An online estate agency has taken on the established high-end agents by marketing a home in prime central London for £19.5m - thought to be the highest amount ever asked for a British property being sold only via the internet.
SellMyHome.co.uk is marketing the nine bedroom property at Phillimore Gardens in Kensington - an address typically marketed through the likes of Savills and Knight Frank.
The vendor, according to a report in the Sunday Times, is a 69 year old financier and businessman who is reported to have spent £550 plus VAT on the online listing and - if the property sells through this route - stands to save almost £500,000 based on what the newspaper says is a 2.5 per cent commission which is typical for the agencies selling at this extreme end of the market.
The article also says AgentOnline.co.uk is listing a property valued at £10m.
Dominic Toller, director of AgentOnline, is quoted in the article as saying that exposure only via the internet, and exclusion from the OnTheMarket portal, are no longer obstacles to online estate agencies securing high end stock to sell.
“Consumer awareness of OnTheMarket seems low and our advice is clear. You need to advertise on Rightmove and Zoopla. Between 70 per cent and 80 per cent of our buyer enquiries come from Rightmove and the rest from Zoopla” he says.
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It truly is a massive saving going that way to sell, although i'm certain many owners of such premium properties won't have the time to conduct the viewings and host open days, let alone right the property description. Although it's a huge saving, i'd happily pay just slightly more just to get that extra level of VIP service which every customer deserves when it comes to selling any home no matter what the asking price is.
I think this is probably just publicity.
As Dan has pointed out somebody with such a high net worth would probably not look at this. even if they did there is also the fact people with that kind of money do not look on Rightmove and Zoopla to buy.
Take 5% of the £500,000 you save and employ an individual agent/broker directly to conduct the viewings, progress the sale and ensure a timely completion.
Doesn't all this 'saving' money depend on him:
1) Doing all the work himself
2) Selling
3) getting a similar price to selling through an agent?
The only way we are going to find out if it works is: if it sells, what it sells for, and how quickly it sells. I Hope EAT keeps an eye on this.
This is obviously a massive publicity stunt, if I had a £19.5m house and was as penny pinching as this owner seems to be I would have contacted a larger internet agent and asked them to list for free as publicity. haha. he spent £550 + VAT and could have got it for nothing. Cheapskate...
only time will tell
on another note EAT can you quote all figures inclusive of VAT please? its become industry standard and you are the news of the industry. Thank you
Good work Marketing / PR team of Sellmyhome.co.uk ... that's what I call fantastic content marketing !! ;)
Perhaps this is the sort of PR they hope might generate a bid from a big agency, like Hatched have just done
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