Why are you offering online direct property marketing?

We believe everyone wants the housing market to become a less stressful, less volatile place; so that moving house can become easier to achieve and more enjoyable.

With Property Match (UK) you get a balance of computer technology and human assistance, to help maximize your house-advertising potential. No other site offers this same specialist service.

Our research confirms the main reason for house price booms, followed by slumps occurring on a cyclical basis, is that vendors have had to pay agents a percentage of what they can achieve when selling.

If people no longer paid agents a percentage of the sale price achieved, the market would be restored to normal operation relatively quickly and it would stay stable from then on.

We are leading the way in offering the no-percentage method of market houses.

Do I still need to use a traditional estate agent?

No you don't need one any longer.

Whilst agents have performed a useful service, this has come at a hefty price. Their strengths lie in publicizing property for sale or to let and then using extreme methods of leverage, to get the prices higher.  Unfortunately, their methods are outdated and cause house price instability (which has been proved over time).  They also seem reluctant to do anything to remedy this situation.

Finally, we are confident you could do a better job without them!

If you are prepared to do your own property marketing and do the negotiations yourself, you can sell or let without needing an estate agent.

Property negotiations themselves are, in fact, really just frank discussions between a buyer and a seller.

Understanding this, there is absolutely no reason why you cannot do them yourself. After all, you know your own property better than any agent could and this is an advantage in any negotiations.

What if I am already with a sole agent?

If you already happen to be with a high street estate agent already you can still use this service in addition.  It is after all your property and you are therefore entitled to sell it yourself, if you wish to, even if you already have an agent working on this for you.

NOTE: By using this web site, any arrangements you may already have your estate agent would normally remain unaffected. To make certain however, check that you have retained your right to sell or let your property yourself (which is normally the case). You can then use our site for direct marketing.  Agent's commission would only become chargeable in the event they introduced the purchaser (or tenant) first.

We would also advise you to check that you have not signed an exclusive selling contract with your agent although this would be extremely unusual.

What if I am not getting enough viewings after marketing with Property match?

Well to make absolutely certain of maximum market exposure, we can also set up a Page One pay-per-click campaign for your property advert on Google and other participating search engines. That way, people will be sure to see your advert, right from Google etc., without even having to trawl any property portals.

All markets work in a similar way and if viewers do not become interested in your property having seen it, you should ask them for their thoughts and, of course, listen carefully to what they say.

If several viewers give similar reasons for not finding your property suitable you may need to change your advert, or an aspect of the property, or both.

Do I need a street sign or pavement board?

We recommend one because it is a prominent marketing tool but the choice, of course, is yours. Our full size professionally made boards have modern distinctive colours and will also bear your Unique Property Ref.

After seeing this, people will be able to log into the web site, find your advert and request to view.

Mounting posts are available too if required.

Can my Property Match advert also be seen on:

Primelocation, Propertyfinder, Rightmove, Globtrix etc.?

The answer has to be no at present, because these sites have declared that they will only show properties marketed by estate agents. A cartel therefore appears to be in operation. This suggests there is is an attempt to maintain a monopoly.  We believe these organizations should be asked for a proper explanation, so that conclusions can be reached and any appropriate action against unfair contract terms be taken by the authorities.

We would naturally be keen to be involved in debates examining such important issues.

Arising from this issue, agent-funded sites won't carry private web adverts.  Therefore, any private property marketing site that claims to be able to place an advert on these sites would appear to be misleading their readers!

Although we accept it may be reasonable for estate agent owned sites like rightmove to refuse private owner advertising, these sites should allow IPRs like us to place paid-for advertising with them.  We believe there can be no reason for refusing us access, unless they actually wish to operate as a profiteering cartel?

By comparison our site may be used by estate agents if they wish to,

although if they changed the way they charged we'd prefer that.

Can I edit my property advert once it is live online?

You can certainly do this but because we are a live site, you cannot edit your final copy once posted and live. Instead please email us with any required updates so that we can vet the material being changed. We hope you understand and accept that there is a need for us to check the appropriateness of changes to be made to content already posted online.

How long should it take for my advert to appear on the main search engines?

It should normally appear on the natural listings within a month of filing it with us although times can vary depending on the spidering schedules of individual search engines.

Pay-Per-Click however, is usually active the week you place it with us.

What do I get if I buy Pay-Per-Click too?

The answer: Advertise a house.

Why pay to advertise at all, when some sites are offering it for free?

The answer: Why Pay.

How do I arrange my own viewings?

When arranging for viewers to visit your property we suggest you get a friend to help by showing the viewers around.

They can then follow up a viewing by asking what each viewer thought about the house, either at the time or a short while later.

Doing this will not only help to keep the viewing experience relaxed but is also the safest method to conduct house viewings.

Also, you'll also get more accurate feedback about what you're selling or letting, including information about the price etc. Offers from viewers could easily be made to your friend too, if you prefer.

Be relaxed about showing people around and don't, for example, lead them into each room saying "And this is the ... !"

Who is behind Property Match (UK)?

The people who've developed this web service are a small team headed by an experienced surveyor with a professional eye for identifying the changes necessary to make the whole selling and letting process smoother and less stressful for all concerned.

Are these pages viewable on mobile devices?

Yes.  We use the latest software and continue to test different networks to try to ensure live compatibility at all times.

What are IPRs, Internet Property Retailers?

They are web sites, like this one, which offer online publicity to those wishing to market property for themselves.

The term was coined by the Office of Fair Trading to distinguish such sites from those that offer estate agency services (though they may pretend not to).

Unfortunately, as with many things, it is important to make sure that you are using a genuine IPR and not one that is, in fact, an estate agency hiding as an IPR - so beware, check who you plan to entrust your house marketing to carefully and before you start.

The pattern-match search buttons don't work on my computer?

These are special scripted buttons that may not work on older browsers or some machines (even Internet Explorer 7).  However, there are text links above them which can be used instead.  To get them to work properly you currently need to download a Firefox or Safari web browser.

Do strange characters appear on your screen at the end of lines and around our copyright notice at the bottom of our pages?

This should not happen. These pages have been made using the character, or text encoding: Unicode (UTF-8).  To view these pages properly, please go to View, Text Encoding in your browser and set this to Unicode UTF-8.  This should resolve the problem without interfering with viewing pages from most other web sites.

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