Competing with Rightmove & Zoopla Locally? Can it be done?

[homeriscool]

I have been doing some research into building a local property site were homeowners can list their houses for sale without the need of an estate agent.

I know the big sites have the market cornered throughout the UK and no one can compete with them unless they have very deep pockets.

Locally theirs a better chance. If homeowners can take their own photos, upload them and arrange their own viewings that's the first step.

Once the house has a buyer they can arrange surveyors, and solicitors between them selves ( I will provide links to local services on the site).

How will the site make money?

The site will offer Free basic listings which can be upgraded to featured properties with videos etc.

They can pay me a one off fee and i can take photos, videos and aerial drone footage for them if they don't feel competent enough to do it them selves.

Estate agents take anywhere from 1 - 3% of the sale. This way eliminates that fee.

I build websites and have good knowledge of SEO. I dont expect to outrank the big guys in my city thats not going to happen. But, I could have more properties listed on my site all being promoted locally via soical media and local SEO.

This is only an idea at the moment....would just like some feedback from you guys.

 

[Graham Tyers]

I think you could.

It's pretty low levels of capital required and local knowledge is something big outfits can't compete with.

There is a good job here waiting to be done.

 

[mattk]

Rightmove is the de facto house listing site. The next best, Zoopla, only has a 25% market share having bought up most of the other smaller sites like Prime Location and FindaProperty.com.

Even at a local level you will need to have 90+% of the houses for sale listed, otherwise people will simply continue to use Rightmove. This means offering free listings to estate agents who still manage the majority of house sales. Unless you can integrate your site to their CRM meaning they can upload houses in one click, I can see any of them bothering.

Personally, I just cannot see that there is a demand for a local property site from buyers nor is there a significant enough cost saving compared to the likes of Purple Bricks to attract sellers.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I think there maybe a demand. There are no local sites with local property knowledge just agents !

 

[Graham Tyers]

There are local solicitors, local agents, local movers, local cleaners, local surveyors...

Getting their support should be fairly easy.

Also every time I've moved I've wanted a chain management portal, one place you can go to contact all the parties in a chain, ask questions of your buyer and seller, contact agents and solicitors etc.

I'm sure there are things like this could be added to work in a local context but not nationally.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

Local knowledge is a big selling point. I've moved around a lot over the past few years and I've learned you need to a fair bit of walking around at different times and days of the week to find what an area is really like. There is always something you're not being told.

 

[tony84]

A few years ago some of the bigger agents in the south got together to arrange a competitor to rightmove. Any agents who wanted to sign up could only list their properties on one other site (basically zoopla or rightmove) - for the life of me I can not name the website, which I think sums it up.

I am not a massive fan of estate agents, certainly not the big boys so I have no issues seeing them out of the loop, but they do play a role in the process - they vet buyers and sellers, they set peoples expectations no the valuation, they try to keep the chain moving forward and they act as a central point for us (mortgage brokers)/buyers to get in touch with. As they know the area well, we sometimes get applicants who do not know if the property is freehold or leasehold for example, we call the agents and get that information, it takes seconds and costs nothing - the alternative being to waste time waiting for the vendors or get a copy of the land registry.

I suppose the point I am making is that there is more to putting a property on rightmove/zoopla etc. When I sold my house, I was quite capable of getting it on rightmove for about £500 at the time, in the end I used an agent I know who charged me a grand.

 

[homeriscool]

A few years ago some of the bigger agents in the south got together to arrange a competitor to rightmove. Any agents who wanted to sign up could only list their properties on one other site (basically zoopla or rightmove) - for the life of me I can not name the website, which I think sums it up.

I think your talking about onthemarket dot com
But you still have to go through an state agent to get listed on the site.

 

[homeriscool]

There are local solicitors, local agents, local movers, local cleaners, local surveyors...

Getting their support should be fairly easy.

Also every time I've moved I've wanted a chain management portal, one place you can go to contact all the parties in a chain, ask questions of your buyer and seller, contact agents and solicitors etc.

I'm sure there are things like this could be added to work in a local context but not nationally.

I love your positivity Thanks

 

[tony84]

That sounds right.
But they with their budget of probably 10, maybe 100 times yours have probably not made a noticeable dent in to rightmove.

I understand there are differences, but I can not see how taking agents out of the equation helps the buyer or seller other than to help the seller save a few quid. I am not saying you will not make a success of it, I am just unsure what success will look like. I think you have your work cut out as you are effectively up against rightmove (etc), local agents and online agents to try and get a few sales.

If you are charging £500 a go for instance, you need 10 sales a month to probably make it worthwhile, maybe more depending on your costs. How big is the local area?

 

[homeriscool]

My local area has 50k residents so its pretty small. As of now there are approx 8000 houses for sale.

 

[UKSBD]

You will have to be careful if you allow people to upload their own images as they will probably upload images taken by previous estate agents

 

[homeriscool]

You will have to be careful if you allow people to upload their own images as they will probably upload images taken by previous estate agents

Would that be a copyright issue? would i be responsible?

 

[JpeeL]

Be a middle man between estate agent and seller, so you have a collection of houses from people wanting to sell and give access to all local estate agents. If they have a potential customer who’s asked them to look for xyz, they can search your collection.

If they find a match they then become the estate agent for that house/seller.

You could probably get paid by both the seller and agent somehow.

The benefit would be that the seller wouldn’t be tied to one estate agent, only once a buyer is found.

 

[homeriscool]

I do think this idea has potential. I can also get kick backs from solicitors, surveyors etc for passing them the business.

 

[UKSBD]

You may be able to compete against RightMove and Zoopla but can you compete with this? ;-)

 

[billybob99]

These are the kind of threads I like.

Very possible to do. Asking to be done.

 

[homeriscool]

These are the kind of threads I like.

Very possible to do. Asking to be done.

Thanks for the positive words.

 

[Socio South West]

Yes there is a good potential business model here... Get the site established, then get surveyors, solicitors, removal firms, cleaners etc paying for links/ ads etc...

Two problems for you...
1) Getting listers to understand that you are a listing site only and they are responsible for organising and conducting viewings and negotiating their own deals.
2) Getting enough traffic to the website from genuine buyers to make it work against the power of the other sites on the property market.

However... if you can overcome those issues...

You franchise the idea to someone else in a nearby area.... and someone else... and someone else.... and before long you have a national site... just like... errrr...

 

[Mark T Jones]

Many, many folk have tried to 'disrupt' the Estate Agency market - most have failed. Even Purple Bricks haven't yet achieved real success.

Most people claim they can't be sold to, and many dislike/distrust Estate Agents, but the fact remains that the human element and marketing skills of established agents add real value to the process.

Your project will almost certainly attract some interest and should be relatively low-cost, but in reality is unlikely to be in any way scaleable as a business

 

[billybob99]

Thanks for the positive words.

My friend is doing this in Birmingham, doing it well and making a killing. If it had aspects of your idea it would take it to another level.

You've probably seen this - just a kid, slightly different take on your idea but was still entering a cut-throat space.

The people that sit there and end up writing 500 page business plans aka Harry Potter novels don't really get anywhere nowadays.

Every idea takes a few bob to test of course, that's the risk - aside from that there is nothing to lose.

Your idea sounds like it would need to be a SaaS offering - and a lot of the startups I know that have now scaled into 100+ employee companies started by giving the impression they had a fully fledged version of their product.

If you get a certain amount of interest or sign ups you can determine whether its worth building or not.

 

[ethical PR]

Would that be a copyright issue? would i be responsible?

Of course it would. And you would be responsible.

Probably worth you reading up on copyright law and costs involved if you publish someone's else's work without their permission.

 

[Financial-Modeller]

Why local?

Will you lauch a 'local website for every area e.g. www.HousesForSaleatMyTown.com and www.HousesForSaleatYourTown.com?

Apart from the opportunity to link to local solicitors etc, what value is the 'local' part of the experience?

You seem to be taking all the benefits of the internet - global presence, scalability, low-cost, reduced labour, volume etc - and systematically removing those benefits for a reason that is not clear.

As mentioned above, PurpleBricks have a not-dissimilar model that is struggling to make an impression. Partially because they rely on humans to meet for viewings. When one party doesn't turn up confidence quickly falls away.

 

[homeriscool]

Of course it would. And you would be responsible.

Probably worth you reading up on copyright law and costs involved if you publish someone's else's work without their permission.

Ok so there's one potential issue that needs addressing. I can stipulate all photographs have to taken by the homeowner and any stolen images will be removed immediately and refunds will not be given?

 

[homeriscool]

Why local?

Will you lauch a 'local website for every area e.g. www.HousesForSaleatMyTown.com and www.HousesForSaleatYourTown.com?

Apart from the opportunity to link to local solicitors etc, what value is the 'local' part of the experience?

You seem to be taking all the benefits of the internet - global presence, scalability, low-cost, reduced labour, volume etc - and systematically removing those benefits for a reason that is not clear.

As mentioned above, PurpleBricks have a not-dissimilar model that is struggling to make an impression. Partially because they rely on humans to meet for viewings. When one party doesn't turn up confidence quickly falls away.

I see your point from a growth perspective. However, from an SEO perspective you would need a huge team to scale that big which is a huge financial investment upfront with no promise of a return. And trying to compete with the big guys who are turning over £140 million per year.

A small local operation is much more manageable, has low financial investment. Even a small local operation can still turn a decent profit and provide a comfortable living I would have thought.

 

[billybob99]

Even a small local operation can still turn a decent profit and provide a comfortable living I would have thought.

Even a small local operation can turn into a Goliath if done properly or just sit back and dominate your local area, nothing wrong with that either.

 

[homeriscool]

[

Even a small local operation can turn into a Goliath if done properly or just sit back and dominate your local area, nothing wrong with that either.

I'd be happy dominating a small local market which can provide a decent income for many years to come.

 

[Martyn Thompson]

It will take a lot of work, and I would recommend building up one particular area at a time.

 

[CVRO]

What differentiates a lot of ideas is the implementation. Get the implementation right and you will stand a much better chance of success.
However, even a perfect implementation is no guarantee of success.
The idea seems to have started as a website to replace estate agents and later on morphed into a middleman of sorts between estate agent and buyers.
Those are two different propositions. Can you go for both strategies or would you be spreading yourself too thin?
If you choose the option to become a middleman between estate agents and buyers who would pay the estate agent's fee? That goes against your initial idea of eliminating that cost to the buyer.

By the way, I'm not saying it will not work as I do not know you and have no idea about your skills and resources; I'm just raising questions for you to consider...

 

[MBE2017]

Anything can work, but I think this would require deep pockets.

 

[Maxwell83]

Old thread but thought I'd contribute as it has recently become relevant to me - Looking to buy and sell at the moment, and from my perspective as a seller I am seeing a lot of online estate agencies who will get my property on RM & Zoopla for as little as £99 if I do everything myself. I want as many eyes on my property as I can get and I wouldn't bother with any service that doesn't include at least 1 of those 'Big 2' portals. What are the chances that a prospective buyer would be searching a small local portal but would have not looked at RM & Zoopla first?

From my perspective as a buyer, I think the answer to that question is "very little chance" - RM and Zoopla were the first places I looked without hesitation, and only after exhausting those did I try and find other portals but seeing 2 houses in my criteria instead of the 40 on the RM meant I spent 3 minutes on those other sites looking at those properties then immediately went back to the 'Big 2'.

There is no reason that you can't set up an online agency (there are lots of new entrants to that market), but price it to include at least one of the big portals (or at least make it a chargeable option).

Based on your original idea, to make money, you need the customers that want extra services like photo's, viewings, footage etc - anyone stumping up for those extras should be willing to pay extra to get on the portals. Even considering even the most price sensitive sellers - If given the choice of £100 for photos to sit only on a relatively unknown website v £100 for a listing on a big portal with amateur photos, which one would most people choose?

 

[Owesdr]

I think that this is very good idea with potential. You would need some assistance from your lawyer about copyright issue with pictures. I am certain that there is a ways to switch responsibility from you to your customer, i.e. with some official warning or something

 

[homeriscool]

Old thread but thought I'd contribute as it has recently become relevant to me - Looking to buy and sell at the moment, and from my perspective as a seller I am seeing a lot of online estate agencies who will get my property on RM & Zoopla for as little as £99 if I do everything myself. I want as many eyes on my property as I can get and I wouldn't bother with any service that doesn't include at least 1 of those 'Big 2' portals. What are the chances that a prospective buyer would be searching a small local portal but would have not looked at RM & Zoopla first?

From my perspective as a buyer, I think the answer to that question is "very little chance" - RM and Zoopla were the first places I looked without hesitation, and only after exhausting those did I try and find other portals but seeing 2 houses in my criteria instead of the 40 on the RM meant I spent 3 minutes on those other sites looking at those properties then immediately went back to the 'Big 2'.

There is no reason that you can't set up an online agency (there are lots of new entrants to that market), but price it to include at least one of the big portals (or at least make it a chargeable option).

Based on your original idea, to make money, you need the customers that want extra services like photo's, viewings, footage etc - anyone stumping up for those extras should be willing to pay extra to get on the portals. Even considering even the most price sensitive sellers - If given the choice of £100 for photos to sit only on a relatively unknown website v £100 for a listing on a big portal with amateur photos, which one would most people choose?

Good points. I always like the negatives to be pointed out. We all have blind spots thanks for your input.

 

[homeriscool]

I think that this is very good idea with potential. You would need some assistance from your lawyer about copyright issue with pictures. I am certain that there is a ways to switch responsibility from you to your customer, i.e. with some official warning or something

I did think about doing image scans / content scans for duplicate copies on other websites. Seeking proper legal advice would be the best idea though. Thanks for your input

 

[Chris Ashdown]

I think its a great idea and quite low costs startup

You will need to spend on marketing where things like local papers and radio myhelp get the message around

with a great source of local knowledge you can make it interesting to new people moving into the area

People will not just look at the brad leader when hunting for a house but look at all sites covering that area

other companies t&c will give you a good idea of what to cover in yours

Make a name that can be used for a franchise operation at the start even if you don't intend to franchise at present it can be of benefit to trademark it

Dont forget you can also add on properties for rent

Dont be greedy, price it on making no profit for the first 9 months and watch it grow

 

[homeriscool]

I think its a great idea and quite low costs startup

You will need to spend on marketing where things like local papers and radio myhelp get the message around

with a great source of local knowledge you can make it interesting to new people moving into the area

People will not just look at the brad leader when hunting for a house but look at all sites covering that area

other companies t&c will give you a good idea of what to cover in yours

Make a name that can be used for a franchise operation at the start even if you don't intend to franchise at present it can be of benefit to trademark it

Dont forget you can also add on properties for rent

Dont be greedy, price it on making no profit for the first 9 months and watch it grow

Thanks for your input!

I do see more positive input than negative. I welcome both views, as both are beneficial.

 

[homeriscool]

OK I have allowed myself to take a break from my current existing business to start making way on this new business venture and I am asking for ideas from you guys.

My first goal is to get as many local estate agents on board by to putting there property's for sale on my site. If I have to do all of the uploading so be it (but id rather not).

The enticement would be free advertising and more exposure for 12 months. (in this time I will work hard on local SEO and social media driving traffic).

When buyers/sellers can see ALL of the property's for sale in one place theirs not much reason to go elsewhere?

Do you think local estate agents would be enticed by this free advertising or would they likely reject it?

What is your opinion?

 

[Chris Ashdown]

I thought the whole idea was to bypass the estate agents, they do you the honor of listing all their for sale items on their websites so this gives you a good option to visit every home and put a leaflet through the door with your offer, many will have signed a contract with the agents but you never know until you try

Make sure you have solicitors signed up so you can list them as people who know the area to give customers confidence

Maybe make up some signs and sell to your customers at a few quid showing the house is for sale and where it can be seen

Write a history of who you are and what you are trying to do and send it to all local papers, most do a new startup page advert for free or a relatively small amount say £400ish, they just love good new stories

 

[DavidWH]

I can stipulate all photographs have to taken by the homeowner

Yes because a photo taken by a homeowner on their phone, will really 'sell' their property.

Most estate agents can't get it right... some can, but I think they use a photographer... you can tell the difference.

 

[homeriscool]

Yes because a photo taken by a homeowner on their phone, will really 'sell' their property.

Most estate agents can't get it right... some can, but I think they use a photographer... you can tell the difference.

Most snapshots of houses look terrible! I agree. Pictures sell!