'll be the Tesco "Finest" for sale board

lol

Phirefly

I personally would go for the mungbean eater special organic recycled board and top up my green clubcard points.

scrummy_mummy_2

Tesco's pretty much own our family...if you were to interrogate their clubcard they could almost identify my blood group and probably easily get my DNA!
I love to see them taking over establish marketplaces (in a slightly masochistic sort of way) because they are so good at it and charmigly ruthless to boot (must be the marketeer in me!) and we often joke about how we could, conceivably, be praying to the Gods of Tesco in the next 100 years when they usurp religion!

I predicted Tesco moving into 'moving' about 2 years ago when they dipped their toes into mortgages (with glee cos I hate estate agents, (they are generally young, flash and full of !!!!!!)...by the way, my sister is one so I do know some are nice!......my next prediction for their next move? (after garden centres...which I also predicted)...some sort of local fruit and veg delivery scheme/production/supermarket. They will be quick to catch on to the whole organic/local/environmental/recycling thing which is gathering apace....It might be 2/3 years off but the soothsayer doth predict it!

Phirefly

scrummy_mummy wrote: »

I love to see them taking over establish marketplaces (in a slightly masochistic sort of way) because they are so good at it and charmigly ruthless to boot

I can't work out if this is a serious comment or not....