Categoria: Immobiliare

  • Facebook Marketing E Strategie Digitali Per Gli Agenti Immobiliari

    Conosci Veronica Gentili?

    Stiamo parlando di uno dei volti più conosciuti del Digital Marketing in Italia.

    Citando parte della sua biografia, certificata nel 2016 da Facebook come Facebook Certified Planning Professional, docente per Ninja MarketingFacebook Marketing Expert per AdEspresso Hootsuite, autrice di alcuni tra i libri più conosciuti nel campo della comunicazione digitale.

    Ti racconto un piccolo aneddoto.

    Tre anni fa avevo sentito Veronica per registrare un podcast; subito si era mostrata disponibile e nel giro di un paio di giorni il podcast era pronto.

    Volevo inserirlo in un nuovo progetto che avrei lanciato da lì a breve.

    ​​Una parte di questo progetto prevedeva la creazione di un podcast dedicato al digital marketing per gli agenti immobiliari ed i professionisti del settore immobiliare in generale.

    Poi, però, le cose non sono andate esattamente come pensavo.

    Il progetto non è partito sino a questa primavera ed il podcast è rimasto chiuso nel cassetto per quasi tre anni, era fine agosto 2017!

    Ci voleva il Coronavirus per farmi tornare a lavorare su quel progetto! Quel progetto era il gruppo Marketing Immobiliare Digitale: la community per agenti immobiliari ed addetti ai lavori del settore immobiliare che vogliono digitalizzare la propria attività.

    Ma veniamo al dunque… ascolta il podcast qui sotto! 🙂

    Quanto Facebook può aiutare gli agenti immobiliari

    In molti pensano che, oggi, basta essere presenti sui principali Social Network e condividere un post qui e là per ottenere visibilità e risultati.

    Ma non è così, la vita è dura se non si adoperano tutta una serie di strategie ed accorgimenti. Soprattutto, la vita è dura se non si comincia a guardare Facebook come La Piattaforma per eccellenza.

    Ma non finisce qui: Facebook non è gratis, va messo in conto che si deve spendere denaro in advertising.

    Con Veronica, siamo partiti proprio con questa tema e ci siamo fatti subito una bella risata. Un meme di uno scheletro con scritto: “Pensava di ottenere risultati con Facebook senza investire un centesimo.

    Un’estremizzazione forse, ma è un dato di fatto che, se vogliamo ottenere dei risultati su Facebook, dobbiamo investire sulla piattaforma di advertising.

    Con il Facebook advertising possiamo andare a soddisfare tutti i principali bisogni di business delle nostre attività immobiliari.

    Usiamo Facebook per la generazione contatti di venditori, come spiegavo in quest’articolo case-study dove ho fatturato 9K con un contatto generato su Facebook per meno di 5 euro.

    Lo possiamo utilizzare per generare contatti di acquirenti e vendere immobili, oppure fare brand awareness e far conoscere il nostro marchio. E tanto altro…

    Secondo Veronica, il punto è: farlo bene ed in maniera professionale.

    Il suo esempio è stato questo: è come un martello che, anziché usarlo per piantare un chiodo al muro, lo uso per frullare le pere. Sto usando male lo strumento e non otterrò il miglior risultato.

    Il problema non è lo strumento ma come utilizzarlo.

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    Stai utilizzando Facebook al meglio delle sue potenzialità?

    Le probabilità che ti stia perdendo qualcosa sono molto alte: fino al 2011 – anno in cui mi sono iscritto al social – reputavo questa piattaforma un passatempo per i ragazzini. Avevo il prosciutto negli occhi ed ho completamente snobbato l’opportunità che c’era per il mio business.

    Ma da allora, molto è cambiato e Facebook mi permette ogni giorno di fare business.

    Facebook Marketing Immobiliare è il corso introduttivo che ti aiuterà ad imparare a gestire al meglio il tuo profilo personale e le tue pagine aziendali su Facebook, sia in materia di copertura organica – le persone che raggiungiamo non a pagamento – che di campagne sponsorizzate a pagamento.

    Clicca qui per saperne di più.

    Tre motivi per usare Facebook

    A Veronica ho chiesto quali fossero, secondo lei, i motivi e le leve che dovrebbero portare qualsiasi agente immobiliare ad usare Facebook.

    Il primo motivo, a detta sua, è che i nostri clienti sono per la maggior parte su Facebook e ci rimangono per ore.

    Si stima che le persone controllino le notifiche circa 47 volte giorno e spendono circa due ore al giorno per navigare all’interno della piattaforma.

    Il secondo motivo è che, le persone, ormai, sono entrate nell’ordine di idee per cui facciano ricerche sul web prima di prendere una decisione. Controllano, verificano chi può essere il miglior professionista a cui rivolgersi per risolvere il loro problema.

    In più, c’è il discorso legato alla propria reputazione: le recensioni.

    I nostri potenziali clienti e quelli esistenti hanno la possibilità di valutare il nostro operato. Non possiamo non tenerne conto, non possiamo che dare sempre più spazio al tema. Migliori recensioni vuol dire, oltre che clienti soddisfatti, maggior numero di clienti.

    Il terzo motivo è che, la piattaforma di Facebook advertising, è molto completa e performante, anche in relazione al suo costo.

    È vero, i costi sono in aumento, visto che sempre più persone utilizzano questo strumento. Ma è anche vero che, rispetto ad altre piattaforme come Google Ads oppure LinkedIn Ads, la spesa potenziale è inferiore.

    Facebook è una piattaforma molto efficace. Secondo uno studio Nielsen, si stima che una pubblicità in TV abbia il 39% di accuratezza, Facebook permette di raggiungere addirittura l’89%.

    Ci sono tanti parametri di profilazione, avendo le competenze e la capacità di lettura della strategia si possono ottenere miracoli.

    Come e cosa pubblicare su Facebook

    La cosa peggiore che si possa fare è trattare la propria pagina aziendale come un portale immobiliare.

    L’abbiamo detto tante volte, per pubblicizzare le case utilizziamo i portali, per creare relazioni ed interagire con le persone, utilizziamo i Social.

    Va bene, ogni tanto, promuovere qualche casa sulla propria pagina Facebook, ma dobbiamo stare attenti alla frequenza con la quale condividiamo gli immobili.

    La mia opinione è che nella tua pagina Facebook debba trovare il modo di pubblicare tre contenuti al giorno, compresa la domenica.

    Uno di questi tre contenuti è proprio un immobile: il migliore, il più presentabile, il più bello, il più accattivante, quello che compreresti anche tu per intenderci.

    L’obiettivo non è vendere quell’immobile, ma usarlo come leva per fare brand awareness e darci posizionamento.

    Poi, non si esclude che qualcuno ci contatti per venire a vederlo, ma la strategia è fare sì che sia condiviso ed apprezzato, dandoci visibilità gratuita.

    Il modo migliore per pubblicare un immobile su Facebook è evitare il copia-incolla del testo utilizzato per i portali.

    Entrare nello storytelling, raccontiamo una storia e cerchiamo di toccare diverse angolazioni. Possibilmente, utilizziamo il video anziché una foto statica.

    Possiamo anche dare spazio a dei contenuti che sono ampi e raccontano il nostro quotidiano, magari curando delle rubriche relative a casi pratici e domande più frequenti.

    Raccontiamo cosa ci differenzia dal nostro competitor e di come abbiamo risolto dei casi specifici.

    Per dirla con le parole di Veronica:

    Cercare di creare un giardino fiorito affinché le farfalle vengano da noi, così da smetterla di andare noi a cercare le farfalle in lungo ed in largo.

    Conclusioni

    Siamo arrivati alla conclusione, spero ti sia stato utile approfondire queste tematiche ed ascoltare il podcast con Veronica Gentili.

    Ci sono tanti consigli pratici che puoi mettere immediatamente in campo, tante cose le puoi fare da domani e senza il bisogno di un consulente che si metta al tuo fianco.

    Per altre, come per esempio la messa in pratica di campagne di advertising efficaci, avrai bisogno di un professionista.

    Con i clienti affrontiamo percorsi formativi in tema Digital ma anche consulenza pura e gestione dei canali di comunicazione dell’azienda, dai social network al blog.

    Nelle prossime settimane approfondiremo ancora il tema del Digital, continua a seguire il blog e, mi raccomando, se vuoi restare sempre aggiornato iscriviti alla newsletter.

  • In molti pensano che Facebook sia un passatempo, una piattaforma esclusivamente di gioco e di cazzeggio dove passare le ore a scorrere la bacheca. Farsi i fatti degli altri e spulciare le attività di questo o di quell’altro.

    Ma non è così, o meglio, non è solo quello. 🙂

    Nel momento in cui stai utilizzando i Social Network per fare business, l’approccio cambia. Devi fare un salto di qualità e passare dall’altra parte, sei quello che l’intrattenimento deve crearlo!

    Questo vale a grandi livelli, ma lasciami dire che vale ancora di più nel territorio Local.

    Se per diventare un “Influencer” ad ampio raggio – magari a livello nazionale – ci vuole tempo e tantissimi soldi, a livello local e nel territorio di prossimità della tua azienda, ci vogliono molto meno tempo e molti meno soldi. Garantito!

    Facebook ha cominciato la sua attività con lo scopo di connettere studenti universitari ed altri giovani, negli anni è diventato un must per le aziende ed organizzazioni di qualunque natura.

    Per la tua azienda, non essere nei Social vuol dire non esistere.

    Facebook ti offre l’opportunità di associare un volto, un nome ed una personalità al tuo brand.

    Se da un lato la tua pagina Facebook può rappresentare la tua azienda, dall’altro ti permette di mostrare il lato umano del business attraverso conversazioni faccia a faccia ed interazioni non prettamente commerciali.

    Le connessioni ed una comunicazione autentica sono parte integrante dei social media.

    Anche se è possibile automatizzare una parte delle attività, ci si può tranquillamente inserire in una quantità di comunicazioni che servono a creare relazioni più ricche e “umane” che vanno oltre il servizio diretto al cliente.

    Ma veniamo al dunque.

    Facebook non è gratis

    Facebook non è solo pagine e profili, gruppi e community, non è solo organico. Esiste un lato nascosto: l’advertising.

    Oggi, l’algoritmo di Facebook ha reso sempre più complesso emergere e farsi notare nelle bacheche delle persone che seguono la tua pagina e le tua attività.

    Nella media, un post pubblicato sulla tua pagina raggiunge circa il 6% delle persone che hanno messo “Mi Piace” e ti seguono. Ci saranno casi in cui, vuoi perché hai taggato qualcuno aumentando l’esponenzialmente la visibilità, vuoi perché hai trattato un argomento hot, la tua reach (la copertura) potrà raggiungere e superare il 10-15%.

    Difficilmente ho visto un post superare il 20%, anche se, più l’argomento è caldo, più è Local, maggiore è la copertura potenziale.

    visibilità video

    Mi spiego meglio, se la tua pagina ha 1.000 follower, in media solo 70 100 persone vedranno scorrere il tuo post nella propria bacheca. Molto probabilmente, solo i fan più incalliti e quelli più in target saranno portati ad interagire con un mi piace oppure un commento.

    Come puoi vedere dalla foto in alto, Socialbakers stima che il Video sia lo strumento con una portata organica più ampia. Consiglio: comincia ad utilizzare massicciamente il video! 🙂

    Questo fa sorgere un problema: come faccio a raggiungere più persone e creare engagement?

    La risposta è che devi mettere in conto di investire dei soldi attraverso la piattaforma di Facebook. Il vero business, per loro, è vendere pubblicità!

    Vuoi raggiungere più persone? Paga.

    Nel corso degli ultimi anni, in tanti hanno capito che questa è l’unica strada, la conseguenza è che i costi stanno aumentando. Semplice legge di mercato: maggiore la richiesta maggiore è il costo associato.

    Ma non tutto è perduto, programmando sapientemente le campagne ed ottimizzandole a dovere, si può ancora ottenere un grande ritorno sull’investimento.

    Raccogliere contatti su Facebook

    Voglio raccontarti un caso pratico che ho seguito personalmente.

    Anche se ora mi dedico esclusivamente alla consulenza in materia Digital per agenzie e società immobiliari, sono anche io un agente immobiliare. Qualche casa in 13 anni di attività posso vantarmi di averla venduta!

    Tra parentesi, se ti facesse piacere cominciare a vedere il Digital come un forte alleato della tua attività,  questo è un buon momento per lavorare con me nella trasformazione del tuo presente e costruire un business a prova di futuro.

    Clicca qui per metterti in contatto.

    Ma torniamo al caso studio, te lo riassumo in tre punti che poi andiamo ad approfondire uno ad uno:

    • ho impostato una strategia e creato la struttura;
    • ho creato la campagna di generazione contatti su Facebook;
    • ho gestito in modo ordinario la fase di acquisizione, messa sul mercato, trattativa ed incasso della provvigione;

    Si tratta di un processo, delle attività, che puoi mettere in pratica. Bisogna solo sedersi a ragionare un attimo e capire che direzione prendere.

    Strategia alla base e struttura del funnel

    Sono partito dal ragionare sul posizionamento e sull’elemento differenziante. L’agenzia immobiliare si trova in Sardegna, nel sud dell’isola.

    Cosa potevo fare per emergere dal mucchio? Ci sono diverse centinaia di agenzie competitor, che, generalmente, fanno la stessa cosa.

    In linea generale, tutti nella propria attività mettono a disposizione professionalità, valore, attenzione, precisione, ordine. Ma queste caratteristiche non bastano a farti saltare fuori dal mucchio.

    Avere spiccate capacità di gestione del cliente e dell’attività che svolgi, è fondamentale ma, diventa importante solo e se, con il cliente, alla fine ci arrivi a parlare! Come metti in mostra le tue skills se non hai modo di convertire?

    E allora, cosa ho fatto? Come dicono gli inglesi, ho pensato out of the box, fuori dagli schemi.

    La Sardegna è un luogo incantato, dai mille volti e ben nota per le sue zone costiere.

    Un luogo molto appetibile per una platea di turisti e, conseguentemente, di investitori immobiliari che acquistano ville e villette per metterle a reddito e creare business che prosperano grazie agli affitti brevi.

    In Sardegna è possibile generare reddito da aprile ad ottobre, soprattutto con gli stranieri.

    Ma c’è anche un altro tema, negli ultimi anni è aumentata di molto la fetta di investitori stranieri che decidono di entrare sul mercato italiano. La maggior parte si riversa sulla Toscana, l’Umbria, ma anche la Sardegna gode di buon mercato.

    Cliccando qui puoi vedere un report preparato da Gate Away, un portale immobiliare dedicato alla vendita all’estero.

    Allora il colpo di genio! 🙂

    Avendo lavorato all’estero, conoscevo Rightmove, un portale immobiliare inglese che, all’interno di una sezione dedicata, pubblicizza immobili sparsi per il mondo.

    Mi sono mosso per attivare relazioni commerciali con Rightmove e tanti altri portali sparsi per il mondo, tra cui Gate Away, Immobilien Scout24, etc.

    Nel frattempo, ho creato una serie di funnel e di automatismi per la gestione dei percorsi degli utenti una volta generati i contatti di potenziali interessati.

    L’idea alla base è stata questa: mi posiziono come l’esperto per la vendita degli immobili all’estero.

    Parlo inglese, ho lavorato direttamente in UK, ho creato un solido network di contatti e di piattaforme per la visibilità e la promozione degli immobili che avrei acquisito.

    A questo link puoi vedere un video su YouTube di come abbia effettivamente lanciato questa iniziativa: era Agosto 2018. Come puoi intuire, eravamo nel pieno dell’estate ed erano tutti in vacanza!

    Anche io ero ufficialmente in vacanza, ma questo non mi ha impedito di fare business. Uno dei vantaggi del digitale è proprio questo, si gira 24 ore su 24 a prescindere dal giorno e dal periodo specifico.

    Perché un proprietario di casa non avrebbe dovuto darmi una possibilità?

    Qui ci portiamo al punto successivo.

    La generazione contatti attraverso Facebook

    L’obiettivo l’abbiamo detto, il posizionamento l’abbiamo chiarito, la strategia e gli obiettivi pure.

    Cosa c’era da fare? Ho preparato tutto il funnel, le grafiche necessarie, le pagine di vendita, etc. Ero pronto a far partire le campagne di advertising.

    Su Facebook, puoi generare diverse tipologie di campagne, sono suddivise per obiettivi: dall’interazione alla generazione di traffico, dalla notorietà del brand alla generazione di contatti.

    Non sto qui a dilungarmi sulla cosa, se ti fa piacere approfondire e darmi la possibilità di rendere Digital la tua azienda applicando strategie vincenti come questa entriamo in contatto.

    Il mio obiettivo era generare contatti, ho fatto dei test per capire se mi convenisse di più portare le persone ad una pagina esterna oppure raccogliere i contatti direttamente all’interno di Facebook.

    Ho optato per questa seconda ipotesi per una serie di motivi: velocità, immediatezza, meno qualità dei contatti, ma, di conseguenza molti più prospects.

    Non ultimo, il costo per contatto era infinitamente più basso. Parliamo di circa 5 euro per contatto attraverso la generazione contatti interna di Facebook, circa 40 euro per contatto attraverso la generazione esterna.

    Il testo più performante recitava più o meno così:

    Vendi Casa agli Stranieri.

    La tua casa è situata in una zona turistica e vicino al mare? Abbiamo i canali e gli strumenti giusti per attirare acquirenti nazionali ed internazionali.

    Entriamo in contatto.

    Qui sotto alcuni dei post che ho utilizzato per la pagina dell’agenzia nello stesso periodo di tempo in cui andava avanti la sponsorizzata. In tanti, non si fermavano al modulo di contatto ed andavano a visitare il sito web oppure la pagina Facebook.

    Era importante rassicurare che si trovassero nel posto giusto.

    Andando al sodo, tra le tante ricevute, è arrivata una lead di una persona che aveva necessità di vendere, si trattava di un immobile situato in una nota zona turistica della costa orientale.

    Una villa con giardino su quattro lati, piscina, cinque minuti a piedi dal mare! Boom, bingo… Il target perfetto, esattamente quello che stavo cercando!

    Arriviamo alla fase conclusiva.

    L’Acquisizione e la vendita della casa

    In questa fase sarò veloce, dopotutto mi aspetto che sappia svolgere egregiamente la tua attività e non abbia bisogno di qualcuno che ti insegni come fare l’agente immobiliare!

    Ho incontrato il cliente – era nel bel mezzo di agosto – ed instaurato il rapporto, ho periziato l’immobile e definito gli accordi commerciali di immissione sul mercato.

    Firmato incarico, fatto le foto, il video, pubblicato sui portali immobiliari.

    Non lo nego, ci è voluto un po’ per arrivare alla conclusione, sai perché? Come nel più ordinario dei casi io ho fatto una valutazione ed il proprietario non era d’accordo!

    Siamo partiti a circa 40.000 euro in più, ci sono voluti due ribassi ma alla fine l’acquirente è arrivato!

    Ma ora ti faccio ridere… 🙂

    Sai da dove è arrivato l’acquirente? Dalla Sardegna!

    Nonostante abbia pubblicizzato l’immobile su tantissimi portali esteri ed abbia ricevuto tante richieste di acquirenti interessati, alla fine se l’è aggiudicata un italiano che è arrivato da un portale nazionale!

    Ho speso circa 5 euro per generare quel contatto attraverso Facebook, vuoi metterlo con un fatturato di oltre 9K di provvigioni?

    Insomma, tutto questo per dire che ho imparato diverse cose.

    Se non avessi trovato una leva motivazionale e decisionale come la vendita della casa all’estero, non sarei mai arrivato a quel contatto.

    Nella mente di questa, ma anche delle altre persone con cui sono entrato in contatto mediante questa iniziativa, c’era il discorso che, il mercato nazionale, non avrebbe risposto se non con delle offerte d’acquisto a ribasso.

    Il sentire comune era che non ci fossero soldi per permettersi una seconda casa, puntando all’estero si sarebbe potuto guadagnare di più.

    Morale della favola, ho acquisito un cliente che aveva necessità di vendere e che, probabilmente, da lì a poche ore avrebbe dato l’incarico ad un agente immobiliare del posto – io mi trovavo a 40km di distanza come core business – oppure, peggio ancora, avrebbe messo la casa su Subito.it o simili come venditore privato.

    L’insegnamento è che bisogna ragionare fuori dall’ordinario, bisogna pensare a cosa smuove le persone, a come possiamo risolvere un loro problema.

    Questo è uno dei principali punti da tenere a mente per un’azienda che abbraccia il modello Digitale. Ascolta il tuo cliente, esistente e potenziale, pensa alle sue esigenze ed a come puoi aiutarlo.

    Che ne pensi? Mi farebbe piacere sentire la tua opinione e magari entrare in contatto con la tua azienda per costruire un business a prova di futuro.

    Affianco le agenzie immobiliari e le società di medie e grandi dimensioni nella fase di passaggio al Digitale, offrendo consulenza di marketing, consulenza strategica e di business, consulenza tecnologica.

    Stai utilizzando Facebook al meglio delle sue potenzialità?

    Le probabilità che ti stia perdendo qualcosa sono molto alte: fino al 2011 – anno in cui mi sono iscritto al social – reputavo questa piattaforma un passatempo per i ragazzini. Avevo il prosciutto negli occhi ed ho completamente snobbato l’opportunità che c’era per il mio business.

    Ma da allora, molto è cambiato e Facebook mi permette ogni giorno di fare business.

    Facebook Marketing Immobiliare è il corso introduttivo che ti aiuterà ad imparare a gestire al meglio il tuo profilo personale e le tue pagine aziendali su Facebook, sia in materia di copertura organica – le persone che raggiungiamo non a pagamento – che di campagne sponsorizzate a pagamento.

    Clicca qui per saperne di più.

  • Quanto tempo spendi sui Social

    Come passi il tempo sui Social Network? Quanto tempo stai attaccato a Facebook, etc?

    L’altro giorno mi sono fermato a fare mente locale, ho realizzato che spendo fino al 70% della mia giornata lavorativa sui Social.

    Mi sono reso conto che passo veramente tantissimo tempo su Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube. Questi sono i Social che utilizzo di più, ma la lista si allunga se consideriamo tutte le piattaforme in cui sono registrato ed ho un presidio.

    Perché? Cosa mi spinge – ogni santo giorno – a spendere ore del mio tempo sui Social?

    No, my friend, ovviamente non è la voglia di cazzeggiare e stare dietro a tutta la spazzatura in circolazione.

    Te lo spiego nel video il motivo: un Imprenditore Digitale non può assolutamente sottovalutare questi aspetti.

    Se vuoi entrare in contatto con altri contenuti come questo, entra in Trasformazione Digitale, la Community immobiliare che ho creato per chi vuole digitalizzare la propria azienda.

    L’Imprenditore Immobiliare del futuro è Digital

    Se ti vuoi definire un imprenditore moderno, devi pensare Digital e devi agire Social.

    Aldilà dello slogan, questo vuol dire vedere i Social Network come i tuoi principali alleati.

    È lì che troverai i tuoi clienti!

    Individuare la propria nicchia di mercato e parlare lo stesso linguaggio di chi sta dall’altra parte, è molto importante. Si tratta di uno dei pilastri del marketing!

    Tradotto in termini pratici, la tua nicchia di mercato è molto probabilmente più vicina di quanto pensi. Ti sarai reso conto che, mediamente, hai a che fare con un pattern ricorrente di clienti. 

    Loro sono il tuo target, devi parlare come loro e devi frequentare i posti dove vanno loro. Indovina un po’, dove vanno a passare il tempo i tuoi clienti? L’ho già detto dove vanno?

    La sig.ra Maria spende tutto il santo giorno a scorrere su e giù nella bacheca di Facebook, lo sai vero? Il sig. Gigi non fa altro che mettere like a foto improbabili e seguire discussioni poco edificanti.

    Ora, questo sono gli altri, questi sono gli ignari clienti… poi ci sei tu e quello che rappresenti.

    Sui Social Network ci devi andare per lavoro, non ci devi andare a cazzeggiare.

    A cazzeggiare fai andare i tuoi competitor, così tu hai modo di lavorare per bene. Il Social deve essere il luogo in cui generare relazioni di valore, la vetrina della tua azienda.

    Nella tua agenzia immobiliare, in vetrina, ce le metteresti le foto spazzatura? Ovviamente no, andresti a chiudere bottega dopo due giorni.

    La qualità sta alla base della tua attività sul territorio, lo stesso discorso lo applichiamo al Digital ed ai Social.

    Considera – anche – il tuo profilo personale di Facebook come una vetrina, a maggior ragione la tua pagina aziendale. Le persone guardano quello che scrivi, quello che fai.

    Nel momento in cui vai a pubblicare un contenuto sui Social Network, la parola chiave da tenere a mente è valore. Devi dare valore alle persone, dare dare sostanza.

    Abbracciare la Trasformazione Digitale

    Lo shift sta nel realizzare che i Social sono uno strumento – non gratuito – di business. Se hai un’azienda è il posto migliore dove trovare clienti e coltivare relazioni.

    Coltivare relazioni porta a generare più profitti ed a massimizzare le performance.

    I Social Network saranno una leva di visibilità, una leva esponenziale di incremento delle performance.

    A seconda del tuo business specifico, delle esigenze della tua nicchia di mercato e del tuo target, ti consiglio personalmente di creare un presidio su questi Social:

    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • LinkedIn
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
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  • Digital Transformation Immobiliare

    Mai sentito parlare di PropTech? Forse sì, magari non hai la minima idea di cosa sia.

    Nel corso degli ultimi anni, a livello globale, abbiamo assistito a tre fasi distinte: abbiamo inizialmente osservato la formazione di startup che avevano a cuore il desiderio di migliorare il settore immobiliare.

    Abbiamo poi visto come gli investimenti di Business Angels e VCs avessero cominciato a contribuire allo sviluppo di queste società.

    Oggi, il settore immobiliare tradizionale sta iniziando ad accettare che, il PropTech, non sia solo un trend passeggero, bensì un segnale forte del cambiamento in atto.

    Questo cambiamento è la trasformazione digitale, la digital transformation del settore immobiliare.

    L’immobiliare ha dormito per anni; il modo in cui si acquista una casa è rimasto identico per secoli.

    Oggi, il settore immobiliare si sta trasformando, creando strategie innovative per snellire i processi ed ottimizzare le strutture impiegate per la costruzione, la vendita e la gestione di immobili.

    Dopo il mercato assicurativo, il settore finanziario ed il settore della medicina, l’immobiliare è il candidato ideale per fare il prossimo grande passo nell’era digitale.

    Lo scorso 30 Aprile, ne abbiamo parliamo con Ivan Laffranchi, PropTech Expert.

    Evento Gratuito, realizzato in collaborazione con:
    The Hive Business Accelerator

  • Sono stato ospite della rubrica #Cosapossofareper di Lilia Pavone. È stato bellissimo poter parlare di Digital Transformation e non solo!

    La Digital Transformation non è nient’altro che la trasformazione digitale, il processo di cambiamento che le aziende devono intraprendere per cambiare il proprio business.

    Se lo vogliamo tradurre in un concetto molto semplice, significare passare dall’analogico al digitale. Significa passare dal floppy disk al CD-Rom, dal vinile al formato mp3.

    “A dispetto del titolo ufficiale con cui si presenta, Michele è una persona che parla in maniera molto semplice e schematica. Nella vita si occupa di sviluppare strategie per digitalizzare il mondo immobiliare, ma in questa intervista ci svela dei segreti validi e applicabili in moltissimi settori merceologici.” Lilia Pavone

    Se ancora non lo stai facendo, comincia a trasformare il tuo business.

    La prima cosa da far è entrare nel mindset giusto, dopodiché il resto verrà da sé!

    Ho all’attivo dei percorsi di Trasformazione Digitale che potrebbero fare al caso tuo. Accompagno le aziende in questa delicata fase, affiancandole in tutti gli aspetti legati al digitale: dal marketing agli strumenti video, audio, email, blog, etc.

    Entriamo in contatto, raccontami della tua azienda: clicca qui.

  • All’interno della rubrica RETALK: Real Estate Talk Show, sbarca un appuntamento internazionale.

    Do you speak Immobiliare? Inghilterra chiama Italia: strumenti concreti e mindset da mettere subito in pratica nel tuo business immobiliare.

    L’ho imparato direttamente, lavorandoci per diversi anni: l’immobilliare inglese ha tanto da insegnarci. Come mindset, come approccio verso il digitale, come dinamicità di mercato e conseguente organizzazione.

    Con me, Salvatore Cusimano, Agente Immobiliare a Londra.

    Mi ricordo ancora come fosse ieri, abitavo ancora in UK. Salvatore mi aveva contattato per avere un consiglio sul come aprirsi una carriera lavorativa e professionale in un’agenzia immobiliare inglese.

    Io diedi il mio consiglio, ma lui ha fatto il resto! Di tempo ne è passato, intanto Salvatore è diventato uno stimato professionista che vende immobili di pregio per Knight Frank!

    Avendo entrambi il polso del mercato e del contesto immobiliare in Inghilterra, ci confronteremo su cosa possano imparare i professionisti del settore immobiliare italiano.

  • In un mondo che cambia continuamente, la tecnologia è indispensabile e può fare la differenza.

    Soprattutto dopo che il Covid-19 ha invaso e devastato la nostra quotidianità, facendo cadere i nostri automatismi e le nostre convinzioni.

    Agli Agenti immobiliari servono strumenti efficaci, di semplice comprensione e che diano vantaggi concreti.

    Ne parleremo in diretta venerdì 17, alle 17.30, dal canale Facebook di Gian Luigi Sarzano, Imprenditore e Life Coach, con Andrea Muffato, founder di Agente Immobiliare Digitale, Fabrizio Colletti, founder di Borsino Immobiliare.

    Link all’evento su Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gianluigi.sarzano/videos/2666823183550516/

  • Ai tempi del Covid19, nazioni intere si fermano e si passa tanto tempo in casa, in attesa che il mondo riprenda nella sua quotidianità.

    Questo non vuol dire che le persone smettano di: vendere, comprare ed affittare casa.

    Viviamo nell’era della trasformazione digitale, tanti settori sono stati più o meno toccati da questo tema, l’immobiliare è nel pieno di una tempesta che sta rivoltando le abitudini di addetti al settore e di consumatori.

    Mai come ora, per un’azienda che opera nel settore, è diventato importante decifrare quali siano gli strumenti e le misure più efficaci per riuscire a posizione sul mercato gli immobili.

    Sembra una banalità, ma la maggior parte delle agenzie immobiliari si limita ancora a caricare qualche foto buia sui portali sperando che sia sufficiente a portare l’interesse sull’immobile.

    In questo webinar, ci confronteremo con Tommaso Sagnelli di Nodalview, Alessio De Rosa di Agencasa.it, Gabriela Tagliavia di Spotahome.

    Parleremo di quanto sia importante presentare correttamente gli immobili sul mercato e di come la tecnologia venga in nostro aiuto.

  • Italians, quite often very creative and friendly people. For example, have you ever enjoyed going out for dinner with an Italian chap in front of a well cooked Carbonara dish?

    However, of course this article is not about telling you how charming and good at cooking we are, it is rather to lay down a general overview of the current scenario within Italy’s PropTech sector.

    It has become clear around the world, PropTech is having a blast and Italy is undergoing a transformational change as well.

    Digital transformation is strongly impacting the Italian property industry, trying to resurrect what’s been a very flat and stagnated market.

    I am a PropTech and Real Estate Strategist, I had the opportunity to look very closely at what’s been going on and the picture is somewhat neutral.

    This is because, unfortunately, Italy is still trying to emerge from a hard hitting financial crisis which quickly turned into an all-out economic crisis. Jobs have been lost, forcing thousands of people to find alternative ways of earning a living and securing their financial future.

    This meant many people had to reinvent themselves and this includes, to a great extent, property professionals.

    Italy was never able to fully recover from the 2008 crisis, and the worst is yet to come.

    The pandemic crisis in which the entire globe is having to deal with certainly will not give a hand in this recovery. GDP forecasts are very bad, some experts cast a worst case scenario of -15% compared to the previous year.

    What happened with the property market?

    The property market has experienced some huge hits including average prices falling down by around 30% when compared to 2006.

    The very bottom was touched in 2014, when total of 450,000 residential sales transactions was all the Italian market could muster.

    Compared with 2006, when sales transactions reached 900.000, it is very much clear that the impact the crash had was nuclear.

    According to recent studies from Nomisma, a statistical institute focused on real estate, the number of transactions for Italy should, in a ‘normal’ climate, reach around the 650.000 mark every year.

    Milan is gathering investments and new developments are popping up every other week.

    There is a trend, though, which outlines the capacity of large cities to lead the way and indicate some recovery.

    Milan, in 2019, demonstrated how investments and improvements of general services can benefit the property market. There’s been a 5% increase on the property prices and the buying confidence was at a peak.

    All the rest of the Country, including Rome and other major cities, were still suffering from a somewhat frozen market. Slow transactions, stable prices, lack of confidence from perspective buyers.

    As I said earlier, who knows what sort of terrible impact will have the property market once the pandemic from Covid19 will be finished. The expectations are not good, there is sense for further prices reductions and a strong decrease of property transactions.

    People will lose their jobs and will have no chance to obtain a mortgage and buy a property. As simple as that.

    …and what about PropTech?

    I hope the first part of the article provided with a general picture of what’s currently going on in the Italian real estate market, but let’s focus on the core element: how does PropTech fit into this picture?

    First of all, when the market collapsed, several property professionals moved away from the sector.

    Plenty of shops were closed down in general and, obviously, a large number of traditional property companies (including estate agencies) were forced to say goodbye to business.

    However, with the advent of a new technological era, as well as a slight and gradual increase in sales transactions and confidence, smart professionals started embracing change and seeking new opportunities.

    Today, PropTech in Italy is emerging fast, in the last three years, there have been dozens of new startups entering the market.

    Politecnico di Milano has recently published, for the second year in a row, “The PropTech Monitor”. In 2019, it is known that around 110 proptech companies are in business.

    PropTech in Italy has got plenty of new angles to look at.

    We have a great range of startups like Casavo, an iBuyer which in roughly two years time has raised around 100 million euros closing equity and debt rounds.

    There’s DoveVivo, another well funded startup which is focused on coliving: they raised 72 million euros.

    Then, for instance, we have RockAgent, an online agent who recently raised around 3 million euros, and we can’t forget another online agent, Dove.it, which has raised around 2 million euros.

    There are a number of PropTech startups which are sensibly making a difference in real estate, solving issues and providing great services to professionals.

    But these are only the ones who got more media coverage recently, as Politecnico di Milano told us, there are so many newer and smaller PropTech firms which would be impossible to name them all.

    I have to say, I am enjoying this time quite a lot. The idea is also to start a non-profit association, times are mature for this sort of initiatives.

    We are on a good way to do it, if you’d like to meet up or chat, please feel free to reach out…;)

    Sources:

    https://medium.com/@micheleschirru.it/what-about-proptech-in-italy-dfdb24546912

    https://www.unissu.com/proptech-resources/the-rise-of-Italian-PropTech

  • I originally wrote this for Unissu, the world’s PropTech marketplace, here is the link.

    For me, and I’m sure I am not alone on this, it’s always great fun and source of inspiration to sit and listen to Russell Quirk.

    He is a very influential figure when we take property into consideration. For this reason, it is not surprise that he was recently awarded as the top influencer in UK for PropTech.

    Source: https://tytopr.com/top-10-influencers-in-proptech-tech500/

    During the years, we’ve seen him involved in various conferences, events, shows, all over the UK and online. He has always been at the forefront of the discussions about the future of property and the implications the digital transformation carried to the industry.

    Let’s be honest, property is a sector that has been one of the slowest to adopt technology, this is true for the UK but even more for the rest of the world.

    The two uncontested “trend-setters” during the last 10 years have been the US and the UK, but other regions of Europe are now trying to do their part of the job. Germany and France are definitely worth to look at in this respect, certainly the rising interest for Axel Springer in proptech firms like Homeday, initially, and Meilleurs Agents, lately, is a strong signal.

    It is not all confined in there, because Spain and Finland are strengthening their position as well, and so is Italy with more than 120 proptech firms in the space for 2019.

    I in fact have recently written an article here on Unissu about the rising of the italian PropTech.

    But these recent developments came around just about 7 years after something started to move heavily in the UK.

    The interest for Axel Springer in Meilleurs Agent is a sign that interest is moving from online estate agency, servicing directly the consumer, to a model where services are rather directed to the agents. As Russell will say later in the interview:

    “I think the way forward sustainably for estate agency is to leverage agents and their personal brand and to help them with admin and compliance and so on. That’s what I should have done differently. I should have become a UK Keller Williams in 2018 charging a full fee of one and a half per cent plus VAT on success.”

    It was 2009 when Russell founded Emoov, one the most interesting projects in the entire spectrum of proptech that has drawn attention globally. It was not the first, but certainly Russell knew how to make his way through the press and get the results grow and grow.

    Back then, but even now, he’s obviously been focusing a lot on online estate agency, having been mainly an estate agent for very long time.

    As you might know, for Emoov things have not turned out very well. After 9 years, even after joining  with Tepilo, Channel 4 and Urban.co.uk, after millions of pounds poured into the business, in 2018 Emoov went into administration and Russell had to find an alternative way to earn his living.

    “I should have explored more aggressively with my board becoming a full fee agent but still using local experts still using technology still using operational centralization. And actually I’ve kind of come full circle when I started looking at what on earth I do for a living. In January 2019. How do I pay the school fees how do I feed my family.”

    And here it comes Properganda PR and so on, as he will actually tell us in the interview…

    “The obvious thing of course was PR. Because I’ve got a profile and reputation in property in terms of being able to gain PR coverage so it was natural that I would then do that for other people and we now have lots of clients benefiting from that as propaganda PR.”

    But let’s go no further, below is a full transcription of our chat and here is a link to the podcast I recorded. 🙂

    Michele Schirru interviews Russell Quirk

    Founder of Emoov, co-Founder of Properganda PR, Investor Director in Keller Williams

    – Michele Schirru

    Hello Russell, welcome to the podcast.

    – Russell Quirk

    Good to be here. Thanks for having me.

    – Michele Schirru

    Fantastic. How are you today.

    – Russell Quirk

    I’m very very well thank you very much. Yeah, I’m in a good place.

    – Michele Schirru

    Let’s go through the list of questions I prepared for you, is going to be fun today.

    Russell Quirk, founder of Emoov, co-founder of Properganda PR, Director in Keller Williams, we can continue for hours and hours in what you’ve done in the past in estate agency and not only really.

    So, for the Italian community of property enthusiasts, my first question is to understand and frame who’s Russell Quirk, what is he doing at the moment? What have you been doing for the last, I don’t know, twenty five years or so?

    – Russell Quirk

    Twenty five years!? Wow okay.

    Predominantly My background is property as you say. I spent 10 years running an independent very traditional estate agency business in Essex in the UK with my cousin Anthony. That was as a consequence of our family history going back to the 1950s. As estate agents my grandfather started the original traditional estate agency business under the Quirk name. Back in 2009 I then sold my share of that in the aftermath of the financial crisis and when things were really really tough generally but particularly for estate agents in 2009.

    You know people talk about the Eureka moment. I’d been thinking about the future what I thought the future of the estate agency was, my predominant feeling was the around 2006 07 I could see what was happening in other vertical which you know particularly retail insurance recruitment and so on I think there’s a centralisation play here. I was determined estate agents did not need the footprint of multiple branches. And I think that’s definitely come true now with  Foxtons and Countrywide. They simply can’t afford those branches and that’s been well-documented I think over the last few months.

    So I’d be thinking about kind of digitisation of the industry. This financial downturn, the crisis then, was the opportunity for me to think about actually doing that. So in 2009 I setup Emoov, which I ran for nine years as in some ways, obviously not every way because it came to a crashing halt at the end of 2018. But in many ways was a success. We raised a lot of venture and private equity and high net worth and crowd money. So we raised 29 million pounds in total but that  journey and I’m sure we’ll elaborate on was fascinating for me and was in some ways as a I quite a success in terms of the size of that business how it grew.

    The processes, the operational centralisation, the marketing that we employed and so on, I mean to answer your question very quickly, the last 25 years, I’ve spent 10 years in digital estate agency and Proptech, ten years in traditional estate agency but I’ve done a bunch of other things as well around that.

    So I I was in the city for a little while where I was a foreign exchange broker so it was very enlightening and actually I forged a very very z list amateur kind of broadcast career I suppose in that I do quite a lot of radio and as a property pundit really and it’s a bit of a political commentator now on the likes of the BBC LBC talk radio so I really enjoy that.

    That’s kind of part of my personal brand building but also is a doorway to some of my Properganda PR clients in terms of getting them on radio and an increasing awareness of their businesses and their brand.

    So I wear a few hats I think is the short answer to your question.

    – Michele Schirru

    Moving forward Russell, you mentioned about Unissu and I’m very familiar with their podcast.

    I was really impressed once because you were a guest in their podcast and you were mentioning about something called the three Ts rule. So that means team traction and technology. So can you share with us a little more about it?

    – Russell Quirk

    Yeah I guess I mean there are there’s lots of buzzwords and anecdotes flying around in startup world in terms of what the magic bullets are insofar as how to succeed. And I think what I was talking to James Daisy and Eddie Holmes about was the fact that, you know, if we had to find three things in a proptech growth business that were really important, obviously technology itself in terms of what your technology is, what your proposition is, is important how you deliver that doing in a kind of an agile way without spending too much money – and in fact we did spend too much money at Emoov.

    Traction is pretty obvious. You know, taking online estate agency as an example, online estate agency has no traction. I mean it did have. So it was growing strongly through 2014 15 16 17. It’s now tailed off its kind of hit its ceiling for all sorts of reasons I can go into if you want me to.

    So traction of course when it comes to keeping the nerve and the appetite for existing investors and indeed for raising future money traction of course it’s very important, the rule of thumb used to be that you know you need to be growing a kind of 10 percent a month or 100 percent year on year to keep the interest and attract the interest of investors rightly or wrongly that’s still true.

    And I think there are some downsides to that philosophy that you should grow at any cost. I don’t necessarily believe that that is the correct way forward because in the end you continue to focus on top line and you forget to look at your marketing cost your acquisition costs and before you know it you are out of control you’re trying to raise more money just to kind of keep the marketing lights on and then you kind of hit a wall as we did. So traction of course is important but I think that’s contextual.

    And then team, people talk about team being the most important thing. And it just so is, you know, senior team is very important. Of course the people you dedicate to in terms of technology marketing operations finance. But actually I found that the nuts and bolts to kind of the rank and file at Emoov were the most important and I had some incredibly able and loyal people within the Emoov organisation that had been with me for many many years. Employee number one Lauren Rutherford, she she started with me in 2011. She walked out the door with me in 2018.

    And you know I found that I was encouraged to hire real top notch CFO CMO CTO CFO – the whole c suite thing – and I actually think I probably, not in terms of individual individuals were fine and great, but I probably was encouraged to over hire which then made the business a bit too top heavy but unwieldy and very expensive in my C Suite.

    Bill was a million pounds a year and we were a business with revenues of two and a half to three million before we did the merger with Tepilo. So after that when we plugged the Channel 4 and Urban.co.uk we we had six and a half to seven million revenue.

    So that kind of stuff made sense. But you know a million pound a year for a c suite and a business that’s got revenues of two and a half three million.

    – Michele Schirru

    Madness, if you allow me

    – Russell Quirk

    It does not make sense but VC would say  “it does make sense because you need to put yourself in a position so that you’re investable” and that that team needs to be. If you’re going to IPO the CFO is really important. You need to have him in place way before you IPO because of course he needs to be intimately acquainted with the business and so on.

    And there’s a logic to that. I get that. But the practicalities of that just don’t kind of work. Guys earning 150 200 grand that you’ve given a load of equity away to. On the off chance that you might raise big and have a big exit. You know we need to understand in any sector whether it’s insurance fintech retail whatever, all the startups that they’re all aiming for the same goal which is a big exit either a trade sale or a sale to a private equity firm or an IPO, a tiny percentage of businesses hit that mark, a tiny percentage of businesses even go from raising seed to raising Series A.

    In fact Seedcamp used to say that it was about 6 percent of businesses that raise seed would then go raise series A. So in other words 94 percent of businesses that raise seed don’t survive or they survive on a very very basis. So we will have this kind of founder attitude that you know I think being a founder is kind of the train driver or the astronaut for the 60s 70s and 80s you know which everybody wanted to be now everybody wants to be a founder almost regardless of the business regardless of the idea. And frankly it’s too crowded. And it means it’s a really crappy ideas out there, they mirror what happened in online estate agency which is kind of huge momentum and excitement about a particular disruptive element of the sector.

    Then everybody jumped seating so lots of participants. They all raise lots of money. Could all the investors on the periphery all very excited but then ultimately there’s only room for one or two. So the long tail which is the vast majority of participants crash and burn and we’re going to see that over the next two or three years I’m afraid.

    With with various businesses in various sectors including PropTech, a kind of overambitious overfunded there’s not enough room for them all to grow at the pace they need to in that particular industry.

    – Michele Schirru

    I think you are introducing something that it was on my list of questions because it relates to Purplebricks I think, where essentially so we made a frame for very overcrowded online estate agency marketplace because I think we were saying before recording there are 25 to 40 maybe online agents at the moment.

    And obviously they all rely on heavy marketing and heavy expenditure on that and numbers are not really growing in terms of market share because I think you are in the UK around 7 to 8 percent overall.

    – Russell Quirk

    Not even that, it’s 5 or 6 percent online estate agency market share of which Purplebricks have about 65 percent.

    – Michele Schirru

    Right, fine. In one of your last comments you were mentioning about the Purplebricks numbers which you know they had to listings down revenues down profit down. So is the model dead? What does it need to happen to make this thing continue and thrive in this market essentially?

    – Russell Quirk

    Okay. So let’s start with the beginning of Purplebricks in terms of the evidence the data so forget for a second what Vic Darby the new CEO says in his kind of PR gilded statements to the city about you know everything’s great everything’s on the up and we’re going to have a 10 percent market share. The reality is that Purplebricks have a 4 percent market share of listings in the UK. The jury is out in terms of how many properties they actually sell. So I suspect their sold-market share is quite a bit less than 4 percent now.

    The problem for Purplebricks is that they have plateaued. So their listings have actually dropped in the UK by about 15 percent year on year revenue has kind of plateaued. They just put prices up to try and increase revenue will be interesting to see what happens as a consequence of that on volumes. They’re now trying to cut costs quite aggressively.

    They’ve reduced marketing spend because obviously they’re worried about increased cost of acquisition vs. plateau in listings and revenue. They have a real problem and they particularly have a problem when it comes to now meeting the expectations of the city where Vic Darby has said that they will end up with a 10 percent market share in the next three to five years. They simply won’t. And I will eat my shoes if Purplebricks get to a 10 percent market share using their current model.

    – Russell Quirk

    So to your question in terms of what are they going to do

    – Michele Schirru

    Is it like because of them or because of the model in general where other companies like Housesimple and Yopa can’t really do it even all together. Like, is  there something wrong in the marketplace or is there something wrong in the company itself?

    – Russell Quirk

    No no look, there are. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily the companies structurally, the problem that we have with online estate agents is that whilst they’ve all kind of spent lots of money on marketing and growing brand awareness and so on. What it turns out is true is that despite what I thought back in 2006 7. If you saved people money on their estate agency fees they would all come running towards you when you’re too cheap. It’s a bit like restaurants clothes many things When something’s too cheap it then loses credibility. So there is a consumer psychology at play.

    I mean why does Apple sell iPhones at twelve hundred pounds when you can buy something from China for 200 quid. It’s because the perception is that the apple item is value even though it’s more expensive because it’s better and it’s cooler and so on. The same applies to choosing an estate agent.

    People realise that it’s a six month long process in terms of getting your house on the market finding a buyer and going through. And as a consequence if it’s too cheap the concern then is that the job won’t be done properly and that is the biggest example of this I think is Easy property.

    The Easy property are a cheap brand. I mean that they are renowned for everything being cheap so whether it’s coffee in Leicester Square for a quid you know coaches to Luton airport for three pound fifty or flying to Madrid for forty pounds. They are a brand that relies on their cheapness being their USP. When you then apply that to a precious valuable process and asset like property it simply doesn’t work because it’s met with huge suspicion.

    So whilst the online sector is trying to push fees of a hundred nine hundred thousand pounds the buyer will simply resist. Which is why has a ceiling in my opinion 10 per cent market share, now I didn’t know that up until a couple of years ago but I was analysing what Emoov were doing in terms of all the different marketing channels the different messages pivoting on proposition a little bit and looking at our competitors. It was obvious there was a glass ceiling, there simply is.

    The way forward, I think i, it’s definitely technology to a degree it is definitely operational efficiency and centralisation but actually it’s not cutting fee into the same as you know Harrods don’t have you know constant sales it’s the same as you know good restaurants like Gordon Ramsay restaurants. They don’t do you know three starters and three wine with a main course they don’t do two for one office at lunchtime. Why don’t they do that because it demeans the offering and it’s the same with property. In my view

    – Michele Schirru

    You mentioned somewhere that Purplebricks, Housesimple, Yopa, they will have to join their forces to stay in business. Is this something that you really believe or it was just an outcome to say something strong.

    – Russell Quirk

    Are you suggesting that I might say things just for sensational? No no. I believe that. Either Yopa or Housesimple cannot possibly survive, and again this is a fact. Yopa lost 35 million pounds in 2018. That was their loss. They have just raised 16 million pounds which was a lot less than they forecast they had lost their CEO, LSL had downgraded the value of their investment from 21 million to a million pounds. It doesn’t take much to work out the direction of travel for Yopa given that they’re not growing in size.

    Yopa will fail. It is absolutely inevitable unless they can do a deal like I did with Tepilo where they seek some comfort and protection by merging and I think that ultimately what has to happen is Housesimple, Yopa, will have to merge with Purplebricks, they then end up with 90 percent market share.

    And they will survive on the basis of that scale but they won’t ever be any bigger. But in fairness to Purplebricks they make profit because they’ve hit that magic 40 50000 listing number which allowed for that scale that profit scale.

    That’s okay. But one thing is for sure. And again on another item of clothing if this ever happens you know not only will Purplebricks not trebled in size over the next three to five years but that’s also the same and the case with the Yopa and Housesimple and if they were going to expand why would they not expand it particularly actually where things have been very tight and very troublesome or worrying from a consumer point of view for the last two or three years.

    Why hasn’t everybody rush to go and save money with Purplebricks, Yopa and Housesimple, it simply hasn’t happened they stopped. They either fail or they come up with a kind of merge idea and the other reason I think they’ll have to is the Tosca fund, Martin Hughes, who’s certainly not an idiot. He’s a very very clever man of some repute, Martin Hughes at Tosca fund owns a sizeable chunk of Purplebricks and he also owns a sizeable chunk of Housesimple, join the dots.

    – Michele Schirru

    So let’s go back to Emoov in a way. I was thinking about this. So if you had the chance. What are the two things you would do differently thinking about it now and what would you do that you didn’t do, I don’t know, for whatever reason you did not think about it or there wasn’t enough time or I don’t know, things didn’t work essentially.

    – Russell Quirk

    Yes so what would I do. I wouldn’t take so much venture money. And I wouldn’t have advanced a proposition that was all about top line listing and revenue growth at any cost I would have grown organically so I I put it I would have gone to someone like Simon Murdoch episode one who is you know everyone knows my favourite investor ever, brilliant fund, brilliant guy, I would’ve taken a million or two from him and grown the business organically to be kind of one of the last standing but a business that ultimately could be profitable rather than having to raise you know 10 million quid a year from new investors just to survive.

    So I would’ve done that but the other thing I would have done is when I started getting twitchy, I said to Eddie Holmes and James Easley in January 2018 I sent them a message saying here’s a question for you guys for us just to discuss. I’m not saying that this was my view but I was starting to think that it could be true. I wanted to kind of hypotheses with guys that knew their stuff. I said: James Eddy online estate agency in its current form does not work, discuss.

    So that was two years ago and actually we spoke, we met. We kind of kicked that hypothesis around I think as a consequence of then me having started to think that the cheap option didn’t work from a consumer perspective. I would have then, I should have explored more aggressively with my board becoming a full fee agent but still using local experts still using technology still using operational centralisation. And actually I’ve kind of come full circle when I started looking at what on earth I do for a living. In January 2019. How do I pay the school fees how do I feed my family.

    The obvious thing of course was PR. Because I’ve got a profile and reputation in property in terms of being able to gain PR coverage so it was natural that I would then do that for other people and we now have lots of clients benefiting from that as propaganda PR. But when I then went to see Ben Tate at Teller Williams about PR funnily enough I didn’t realise previously Keller Williams had been around since the late 80s.

    Their model is exactly the model that I had started to consider during 2018 which is full fee plus technology centralised but actually focusing on the agent rather than the business. And that’s why I’ve signed up to be an investor in Keller Williams because the model I think and I’ve said this before so shoot me down in flames here. I think the way forward sustainably for estate agency is to leverage agents and their personal brand and to help them with admin and compliance and so on. That’s what I should have done differently. I should have become a UK Keller Williams in 2018 charging a full fee of one and a half per cent plus VAT on success.

    – Michele Schirru

    Right. I think we mentioned this about a few weeks ago in a private conversation about that and I think this drives me to ask you a question about Compass, which is something that is kind of similar in this sense, in the US obviously, much more valued than Keller Williams. Even though they apparently do the same sort of thing, Mike Del Prete, I don’t know if you know the report about it, he really says are they a tech company or you know they are just a standard company and overvalued and…

    – Russell Quirk

    Look, they’re as much a tech company as WeWork they’re not a tech company.

    – Michele Schirru

    Yeah. For instance.

    – Russell Quirk

    But of course they’re being valued as a tech company because it suits them too because you get valued at ten times revenue rather than three to five times profit. It’s great for companies and they’ve got Softbank behind them. The problem Compass are going to have, and look, they are a great business and they grow very quickly and they do provide a different…

    – Michele Schirru

    Don’t you see them in Europe?

    – Russell Quirk

    I wouldn’t rule it out although the commercial history of estate agencies in different territories trying to encroach on other territories is not a good one. Purplebricks are definitely testimony to that as are Foxtons. They  actually had a terribly unsuccessful time try to expand into the US, so Compass trying to expand as they are into the UK.

    You know you could say well, hang on a sec, Keller Williams is a US business but actually Keller Williams is not a US business it might be domiciled there but it’s actually already in 42 countries it’s already expanded and it’s not expanding as a tech business although it is tech enabled it’s expanding as an agent empowerment proposition.

    – Russell Quirk

    So I think if companies just come to the UK expecting to be able to do the same as they’ve done the US, they can do it but it’s not easy because culturally legislatively things are things are quite different but the companies are fascinating and they’re going to have a shock when everyone realises as they have for WeWork that they are a real estate business not a tech business and then they become valued accordingly.

    The other problem for Compass is that they have raised money simply to buy market share so that they’ve done exactly you and I were discussing earlier which is that their growing top line in terms of revenue and agents share agent count at any expense.

    So you listen to what Mike Del Prete says, his analysis shows that actually in some instances companies will pay their agents more than 100 per cent of the fee that they earn to attract them from Coldwell Banker Century 21, you know, Element and so on. Well that’s great short term, really impressive to investors when you can say “Hey Look, we’re doubling our agent count every quarter”. Well what happens when those agreements run out? So you know when you say to a brokerage firm that you’ve been paying 125 percent of fee to at the end of their two year tenure we’ve also paid them a kind of golden hello of maybe five hundred thousand dollars.

    The brokerage firm says to Compass. Okay let’s go again. Continue to pay me 125 percent of revenue which of course is completely unsustainable. And of course Compass then says, you know, we can’t continue to do that. That was a kind of one off that was just to attract you. What then happens those people then go back to Keller Williams and others.

    I think Compass got a real problem although what might Del Prete will say is that companies are trying to become the go to default real estate business so you would go to them as a buyer or seller rather than going to any other agent or a portal while they pull that off. Great.

    – Michele Schirru

    So what do you mean by that. What is the difference on what they do at the moment.

    – Russell Quirk

    So at the moment people will use Zillow and I think what companies are trying to do is almost to circumvent Zillow as a seller you would just automatically go to Compass because you believe that they’re kind of all things and all powerful but also as a buyer you will go to campus as a buying agent.

    Then they become indispensable and then they’ll try and do things like On The Market if done in the UK you know come to ask because all of our listings are unique to ask before they go on the MLS or they’re unique to us before they go to Zillow. I don’t think trying to do an Amazon which is effectively to saturate the whole market I don’t think I don’t think the consumer wants that. And I think the industry will fight back very hard against that, what you’re doing is depriving the consumer of choice. And that’s actually a very dangerous thing indeed.

    I think Compass will do okay. I’m sure they’ll succeed but I don’t think World Domination beckons.

    – Michele Schirru

    Right. But in some way you are agreeing on the fact that real estate brokerage companies like Keller Williams, RE/MAx or even Compass, even though they do it in a very technological way, can do better because they provide services to agents who are encouraged to leverage their personal brand as you say can be more profitable can be more. You know they can do more compared to for instance online estate agents.

    – Russell Quirk

    Look, online agents in the UK and some in the US like royalty and others are defined by their cheap fees. Cheap fees do not work in scale. They simply do not scale from a consumer point of view. As we said earlier.

    So the concept actually in terms of centralisation and technology is the same really whether it’s a Purplebricks or Keller Williams. Their approach to technology aiding the consumer and indeed aiding the agency is the same. The difference is the fee.

    When you’re charging a four thousand pounds fee on completion and it’s a percentage therefore you have an incentive to sell and to get the best price that trumps hugely a fixed fee upfront where there’s no incentive for the agent to go out and sell a property, and the psychology of an agent and bear in mind I’m gambling as an agent.

    Now. I spend Saturday and Sunday sometimes I’ll do a valuation here and there just to kind of keep my hand in Mr. property I sold a property yesterday afternoon for instance and earn two and a half thousand pounds as an individual and offer Keller Williams for me as a consequence of selling a property at just three hundred and five pounds.

    So the motivation that the agent has as an individual when he is earning, he or she, is earning a two and a half thousand pounds fee their attentiveness their courtesy their professional levels increase because it’s worth their while to put themselves out for that consumer. That’s the difference. That’s the difference when you’re a Purplebricks guy earning 150 quid in the beginning. Do you care about the customer ongoing. Do you care about access. Do you care. You simply don’t care. That’s the reality.

    And I’ve interviewed Purplebricks local property experts who basically said that once they’ve been paid within three or four days of listing the property they don’t care. They don’t care about the customer anymore because are not incentivised and remuneration is misaligned with the wants and needs of the consumer.

    What you find with Compass, Keller Williams, whoever is the agent in the business and the consumer all aligned in terms of what success looks like and everyone’s incentivised to make sure that the outcome is the best one possible. I think there’s in fee terms a huge difference between what I guess you would call a hybrid or hub business vs. an online agent.

    – Michele Schirru

    So the solution may seem like they will just put up the price and that’s it. They just can do whatever the rest of the world is doing. But then how do you justify that.

    – Russell Quirk

    Well yeah but but then the gamble is that they then lose the five per cent of people that are attracted by low fees and fixed fee with a view to them trying to get to the 95 percent. The problem then is that they then got to do everything they can from the marketing perspective to recruit the customers in the 95 percent bucket. But then of course you are directly competing on fee with everybody else.

    So you kind of you lose one disadvantage and gain another. And the other big problem of course for let’s say Purplebricks. Now if they were to pivot and become a percentage fee based on success or a contingency fee business just like Boston’s if Purplebricks were one point five percent on completion. If they list a house today and they sell it in February it won’t complete until May which means they don’t get any money for any of the properties they list or sell.

    Let’s say for a six month period which is pretty average. How do they sustain that. How do they sustain that in terms of their cash flow for six months to bear the burden of all their overheads with no revenue coming in the six months. That why pivot for someone like Purplebricks, Housesimple and Yopa, I think it’s difficult, it’s impossible because continue to say to investors give me 10 million quid. It’s a gamble. And hopefully we’ll come out the other side of it. Okay.

    And then they’re not geared up for it. They don’t have the culture around being paid on success. They’d have to change their entire culture as well. Now I could have done at Emoov because I come from that background but you know the other business is you know. The guys running young, I mean they don’t even have a CEO but the guy that was running it doesn’t come from property. Sam Mitchell that runs how simple comes from letting the guy running Purplebricks comes from money supermarket. What the hell do they know about traditional estate agency in the fee mechanism related to that. So it’s a real big problem for them to pivot.

    – Michele Schirru

    I read somewhere that Keller Williams basically, this is for the US of course, they are trying as much as Zillow as well is doing to become an iBuyer and therefore you know shift a little bit their business model. So is the instant buyer the future for real estate or is just another marketing thing to you know gain leads and maybe sell them through agents. What do you think about it?

    – Russell Quirk

    Yeah. Maybe a bit of the latter. I mean certainly offering a an instant buying proposition will create lots of lead. You could then convert into regular listing. Of course but there is a lead gen element to it for sure. You know I’m quite intrigued by the idea buying model and of course we have one business in the UK, Nested. They’ve been very very very quiet for the last year or so. Might just be because they don’t have a very good PR agency in place so that was

    – Michele Schirru

    Are you proposing yourself for the job?

    – Russell Quirk

    Yes. Not 100 percent. Yes of course. So we don’t hear much from them. They’ve raised quite a bit of money but I don’t really know what they’re doing and I don’t think whatever they are doing they certainly don’t have massive market share so I think I’d buy in the UK certainly very niche.

    The problem with it of course is the the the label that it has is that you will always sell for below market value. The seller in the UK the consumer here that kryptonite. I mean that’s really a real negative for sellers here to go into a transaction where they knowingly under sell their home. It’s just it’s against the culture of us aspirational kind of proud homeowners here.

    I think Opendoor are very successful of course. Zillow actually less successful, they are trying their instant offers proposition. I don’t think they’ve had much success in terms of what they sold and certainly the profit they turned and the same with Knock which is the other business but I don’t think he’s a patch on open door so it’s niche. It’s always going to be niche.

    People are always going to try and get the most money they can. And if you say to a seller what’s more important to you best price or speed. Choose one and you cannot choose one then they will always choose best price.

    – Michele Schirru

    I think it’s something very strong in southern Europe for instance where the market is much more complicated and obviously you know the timetable is very longer than the UK and prices have fallen down much more than the UK.

    For instance in Italy we’ve got Casavo, in two years time roughly there raised hundred million euros which for Italy is a lot of money.

    It’s not like you know the city in London and or the US and they are doing very very well. It’s becoming really sort of a go to place really. I think for Southern Europe Spain Portugal Italy Greece there will be a lot of room for this sort of model even though obviously it’s very capital intensive and this markets here are not really that venture capital friendly in a certain sense.

    – Russell Quirk

    I suppose is it isn’t predominant debt and that’s certainly Nested raised 120 million but 100 million was debt rather than equity.

    – Michele Schirru

    Yeah probably is 50 50, something like that, it is not all the equity of course. I mean they are not Opendoor where probably is more than a billion dollars in equity or something like that. So it’s completely different.

    – Michele Schirru

    Russell, we’re going to the end. My last thought is about your award. A recent award above the most influential voice in U.K. for Proptech. How do you feel about it.

    – Russell Quirk

    I love it. It was ridiculous. I’m like I’m flattered. I was on the title list the year before but this year when it came out I think I was the number one project influencer on the power. I think on the whole I think I’m the 16th most influential person in the United Kingdom. I was unfortunate I was just under Prince Andrew which is according to the I  believe meet this interview recently not a good position to be in more ways than one. But yes so I was kind of surprised really that I was seen as so influential. But I I’m flattered and I’ll I’ll take it of course. But I yeah take it with a pinch of salt.

    – Michele Schirru

    Cool, so I really thank you very much, Russell, it was very very fun and you know you always have lots of things to say and do very very interesting opinions on you know other companies Proptech in general and obviously you know you are live in person for Proptech really. So I do agree with them.

    – Russell Quirk

    Well and I’m an advocate of tech for sure. I do think Proptech is in danger of going too far. I think there are lots and lots of solutions out there trying to find problems. I think you know I don’t see Proptech as a thing. I see prop tech solutions within the industry and within businesses as being a thing. And the problem of course is that you know Proptech sits there next to an industry which is you know full of inertia.

    I mean it’s really hesitant when it comes to investing in property. You know I was do a consultancy work for a business that was part of Mittal family portfolio at the beginning of this year. And actually when you go and speak to the likes of Savills, J.L.L, Strutt & Parker and so on, they kind of all know they’ve got to do something but they don’t really know what. And they don’t want to be the first.

    And you know it’s taken CBRE I think who’ve done some quite notable things in technology over the last year or two it’s taken them a long long time to kind of figure out what they should do. But I think in fairness that caution is perhaps in some ways well-placed because I think that I think there’s a lot of bullshit stuff out there.

    – Michele Schirru

    Yeah absolutely. Absolutely. Right. Thank you Russell.

    – Russell Quirk

    My pleasure.

    – Michele Schirru

    I’m gonna stop the recording now.