Online Property Agents Give High Street the Boot on BBC’s The One Show

LONDON, July 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

- Settled Expanding to Disrupt £3.5bn Real Estate Sector 

- Settled Slashes fee to an Industry-leading £399 (inc VAT) 

- Owners Save an Average of £5,000 

- Settled is the Only Online Service to Remove Dependency on Real Estate Agents  

A battle between online and high street estate agents saw the online way triumph on an episode of this week's BBC's The One Show.

     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160715/814004 )

The One Show pitted Settled, a home selling platform and alternative to expensive estate agents, against Madison Oakley, an independent high street estate agent in Bath. Three sets of buyers were shown around a property firstly by the homeowner, who was selling through Settled, and then by the high street agent. At the end of the experiment each buyer was asked to choose their preferred method. Four out of the five buyers championed the online agent.

One buyer commented: "The lady owner impressed us with her personal knowledge...she could tell me what it was like to live in this building, in this flat, on this road."

The home seller Deb Wright who had chosen to sell her 3 bedroom flat in the centre of Bath through Settled said: "I chose Settled initially to save money because it was a lot cheaper. I was also curious to see if I could actually do it."

Over the past 3 years, the number of people selling their homes through online agents has risen over 5 00 %. Obviously the price is a real driver of this change, but increasingly sellers and buyers are finding online companies offer them more than just cost savings; they are quicker, provide more transparency and give customers much more control over the process.

Settled is the only online service totally eliminating the need to rely on expensive high street estate agents. Settled champions customers as 'the best people to sell homes'. Buyers and sellers are connected through the platform and are given access to a range of digital tools and round-the-clock support - this allows Settled to lower costs to an industry-leading £399 (VAT inclusive). Settled saved Deb Wright around £8,000 on her property sale.

The One Show, which attracts 5 million daily viewers (Source: BARB), also featured a debate between Gemma Young, CEO and Co-Founder of Settled and Carey Gilliland, owner of Madison Oakley. They discussed the pros and cons of each approach with Gemma Young commenting: "The common misconception is that lower price means a lower level of service. This is not the case."

Gemma continues: "More needs to be done to innovate within the property sector. Owners are still being told that the best person to manage their home sale is a middleman. With Settled we believe the key to unlocking a better future for real estate transactions is inside consumers, not a third party. We've seen that when buyers and sellers are more central to the process, they have an extremely positive impact; things run more smoothly, they make huge savings and most importantly, they get something they've been craving for a long time; more transparency and control".

Notes to editors: 

For the full episode see the BBC iPlayer clip (the estate agent feature starts at 02:00)

A range of high resolutions images and photos can be downloaded from the Settled website.

About Settled  

Settled is an easy to use online property platform that eliminates the need for homeowners to rely on expensive estate agents to sell their home. Instead Settled gives sellers and buyers the tools and around-the-clock support they need to manage their own sale or purchase. It aims to lead a new way of buying and selling homes of open transactions, low transparent fees and honest advice.

Since its launch early this year, the proptech start-up has helped customers sell over £50m

worth of homes and provide average savings of £5,000. The co-founders are brother and sister team Gemma and Paul Young, who combined their previous experience in the technology and property industries to reassess the traditional approach to buying and selling homes.

SOURCE Settled