Visum, the online estate and letting agents

[Mark T Jones]

Re-reading this thread, I really think you need to take a big step backwards and make yourself absolutely clear on what your business is about, and what it's growth path is.

I fear that your responses lean on back-footed justification and dismissive knocking of the competition.

There are others out there doing similar things - most of them have a plan beyond cheap listening. Some are failing, some are succeeding - all have lessons to teach you.

In a nutshell, cheap listing might bring in quick cash, it isn't a sustainable, scaleable model in its own right

 

[fisicx]

A friend of mine had a printing business. He offered low cost printing services and was run ragged.

He upped his prices which got rid of the cheapskates. He started offered additional services like binding and collating and all of a sudden was working less hours and making more money.

@greengriff - your low cost service is too cheap. Charge more and you will attract a better class of client. You don’t want the bottom end of the market, you want those with a bit more cash in their pockets who want to save on estate agents fees but don’t want the bargain bin service.

Charging more makes you seem more believable.

And my wife did some research because that’s what she does and your address put here right off. You may be online only but she said it looks like an iffy back bedroom business.

 

[Shopclicks]

In a nutshell, cheap listing might bring in quick cash, it isn't a sustainable, scaleable model in its own right

I think @greengriff deserves more credit for what they have achieved. First into the space and still there 20 years later. I think they have learned from the mistakes of the opposition and haven't followed that path. This is absolutely sustainable and scalable.

What's missing is knowledge on brand building and getting the cheapest attention for the website and service. This can only come from learning and that's what the OP is doing now. It might be late but it's better late than never.

 

[Mark T Jones]

I think @greengriff deserves more credit for what they have achieved. First into the space and still there 20 years later. I think they have learned from the mistakes of the opposition and haven't followed that path. This is absolutely sustainable and scalable.

What's missing is knowledge on brand building and getting the cheapest attention for the website and service. This can only come from learning and that's what the OP is doing now. It might be late but it's better late than never.

Not specific to the OP, but I take anything anyone tells me about past performance or current financial situation with a pinch of salt until presented with the evidence. That's feature of what I do - happily the OP has no reason to prove anything to me.

It does however raise the point that I can't find the company legal details on the website - not only a legal requirement but essential for trust

 

[Waddy]

One area that might be lucrative, especially at the moment, is targeting landlords looking to offload their portfolios. Do you offer discounts for multiple listings?

 

[Shopclicks]

@greengriff - your low cost service is too cheap. Charge more and you will attract a better class of client. You don’t want the bottom end of the market, you want those with a bit more cash in their pockets who want to save on estate agents fees but don’t want the bargain bin service.

Charging more makes you seem more believable.

Disagree. Why does the OP need a better class of client? They charge what they need to charge for the service they offer. A service with a very low labour component (in comparison to your friend the printer). It makes absolutely no difference to the OP if the client has a £100k or a £500k house to sell. The client chooses the level of service they want.

By your reckoning, any business that charges a lower price should raise their prices to bypass the lower end of the market. I see that as counter-productive. They are not the only players in this sector and cannot determine a base price for the same service elsewhere. But they can watch what happens to other players who try to squeeze as much as they can out of their clients.

If the OP is comfortable with their pricing structure why on earth would they feel compelled to raise prices. In this scenario, the reason to raise prices would be if the uptake on the lower price was stifling sales of the premium products. In which case, yes, they should close the gap. But that doesn't necessarily mean raising the lower price. It may mean creating a new product or changing the features or pricing of the premium products. If this happens in the future, then the OP would be wise to take that step.

Charging more doesn't make you seem more believable if you're looking for new clients. It makes you less attractive. If I'm trying a service I've never used before and I'm unsure if it's the right way to go for me, the less I have to hand over, the better. The outlay is matched by the risk.

 

[fisicx]

It’s well known that very low prices often seem too good to be true. Raising prices to a more believable level engenders trust and generates more business.

Hopefully they are now talking to @Paul Carmen and all these variables will be analysed and considered and a marketing plan developed.

 

[Shopclicks]

It’s well known that very low prices often seem too good to be true. Raising prices to a more believable level engenders trust and generates more business.

As long as there are other providers advertising 'sell your house for free', I don't think the OP has a credibility problem. They have an attention problem.

 

[japancool]

It’s well known that very low prices often seem too good to be true. Raising prices to a more believable level engenders trust and generates more business.

Works for Poundland...

 

[Mark T Jones]

Works for Poundland...

It works for few businesses that have extremely robust end-to-end processes - often including subtle uplifts which turn their cheap into not very cheap.

Simply being cheaper is usually a flawed strategy.

 

[antropy]

If you go as far down the rabbit hoe

Didn't Hugh Hefner have a few of those?

Paul.

 

[antropy]

I'd very much appreciate some community feedback

I thought it would be interesting to get a valuation of my property but the form that popped up was so big I thought "Nope, don't have time for that, not today".

Paul.

 

[fisicx]

@greengriff - compare your valuation tool to this one:

Property Checker | Free Property Valuation | How much is my house worth?

Enter a postcode to get a free property valuation. Use this service to get an instant estimate of how much your house is worth using just the postcode.

propertychecker.co.uk

 

[greengriff]

Re-reading this thread, I really think you need to take a big step backwards and make yourself absolutely clear on what your business is about, and what it's growth path is.

I fear that your responses lean on back-footed justification and dismissive knocking of the competition.

There are others out there doing similar things - most of them have a plan beyond cheap listening. Some are failing, some are succeeding - all have lessons to teach you.

In a nutshell, cheap listing might bring in quick cash, it isn't a sustainable, scaleable model in its own right

The stuff I've written in the two threads I've posted is to help respondees to understand how I got to the situation I'm in. I'm not really sure I'm 'knocking' my competitors so much as myself - after all, and whether they are now bankrupt or still trading, they made their founders piles of money, whereas my company hasn't done that for me.

'Cheap listing' has fed and watered my staff for the best part of 20 years, although I do agree of course that more money would be nicer. Whether that comes in the form of a front-end price hike, or some back end service is another matter, and not really the topic of this thread (at least not my intended topic), which is to get critical eyes cast over the website to give me ideas to make it better.

 

[greengriff]

A friend of mine had a printing business. He offered low cost printing services and was run ragged.

He upped his prices which got rid of the cheapskates. He started offered additional services like binding and collating and all of a sudden was working less hours and making more money.

@greengriff - your low cost service is too cheap. Charge more and you will attract a better class of client. You don’t want the bottom end of the market, you want those with a bit more cash in their pockets who want to save on estate agents fees but don’t want the bargain bin service.

Charging more makes you seem more believable.

And my wife did some research because that’s what she does and your address put here right off. You may be online only but she said it looks like an iffy back bedroom business.

Thanks. You're not the first person to have suggested price hikes. If you look at a similar business in another field (say Autotrader), they charge less than us. The difference of course is that they keep all of their fees as revenue, whereas we have to pass on the majority in the form of membership fees to the portals.

Also the cheapest of local agents in many areas will do everything for you for around a grand. Given that, what do you think a far price is?

 

[greengriff]

I think @greengriff deserves more credit for what they have achieved. First into the space and still there 20 years later. I think they have learned from the mistakes of the opposition and haven't followed that path. This is absolutely sustainable and scalable.

What's missing is knowledge on brand building and getting the cheapest attention for the website and service. This can only come from learning and that's what the OP is doing now. It might be late but it's better late than never.

This 'brand building' is very much what I'm interested in, and what I'm clueless about.

 

[greengriff]

One area that might be lucrative, especially at the moment, is targeting landlords looking to offload their portfolios. Do you offer discounts for multiple listings?

No, but that might be a good idea, thank you.

 

[fisicx]

@greengriff - have you spoken to @Paul Carmen yet?

 

[greengriff]

Disagree. Why does the OP need a better class of client? They charge what they need to charge for the service they offer. A service with a very low labour component (in comparison to your friend the printer). It makes absolutely no difference to the OP if the client has a £100k or a £500k house to sell. The client chooses the level of service they want.

By your reckoning, any business that charges a lower price should raise their prices to bypass the lower end of the market. I see that as counter-productive. They are not the only players in this sector and cannot determine a base price for the same service elsewhere. But they can watch what happens to other players who try to squeeze as much as they can out of their clients.

If the OP is comfortable with their pricing structure why on earth would they feel compelled to raise prices. In this scenario, the reason to raise prices would be if the uptake on the lower price was stifling sales of the premium products. In which case, yes, they should close the gap. But that doesn't necessarily mean raising the lower price. It may mean creating a new product or changing the features or pricing of the premium products. If this happens in the future, then the OP would be wise to take that step.

Charging more doesn't make you seem more believable if you're looking for new clients. It makes you less attractive. If I'm trying a service I've never used before and I'm unsure if it's the right way to go for me, the less I have to hand over, the better. The outlay is matched by the risk.

Thanks. Our rival Doorsteps showed that there are plenty of customers at this end of the market if people now about you. The lad who founded it was smart enough to have an angle (he was 16 years old and managed to get himself on the TV etc. on the basis of this, which provided the much-needed brand awareness) and the customers came in droves. He still went bankrupt though because he made the assumption that houses would always sell, which they don't. His charging model didn't allow for this.

 

[greengriff]

@greengriff - have you spoken to @Paul Carmen yet?

No. I've just come back to this thread after a busy weekend and catching up with Monday morning work. I see Paul has messaged me and I will respond to him ASAP.

 

[UKSBD]

It's not just knowing a brand it's knowing what the brand does.

 

[greengriff]

It's not just knowing a brand it's knowing what the brand does.

Wise words indeed!

 

[UKSBD]

Thanks. Our rival Doorsteps showed that there are plenty of customers at this end of the market if people now about you. The lad who founded it was smart enough to have an angle (he was 16 years old and managed to get himself on the TV etc. on the basis of this, which provided the much-needed brand awareness) and the customers came in droves. He still went bankrupt though because he made the assumption that houses would always sell, which they don't. His charging model didn't allow for this.

I think you are walking a tightrope

It would be far better for you if people knew you and knew the service you provide.

Become too well known though and what will the property portals do?

 

[greengriff]

I think you are walking a tightrope

It would be far better for you if people knew you and knew the service you provide.

Become too well known though and what will the property portals do?

I don't think the portals will do anything. Yes I want people to know us and what we do. That's my number1 goal.

 

[UKSBD]

In my opinion one of the best pages on your site for what you are aiming to do is an unappealing blog post from 2014.

Just adding "With Visum" to the main heading, having more appealing graphics, having About Visum instead of About Us in the sidebar, mentioning your name more, etc. would be a big improvement.

And also use that page to actually do something, rather than just be an article

Can you do more blog posts similar to that, categories them all separatly, that would really empasise more what you do.

 

[Fagin2021]

I don't think the portals will do anything. Yes I want people to know us and what we do. That's my number1 goal.

IMHO your number one goal should be to get those people who already know you and have a property to sell/rent to buy your service i.e. convert. Then you can work on the numbers.

It seems (I'm not intending to be rude) that your mindset is still back when you started - when your offering was so unique that a high conversion rate was inevitable. So all you need to do is increase visitor numbers and the good times will roll again. Sadly, they won't, and a lot of people have tried to explain why not. It's up to you.

 

[greengriff]

IMHO your number one goal should be to get those people who already know you and have a property to sell/rent to buy your service i.e. convert. Then you can work on the numbers.

It seems (I'm not intending to be rude) that your mindset is still back when you started - when your offering was so unique that a high conversion rate was inevitable. So all you need to do is increase visitor numbers and the good times will roll again. Sadly, they won't, and a lot of people have tried to explain why not. It's up to you.

Thanks. There's been lots of good advice, and I'm definitely taking it onboard.