Commercial proposition for agent partners - 2010 launch
Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Overview and rationale for launch The Consumer The Competition About French Property Agency Market positioning Why French Property Agency will work How it works Quality About the agents’ interface The numbers How we will support French Property Agency Timescales Next steps for partner agents
Overview: •
French Property Agency will launch a brand new website to the marketplace at the start of 2010.
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The website will advertise a broad range of French properties from across all regions of France.
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Properties will be advertised to all major international markets in multiple languages French, English and Dutch available at launch.*
*All main European languages by end of 2010
The consumer: • Present and future generations of French property buyers are now very “savvy” consumers. • There is now unlimited information and resources available on the subject of French property and consumers are now often very well informed. • 99.9% of them will use the internet to locate sources for French property. • Users of French property websites often complain about how frustrating or “difficult” they are to use and/or their poor quality in general. • All potential buyers of French property would appreciate high quality details about properties. • Poor, or difficult to use websites lose visitors quickly with little chance of them ever returning.
The consumer – Conclusion? • Once consumers find a property website they like and trust, they often stick with it, returning frequently. • A website that the consumer has chosen to trust increases its chances of the customer choosing to book viewing appointments when key decisions are made and they are ready to proceed with their search. • When there are fewer buyers in the marketplace, property websites must stand out from the crowd in order to survive! “Potential buyers who are looking for details about French properties need exactly that... High quality property details!”
French Property Agency A new player! “Even though conditions remain tough, there is plenty of room in the market for a totally professional, high quality French property website which exceeds the current competition�
www.frenchpropertyagency.com
The competition • • •
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French property to UK buyers is a highly contested marketplace. Numerous mature players active. Many for no other reason than they are there! Quality of their websites vary hugely with the majority lacking in depth and often with poor quality property details. Many offer a “confused” message mixing news content, adverts information, resources and property all in one place. Most are simply UK based businesses “piggy-backing” the past success of the French market. Most sites limited to English language only property details.
French Property Agency “To succeed in the market and to find “elbow” room within a crowded marketplace, French Property Agency needs to offer some benefits and advantages”. Therefore, it is built around a few very simple principles: 1.
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Superb quality property details – An amazing level of detail possible, clear and easy to read, well laid out, highly detailed and with capacity for unlimited photos of each property. Multi-lingual property details to attract international buyers Automatically created by our software – French, English and Dutch available at launch.* Real French property professionals based in France and working to a market leading standard – e.g. We are not a UK based “property portal”.
*All main European languages by end of 2010
French Property Agency “The success of our business will depend hugely on the quality of the agents with whom we work – we intend to be openly proud of the agents who represent us”. Therefore, we will work hard to ensure that each of our potential clients understand that:
• All partner agents of FPA are either: • A registered French Agence Immobilière • A registered Agent Commercial • All FPA agents will be able to offer a fully bi-lingual service. • All FPA agents will offer clients a first class service from their initial search to completion and even beyond. • All agents will be able to assist fully with all aspects of a purchase and can propose a wide range of local contacts
French Property Agency Other key features and benefits which help to build confidence for our customers and agents are: • Strong brand, logo and identity – We have created a high quality corporate image for our consumers and agent partners. This will help to secure our clients trust and demonstrates that we are a professional organisation. • A highly interactive website where clients can register their details in a “my FPA” area and create their property profile and requirements in full detail using all available criteria from the website • Any new properties that match their profile are automatically emailed to them – instantly!
Market positioning • We are exactly what it says on the tin: French Property! • We do not intend becoming a “news” based site or writing lots of unnecessary content about life in France – There are plenty of other websites that already provide that and we are happy to leave them all to it! • The focus will be high quality property details combined with highly targeted and relevant key content about French property.
Why FPA will work •
Using our extensive experience of website optimisation we have a realistic objective of occupying a page 1 Google organic search results for “French Property” within 12 months. People will find us!
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We will deliver high quality leads and appointments for our partners.
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We will only work with quality French property professionals who can deliver a high level of service to clients we refer.
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From launch, we will advertise and promote our business in all the required channels – Printed press, exhibitions, PR, web, property forums, article writing, social media (Twitter, Facebook etc).
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Once people locate French Property Agency we fundamentally believe that given the benefits offered, they will bookmark our website ensuring a good chance that they may choose to use our services.
How it works! • The website and database of French Property Agency is provided using a bespoke and state of the art web based application. • You connect via the internet using your normal web browser – from anywhere! Properties can be uploaded using a simple manual interface. Or, we can even accept a “data feed” for those that would prefer to save some time. • Agents advertise a portfolio of properties for sale with high quality and extensive property details available for each. • French Property Agency will generate high quality leads and appointments for their agent partners. • French Property Agency receive a percentage of the agency fee generated for each successfully concluded sale.
FPA agent interface Partner agents use a secure logon account for access into the FPA database – Here they can manage and edit all information about their property portfolio and view all key information about clients sent by us.
FPA agent interface Our user-friendly online application allows agents to upload properties using simple to use dropdown lists and check boxes – Almost no typing and a superb level of property detail created automatically and in multiple languages within just a few minutes. And it’s on the website instantly!
FPA agent interface Easy management of your information within FPA. Agents can sort, arrange and filter properties and clients by a wide range of criteria
Example screen shots of property detail layout (Work in progress but intended to provide an insight into level of property detail already possible!)
Quality “As per our objectives of being the French property website with the highest quality property details for our consumer, we intend to deliver superb “quality” to our agent partners”.
Therefore, we will only ever send you either: a) An appointment or a request for an appointment for a client b) A fully pre-qualified lead with a high level of information pertaining to the clients’ situation. This will normally be in a case where direct input is required from the agent or further information is required about a property or a client is looking to buy in the future and all efforts are needed to “secure” the client c) A request for some photos or info because we have secured some PR for your area or properties
Quality We will not: a) Undermine your properties and our own website by filling it with 100’s of private sale announcements – FPA is for agents only! b) Send you leads or enquiries with minimum or very poor level of detail c) Send silly emails from a client like “ Can you send me more details of property xyz” etc – If the property details are as complete as possible, then they will not even need to ask! We will always ascertain how serious a client is before you need to speak to them d) Send annoying requests for endless “news items” or articles from your region – If you have useful stuff you want to give us, we will happily use it to promote your area
The numbers • There is no cost to advertise an unlimited amount of properties on the French Property Agency website • French Property Agency, for each successful sale, will receive a flat rate fee of 35% of the total TTC amount of commission charged by the agent for the sale and as marked in the compromis de vente e.g. FAI price 181.000 euros – agency fee 11.000 euros TTC x 35% = 3.850 euros invoiced by French Property Agency
• FPA are very happy to work with registered AGCO professionals who in each case will need to negotiate a favourable arrangement with their agent partners to reflect the above arrangement • FPA will be noted in the compromis de vente for each sale and will raise an invoice with each Notaire directly TTC for all commissions earned and will be responsible for the payment of TVA in each case
The numbers (continued) • The French Property Agency website will also include a strong marketing message aimed at individuals who are selling a property in France. • This means that FPA will be able to provide leads to new properties that the partner agent can mandat and potentially sell in their area. • For each property sold, where the lead for the mandat was provided by FPA, the commission payable will be 25% of the total agency fee TTC • For a property sold to an FPA client, where the lead for the mandat was also provided by FPA, the commission payable will be capped at 50% of the total agency fee TTC
How we will support FPA From launch and during the whole of 2010 we have a schedule of support in place to promote the new website: • • • •
Specific advertising in French property press Targeted “banner” advertising on key websites Google “adwords” campaign to ensure traffic to site Exhibitions – we intend to take our proposition to our customers at key events – Agents will be welcome and invited to join us and promote their own areas at the same time if they wish! • Regular PR releases to major publications • SEO support (Search Engine Optimisation) to establish our website as a key player for key search terms in Google, Bing etc
Next steps for partner agents
For those agents who wish to join us: • FPA will create logon accounts for each agent partner Feb 2010 • Formal agreements to be signed with the Agent Immobilier in each case as soon as appropriate. • Rules of engagement and way of working agreed for what constitutes and defines a lead provided by FPA. • Properties released to the website as soon as they are loaded. • Make some more sales!
Timescales • Agents accounts created
February 2010
• Agents load property portfolios
From Feb 2010
01.03.10 www.frenchpropertyagency.com launches!
Commercial proposition for agent partners November 2009