Savills-backed online agency claims instructions up five-fold in 2016

YOPA, the online agency which now has financial investment from Savills, says its instructions have risen five-fold since February.

It also says requests for valuations have quadrupled since the start of the year.

The claims are revealed in information given to applicants who express an interest in applying for up to 20 local estate agent positions now being recruited by the firm.

Last week we reported that YOPA was using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media to recruit new agents. YOPA has now supplied Estate Agent Today with information about its recruitment.

It is seeking between 15 and 20 agents in Brighton, Canterbury, London, Milton Keynes, Luton, Manchester, Reading, Guildford, Middlesborough and across the Midlands.

It says it is interested in agents “with a demonstrable track record of valuing, marketing and selling properties in their given territory” who, if taken on, will be working from home and “supplied with quality valuation leads in order to instruct properties in the areas that they have the most exposure to and experience working in.”

The agency says its “full and meticulous” training takes two weeks.

The recruitment campaign is the first product of YOPA’s £16m fundraising effort back in the spring, which included an undisclosed amount from Grosvenor Hill Ventures, the proprietary arm of Savills.

Since that time Savills’ chief executive, Jeremy Helsby, has said of YOPA’s hybrid approach - chiefly as an online presence but with experts in the field to visit would-be sellers - “Whether it works, I don't know. What I do know is that the sale of homes will move more and more online.”

YOPA’s business model is based on a fixed fee of £780 from vendors to market their home.