housebid21.com Hopes to Capitalise on Slow Times in UK (Updated)

(updated 26 October 2008)

housebid21.com may seem like it’s up against it: yet another new website developed by estate agents, for estate agents. However, the company hopes to set itself apart from any competitors.

More to the point, housebid21.com isn’t worried about launching in a slow market. It thinks the downturn will aid, rather than hinder its future.

housebid21.com is using the slowness of the market to try and encourage agents, buyers and sellers to look at new ways of buying property – through an online bidding process, rather like an auction, which ends in private treaty sales.

The website is the brainchild of Salisbury based agent Michelle Sheppard, who runs Venditum, an agency who are already using housebid21.com to sell property.

Sheppard described it to propertyportalwatch.com as a new concept in between auction and private treaty: “instead of using Price Guide and then getting lower offers we have turned it round and started with a low figure hoping to attract lots of interest and then people will bid the price back up.”

Like eBay for real estate, properties are placed on the website for 21 days by the registered estate agent. Sellers need to agree a starting price with their agent – the lowest price that they are willing to consider. During the 21 days the property is online, potential buyers bid and the agent makes contact with them to arrange viewings. Buyers are kept informed throughout with emails.

At the end of the 21 days the preferred bidder is decided by the agent and seller, and does not necessarily have to be the highest bidder. They are then contacted by the agent to arrange the formal purchase, by private treaty.

To speed things further and encourage bids, the seller can also decide to take an offer before the 21 days are up. And of course, sellers do not have to accept bids.

At the moment housebid21.com is simply a bidding website, and doesn’t replace existing advertising channels. The site advises sellers to advertise their property in the local press or portals, showing the current market price, the starting price and directing buyers to housebid21.com for bidding.

The website’s owners are clearly marketing it in response to the current economic downturn. They argue it “provides a new and simple way to stimulate the market and achieve the best price in the current property conditions…”

With very few properties currently on the website, market stimulation is unlikely to happen overnight.

It might also take some time for the market to feel comfortable with the idea of almost auctioning a house online.

Maybe because of that famous British reserve, auctions of any kind are relatively uncommon as a way to buy and sell houses in the UK. Anyone who has watched UK property shows on TV will see they have never really got the hang of them, so perhaps the anonymity of the Internet bidding will appeal.

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