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鈥淲e want to give people advice as if we were giving our own mum advice about selling a house.鈥�

That鈥檚 the aim of online estate agent Housesimple, its CEO Sam Mitchell says.

Earlier this month, Housesimple garnered attention for a rather attractive proposition - to sell properties in Yorkshire and the North West for free!

Mitchell explains: 鈥淎 typical estate agent will probably charge you 拢3,000 to 拢5,000 to sell your house and other models have emerged that charge you the best part of 拢1,000 up front, whether or not your property sells.

鈥淲e鈥檙e the first estate agency to come along and say we can do everything but we鈥檒l do it completely free, no catches.鈥�

Housesimple was established more than a decade ago.

Its boss claims it was the 'original online agent' and in that time it has been through some changes as the market has evolved and other disruptors in the sector have moved in.

鈥淚t has always been a distant number two to Purple Bricks, however, I joined the business 18 months ago from Rightmove and we鈥檝e completely restructured it over the last year.

鈥淲e relaunched on January 1, so while we鈥檝e got a heritage and we鈥檝e been around for a long time, it鈥檚 really a completely new concept.鈥�

The business鈥檚 no-fee offering is only 鈥渙ne half of the story鈥�, Mitchell maintains.

鈥淲henever you look at these surveys, estate agents are generally one of the least trusted professions.

鈥淲hen people have a valuation on their house it鈥檚 generally quite an unpalatable experience.

鈥淵ou have some estate agents come round in their shiny suits, they come into your house and they play this game where they try and guess how much you think your house is worth and then they tell you a little bit more so that they win the business.

鈥淚t鈥檚 why estate agents have a bad reputation.鈥�

Mitchell hopes to "turn estate agency on its head".

鈥淥ur valuers aren鈥檛 in suits and because we don鈥檛 have a fee, it takes the heat of that conversation out of the equation, so we give honest advice about what鈥檚 the best way to sell your property.鈥�

But, if Housesimple aren鈥檛 charging fees, where does its income stream come from?

Mitchell says they have made the offering feasible by 鈥渂uilding several businesses鈥�.

鈥淲e鈥檝e looked at the whole chain of moving house from start to finish, and we鈥檝e looked at all the different pain points across that journey and we鈥檝e come up with business solutions to solve those.鈥�

For example, the company has built a mortgage brokerage 鈥渇rom scratch鈥� as well as a moving consultancy business, which they receive referral fees on.

鈥淓very property that we bring onto the market generates between ten and 20 buyers.

鈥淧eople that come to us can use that service whether or not they鈥檙e buying from us, so we hope lots of people that come to view our properties may end up using our financial services products.鈥�

Mitchell says the 鈥渒ey鈥� to the business model is 鈥渘ot to mandate anything鈥�.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to use any of our services we just hope you choose to.鈥�

Mitchell maintains that Housesimple not only wants to make the process of moving house cheap, they want it done better.

鈥淲e鈥檝e built a tech platform that gives control to the vendor so they can understand exactly what鈥檚 going on with their property.

鈥淲e鈥檙e properly leveraging technology to empower our customers and I think that鈥檚 the thing that鈥檚 really going to make it flow.

"I genuinely can't see why this won't be the future of how people sell houses."

The lack of a bricks-and-mortar estate means the firm doesn't have huge overheads.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 have to carry the cost of 90 managers, 90 valuers, 200-odd negotiators, 300-odd cars, we can be significantly more efficient therefore we can pass those savings onto our customers.鈥�

However, Mitchell says combining people with technology is important for the firm.

鈥淲e blend technology and people, we have people in the field that will come round and meet you and give you advice and talk you through the process, which I think is right giving it鈥檚 such a big transaction.

鈥淚t really is the best of both worlds. If you can have people giving you advice and you have access to tech, that really empowers you by giving you all the data you could possibly need.鈥�

Mitchell says Housesimple are 鈥渓ooking at the most efficient way鈥� of rolling out its offering across the 海角视频.

鈥淲e won鈥檛 move on from these regions too quickly because we want to make sure that we鈥檙e giving exceptional service. What we don鈥檛 want to do is grow too fast.

鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to grow at an organic steady pace so we can ensure we鈥檙e delivering the right levels of service for our customers.鈥�