Julie Simpson – Notable Property Persons in their own words

My NPP today is Julie Simpson.  You may have seen her on Dragons Den. Here is her story.

1. Please introduce yourself. Say a bit about yourself and your company

I trained as Graphic Designer, had a career gap whilst I had my daughter Olivia in 1991. Whilst looking to buy a holiday home in Spain, my husband and I were so impressed with the Spanish estate agent company who accompanied us; we ended up working for them.

My past experience is I was the founder of Flowers Forever (preservation of wedding bouquets) which I set up in 1992. I successfully franchised this and sold it several years later. It is still trading today and is said to be the market leader in this sector.

I set up Usforhomes in 2008, the Property Internet Publisher, this was created for the private home seller/landlord, to advertise their home directly to the public, due to the increasing demand of home owners wanting to sell/let privately, in addition to saving £000’s in commission, marketing costs and time. Usforhomes is the affordable, long awaited FSBO publishing service.

2. How did you first become involved in property?

I’ve been selling property overseas for the last six years and heard more and more of my customers telling me of the poor service that some of them were getting from their UK estate agent. I spotted a gap in the market for an FSBO American model in the UK, an internet based company, however our business model is based on ‘advertise nationally, whilst servicing you locally’; we have local sales agents promoting the business with local marketing strategies, newspaper adverts, local radio, bill boards etc.

3. What do you think is your greatest achievement so far?

Pitching my company on Dragons Den and finding a private investor. It would be great to say that we are the initiators behind this great concept but we can’t take the credit for this. It’s a huge proven concept in America and Canada, there are also other companies offering a similar service in the UK, but not with the same business model as Usforhomes. In fact in February 2010 the Office of Fair Trading released a report that supported our business model, stating:

…there is a clear gap in the market for a major portal to allow private sellers and online services to list their properties.
…that 27% of consumers (vendors) would use an alternative to estate agents if a suitable brand existed.
…estimated that UK homesellers are losing as much as £570 million a year collectively by paying too much commission
…current flat rate commission model was failing to adequately incentivize agents to achieve the best price on behalf of sellers, costing them an estimated £5.7 billion to £10.5 billion a year.

Selling my own house privately, without an estate agent, on my own website USFORHOMES.com. The allowed us the get the price we wanted and to control the sale.

4. Do you or your company have any exciting plans for the future?

Taking the company to the next level and hopefully becoming the brand leader of FSBO via social networking. Selling Property privately is a Growing Trend! More and more people have realised that to sell property privately all you need are: Common sense, decent organisational skills, and the desire to save a considerable sum of money.

5. What do you think are the greatest problems facing the private rented sector today?

Keeping up with customer demand, rental properties are in high demand due to the current housing climate however people are looking at alternatives to save money.

6. What do you think are the greatest opportunities?

The internet will change the way properties are sold and rented by reducing the costs and time in selling, for the public, by marketing their property privately.

Our mission statement, “to sell or rent your house with a click of a mouse” offers home owners a significant alternative to conventional agencies, using the internet alongside traditional tools such as for sale boards and newspaper advertising, to market their home effectively, saving £000’s in commission, marketing costs and time.

7. We have a new government. What would you like them to do for the private rented sector?

To remove restrictions imposed by the large property portals to allow more FSBO websites onto their portals. Critically Usforhomes.com also partner with other established property portals such as Google, Fish4 Homes, Home.co.uk thereby, offering Usforhomes.com customers over 6 million plus UK property searches per month

8. Do you use social media (blogs, twitter, LinkedIn etc)? What place do you think it has in the future of the property industry?

Yes, this is critical to us now and even more so in the future, we use blogs, twitter, facebook, you tube and linked in. Social media has become such a major emphasis on our lives that many people are unaware of how far it may influence us or their friends and family. Information is now spread more quickly and more accurately due to social media sites. YouTube for example would not be as popular, without links coming from many of the media platforms.

9. What is the most important lesson you have learned during your time in property?

That every property will sell or rent if marketed at the right price and is well presented on the internet. 90% of all properties are now sourced first on the internet.

10. What advice would you have to someone thinking of entering the property industry today?

You need to think outside the box – the internet is changing the way property is found, sold and rented.

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Thank you Julie.  If you want to see Julie’s site it is Usforhomes.com