A new way of buying property
Posted on 21. Jun, 2006 by Cassandra in Uncategorized
Having played in the property market ourselves, we’ve often felt that the way ‘the system’ functions here in South Africa is a tad tiresome and old-school.
Imagine our excitement to find that a company in Finland is turning the traditional way of purchasing property back-to-front.
Igglo has photographed every building in Helsinki,
with more towns to follow, and combines these photographs with
satellite images and maps. Every property is listed, not just those
that are currently on the market. (Their tagline is: "Your house is
already on Igglo.")
Potential buyers can earmark a building, street or neighbourhood
they’re interested in, and post offers online. This lets potential
sellers find out how desirable their property is, even if they weren’t
actively considering selling. Buyers also receive an alert when a
property in their earmarked building or area comes up for sale.
If demand and supply meet, Igglo handles the transaction for a lower
fee than is charged by regular real estate agents (less than 2%). Lower
fees are made possible by the fact the Igglo agents don’t get involved
until buyers and sellers have found each other. The company is looking
to expand the service to other big cities. [via]
Alas – the Igglo site is all in Finnish and Google can’t translate it into anything we can understand, but we found a very similar US-based offering called Zillow (which is a bit clearer).
Wicked concept, but perhaps a property lawyer can fill us in on whether this concept is legal here in SA – there’s a nice little loft in downtown Cape Town that we’ve had our eye on for a while now.
Wonder if the owner will sell, if we offer a spin in the Vanquish?
BTW – if you haven’t yet taken part in the ‘Great Cherryflava reader survey’ – please go now and give us some love.
4 Responses to “A new way of buying property”
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sooo
21. Jun, 2006
This is an extremely interesting concept, not tried in SA, as far as I am aware. In SA, anyone is entitled to knock on the door of another and make an offer for the property. The acceptance of that offer and the terms thereof are however key. I’m sure it happens all the time. The difference is now that there is an agent involved. In SA, that agent would have to be a registered estate agent. They basically bring the two parties together. For whom the agent is acting, I am not sure. I suppose the payment of commission is part of whatever the two parties agree in their sale contract.
The interesting bit is that the agent would have to be quite careful. I would think that it could be quite an invasion of privacy for some homeowners. In SA, their legal remedy to stop the invasion would be through the Constitution. Also, the agent would have to make sure that any purchasers, who possibly purchase any of the properties viewed on the site, without actually viewing the property (and I’m sure there are many people with lots of money who would do this) do not rely on the pictures – imagine a situation where the property burns down after the picture is put up and before the sale is concluded….
It’s certainly an interesting one to think about.
If there is anywhere for the legality to be tested, I suppose it is the big US of A …watch that space.
Dave Duarte
21. Jun, 2006
I saw another local blogger this morn with an interesting approach to selling property. Perhaps a touch ahead of his time? rafiq.za.net
Cherryflava
21. Jun, 2006
Thanks sooo for the legal stuff.
Cherryflava
21. Jun, 2006
Hey Dave – thanks for the link – BTW when is the next BarCamp? We wanna come.