Online estate agent Comparison Site. Benchmark the price

dptowers

nobetterboy. Some comments:

1) At AgentQuote we hand-vet our leads to ensure quality.

2) AgentQuote gives you an opportunity to be in the marketplace. Many vendors will simply telephone the first Estate Agent that comes to mind. With AgentQuote all local agents have opportunity to compete for the business.

3) These are genuine vendors making genuine enquiries. It's rude, and reflects badly on your agency when you don't bother to respond.

4) I'm sure, as an estate agent, that you are quite familiar with dealing with third parties, or being the third party, as you are undoubtedly on right move etc. and are likely offering referrals to solicitors, HIP people etc. Given the fact that estate agents essentially sit between the vendor and the buyer as a third party, I don't think they are in a position to hold forth on the ills of third parties!!

5) Don't assume that the general public are stupid. People are more than capable of looking at each agent's profile, their list of services, their rating and their quotation response and deciding who's value for money and who isn't. The public do it all the time with car insurance, broadband providers, and other utility suppliers (see moneysupermarket.com and !!!!!!!!!!!!!! etc.), why shouldn't the model be applied to estate agents?

nobetterboy wrote: »

I am an estate agent, and I regularly get these "leads" arriving in my inbox. They get deleted straight away. We do not have a set fee so we would never be able to send that question answered back. I also do not feel just by looking at words on a screen that you are able to choose which agent is right for you. Through AgentQuote the agent never receives your contact information but must pass it to the company themselves, and we are not in the business of dealing with companies that sit in the middle of us and clients. I completely agree with TheBeagle regarding not wanting to pay for the service.

dptowers

PasturesNew, this is a value added site. You add the value by giving feeback on the agents that you choose to use.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Still pants.
The world needs VALUE ADDED sites and services.
Not just more sites.

dptowers

Dear Jayne,

Please be assured that your contact details are not passed on to any estate agents until you invite them to undertake a market appraisal on your property. You are in control, it's your choice.

jayne_just_learning wrote: »

I visited the site and input my details, you have to give a specific address and contact details. I then had to validate my email address to create the account. Having done that it does not then show you which agents it will approach. For me it just said they will contact 20 local agents who will respond with a quotation. Although it assures me that no one will contact me if I don't wish to hear from them I am sceptical! I'll let you know how things go in due course . . .

Conrad

If you take a stroll over to the mortgage section there are plenty of posts bemoaning mortgage lead generation outfits, which in the end do not add value, but just about pay thier way if your lucky.

In the beginning some brokers swore by these companies, but this is no longer the case. There is NO substitute for simply being the best business in your town. EAs are like restaurants - the really decent outfits are know to all.

TheBeagle_2

dptowers wrote: »

nobetterboy. Some comments:

1) At AgentQuote we hand-vet our leads to ensure quality.

2) AgentQuote gives you an opportunity to be in the marketplace. Many vendors will simply telephone the first Estate Agent that comes to mind. With AgentQuote all local agents have opportunity to compete for the business.

3) These are genuine vendors making genuine enquiries. It's rude, and reflects badly on your agency when you don't bother to respond.

4) I'm sure, as an estate agent, that you are quite familiar with dealing with third parties, or being the third party, as you are undoubtedly on right move etc. and are likely offering referrals to solicitors, HIP people etc. Given the fact that estate agents essentially sit between the vendor and the buyer as a third party, I don't think they are in a position to hold forth on the ills of third parties!!

5) Don't assume that the general public are stupid. People are more than capable of looking at each agent's profile, their list of services, their rating and their quotation response and deciding who's value for money and who isn't. The public do it all the time with car insurance, broadband providers, and other utility suppliers (see moneysupermarket.com and !!!!!!!!!!!!!! etc.), why shouldn't the model be applied to estate agents?

I want to make a few points about your comments;

1) How do you "Hand Vet" the clients to ensure quality leads?

2) Only agents willing to pay AgentQuotes fees are able to compete for the business - even after paying the fees the agent doesnt necessarily get the business - this equals a waste of money.

3) How do you know that they are genuine vendors - All agents are aware of a large percentage of people who test the water and play the market - you have absolutely no way of telling if these clients are genuine, yet AgentQuote charges agents regardless!!

4) You comment on the fact that estate agents deal with third parties so why should they deal with a forth party which introduces a client to an agent who in turn introduces a client to a buyer or tenant. Too many parties involved here dont you think???

5) This model can be applied to estate agents but you need a far better system to do this. By charging agents to be on the site per post code then charging them again for the leads, then you only get agents with large "New Business" budgets using this service. Agents with these budgets have the highest charges and therefore will only lead to the general public not getting the best deal which defeats the whole point of the website!! The public do use sites like "moneysupermarket.com" and the companies do pay moneysupermarket but only when a client completes a sale through them - not for them getting a lead!!

This site can work if it is fair and a lot more research goes into it but at the monent it only serves to mislead clients. A client may think that an agent is ignoring their request so may leave negative feedback. This may just be the fact that the agent isnt willing to pay AgentQuote for the lead - Inturn the site could be very detrimental to an agent who doesnt want to pay for leads by having negative feedback. This site is NOT a comparison site but a site that makes agents compete for business - only agents with highest budgets can win!!

dptowers

TheBeagle, I perceive that you are an estate agent?

The agents (small, medium and large) who respond promptly to enquiries and fill in their profiles, so that the consumers can read for themselves about the quality and scope of services offered, are being invited to appraise. After that point, it is up to the agent to make a good job of winning the listing. I have seen agents offering £100 introduce-a-friend schemes recently, and that for a listing, not completion. I have also seen offers of free HIPs (these must be costing the agent at least £200)... so our small and reasonable introduction fee to the agent for a motivated vendor lead is fair and insignificant. We consider complaints about vendors that are time-wasters on a case by case basis. A vendor that selects one agent over another is not a time waster, it just means that the agent that lost the business did not make the right impression during the appraisal process. Agents are not currently paying any subscription to be able to respond to enquiries, and this will be subject to ongoing review as times goes by. SO PLEASE REVISE YOUR COMMENTS AND STOP STATING OTHERWISE. We fully intend to continue to offer a FREE, unbiased, useful service to consumers (where they give feedback on the agents that they used) and a competitive, fair service to estate agents that want to increase their listings, based on their ability to repeatedly deliver a good service to their clients. We are fully aware of the numbers and quality of vendor leads that agents we have spoken with are receiving from other portal services, and how much they are paying for those services. We believe, in the light of this information, that our service is good value for money.

TheBeagle_2

dptowers wrote: »

TheBeagle, I perceive that you are an estate agent?

The agents (small, medium and large) who respond promptly to enquiries and fill in their profiles, so that the consumers can read for themselves about the quality and scope of services offered, are being invited to appraise. After that point, it is up to the agent to make a good job of winning the listing. I have seen agents offering £100 introduce-a-friend schemes recently, and that for a listing, not completion. I have also seen offers of free HIPs (these must be costing the agent at least £200)... so our small and reasonable introduction fee to the agent for a motivated vendor lead is fair and insignificant. We consider complaints about vendors that are time-wasters on a case by case basis. A vendor that selects one agent over another is not a time waster, it just means that the agent that lost the business did not make the right impression during the appraisal process. Agents are not currently paying any subscription to be able to respond to enquiries, and this will be subject to ongoing review as times goes by. SO PLEASE REVISE YOUR COMMENTS AND STOP STATING OTHERWISE. We fully intend to continue to offer a FREE, unbiased, useful service to consumers (where they give feedback on the agents that they used) and a competitive, fair service to estate agents that want to increase their listings, based on their ability to repeatedly deliver a good service to their clients. We are fully aware of the numbers and quality of vendor leads that agents we have spoken with are receiving from other portal services, and how much they are paying for those services. We believe, in the light of this information, that our service is good value for money.

dptowers - just like your site, you are full of inaccuracies.

You havent replied to any points raised but rant and rave at the fact you think your site is an amazing revolution. Its a money making making website that is by far NOT a comparison site.

I urge any consumers who read this to just phone around your local agents and find out their prices that way - You can also haggle with them if you like but I recommend you do not use AgentQuote as it is an inaccurate site that leads the consumer to believe that they are getting the best deal in their area.

Myself and clients have tested the site and found some interesting facts.

1) When a property was submitted for renting a list of 20 or so agents were sent the property. Only 2 replied offering their services, and they wern't particularily great deals. This is because agents already are not willing to pay the fees on a whim. We tested this with different properties in different areas and the same tiny percentage of agents came back with not very competative quotes.

2) All of the agents on that list were large agents. We called around to some of the smaller agents (who dont pay your fee) and instantly got 3 better quotes.

3) You openly admit in your comments that the service for agents is not free - This again shows that only agents willing to pay your fees will benefit from your site. What you think is a fair fee is subjective and what may be fair to agents in the south east of UK may not be fair to agents in the North or West Wales etc. You say agents are not paying a subscription to reply to enquiries yet you charge agents to be on the site per post code on a monthly basis - This for starters shows it is not a fair site.

4) If the site was free for everyone and the site made money from advertising or you found a way of charging agents once they made a sale then that would be a fair site and could truly call itself a comparison site. Until then im afraid - the consumer isnt likely to get the best deal.


For info - I am not an estate agent.

theferret

This site does appear to be designed to make dptowers as much money as possible with little thought given to the consumer.

Personally I like the sound of using advertising to cover costs/make money as put forward by TheBeagle, this could truly lead to an impartial site that would benefit the consumer and not just dptowers' pockets.

easyride

jayne_just_learning wrote: »

I visited the site and input my details, you have to give a specific address and contact details. I then had to validate my email address to create the account. Having done that it does not then show you which agents it will approach. For me it just said they will contact 20 local agents who will respond with a quotation. Although it assures me that no one will contact me if I don't wish to hear from them I am sceptical! I'll let you know how things go in due course . . .

Hear, hear. The quote is on thier charge. I thought it would be a rough guide to the price of the property!

A_Guard_Swine

Hey.
I am willing to bet that you see this site on telly soon.

WATCHDOG !!!!

What a dodgy site !

It is a con and what’s more its tacky as hell !

Even the sofa sales are more believable .

The have a list of areas here
http://www.agentquote.co.uk/B ( I guess some kind of Google bomb ) but every link says the same thing ! Apart from the town name.

CHEAP TACKY AND LOW !

Any EA who uses this must be desperate.