Moovingo to disrupt the commission-based element of property selling

Tony Deane, the co-founder of Moovingo, knows exactly what being hit with a property agent bill is like. Having lived in New York and London in the past before returning to his homeland of Ireland to work at Salesforce, Deane sold his apartment in London through traditional means and above the asking price.

“We ended up getting a very decent price, but I was hit with the bill at the end, which was over £8,000. That always sat in the back of my mind.”

Deane says it wasn’t a problem that he thought to solve until he heard about UK tech companies Purplebricks and Yopa that were trying to upend the property market in a segment of the industry often referred to as ‘prop-tech’.

For a long time, there have been efforts to improve the process for buyers but little innovation on the side of the sellers.

“We’ve seen people doing the sell-it-yourself model where you pay €150, you get sent a ‘for sale’ sign and basically a couple of pages about your property and away you go.”

But Deane says the agent still plays an important role in selling a property and getting the best deal.

With that in mind, he helped set up Moovingo – an online platform for listing and managing property sales that charges fixed fees rather than commissions – with the aim of striking a balance between nimble and fast-moving tech and traditional agents.

“We’re very much a people business and don’t want to eliminate that part of the service,” Deane says.

Platform

Once a seller signs up, a Moovingo agent will visit the property to evaluate it and then, once instructed, will get a professional photographer to prepare an ad for listing on property sites.

Co-founder Jack Brady explains that Moovingo provides more transparency than if a sale was being made via a traditional agent.

“They get access to a personal dashboard, they can review their ad before it goes live, make any comments,” he says.

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