Buyer introduction service

[lizmail1000]

Hi,

I currently work in estate agency and I was considering setting up a local on-line estate agency but feel it is currently saturated.

I would like buyers and professionals opinions,however, on the following. I am considering acting as an "Introducer" for property that is not currently on the market.

Basically, if a buyer wants to live in a particular property, street, development or area but there are no properties available on the open market, they would register with me, I would approach home-owners to see if they were possibly interested in selling their homes (awaken their latent desire to move/sell, possibly), if a successful introduction was made, and a sale agreed I would charge an introduction fee. The buyer has the home they want, the seller has avoided costly agents fees and maybe even avoided the need for a hip as it's essentially a private sale as the property has never been marketed.

This is currently being done quite successfullly in Holland and Denmark.

Any thoughts?

[brian]

Sounds like a decent idea - what may help it work better is if you do a full "Relocation services" package, so if people were considering moving into the area from outside, you could provide them with a service to provide a full range of information - such as schools quality, policing, bad areas, amenities, etc - while also providing a fairly comprehensive range of properties available from different estate agencies, plus private sales.

2c.

[mountie]

You sure about the 'HIP' bit? Private sales are still subject to HIP regs. Only sales to neighbours, friends and family are exempt.

As well as charging for the introduction, you should also consider a retainer to cover your admin/time costs and the fact that people change their minds/criteria.

How do you propose to approach homeowners? What will be your coverage, how do you let movers know about your service (relocation services are aplenty around the country)?

You need to think hard about your financial plan and terms of business. Good luck though.

[lizmail1000]

Thanks for your responses.

It's obviously just in the 'seedlings' stage of development at the moment, however, I will be operating within a local radius, covering South Wirral and Chester. I know the area, market and agents operating well.

The client base will fall into 1. Homeowners who are currently on the market who can be directly approached with the sourcing service, large companies relocating staff, corporate companies who purchase property for their staff and clients when they are working at those offices periodically. Local advertisment to home seekers on the net and in local property pages.

The HIPS issue, I am a little sketchy on. I need some legal advice re: this, as we all know is a sticky subject anyway.

[brian]

Private sales require HIPs too, now on 3 and 4 bedroom properties:
http://www.homemove.co.uk/blog/5-guide-to-hips.html

[graham]

A friend of mine wanted to move to Surrey and could not find a house in the area they liked. He leafletted the area and low and behold he found the house of his dreams. It worked for them I hope it works for you. Please let me know if you have any enquiries for houses in Yorkshire

[alisonbarr34]

Hi,

Nice idea, what about then also cover co-buyers.Network of people looking for property could also then add another link in the chain.

What do you think?

a

[googler]

Originally Posted by lizmail1000

Hi,

I currently work in estate agency and I was considering setting up a local on-line estate agency but feel it is currently saturated.

I would like buyers and professionals opinions,however, on the following. I am considering acting as an "Introducer" for property that is not currently on the market.

Basically, if a buyer ... (snip)

This is currently being done quite successfullly in Holland and Denmark.

Any thoughts?

How many purely-online agencies do you have who work your local area?

OK, you currently work in Estate Agency, so can I assume the firm you work for is an established brand, and has a presence in your local, target area?

Can I also assume that your agency maintains, as they should, an active database of potential buyers? Therefore,

WHY AREN'T YOU DOING THIS AT THE MOMENT?

It strikes me that all that's missing is for your current employer to offer this service. Link your pro-active idea to your employer's (hopefully) known brand and (hopefully) large database, and it sounds like it has much more chance of success than you, as an individual with no track record and no brand, approaching homeowners, saying 'I got someone who wants your house'.

Get the match between buyer and seller, then charge the seller an 'off-market' fee (reduced from the 'on-market' fee you would normally charge them?). Buyers aren't used to paying for EA services, so you may encounter some resistance to charging a retainer or fee to them. At the end of the day, if a buyer wants a particular area/street/house, there's four options as I see it;

- Wait for a house to come on the market
- Your estate agency knocks door/writes to the target house or street
- Buyers pay you to knock on the door(s) of the target house/street
- Buyers canvass the target house/street themselves

Be honest, if you're going out as a one-man band, and buyers get to know that all you're doing for your money is canvassing the houses..... then why would they pay you to do it? Why wouldn't they just leaflet-drop or door-knock the houses themselves?

I think the option with the most chance of success is for your agency to approach the target streets or houses on behalf of the buyers (if the buyers know just what they want), and I'd suggest, if you're not doing it at the moment, you should.

[brian]

Just removed a couple of posts, and a quick heads up - if you're going to try and post fake recommendations using multiple aliases, try not to use the same computer to do so.