Case study 2

Brief

A national homebuilder and housing association contacted Solo Homes regarding the sale and marketing of a brand new development in Milton Keynes. This new development consisted of several thousand homes built by a variety of national housebuilders including our client. At the time of our meeting they had been using a nationwide estate agency group to advertise their available and upcoming stock, including a section of shared ownership properties. The client would receive weekly reports from the estate agent so they can monitor interest, and test price points. Initial interest was good, and they received timely weekly reports to monitor interest, however, over time interest levels began to subside, and our client was left chasing reports for any new interest. The client chose to move their own sales staff to an on-site sales office and cancelled the agreement with the nationwide estate agent, but they were unsure how to market the properties. Their main option was advertising directly with online property portals, at considerable expense, considering the requirement for several different packages for the volume of stock and shared ownership stock, or find an advertising partner that could work hand in hand with the on-site sales staff.

Their initial cost had been 0.75% of the sale of each plot, usually totaling in excess £7,000+VAT in commission payments each month. They now had the option of opening several subscriptions with Rightmove and Zoopla, plus the added time of managing these accounts.

Solution

Solo met with the client, who at the time had just opened their on-site sales and had no online advertising presence. Solo would collect all PDF brochures, CGI’s, floor plans and price lists, and within 24hrs would be advertising 12 house types (a total of 64 plots) on Rightmove, Zoopla and PrimeLocation. The Solo team then met again with the on-site sales office to go through solohomes.co.uk, which they could use to add new listings, make changes to prices or details, set listings to Reserved/SSTC and even receive enquiries. After a training session with the Solo team, the sales staff were able to manage all property listings, add new listings and remove sold listings independently. When the properties were live, telephone leads came into the Solo call centre, and once the details were confirmed, transferred to the on-site sales office, creating a seamless sales process, rather than a "call back” culture. E-mail leads were also forwarded to the sales e-mail on site. Solo also agreed to send a monthly Rightmove report to allow enquiry levels and search statistics to be tracked.

The original 12 house types (listings) were charged on a per listing per month basis, which produced a large saving in comparison to direct marketing on multiple portals. There were no set-up or training fees to pay.

We are pleased to have a continuing relationship with this client and have since worked with them to sell developments in many different parts of the country.