Mystery surrounds the fate of Fresh Chilli, a north of England-based hybrid estate agency that launched with a fanfare last autumn, with the aim of establishing a franchise system of similar localised operations.
Fresh Chilli’s website says it is now on the market and has no properties for sale or to let, and with no property listed on Rightmove or Zoopla. No meaningful tweets relating to property have been sent from its Twitter account since late February, and Estate Agent Today’s telephone and email attempts to make contact have not produced a response.
Instead, the Fresh Chilli website now advertises itself as being for sale.
A statement on it reads: “We have developed this platform and tailor it to your own identity and needs, across all technology at a fraction of the cost. Just browse this website and see how searching for and marketing properties is more convenient, and effective six months in development and tested for a further six months in the market place we have resolved all technical and operational issues so your website could be up and running in five working days.”
Elsewhere on the site, it is suggested the ‘platform’ is for sale at £3,999.
“The platform enables estate agents to automatically upload properties onto a range of search portals including Rightmove and Zoopla whilst enabling agents to understand how effective their marketing is, commission performance reports, know about enquiries and registrations” it says.
The agency was set up in October by John and Victoria Dixon, who at the time told EAT that “estate agents have not been challenged for decades” - as a result they were launching a service with an emphasis on social media and greater communications with sellers and buyers, plus lower fees than those in the High Street agency arena.
“From our name and logo, to our pricing structure with its stepped and fixed, inclusive fees, we aim to stand out and save customers a substantial amount of money” John Dixon said at the time.
The couple were operating the agency in the Harrogate, Knaresborough and Wetherby areas of Yorkshire and wanted franchise partners with previous experience who would have had autonomy over their own fees and would have kept 100 per cent of their income.
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Mystery. Or simply that budget models burn heavy funds and return little back. Few live listings plus rightmove and zoopla bills = unviable models.
Que Queen music "Another bites the dust"
Think i remember commentating at the time that this was yet another doomed to fail exercise.
As even the big online / hybrid agents have shown, the model is simply not profitable.
Sad to see any business go under but closing in less than a year shows poor research, poor planning and poor finances.
On a side note, 4k for a website that has demonstrated it does not attract enough traffic seems excessive
Purplepricks, emoov etc who is next?
What odds do i get on emoov folding or merging in next 12 months?
Who were these guys- never even heard of them. So bored of the haters though- online is here to stay, embrace it and understand how to differentiate. If you are threatened by online then the service you give clearly isnt up to scratch.
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