 You know what they say knowledge is power and today we are going all-out iron man We're asking the question who and what exactly is private property and we have ceo of private property Simon Bray with us in studio to answer all our questions Simon so good to have you in studio today Great to be in there. Thank you. You're gonna be a regular face every Friday on express out. Yes, you'll be seeing a lot more of me Early morning's gotta love it So Simon I just wanted to ask you the question first and foremost for anyone who's never heard of private property before What would you say in a nutshell is it all about? Private property is effectively a website that empowers ordinary people to make the right property decisions We've got thousands of property listings from all over the country. So if it's new and it's on the market It's on our website your state agents developers private sellers banks They all list their properties on the platform and you can browse find exactly what you're looking for and Connect to the agent or the seller that's marketing it now I know I use it personally in my own life and it's become such a popular website Why do you think that is exactly? Well, I think you know, we were blessed to be the first website of this kind in the country So I think we've just built a great Consumer base that understand and know our brand over that period of time We've developed we've added innovative tools We've added, you know great web offerings that make it convenient to sit on your couch at home and browse for your next property and With more and more people going online to look for property. It's just become an indispensable service to a lot of people I think that thing about convenience is the most important thing people don't want to be bogged down with too many things That they don't understand, but what about somebody looking to buy or sell property? What can they expect from the website? Well buyers can obviously expect, you know a wide selection of properties So if you're looking for a flat or a townhouse or a Beautiful home with a garden you're gonna find it on private properties sellers you can expect to market to a huge audience So you've got more than a million people on the site every month and they spend time looking for their next home But overall what we work really hard at the private property is crafting the web experience We think property and browsing for property should be an awesome experience not a difficult one not a painful one So we put a lot of effort into the website that you see If you're on any device you can use it so smartphones tablets laptops And if you really a property addict you can download our app and have it with you wherever you are I love it. I love it convenience is key So for anyone looking to get into the property market What would you say is the very first step they need to take? Well, I mean you started off saying knowledge is power and Researching your local market is so important a lot of people get quite emotional About the area that they live in or the home that they live in but when you're looking for your next property You absolutely have to research the local market to understand who are the right agents to use What are the property values looking like in a particular area? What type of properties should you look for and which ones should you look out not to buy? So a lot of research is important and that's why websites and tools like ours are very very valuable For people that are getting into the market. I love it. So you're taking the dauntingness out of the actual process of buying a house Yeah I think what we really intend to do is just make a lot of this information visible to people whether it's through Advice or forums or you know expert Q&A or just spending time on the site looking at various houses that are for sale It just helps you build a sense of what to do and what not to do I love that But before we go what if you're looking to sell property? What would your approach be then? Well marketing your property is actually easy You know there's so many options But the one thing you have to remember is how many people are online these days Yeah, it's the first protocol when people are looking to buy in fact over 90% of people start their search for property online So if you're looking to sell and you want to market through an agent or you want to market yourself You absolutely have to be on a website like house wonderful I Simon like already the nervousness that I felt about the whole situation is gone You have really really explained it really well, so thank you, and I'm glad you're gonna be here every Friday That'll be excellent Do you have a tip of the day when it comes to selling or buying property for us? Well if we're gonna wrap everything up? remember 90% of Potential buyers start their search online So make an effort to list your property online and it can only be a successful sale boom there. We have it Thank you so much. Thank you the fall Oh, I love this now when you know how to use something and how to get the most out of it It simply shuts out all of the confusion be wise when it comes to buying or selling properties You can do so by visiting www.privateproperty.co.za the trusted property people