Craig Dunne, mortgage broker at Coventry-based Gregory Law, contacted Mortgage Introducer after spending £750 on an advertising space with the website www.propertyad.com only for the site to be pulled after a mere six months and with no enquiries.
Propertyad was sold to Dunne as a ‘one stop house hunters paradise’ with a limited number of brokers in a particular area. He paid his money up front after being shown a presentation by Richard Szydlo, mortgage services UK operations manager at propertyad.
He agreed to pay the fee on the understanding that it would take six months before the website was up and running, He paid for one year’s advertising and was given a further free year. He was also promised that once all the advertising spaces had been filled for the whole country the website would be promoted via TV and radio ads.
Dunne said: “After six months and no leads, the website had attracted many new advertisers. Many estate agents were showing property on the site, then all of a sudden the site disappeared, the phone calls went unanswered and that was it no more propertyad website.”
He added: “I’ve put this down as a scam but wonder how many other’s were affected and what more can be done about warning brokers.”
Payam Azadi, head of marketing at The Mortgage Times Group, said: “Brokers must be realistic, research is the key to successful advertising and marketing. Research who is being targeted, the company that you are dealing with and always document positives and failures in order to find out what works for you.”
The website www.propertyad.com no longer exists and when Mortgage Introducer phoned its contact number the line was dead.
