Yopa chairman Grenville Turner has said that hybrid estate agents have had an advantage over traditional agents during the lockdown and have been able to attract more listings.
In comments made to The Negotiator, he says that although he appreciates that many high street agents chose to shut up shop during the pandemic, the hybrid model Yopa employs meant it continued winning instructions and adding properties to the market.
“What has become evident is that those of us that operate more virtually via technology and with a self-employed estate agent model, have probably had an advantage during this [lockdown] period,” he says.
“We have an established way of working that has been more able to adapt and cope with the restrictions of the pandemic.
“From that point of view you can say that in these types of situations our model is more resilient.”
Estate agents
Grenville says that, like its competitor Purplebricks, Yopa’s technology enabled vendors to take their own photographs and videos and therefore enabled their properties to be added to the portals despite Coronavirus.
“We may have been No.2 among all estate agents in recent months overall but we recognise a lot of traditional agents have shut up shop during the crisis so comparisons are a little unfair,” he adds.
Last week Yopa revealed that that the company is now not far away from profitability and that its overall progress is ahead of schedule and that it will soon be cash generative.
Yopa also paid its 130 or so self-employed local agents to keep on working through the crisis to dissuade them from furloughing themselves or their staff.
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