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LetRent is taking on the big boys

The problem with existing property portals is they are over-charging for their services.
And alot of agents are very fed up with this.
Rightmove charges £700+ per month, Prime Location and Zoopla are around £350 per month.

That's £8400 and £4200 per year respectively. That is a salary, a holiday of a lifetime, a new BMW 4 series roadster over 3 years. a deposit on a house and a mortgage.

LetRent is trying to get every agents advertising costs down to just £500 per YEAR.
But it can’t be done without agents willing to get it done.
That is an incentive for the free trial.

Admittedly LetRent only deals with rentals, the name gives it away, but there are plans for a similar concept dealing with property sales with a similar fee structure

Free for the first year, but once we are visible and evidently in use, we will set up data feeds for up to 1000 properties per agent office for just £500 PER YEAR
And agents would be able to start saving considerable amounts of money. What a bonus in this economic climate.
We are also DEZREZ compatible, so any agent using DEZREZ software could just call us and we would set up a data feed account. Again that’s also free.( no set-up cost )

It will take some small effort on the agents and landlords behalf, and alot of trust, but the long term benefits to every agent runs into £1000s per year.

Google has this score chart for all sites based on relevance, authority and popularity.
Rightmove scores 6 out of 10. The BBC, eBay and twitter score 9.

LetRent has yet to start advertising and already scores 1. All down to relevance.
Just imagine what LetRent could achieve with a little content to give it authority and popularity.

LetRent is taking on the big boys, we are doing our bit, but we need the army of agents to help with the battle to reduce costs, improve the advertising experience, and start saving.

Good morning Cosmo

To an extent, I don't blame the large portals to behaving in such a capitalist manner. Some might say they are just like landlords. They have invested heavily and want a return. However, their real estate is the web and that doesn't come with planning issues which means that others can easily build.

Here's an analogy which looks at portals the same way as some tenants look at landlords. Many first time buyers blame landlords for house prices and rent rising on the basis that they purchased a huge chunk of the first time buyer properties over the last 15 years and not enough were built. Now that landlords control the market prices are relatively stable in a stagnant market, demand is increasing and so are rents. What we are experiencing in terms of web-based advertising portals is much the same. Investment to build these monster portals was attracted whilst there was plenty of money about. Demand for their use has grown and supply of money to create new competition has dried up. Therefore, the whilst we are in a relatively stagnant investment market and demand for use of portals is increasing so are their advertising rates.

See what I mean?

However, more portals can and will be built much more easily than houses will..

I commend you for taking on this brave initiative and I wish you well with it.

If agents choose to support Let Rent and link back to your website your Google Page Rank will grow quickly. Offering a full 12 month free trial might well have the desired affect to encourage landlords and agents to upload their properties to Let Rent and link to your website. They have very little to lose!

If the portal does take off quickly the landlords and letting agents who have supported you in the early days will be very glad they did and the others will probably be gutted that they didn't.

As more agents link up with you Let Rent will begin to get found in searches alongside the big portals. As that happens more and more the agents who have loaded their properties with you and linked back to you will witness an increase in business from your website. It might take some time to compete alongside the big portals and the bigger agents might well continue to use all of them. However, some of the smaller agents may well start to say enough is enough in terms of Rightmove and Zoopla increasing their prices and if a sufficient number of those agents continue to support your portal you may well find you niche.

Investment into marketing is going to be an issue for you, however, I think once the inventory on your website starts to build you will find the investment you need.

Good luck with your new venture.

Cosmo - if anybody tells you this can't be done please read this story about "The Tiny Little Frogs" >>> http://www.property118.com/index.php/the-story-about-the-tiny-frogs/25314/