‘Off-market’ online property platform launches in Fulham
Former PCL buying agent Mark Wells plans to "bring the off-market model online" across London and the UK
Mark Wells, formerly a Partner at Kensington-based buying agency Homes One, is launching a new venture which aims “to bring the off-market model online.”
The Invisible Homes website “allows potential buyers to communicate directly with anyone looking to sell off-market, whether agents or private sellers”.
It’s tapping into a trend recently quantified by Hamptons International, which found that around a quarter of £1m+ London homes are now sold “off market” – without portals or open marketing. Across the UK, the proportion of such quiet deals has escalated from 11% in 20o7 to c.20% so far this year.
FURTHER READING
The Off-Market Switch: Top property agents share their tales of the underground market (April 2015)
‘20% of UK homes have been sold off market this year’ – Hamptons International (September 2017)
Wells says that nearly one in three of the c.300 deals he brokered as a buying agent were of the off-market variety. Other buying agents report even higher ratios: Heaton & Partners’ Ed Heaton told us a while back that “in a typical year 60-70% of what we buy is off-market and the higher value you go the less likely it is that a property will be on the open market”, while Tunstall Property’s Mark Tunstall says that “well over half of our instructions are off-market, and off-market deals accounted for around 40% of our total” in 2015.
Vendors are turning to more discreet marketing options in a tricksy market and in the face of growing transparency offered by property portals; “in a bid to avoid overexposure and tell-tale online price drops”, as Wells puts it.
The trouble with quiet marketing, however, is that only the most diligent – or represented – would-be buyers get to hear about the properties on offer. While that’s part of the appeal of marketing this way, Wells thinks there’s room for improvement…
Invisible Homes is hoping to occupy the middle ground, allowing vendors and agents to reach regular buyers without having to splash asking prices (and marketing histories) across portals and property pages. The website promises “to make it easier for buyers to access off-market property, and for agents and individuals to find the best buyers in one place.”
Agents will be asked to pay a monthly fee to use the service; most buyers will get access for free – although a “freemium” option will be available “for buyers who want to convey their desire to buy by being highlighted and the top of agents’ matches”.
Invisible Homes is starting out in Fulham, but there are grander plans to expand to the rest of London by mid-2018, and the rest of the UK shortly after.
Mark Wells, founder of Invisible Homes: “I looked back over all the 300 odd deals I’ve done in the property market. 30% of the ones I negotiated as a buying agent were off-market, and almost all of them ended smoothly. Buyers and sellers got on. Both sides were happy with the price. There was no gazumping. We were all friends. The ones from the open market were often a different story.”