Boomin Upgrades SmartVal Product

British upstart portal Boomin has announced an upgrade to its flagship seller lead generation product SmartVal which will see 'offline' agents able to bid on leads generated outside of office hours.

Launched in the summer and backed by a national marketing campaign, SmartVal is designed to generate valuation leads for Boomin's customer agents. It does this by mixing an AVM tied to Boomin's data on housing and connecting the user to its agent customers who mark themselves as 'online'. Once the agent receives a SmartVal request they have 15 minutes to respond with a valuation or the lead goes to another agent.

With the latest version of the tool, agents who do not mark themselves as 'working late' on the platform have the chance to accept a SmartVal lead 24 hours later than the standard 15 minutes if they are selected as the user's preferred agent. The new version also allows agents who are offline to bid on leads, providing there are fewer than three other agents marked as online at the time.

The portal founded by Purple Bricks founders Kenny and Michael Bruce claims that SmartVal has generated 40,000 seller leads to Boomin agents so far. The new version has been designed to make the platform fairer for Boomin's member agents and address the issue of leads being generated after hours.

Since its launch back in April, Boomin has been on a mission to distinguish itself from other portals by bringing attention to its range of user and agent tools which it claims make it a more equitable portal for agents to use. Speaking about the upgrade of SmartVal, founder Michael Bruce said:

“It is not acceptable for agents not to have access to these potential sellers like they did automatically, and for free, before property portals were invented because every homeowner contacted their local agent direct every time for an indication of value.  As Boomin continues to extend its reach, with the SmartVal enhancements live today, we’re making it easier with the use of technology for both customers and agents to engage like they did in the past, encouraging more people into the market.

“Combined with the recent launch of ChainMaker and with additional significant innovations and developments in the pipeline, agents should be in no doubt that the Boomin platform will continue to lead industry change and that we’re working tirelessly to create a viable alternative to the status quo.”

Boomin is currently free to list for all UK agents until the end of the year when they will be put on a three year fixed charging structure with a 'performance fee' per branch. In the meantime, Boomin is on a media and PR push in the British agency press to demonstrate value.