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Tesco goes into real estate - now that is a BIG play

Started by brisbourne · 6 months ago

I read at the weekend that Tesco is going into the real estate market with a low cost service that aims to replace estate agents in the house selling process - turns out that this is not new news (this BBC article is dated May 17) - but if they can get it to work [...] ... Continue reading »

8 comments

  • With this major turnaround, a major setback could happen to many real estate sellers in your place. The same thing happens here in the Philippines where the big time investors carry out all the big time sales while the low profiled real estate agents compete at selling the low income properties selling schemes.
  • If out of principle you object to paying conventional Estate Agency fees, you will find an alternative in virtually every town. The laws of competitions will dictate that there will always be a cut price EA charging 1% or less with a shop front and internet access. Coupled with a ‘no sale no fee’ policy, why bother paying possible lost money upfront and attempting to do it yourself?
  • Thats a good move from Tesco. I wonder how the companies in real estate will react? I assume they are preparing for when Tesco actually goes into this market.
  • Thanks for the comments guys.

    Dom - the £50-200 that Tesco charge is MUCH less than 1% on an average house of say £250k. There is considerable money to be made and saved here.

    Search Engine Cardiff - estate agents will either not react at all or they will learn to use the web better in order to maintain their position in the market. Either way the consumer wins - either by Tesco winning or estate agents upping their game.
  • Yes I agree but in all probability the agent would probably agree a £2k fee & only payable on completion or no fee at all. Whereas £200 is lost money with tesco's if you don't sell. I appreciate were looking at x 10 the amount but with this comes a more comprehesive service and the ability to pay out of sale proceeds. In the scheme of things 2k isn't a big deal at such a stressful time of ones life. As an example, many people are currently paying this type of money in redemption fees simply to get a new fixed rate mortgage.
  • Anything that gets rid of estate agents Nic is a brilliant thing but I do wonder if people are really THAT motivated to do the whole process themselves. It'll come down to shear laziness.

    Going through the process myself right now and you would have to:

    -take good photos of the property
    -draw up the floor plans
    -get the property listed on as many search aggregators as possible (some only take ones through estate agents directly)
    -work out a value
    -take incoming calls from potential buyers and handle questions
    -set up viewings for the house
    -take people round the house
    -do follow up calls with them
    -manage the offer process
    -liaise with surveyors and solicitors

    This is on top of you doing all the things to find yourself a new home (viewings, calls, offers, dealing with sellers estate agents..)

    So all in all, my time is actually worth more than the £5k fees I'll probably end up paying for 8-10 weeks work..

    Thoughts?
  • Good point Phil. It will be quite a lot of hassle. I guess Tesco could have costed extras for the photos, floor plans, and property listings which would be easy for them in volume but painful for us as individuals.

    The other stuff needs to be done yourself. I'm never sure how much effort the estate agent is putting in though.
  • If they are my estate agents - then the answer is very little :-)

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