PROPTECH-X ‘Proptech & Property’ News: nurtur.group launches innovative automated referral system | New 4Corners research shows mortgage advisors lower aborted sales

nurtur.group launches innovative automated referral system

nurtur.group has launched the first phase its Automated Referral System, which is being rolled out across the agent networks within the group. Damon Bullimore, CTO of nurtur.group, believes that the new system will have the power to transform the Fine & Country and The Guild of Property Professionals networks by unlocking the housing market and driving additional revenue to agents within the group.

“The nurtur.group Referral System offers agents the opportunity to automate the referral process to increase referrals and limit manual updates, making referrals between agencies an automated revenue generator. Removing much of the manual inputs will give agents some valuable time back to focus on other aspects of the business that produce revenue,” says Bullimore.

He adds that using nurtur.group technology, the Referral System is able to identify out of area applicants and suggest the agent refer them to another agent, which means that no referrals will be missed. “The system looks at every applicant the agent registers to determine whether they live within their area. The system will also recognise status updates made by the agents within their CRM and will automatically update the information in the referral system.

This way, the referring agent will always have an updated progress report on the referral. The system will also automatically recognise when a property has been sold, making sure that there are no delays for the referring agent in receiving the referral fee,” Bullimore adds.

“Essentially the referral system will connect all agents across each network, broadening the funnel of potential applicants and harnessing the power of being a part of a UK wide network to gain more instructions and potential earnings across the entire group,” he comments.

He notes that the Automated Referral System is another example of how the various proptech elements within the group are working symbiotically to enhance the service offering to nurtur.group customers.

“Having proptech innovators within the group has enabled us to continue to develop and create products and services that will save agents’ time, while increasing revenue and driving business forward. We will continue to enhance the existing range of products and services we provide, while pushing innovation and seeking ways that will help the networks to grow within a highly competitive industry,” he concludes.

I must declare an interest being a NED for the nurtur.accelerator, but what Damon and the rest of the team are doing is digitally knitting together the membership of the group. Big data used to be a buzzword, doing useful commercial applications off the back of it is now at the forefront of ensuring increased profitability set on autopilot.

Technology is a huge enabler, and the referral system is a perfect example of a membership organisation using its realestate DNA to solve key problems.

In a fast evolving property world where the public is exceedingly tech savvy and demand the highest UX, agents need either to develop their own solutions or be part of a family that does that for them. Doing nothing and thinking it is business as usual is no longer an option.

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New 4Corners research shows mortgage advisors lower sales house sales falling through

A central problem for estate agents is the third of agreed sales failing to get to exchange, Phil Priest Sales Director of 4Corners Property, reveals brokers might be the answer.

Phil and his team spend all their time trying to help all the stakeholders in the home buying and selling process, and are using their data insights to find the true trends that few know about. He explains,

‘Estate agents are the ones affected by sales falling through more than anyone else as they do not charge any upfront fees, so why are they so slow in adopting a process which can secure 100% of sales?

Our study shows that our fall through rates with buyers and sellers is zero when the 4Moving Pack (Searches) are purchased by the buyer at the point of the offer being accepted and half the time to completion, so why the slowness in adopting this?

Following a review on our stats over the past 12 months I wanted to take a deeper dive into the theory and understand why.

With the solution originally designed for Estate Agents to ‘tie’ in the buyer and remove the FEAR from the vendor of the buyer pulling out of the transaction, we aimed this at the buyer to provide some financial commitment to remove the tyre kickers. It has proved more successful for this to be provided by mortgage advisors, who are actually removed from the transaction when an offer is being made on the property, but again why?

For me it is trust. When selling a house, you have the opportunity to invite a few estate agents to view and potentially list your property going with the ones you trust the most. When buying a property, you have no such decision to make, you simply see a property on a property portal, click a button and arrange a viewing without any conscious thought about what agent is listing the property.

In some months, as high as 75% of 4Moving Packs (Searches) were ordered by the mortgage advisor over the estate agent, but over the last 12 months it is approximately 60% mortgage advisors over 40% ordered by agents. A buyer has the option to choose their mortgage advisor and expose their most personal financial information to them, in someone they trust. So if advised to do something that will help, they will listen and act.

The lack of trust buyers have with estate agents proves to me that there is a deep belief that agents are just trying to upsell services for a greater commission, as opposed to acting in the best interests of their clients, which should be both buyers and sellers, not just the sellers.

Is there an additional reason?

Estate agents employ ‘listers’ or ‘negotiators’ who’s primary role is to value houses and ‘get them on’ as clients proving this is a short sighted approach who then hands them off to a sales progressor like a burning hot potato without any concern about the next steps, just the next viewing.

By using this ‘flog and forget’ approach over a customer journey service the clients deal with different people along their buying journey, no one taking ownership of anything outside their job title. This leaves gaps in the process when things could be done for the benefit of the clients and in return for the turnover of the business by allowing them to complete sooner.

Phil and his team are genuinely trying to make a difference their strapline is “Making the buying & selling of properties a better experience for all.” If you want to find out more, just book a meeting with Phil Priest.

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Proptech and Property News in association with Estate Agent Networking.