marmaLADYa.com talks to Nicola Hoare and Annie Allison, directors of London’s first advertising website for private home sales
Tell us about the site.
privateHQ.com doesn’t use estate agents, so there is no need to pay any commission. Savings for sellers average out at about £7,500. We wanted to make the site very professional and formalised with lots of information. Sellers write their own descriptions – they’re the ones who know the property the best. It is important that people upload good images; we like to keep a check on that, as it really is crucial for generating interest. We’ve had a fantastic response from people. People love the site, they think it’s a brilliant idea. We get loads of enquiries about the properties which is very exciting. What’s fantastic is that the seller and buyer know exactly what is going on and are in full control of the process.
How did you get started?
We came up with the idea about a year ago. I was selling my house at the time and trying to buy somewhere else as well. I was having real problems – rather than selling in six weeks as I’d planned it took four months, mainly due to a breakdown in communication between the buyers’ solicitor and the estate agents. Annie Allison (co-director) also had problems when trying to sell her flat and when she’d stepped in the sale went off smoothly! So we were chatting one day and thought surely there must be a simpler way. You should be able to put your house online and that’s it. That’s how everyone searches for houses now anyway. Why do you need an estate agent? At the time we were both working in marketing, but before we knew it we had put together a business plan and left our jobs in June. We’ve been doing it full-time since. We launched in October 2006.
Does it cost anything to post up a property?
No. We didn’t want to charge people to post their properties on the site. We wanted to give everyone a chance to sell. So we make our money through advertisers on the site. We’ve got over 50 properties now, and it’s building up quite quickly. There are a lot of enquiries and viewings going on.
How do buyers use the site?
If you’re looking for a house, it’s really straightforward. You can do a property search on each page. There are floor plans for each property – people can upload them or you can design your own on the site. If you’re interested in the site, you just press Contact Seller and you can leave a phone number, or you can email them.
What kind of properties have you got on the site?
We’ve got a real mix of properties, some smaller properties, some new developments built and designed by architects, going for £1 million. So a real range.
Any advice for first-time buyers?
It’s daunting for first-time buyers. You need to take one step at a time. We’ve got a step-by-step guide on our site, which takes you through the whole process. What happens when you put an offer in, what happens after that... It can be mind-boggling as you’re borrowing huge sums of money. But you just have to break the process up into chunks. And there’s lots of great advice out there.
When are the best times to buy?
The key times to buy are January, when there’s a big boost in the property market, what with New Year, fresh starts and city bonuses. And then Easter and September are the other big times. December and the summer are quite quiet.
What’s your part in the process?
We approve all the properties, but it is a very quick process. After that we are not involved in the buying process at all. We will send emails to sellers to see how they’ve got on. So we do have a lot of contact with people on the site.
Had you always wanted to set your own business?
I’ve always worked for other people, so it was quite daunting setting up a business. People always ask ‘How did you make the decision?’. But we never really made the decision, we just got on and did it. We didn’t spend too much time wondering whether we should do it or not.
What’s been your biggest challenge?
I think you assume it’s going to be quite easy and that it’s going to take off like wildfire. But that doesn’t happen straightaway. We’ve had to work hard and be quite creative about our marketing. And do it cost effectively! We’ve had some great press, which has been brilliant. You always see the site traffic increase as a result of that. We’ve spent time handing out flyers at stations, and doing a lot of online marketing.
And what’s ahead?
We believe that private sales are the future. We want to give Londoners the choice and freedom to take control of their most valuable asset.
Visit www.privateHQ.com to get started.
Property Facts
Londoners typically pay nearly £7,500 to their estate agent in commission when they sell their house
More than 90% of Londoners now use the internet to find their next property.
Including a ‘For Sale’ board, estate agents’ typically spend only £100 marketing a normal London property. This might explain why Mark Hunt who founded Foxtons is now estimated to be worth nearly £400m.
About 30 per cent of all property transactions in Britain fail every year, at an estimated cost of more than £360 million – £1million a day.
Using an estate agent to buy or sell your home has no real bearing on the legal side of things.
Most people have no idea that it is perfectly possible to query or challenge the terms of their agreement with their estate agent.
