Is Google forcing estate agents to raise their game?

Amid all the hoopla surrounding England’s untimely demise at the World Cup and the fallout from George Osborne’s budget, the latest news from Google slipped out with barely a mention in the press.

The internet giant has added a UK property search element to its popular Google Maps application, allowing users to quickly identify homes available to buy and let across the UK. Originally developed by the firm’s Australian operation, sellers can upload a property’s details for free, with its location precisely mapped, the entry linked to a corresponding website and users able to see the house in its local setting using the ‘Street View’ service.

At the moment a number of estate agents are using the service for properties on their books, but they are sure to soon be in the minority as people realise the savings that can be made by selling and letting properties themselves.

This has potentially significant consequences for the UK’s letting agents, who have for some time been under pressure from a range of internet applications that make it easier than ever for both landlords and tenants to do away with the agent altogether. If, as a landlord, you can source tenants yourself, then why fork out commission to the letting agent?

With a simple, cost-effective tenant-finding service now readily available to them, landlords will be even less tolerant than before of voids within their portfolio. If agents are to provide real value to landlords, they will have to use every tool at their disposal to secure lettings as quickly as possible.

In this situation, furniture rental from Roomservice by CORT becomes a significant weapon in an agent’s arsenal. Firstly, dressed properties are much more appealing to potential tenants and furniture rental can be a cost-effective way of doing this.

Secondly, the use of furniture rental means the market is much larger; by making it easy to completely furnish a home, each property is effectively being let on an unfurnished or furnished basis, opening it up to all potential tenants. When the ability to swap out items as required is included – for example, turning an extra bedroom into a study if the tenant needs one – it is clear that furniture rental can go a long way towards reducing void periods across portfolios.

And that is a value-added service that even the internet will struggle to provide.