The Equity Kicker - Latest Comments in Tesco goes into real estate - now that is a BIG play

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

Philip Wilkinson — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 05:09:53 -0000

If they are my estate agents - then the answer is very little :-)

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

nic — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 06:53:28 -0000

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.

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

Philip Wilkinson — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 05:54:52 -0000

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?

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

Dom W — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 06:53:28 -0000

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.

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

nic — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:42:36 -0000

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.

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

Search Engine Cardiff — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 09:46:38 -0000

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.

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

Dom W — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 04:29:20 -0000

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?

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

sam casuncad — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 21:08:00 -0000

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.