Boomin to Launch Innovative Agent-AVM Hybrid Valuation Product

British challenger portal Boomin is to launch what it is calling "the most interactive and accurate online valuation tool on the market". Named SmartVal, the new tool will combine user input as well as proprietary data with agent expertise and local knowledge.

Once a Boomin user has filled in the required fields in the valuation form hosted on the portal website, they will be able to select local agents who are marked as online to complete the valuation. Agents will then get 15 minutes to respond to the valuation request before the request is passed to another agent.

Once the SmartVal valuation is sent the agent gets access to the user's contact details and the user becomes a lead.

Boomin Founder & CEO Michael Bruce said of his company's latest idea:

"Once again we are leading the way, providing our agent partners with new innovations that seek to draw more people into the property market, create new business opportunities for agents and provide them with a competitive advantage.

“In the first of our new product launches, SmartVal combines data, speed and the expertise and insight from great local estate agents, to provide customers with the quickest, most accurate online sales and lettings valuation on the market."

“The aim is to increase online valuation accuracy, whilst placing more agents in front of sellers and landlords and reducing the barriers that some customers, who are yet to decide whether to sell or let, may have in commissioning a full on face to face valuation at their property.

“Everything we have created encourages sellers and landlords into the market and agents into the living room.”

The SmartVal product will be free to all Boomin agents and will be promoted as part of a marketing campaign that will run from September.

Valuation leads are increasingly becoming the focus for UK property portals. Products such as Zoopla's recently launched MyHome hub and OnTheMarket's new instant valuation tool are designed to extract the most value possible for their member agents in the face of what any see as a decline in the quality of sales leads.

Valuations are increasingly important all around the world

It's not just in the UK where PropTech companies are looking to extract value by providing services around home valuations. Axel Springer owned French market-leading portal SeLoger recently announced a new solution it will offer agents to retarget SeLoger users with the agent's branding highlighting that agent's local expertise with the hope of converting the user into a valuation lead.

In Canada, PropTech AI specialist Offerland is hoping to emulate the success of Zillow's Zestimate by partnering with local portals Fisherly and BCCondosAndHomes to get its own Automated Valuation Model (AVM) product OfferValue in front of more eyeballs.

According to Offerland, the AVM is at 96% accuracy thanks to its unique blend of data which takes in factors such as distance to the beach, traffic congestion and access to public transport.