Words: Ashley Rigg
Published: 28th January 2010
More media nonsense
Not content with potentially
costing his employers millions in legal fees with a
poorly researched article about Harlequin Property, journalist Graham Norwood has yet again reached for his laptop to take a pop at the industry.
In an article in
yesterday’s Independent, he predicts that Google will cut out estate agents and challenge the property industry at its own game. The evidence for this appears to rest on a quote from a British real estate agent currently working in Melbourne, Australia.
"It's cracked open the market here. So far agents haven't lost much business but we're expecting that to change by the end of 2010. If Google remains free and builds its profile, there's no way sellers will pay agents when they can do it themselves".
Google is formidable force and we have been predicting it will have a
significant impact on the portal market for some time but the trouble with the above logic is that it assumes that portals can perform the role of an agent. They can’t, they shouldn’t and they won’t!
Why I would always use an agent
I’m a big fan of property portals. I’ve run them, I evaluate them in our review section and I’d recommend in most cases agents have some exposure to them as part of their marketing budget. However, when it comes to my own money, I want the best price and I wouldn’t trust Google (even it became bigger than Rightmove in the UK) to deliver.
When I sell up, I will be paying the agent in my area that has the best location, best local marketing (they hand our flyers at the train station and run a café) and employs the guys with the shiniest suits and slickest haircuts. These are the guys who forced me into a sealed bidding war when I bought the property and they’ll be the company I use to force the highest price out of the next owner.
Google’s property portal plans spell trouble for less-established portals and no doubt will persuade a number of time-rich, penny-pinching sellers to sell their property for less than it is worth but I’ll be acting selfishly. I’ll be using an agent, no matter how powerful Google’s property portal becomes.
Promotion: Upload to 80+ portals for free
Lead Galaxy allows you to:
- Upload to 80+ portals – Free upload, pay per lead
- Email up to 100,000 potential buyers for as little as £0.05 per lead
- Take part in a lead auction to win leads for as little as £2 each
Free sign up here
User Comments
Google setting up their own property listings. Home owners allowed to put their properties online. This might be happening in Oz, but absolutely crazy.
Google is supposed to be ethical and impartial as an organisation, full stop. Competition of this nature in such a vast market, and with the ability to affect many thousands of businesses and jobs, is totally unethical. So Google needs to take a long hard look at what they are doing. The internet is a 'free trade zone' open to everyone who wants to sell services and goods online. For Google to compete they are stepping over the boundaries to a place they shouldn't really go.
Secondly, policing homeowners loading property. Perhaps I am missing something here, so someone please correct me if I am wrong, but we have a property act in the UK which is very strict, and professional agents abide by this code. What are the governing board going to do. Sue everyone who tells a white lie about the size of the garden, or forgets to mention the lounge narrows to half the width, or retouches a few pictures to make the place look better.
We are mainly in the off-market high end commercial and residential sector, and not really a typical portal, so the effect would be limited, but for me, breaking that code of ethics will open up a can of worms.
Mark Fiddes,
Millionaire Investments
I'm in the property business, I'm not an agent and I completely agree with you. I remember when the rise of the internet was deemed by some as the 'fall of the high street agent' and look what happened - It has only been beneficial.
Google is what it is because it is pioneering. Agents who are forward thinking will no doubt be able to gain from this.
Buyers and sellers need human interaction, agents will always be in demand and i expect those who are ahead of the game will benefit from Google.... after all their motto is "dont be evil'....
Ben B,
ThePropertyScout.com
Thank you Ashley for supporting the agents.
I wonder anyhow, how Google will be able to check documents of sellers, do viewings and negotiations, prepare transfer of deeds etc.
Fred van Krimpen,
ELITE Inmobiliaria
Agents still have a role to play......a local resident who refused to sell through any Estate Agent locally recently sold to a developer who knocked at his door and sweet talked the seller into selling to him.....end result, seller sold for AT LEAST £100,000 - probably more like £200,000 - less than even I would have paid him. If he'd paid our full fee, he would have been over £70,000 better off. Private selling is for the foolish.
James,
BW