Marcel du Toit, CEO of property disruptor Leadhome, told u|Chief about how homeowners are reacting to his company’s disruptive service offering.
Is your product offering exportable or ‘transferable’? Is this part of your Master Plan… or do other markets already have their own version of what you offer?
Yes, there are many markets where the property industry is similar and our model would work well in these markets such as the UK, Europe and Australasia. For now, we are very focused on entrenching ourselves as the estate agency of choice in the greater Johannesburg and Pretoria areas.
We still have a lot of work to do to educate the market as to our offering, as well as further developing our technology and processes to ensure we continue to delight our customers. We believe Leadhome has the potential to become a national industry leader, innovating at every step of the sales process.
What were the challenges of creating your disruptive offering in a property market which has operated in a pretty traditional manner for decades?
Creating a new way of doing business in an established, traditional industry involved a huge amount of research, interviews, and testing. The main challenge was to challenge existing ways of thought!
Our consumers have embraced our model and are reaping the benefits. Sellers are happy to get great service for a reasonable flat fee and we have been really pleased to see how happy buyers are with the transparency of the model – buyers know that they are not paying extra to cover the agent commission.
“The main challenge was to challenge existing ways of thought”. – Marcel du Toit.
How do people within the industry respond to you? Is it all resistant or do some players want to perhaps collaborate… or do you see them picking up your disruptive challenge and looking at ways to themselves disrupt the industry?
Other Traditional Agents have responded with resistance, but this is expected as we are fundamentally shaking up their industry. That said, there has been interest shown from like-minded, innovative companies and traditional agents looking for more financially rewarding models and greater flexibility.
“There has been interest shown from like-minded, innovative companies and traditional agents looking for more financially rewarding models and greater flexibility.” – Marcel du Toit.
Is this more of the way for millennials or do you see this spreading through much of the more established property ownership market?
This will spread throughout the industry, across ages, races, and genders – anyone buying or selling a home wants to pay less and receive a better service!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkVyFlfeFmE