Site asks agents to pitch for listings

Phil Martin launched HouseHub.co.nz two months ago.

The site is set up so that people thinking about selling register, and submit information about their property and what they want from an agent.

Agents then submit their proposals and the vendor chooses the one that is most suitable.

Martin said he set up the site because he wanted to help vendors make better decisions about the real estate agents they used. “It’s a lot of money, where else do you say, ‘because someone at work said this guy’s all right, I’ll go with them’? It’s not really good enough when you’re handing over that sort of money.”

Agents from all the major agencies were involved, Martin said.

He got the idea when he wanted to sell a property and found it time-consuming to find the right salesperson. “I went through three agents, sat down with them all. It took about four hours in total and I was left with a huge amount of printed material that I didn’t look at again. I thought ‘there must be an easier way’.”

He would not say how many vendors had signed up for the service but said the response from agents had been positive.  He said the fact the website had a strong social media presence was appealing to many salespeople.  “Online is an important channel going forward.”

Martin said there were benefits for agents, too. By the time a vendor went through the process of registering, writing about their property and what they wanted from an agent, they were clearly serious. “Not just looking to find out how much their house is worth… agents get a good view of what’s important to that seller.”