An interesting article crossed our desks this week while reading Property Industry Eye, that has us thinking.
In his excellent piece, Toby Martin posed a question that is deceptively simple: how would you sell this house if you didn’t have Rightmove? It’s a question worth lingering on, particularly in an industry that has grown increasingly comfortable leaning on property portals as the primary engine of activity.
Because if we’re honest, many agents would struggle to answer it.
“But estate agency did not begin with Rightmove, and it certainly shouldn’t end with them.”
“But estate agency did not begin with Rightmove, and it certainly shouldn’t end with them.”
Over the past decade Rightmove has quietly reshaped estate agency. List the home, wait for the enquiries, organise the viewings and let the market take its course. The process has become so routine that the idea of operating without it feels almost unthinkable.
But estate agency did not begin with Rightmove, and it certainly shouldn’t end with them.
At Corum, the first instinct when we take on a new instruction is not to reach for the portal, but to reach for our buyers. Who has just missed out on something similar? Who told us last week they would move tomorrow if the right home appeared? Which of our registered buyers are waiting for exactly this type of property?
That network makes a remarkable difference.
It is not unusual for us to have a number of viewings arranged before a property has even appeared on Rightmove. In some cases, homes are introduced privately to buyers who have asked us to keep them informed. We actively match homes to people we already know are serious and ready to move.
Often we even find ourselves doing our competitions work for them by putting buyers registered with us in front of homes they have listed, simply because we know it fits their requirements.
“For some, it might be a difficult question. For us, it wouldn’t change very much at all.”
“For some, it might be a difficult question. For us, it wouldn’t change very much at all.”
None of this is to dismiss the role of Rightmove. It is a useful tool and, for many buyers, the natural place to begin their search. But it should be just that: a tool. Not the entire strategy.
The concern is that much of the industry has allowed it to become exactly that. When the portal becomes the business model, the traditional skills of estate agency quietly fade into the background – and yet those skills are precisely what shape the best outcomes. Building relationships. Understanding buyers. Creating competition rather than waiting for it to appear.
It is perhaps a slightly uncomfortable thought, but a fair one to ask the next time you sit down with an estate agent: how would you sell this house if Rightmove didn’t exist?
For some, it might be a difficult question. For us, it wouldn’t change very much at all.