Case study 1

Brief

A regional housing association, managing over 12,000 homes in Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, asked to speak with Solo Homes to discuss their marketing strategy. At the time of the meeting they had 2 new developments which were being advertised on Rightmove, and a number of shared ownership resale properties that were being advertised with a local estate agent. They found that their sales and marketing teams were spending several hours a day preparing property descriptions, amending information on their Rightmove listings, and liaising with the local estate agent, instead of speaking with potential buyers, and managing the sale of their available stock. Not only that, they were persistently receiving calls from customers who were not aware that their properties were shared ownership, and taking time to discuss the concept of shared ownership, and explaining the eligibility criteria. Finally, the leads that came in to the local estate agent would be noted down on an enquiry form, and advised that the housing association would give them a call back, meaning the customer wasn’t able to enquire about a potential viewing, or begin an affordability assessment, and the housing association found it difficult to get back in touch with the customer once the estate agent had scanned and e-mailed an enquiry form to them; often 1-2 hours after they had received the call.

The cost of this was 2 Rightmove packages for the 2 new build developments they were advertising, and 0.7% of the full market value of the resale properties. This often exceeded £10,000+VAT in sales and advertising spend per month.

Solution

For the new build developments, the housing association would send PDF brochures, CGI’s and floor plans to Solo Homes. Solo would prepare professional advertisements with this information, and send the drafts back to the relevant sales and marketing team for approval. They could tweak or add to the listings as they saw fit before sending the final version back to Solo via our online system, and within minutes these final versions would appear live on the Rightmove, Zoopla, PrimeLocation and Boomin property platforms. Telephone enquiries would go to the Solo Homes call centre who confirm the name, telephone number, and inform the caller that the property is shared ownership, before transferring the call directly to the sales team of the housing association. E-mail enquiries are contacted by Solo either by telephone or e-mail. Once the property details are confirmed the customer is directed to the housing association for them to begin the affordability assessment. This process saves the housing association hours of time creating online advertisements, speaking with customers who aren’t aware of the property details, and chasing clients from an enquiry form that has been emailed to them by a local estate agent. What is more, rather than pay Rightmove per development, they pay Solo Homes a small monthly fee per house type (not necessarily per plot), and have the added benefit of appearing on Zoopla, PrimeLocation and Boomin, as well as Rightmove.

For the shared ownership resale properties, the housing association complete a form with the property details and vendors contact details on solohomes.co.uk. When submitted, Solo contact the vendor to arrange an appointment for the photography and floor plan, and after researching the local area, Solo produce a professional property advertisement which is sent to the housing association for approval via our online hub. The housing association can then forward a link to our online hub, allowing the vendor to approve their details, in line with all prevailing legislation. When the vendor clicks Approve, the property advertisement is sent automatically to the nations biggest property portals, with telephone and email enquiries being transferred to the housing associations sales team. For this service, instead of paying a 0.7% commission of the full market value, they only paid a small up front fee, which includes the cost of the photography and floor plan appointment.

Solo have been working with this client since November 2018, on a weekly basis.