A referral partnership with a leading Scottish property auction house has seen estate agents in Aberdeen paid nearly £90,000 in fees.
Glasgow-based Prime Property Auctions offers listings on residential, commercial and land and has worked closely with estate agents in the Granite City since being formed three years ago by John Morris and Luis Guarin.
The referral business model was adopted from day one, with the north-east one of the key areas of operation.
Prime has established a growing network of referrers in Aberdeen, with fees for participating agencies seeking assistance with sales now set to hit the £90,000 mark shortly. The firm operates throughout Scotland as well as England and Wales and given the volume of sales expected to be concluded by the end of the month, it is set to pay £350,000 in referral fees since inception.
Selling property at auction is becoming increasingly popular, with Prime’s database now sitting at over 20,000 buyers and more than 600 auction lots sold in the UK. As part of the Prime experience, clients are provided with high-quality photos, a video tour and floor plan of their property, all for free.
The fee structure is set at £1500 + VAT, or 1 per cent + VAT, whichever is higher, being paid to referral partners.
Co-founder Luis Guarin said: “We want to work with agents, not compete against them. If someone approaches an estate agent with a property which isn’t a fit for them, they’ll come to us and we can help from there. It’s becoming a go-to strategy for estate agents who understand that some properties are better suited at auction. We appreciate our referral partners and want to reward them and by the end of this month we will have gone through the £350,000 total which we have passed to our respective partners.”
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Director John Morris added: “We are easy to work with and have built up the company organically by working with estate agents. They may have a property on their books they can’t sell but they will still get paid if they refer their client to us and we move it on at auction.
“The client is in control of the price at all times so unless they get an offer they like, they don’t need to sell. And it’s ‘no sale, no fee’ – they pay nothing if we don’t get the sale.
“We are growing as a business and want to reward our referral partners. In line with our growing success, we have increased our referral fees to £1500 + VAT, or 1 per cent + VAT, whichever is higher.”
