In 2019, 40% of home movers moved less than five miles. Last time I moved my family, it was less than a mile and faster to walk there than to drive. In fact, even the average house move in 2019 was only 9 miles. But is that all about to change? Zoom has already unshackled us from our offices and when Pfizer frees us from our back bedrooms, we will be free to work from the location of our choice. And that choice will lead to be the biggest property exodus in living memory. So it’s time to ride the wave and start looking.
Searching for a new home in a favourite location is really good fun and reading property porn is a national pastime. I’ve spent countless hours gawping at beach houses on Rightmove but now that moving there is a realistic option, I really must spend a bit more time checking out the boring details like council tax, broadband speeds and schools. That feels like a bit of a drag because finding all that information is dispersed far and wide, isn’t it?
Matt Gilpin,CEO of Sprift doesn’t think so because he has spent the last 5 years collating useful property data so that you don’t have to. Sprift aims to take the legwork out of doing your property homework by putting all those boring-but-important details into one Key Facts Report. This means that in future, if your estate agent subscribes to Sprift, all that information will be at your fingertips.
Matt started out in the City selling financial assets but got fed up competing against property investments, which he thinks is a better bet. So he pivoted, and spent 20 years investing, developing and advising on buy-to-lets. In 2016, Sprift was born out of Matt’s own frustration when he couldn’t find property information about properties he wanted to buy. Guessing he wasn’t alone, he pivoted a second time and Sprift was set up to put all that information into one place.
Sprift have produced nearly half a million property reports so far. And have been recognised by some people whose opinions count: Last year PWC’s incubator supported their fundraising (watch out for an imminent announcement. And they have just been talent spotted to be on the NAR REACH 2021 accelerator programme, which is a bit like being signed to Manchester United’s Academy.
Like any academy player it will be a big step up for Sprift to make it into the first team. Threats include the portals, who may give the data away for free to promote their own data businesses. Equally, estate agents are wily businessmen and Sprift will have to demonstrate real value generation to create a sustainable business.
So far, Sprift Matt says he has signed up 3,000 estate agency branches (there are about 17,000 in total) so their reports are not available everywhere, But in 2021, if you find yourself moving further from home then look them so you can spend less time surfing for property data and more time surfing on the beach.
Sprift are in the process of writing an App for Reapit’s Marketplace and their integration with Reapit, the leading estate agency CRM should hasten their availability.
To find out more about Adrian Gill visit his key influencer page here
