The relaunch of Sarah Beeny’s property website Tepilo has been described as heralding “a new era of online estate agency”.
In a press release, journalists are told: “Channel 4 property supremo Sarah Beeny is reinvigorating Tepilo, her property site, by offering estate agency services, promoting properties to a wider audience and offering more help through the house moving process – while still avoiding hefty fees.
“The changes follow demand from Tepilo’s 45,000-strong customer base for their properties to be displayed on major portals and for the option of more hands-on help from the nation’s straight-talking property princess.”
The press release goes on:
“‘It’s the perfect marriage between all the best bits of an old-fashioned estate agency and the amazing flexibility of a modern online portal. Tepilo now provides all the services and marketing people want, at a fraction of the high street cost,’ says Sarah.
“The new setup is aimed at those consumers who want to take advantage of the scale and cost-efficiency of the internet, without expensive commissions or the pressure of having to do everything themselves.
“As Sarah says: ‘Some people are happy buying or selling their house themselves, just as some people are confident putting together the different parts of a holiday – from booking the flight to finding a hotel. Others aren’t, and this is why there will always be a place for good estate agents. These new services are for those who want a halfway house.’
“Charges vary according to how many services customers take up, but even a fully managed service through Tepilo will come in under £600 (plus VAT).”
Yesterday, Tepilo had 21 properties listed for sale on Rightmove, and two rentals.
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Comments
The ideal of ‘online’ is to market to everyone anywhere in contrast to the local vicinity of a high street. The world wide web is the new high street so it would seem counterproductive to reside anywhere other than in the cloud. It’s about building a brand on a bigger scale to a bigger market and this will always outweigh any benefits of additional local advertising. Furthermore the organic growth of the business is key because should the workforce substantially increase then so does its environment from more desk space to parking etc and so better use of square footage will inevitably be found off high street.
Its understandable that some will struggle to let go of a mindset that places emphasis on a physical presence and equates it to a raised profile when in reality that thought process actually limits your growth for example, why open an office in every town when one that every town can access will do?
Serious question, and I'd welcome a serious business-level answer from an on-line agent.
I can understand how on-line agencies work when the model is little more than a facility to list properties on the portals, because you need very few staff and those you employ aren't directly customer-facing.
I can also understand how they work if you have modest aspirations and don't wish to grow much beyond the "one-man band" stage.
However (and I'm speaking here as someone who started as a one-man band in an anonymous serviced office and now has two high street shops) my experience is that if you're providing more than a basic listing service to your customers and you aspire to grow, then sooner or later you're going to need to employ customer-facing staff..
Once you employ customer-facing staff you need to put them in a place of work where customers can contact them and you, the business owner, can manage them. That means renting office space.
In my experience, if you're spending money on office space anyway then once you're above a certain size you may as well have a high street shop - the marginal increase in cost is offset by the marginal increase in business generated by your raised profile.
I'd genuinely be interested to hear a counter-argument to this.
現時点で忙しい
B****Y H£LL!!!
FBA enters the room!
Where have YOU been hiding, mon ami?
Welcome back! EAT is about to get interesting again...
Sarah should team up with Lynda Bellingham.
http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/AcTV-star-behind-business-aiming-to-be-UKs-biggest-agent
Weren't they going to be the biggest estate agent in the UK within 2 years?
Is Michael Barrymore available to get involved too?
I would assume that she will be banging on the door at Channel 4 to launch another programme thus enabling her to preach to the public.
Doubling her stock, so that will be 42 properties for sale.
Gone from free to charging, thats never happened before.
Is this another viable option instead of RM and Zoops?
Maybe one will come along but it isnt this.
Looking at the listed properties, they are very spread out - Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and all over England. Do we think she's actually sent a representative to verify each listing, in accordance with Rightmove's rules??
Take a look at the site and click on "latest listings" there is a property on the market in Pelynt for £180! but to make it worse it has a picture of the handwritten agents notes.
Yep that's modern technology at its best for you!
Any kid can design a web site, it’s the functionality that’s the clever bit. No real functionality makes £600 very, very expensive.
Ace, spot on.
If it is so good why tell the world to jion you and take some of your share!?
Yep idiot.
The oNline Agent
If someone with the lack of intelligence and class (that you have demonstrated today) can make money online, then I may invest in my own model and get my dog to run it.
For every thousand properties you DO NOT SELL it is another lost sale. That's your problem though, you are concerned only about listings, not sales. This is where you collapse long term....no value to the seller and certainly not the buyer.
"Join us before it is too late" - stupidity again.
Traditional agents will win the long term. But if your model is so good and your forecast so accurate, why would you WANT new online competitors?
Thing before you type, you have looked like a complete bell today.
Do you guys still not get it ?? Evertytime an online agent list a property it is another one you do not list.
So with new online agents springing up every month, we will have 10% of the market in less than 12 months and probably 20% by 2016 (yes we can confirm these figures)
So that is hundreds of millions of pounds you will be losing in commission !!!
Join us before it is too late....
Think the phrase is 'if you pay peanuts you get monkeys'
Another waste of time press release. Why bother even to mention this in EAT?
Why is this 'news'. 21 people hardly constitute a business.
SB started this and failed. Now relaunched, why will is work? Answer: It won't.
21 of 45,000 customers 0.046%
Doesn't look good does it but good luck to her, she couldn't do it when it was free
Arr, the admission that her previous "bright idea" didn't work and now a complete re-think. Makes her statements and advice a little difficult to trust as a result. Who next, property bankrupt big Phil?
I don't think this model will be too much of a threat to a good conventional high street agent.
Variety is the spice of life. I am happiest to have people choose to use my services rather than have to due to lack of alternatives ... it leads to a far better relationship all round.
The kind of vendor who wants cheap is the kind of vendor I don't really want. If Tepilo could take away every cheapskate difficult vendor who would be trying to find a way of cutting me out of a properly due fee, then I'd (almost) pay Tepilo for doing so!
So, thankyou Tepilo
so, 45,000 on database and only 21 punters actually listed on Rightmove.........pathetic. Got to hand it to her though she knows how to get press!
People will understand that you get what you pay for, and I am sure "Sale by vendor" websites will probably grow, but something seems to be getting forgotten here, purchasers WANT to deal with agents NOT Vendors!
Sorry Ms Beeny, we have all forgotten who you are, celebritty is such a fickle thing!
As soon as one is not on the telly one's USP evaporates.
As an example can anyone name (without the aid of Google) the bloke who was going to teach us all how to do Estate Agency better after his appearance on the Apprentice.
BTW whatever happened to him?
This woman obviously, and without shame, says whatever is needed for each press release, no matter how much it contradicts her previous ramblings.
She's going well then 45,000 customer database of which 21 went for the agency services. HouseNetwork started this about 8 years ago, such old news. Another silly press release.