UK Challenger Homesearch Launches Lead Generating Valuation Tool with a Difference

The British challenger property portal and data company Homesearch has entered the valuation lead generation field with a new tool that it is offering to agents free of charge for the next 12 months in light of new lockdown restrictions in the country. Before launching its own property portal last summer, Homesearch was a popular housing data provider and the company has used its experience here to build a tool that, according to a press release, values "information over valuation".

Rather than ask users to fill in a set of fields with personal information before returning a concrete valuation estimate, the Homesearch tool, which has been dubbed 'Lead Magnet' by its creators, asks users for a postcode and number of bedrooms before returning a set of information about the property along with comparable recent sales and the number of similar homes likely to come to the market soon. The hope is that by not giving a specific valuation but rather a set of information, the tool will weed out time-wasters and generate better quality leads from users keen to find out more from the agent at the other end of the 'Get in touch' button.

Commenting on the launch of this new feature, COO of Homesearch, Sam Hunter says, “One of the features we’ve always wanted to use our data for is online lead generation. When we did our research before building the Lead Magnet, we learnt that the biggest issue facing agents was the quality of leads.  Fake names and emails were always received because the public just wanted to see the carrot being dangled, not talk to an agent. We want to make sure we send qualified leads.”

The 'Lead Magnet' tool is essentially a white-labelled solution that taps into Homesearch's data pool and which agents can customise with their own logos, colour scheme and landing URL. Management at Homsearch will be hoping that by offering the free tool they can convert agents and add to the 10,000+ that have reportedly signed up to list on the platform since its launch.