Lastminute.com man enters lettings portal market
March 15, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
A new lettings portal planned for the end of March aims to break the mould by giving agents more chances to ‘monetise’ their relationship with tenants.
U-rooms has been founded by Mike Peirce, an American who was formerly chief technology officer at lastminute.com, and Mark Davies, who was head of online at the student accommodation landlord Unite.
Peirce explained: “The current portals list rental properties, but that is it. They assume that there is only one point at which agents can make money from tenants, and that is when the property is let.
“However, we will be adding products and services, before, during and after the tenancy, which will change this.
“For example, just one of the things we will be doing is offering a maintenance service. The tenant might have a burst pipe. If he takes a photo of it on his mobile phone, he can ‘ticket’ it online. The job will go to one of our bidding contractors, and the agent will be paid commission.
“We will have plenty of other examples to talk about as we get nearer to launch.”
Peirce said that a significant number of agents had already joined the service, and he promised that from day one, there will be good inventory on the site and healthy volumes of traffic.
“We are using very clever marketing, and we understand how key words work. The technology will also enable agents and landlords to target their properties at the exact type of tenant they want.”
The site will cost from £50 to £200 per branch per month, depending on how many additional revenue-generating services agents want. Landlords will pay £12 per property per month to use the site direct, and will also be able to use the extra services.
Peirce added: “We will welcome Google Real Estate when it launches. We think it will be a Trojan horse to break the stranglehold of exclusivity that sites such as Rightmove have.
“Our own site will benefit, because whilst Google will be free, it will only be a listing. Our site, which has been four years in development, will do a lot more.”
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