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Tesco Sees the Light!
LONDON, October 9 /PRNewswire/ -- 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agency services at the moment because of the high cost and outdated business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.
For further information contact:
Andy Etches
+44-(0)-7983-358823
BrightSale
andy@brightsale.co.uk
Visit the BrightSale website at
http://www.brightsale.co.uk
