Thinking of making a website like Rightmove etc

Section62

DefenderUK said:

Hmm, I thought allowing free signup would be a good usp as non of the big boys do that, have you any suggestions ?...

Temporarily offering something for free isn't really unique though.  The big boys - if they felt you were capturing market segment they wanted - would be able to allow free signup as well if they wanted to.  And their pockets are probably much deeper than yours when it comes to bearing the cost of a loss-leader.

DefenderUK

Section62, The big boys would'nt be able to offer free signups though as it would destroy their business model, although I do wonder why nobody has challenged them so far...

p00hsticks

DefenderUK said:

Hmm, I thought allowing free signup would be a good usp as non of the big boys do that, have you any suggestions ?...

Well if I sign a contract with an estate agent I don't pay anything up front, only if and when I successfully sell the house. And as soon as I do my property details will be will put up on rightmove, attracting a wide audience of potential buyers, with the estate agent dealing with any enquiries arising, conducting viewings and negotiating on my behalf with potential buyers.  In my past experience a good estate agent can justify their fee in the enhanced services that they can provide and the better price they can negotiate. 

I'd much prefer not to have to deal with the seller in person when trying to arrange a viewing.  And if I knew that they'd only advertised on a website for free with no agents cost I'd be aiming to beat them down on the price...

Horses for courses, but I'm out....... 

Lj_likestosave

As others have said, the real issue here is that listing properties online is typically part of a package offered by the letting agents. So you're competing not just with the listing, but with all the other services they're offering. Your potential audience would be people who aren't looking for an agent to do all those other things, or perhaps who are interested in speculatively listing their property to gauge interest and market value? 

It's very hard to get the numbers you'd need to have an appealing marketplace. What I would also add is - if you did spend a lot of money and manage to attract people, there's nothing much to stop the big competitors copying you and allowing free listing by individuals. 

You need a USP that a big, financially powerful competitor couldn't just implement themselves if it proved a good idea. 

noitsnotme

DefenderUK said:

Hi user1977, yes i've run a profitable website for about 12 years now, do you have any good ideas or suggestions for my new idea ?....

How much money do you have to invest in this new project?  Anything less than at least a few hundred thousand pounds for SEO (or whatever it’s called now) and I’d say don’t bother.

Also, why would someone use your new unknown site when they can already list properties for free on Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace, both of which already have millions in traffic and pockets far deeper than yours.

marcia_

 I know someone who designed and built a property portal. Lots of fancy features. Spent many thousands, even hired someone to help. Got some people on board to advertise. Went bust in a year due to lack of customers 

DefenderUK

I must say that I'm surprised by the response, i thought the 'moneysaving' people on here would have been all for this idea, I do get that its going to be megga hard to do but I am surprised at some of the people on hear thinking that an agent is good value for money though...

Albermarle

marcia_ said:

 I know someone who designed and built a property portal. Lots of fancy features. Spent many thousands, even hired someone to help. Got some people on board to advertise. Went bust in a year due to lack of customers 

Even Purple Bricks, had to be sold for a Pound in the end.

user1977

DefenderUK said:

Hi user1977, yes i've run a profitable website for about 12 years now, do you have any good ideas or suggestions for my new idea ?....

No, you probably want to be asking somewhere else - we are generally people with experience of using Rightmove etc as punters rather than in running multi-agent platforms.

But what do you think you're going to offer that the likes of Zoopla or Onthemarket (which are both sizeable competitors to Rightmove, without yet supplanting them) can't?

MyRealNameToo

DefenderUK said:

Hi saajan, I think you are right about the site not having visibility to begin with and so people would not list there, but I thought that my angle to overcome this would be to promote the site as an additional free ad space in addition to their chosen portal rightmove/zoopla etc sort of an extra freebie

So if you arent charging people to advertise on your site what are your revenue streams? 

The aforementioned none agent options do list properties for sale on their own website but they also integrate to RightMove so properties added to their site go to RightMove, Zoopla and others on the higher tier services too, but they are charging because they'll be paying fees to RightMove.