W
L
CAN PROPERTY LANE REALLY SELL
YOUR HOME FOR JUST £99?
Two local entrepreneurs have set out on an ambitious venture to become one
of the countries leading hybrid estate agencies. James Quinn, a Liverpool
based businessman and landlord, along with Lewis Knowles, a Wirral based
property valuer with nearly a decade’s experience, have teamed up to launch
Property Lane and we caught up with them to find out a little bit more. our properties. The amount of money we save by not having offices on the high
street is quite astonishing so we are passing that saving onto our customers.
It won’t be for everyone, we realise some people still like to go into an office,
but we’d urge those people to give us a try as we think as well as saving money
they’ll also find it a much smoother process.
First of all what made you create Property Lane?
We are of the opinion the property market is ever changing and we truly believe
what we are doing is going to be the future of how people sell their homes. Once
we show people that we can sell properties for just £99 just as well as an agent
who charges you thousands of pounds in commission or even the large online
based agents who are charging £900-£1,000 upfront, then we believe this is the
route the majority of people are going to want to take. So once you’ve taken the photographs and got the property online what’s
next? Do the owners do everything themselves?
No not at all! We'll assist them all the way through from dealing with
prospective viewers to negotiating offers and then the stressful bit of working
with the solicitors through to completion. We realise a lot of people want to
be more hands on so each vendor will have their own ''Homeowner Portal''
where they can track viewings, see feedback from past viewings, alter their
price and see where the sale is up to. We've tried to cater for everybody and
give the homeowner all the tools and information that we have at our disposal!
Ultimately the Vendor can be as involved as they’d like to be. If they want to
handle things themselves, then great! If they’d rather us take care of it for them
that's okay too!
£99 seems incredibly cheap to sell somebody's home? Is there a catch?
No there isn't a catch! Our motivation is not only to create a successful business
but also to save people thousands of pounds. Some people say it can't be done!
But we truly believe it can and you don't need to pay thousands of pounds in
commission to sell your home. Technology has helped people book cheaper
holidays & find cheaper quotes for their car insurance so we now thinks its time
technology started saving people money on selling their home.
Do you think you can compete with the big online agents we see every day
on TV?
Property lane has been created not to compete with the big corporate online
guys like Purple Bricks but to offer customers a low cost alternative. We are
looking to combine the best of what the high street give you in terms of local
knowledge as well as all the positives of the online/hybrid model which with the
software available allows homeowners complete control over the sale of their
property. We don’t have millions of pounds to throw at advertising on TV so
we need to be good at what we do! If we don’t deliver on our promises to our
customers we won’t survive its as simple as that!
Why do you think Merseyside is the right place to launch this?
We've been involved in property predominantly throughout Liverpool & Wirral
for nearly a decade so we believe we really are in touch with the housing market
on Merseyside. These big companies advertise ''local property experts'' but in
reality these poor guys & girls have driven from home 40 miles away to come
and value your property. We both know the area like the back of our hands
which we think is hugely important, particularly on the Wirral where there are
such a number of niche properties and so many hidden gems!
Why do you think more and more people are turning to online agents?
I think people are realising that you don’t need a swanky high street office now
to sell property. I think something like 98% of property that sold in the UK
in 2017 was first seen online, so the likes of Rightmove & Zoopla where we
advertise are giving us the biggest shop window possible in which to advertise
54 wirrallife.com
How big do you think Property Lane can become?
We have huge ambitions to become one of the largest names in UK estate
agency but at the same time we don't want to become a faceless corporate
organisation. We are big believers in local people selling local properties
so as we grow into other areas we’ll certainly look to recruit experts in that
marketplace. The majority of our competitors are based in London so we think
it’d be brilliant if we could rival them with a business based here up North! We
are seen as the poor relation up here so we think its about time someone shook
them up!
It seems you're really committed to keeping things within the local area
which is great!
Yes absolutely - we are going to be doing a lot of our advertising in local
publications like this, we are currently in talks regarding sponsoring a junior
football team based here on the Wirral & we are also looking to link up and
support some local charities and hopefully help vulnerable people throughout
Merseyside. We may be slightly biased both being born and bred on Merseyside
but we think this is the greatest city in the world and we want to help support
that in any way we can!
And finally, you were telling me you have a bit of a January sale coming up
as well?
Shhhhhh!!! Don’t ruin it! But yes we’ll be offering 25% off our packages during
the whole of January if people pop along to our website: property-lane.co.uk
and instruct us using the code JAN2019 they’ll receive an additional 25% off up
until the 31st January 2019.
If you want to find out a little bit more about Property Lane, call 0151 329 3639.