A Hale entrepreneur has changed career to set up a new type of online estate agency that he says will offer movers a simpler, quicker and more efficient service.
Mike Thornton, 30, has spent his career up to now in pharmaceutical sales, but quit his job after spotting a gap in the market for a local online estate agency.
In contrast to the growing crop of online agencies, MKT Living will offer hands-on local customer service alongside cutting-edge technology.
He said: “I don’t want to reinvent the wheel, but after a lot of first-hand experience with housing around the country, I definitely think there’s room for a lot of improvement in the sales process.”
Below: Mike Thornton says his company will give movers a much simpler and more efficient experience
MKT Living, which will operate entirely remotely, will provide sellers with a bespoke online dashboard that will allow them to keep track of viewings, listing views and feedback in real time.
Each house listing will also come with an HD video walk-through of the property as standard, allowing viewers to get to know a property well before they have even stepped inside. All properties will be listed on Rightmove.
And Thornton, who believes his sales and marketing expertise will be invaluable in his new career, said his own experiences in the market had convinced him there was a much slicker and efficient way to conduct what can be a stressful process.
He added: “Communication can be quite poor with estate agents, which perhaps is no fault of their own as they’re busy people.
“But what we’re striving to do is give people a way to speed up the various stages of the process and cut back on some of the frustration. Rather than the vendor constantly having to chase the agent, they’ll be updated every step of the way online, plus they can call or email us as well.”
Below: The company logo
MKT’s initial patch will be Bowdon, Hale, Hale Barns, Altrincham and Timperley, an area Thornton, a former Altrincham Grammar School boy, knows well.
He says his on-the-ground service will give his company the edge over existing online competitors like eMoov.
“When you’re talking about multi-million pound houses in Bowdon, Hale or Hale Barns, the owners don’t want to have to sell their own house,” the father-of-one added. “We’ll be very much offering a bespoke service – going out and matching buyers to their search criteria, rather than just letting buyers come to us.
“We’ll be all about customer service, relationship-building, personality and over-exceeding what we’ve promised.”
MKT Living is currently building up its property stock and has a 50% opening discount for new clients.
