Zoopla My Home Hub
On 28 January 2021 Zoopla revealed a multi-million-pound programme of future developments which took 18 months to finalise. Part of the new eco-system was branded as ‘My Home’ which provides homeowners with the ability to obtain valuation reports and add information about their home to the Zoopla database.
Twindig congratulates Zoopla on the launch of its ‘My Home’ functionality. Zoopla says this functionality will be a game-changer and we agree entirely, which is why we launched Twindig last June. It is great to see Zoopla following our lead and we wish them every success.
What is the Zoopla My Home hub?
Zoopla says that its “My Home hub” will be a brand-new homeowner experience, empowering homeowners with everything they need to know about their home.
We are not so sure that this is ‘brand-new’, what Zoopla is talking about launching, Twindig had already launched in June 2020.
Zoopla says that each address in the UK will have a homeowner hub. We think this is an excellent idea because we have been offering a homeowner hub since June 2020, although we prefer to call it a twindig – a digital representation or digital twin of your home. However, unlike Zoopla, we also believe that tenants should be able to benefit from a twindig, so you can have a twindig whether you own the home or rent it.
Zoopla My Home Profile
Zoopla has said that homeowners will be able to claim their own “My Home Profile”, subject to validation; and have access to a dashboard that will aggregate key information relating to the property – from home value to area statistics. The My Home Profile will also monitor ‘marketing temperature’, notifying the owner when their home is becoming “hot property” based on buyer demand, to drive market momentum and stimulate greater activity.
Zoopla says that homeowners will be able to update their my home profile with photos and renovation improvements – assembling all the essential information ahead of putting the property in the market, and more importantly for Zoopla and its agents – providing a reason to keep them engaged with the website year after year, throughout their ownership.
Once again, Twindig already offers homeowners and tenants a ‘my home profile’ called a twindig, which includes information on price, valuation and important information such as broadband speed and EPC certificates where they are available. Twindig allows users to follow any property and once fully registered, the homeowner will be able to see how many people are following their home.
We also show the details of housing transactions in your street and local area allowing you to gauge the temperature of your local housing market.
Just as individuals can add to their LinkedIn, Homeowners can add to their Twindig pictures, details about repair and improvements. One way to look at a twindig is to consider it a full-service history, a house CV or as some call it a property logbook, although we think that a twindig sounds more fun than a property logbook.
Managing your home
When it came to managing your home, our market research revealed that homeowners and tenants wanted two things:
- The ability to securely store important documents online
- The ability to set reminders for important, but sometimes dull, household tasks
Twindig provides both, you can store important documents safely and securely we even have a handy list to help you store the important documents you need – the ones you can never find when you need them
We also have a reminders calendar so that you won’t forget to get your boiler serviced or look around for the best utility, insurance or broadband deal.
As at 8 February, 2021 Zoopla’s My Home does not yet have the functionality to store documents or set reminders, but as we know this is important we are sure that it will be coming to their My Home Hub soon. However, whilst you are waiting for your Zoopla home hub, why not join the growing ranks of people who are already uploading documents and setting reminders, for free, on their twindig.
Sign up for your free Twindig
Zoopla is promising some great home hub functionality in the future, but if you would like that functionality today you can claim your free twindig here and get started on your journey of managing your home online why wait for Zoopla jam tomorrow when you can have Twindig jam today?
Zoopla My Search
Zoopla My Search provides users with a dashboard with real-time alerts, search features and a watch list, allowing homeowners and homebuyers to tag properties they are interested in ‘on and off-market’.
The Zoopla My Search feature is very similar to Twindig’s Find and Follow functionality where you can find any property across the country by either entering either the street name or postcode. This includes the one million properties that are on the market and the 27 million that are not currently on the market.
Once you have found the property you are looking for can view it (look at the information and data that have on that property) and you can follow the property just like you follow people on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Once you are following a property Twindig will send you a free monthly update on that property.
Zoopla Progression portal
Zoopla’s progression portal is the final element in the Zoopla eco-system. This is a tool that allows the agent, buyer and vendor to interact with one another. When it is launched in the future it will allow the agent, the buyer, the vendor and their lawyers, solicitors and conveyancers to track the progress of the transaction.
Twindig has similar aspirations and wants to help homeowners through the sale process when they are ready to sell. This is why we already have the functionality for sales forms such as the TA6 and TA10 to be completed online, these can be shared with your conveyancer. We also want to help you to get sale ready and we outline which documents you are going to need to sell. You can upload these documents before you sell so that when the time comes the admin is already done and you can focus on the fun of finding and securing your next home.
Zoopla is watching you
Zoopla commented that by increasing consumer engagement, it aims to monitor behaviour patterns to identify “warm prospects” even before many people are aware that they potentially want to move home, this sounds a little bit creepy to us.
What will Zoopla do with this behaviour data?
Zoopla said that once it has monitored your behaviour patterns to identify warm prospects this is “where the new digital prospects in technology kicks in”. Zoopla’s Digital Prospector tool aims to make accurate predictions and identify ‘warm’ leads, providing agents with notifications as and when a property could be about to come available for sale or to let, giving them a chance to pitch for an instruction.
Whilst we firmly believe that you should use an estate agent when selling your home, we will only suggest agents to you if you ask us to, we won’t track your behaviour patterns and tell agents what you are doing. With Twindig you are in control.
Remember Zoopla is agent first, Twindig is homeowner first
Twindig puts the homeowner at the heart of its proposition rather than the estate agent. Whereas Zoopla says that: “Critically, the vision has been informed by agent need.” “Agents are at the heart of everything we do, and our vision is designed to optimise the Zoopla experience, ultimately driving commercial success for our agent partners.
Whilst there is nothing wrong with designing your vision to optimise and ultimately drive the success of your commercial partners at Twindig we define success as help you find your home, manage your home and when the time comes in helping you move home. If we get that right we will sleep well at night.
Twindig tools
Aside from providing you with a free digital twin framework Twindog also has a range of tools we hope that you will find useful including stamp duty calculators, mortgage payment calculators and home equity calculators all to help you realise the full potential of your home.
Source documents
The quotes in this article were taken from the following articles/interviews with Zoopla CEO Charlie Bryant
Property Industry Eye - Zoopla unveils ambitious plans
Estate Agent Today - Zoopla reveals multi-million futuristic development programme
Estate Agent Today - In conversation with Charlie Bryant