Tesco Sees The Light

Late last week we learnt that Tesco had contacted clients of its private sale Property Market to inform them that it was abandoning the venture with immediate effect.

Instead of trying to run a pure private sales platform, we understand that Tesco will now adopt the BrightSale ‘hybrid’ online estate agency model. This model combines a discounted fee with expert human negotiators to provide what we believe is the best of both worlds.

It would clearly be churlish to remind Tesco that we said back in July that their original venture was “fatally flawed” (BrightSale Press Release, 3rd July 2007) so we won’t do that. Instead, we welcome Tesco’s belated realisation that the vast majority of people appreciate help and support in the (often tricky) process of selling their home. And we certainly share Tesco’s view that the majority of consumers are over-charged for estate agency services at the moment because of the high cost and outdated business practices of most traditional high street agents.

Traditional high fee agents will not like it, but we believe that sellers of homes will be the main beneficiaries of Tesco’s decision to become a full online agency.

And as for us, we think that BrightSale can only benefit from the increased exposure that Tesco’s adoption of our hybrid model will bring. So we welcome them aboard.

Note to Editors:

The BrightSale model combines a low fee (0.5%) with human negotiators based in a call centre in Manchester. The company was only established in January 2007, but already has over 345 listings.

ENDS

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Press Contacts and further information.

Andy Etches
Founder / MD
BrightSale.co.uk
0800 231 6363
andy@brightsale.co.uk