Ross Nichols, Co-Founder at Just Move In

Who are you and what does it say on your business card?

Ross Nichols, and it says i’m Co-Founder at Just Move In (and that I like festivals)

What is Just Move In and what does it do?

Just Move In helps people moving home streamline all of their essential admin, and we help estate and letting agents with managing change of occupancy admin and void management.

What services do you offer and in what ways do you work with estate and letting agents?

Our Home Setup platform helps buyers, sellers and renters with over a dozen services, from council tax and energy, through to broadband and insurance. Customers can either self-serve online, and manage everything in one place, or they can book an appointment with one of our Move Specialists, who will walk customers through whatever they need help with.

On the rentals side, our Utilities Management and Void Energy platform helps letting agents, property managers, and housing providers streamline their change occupancy admin. We help hundreds of agencies process over 150,000 moves a year.

What makes your product different and how does it benefit agents?

We’ve been a B Corporation since 2018, so operate very differently from most suppliers. It’s a bit like a fairtrade coffee stamp, but for a business. It covers five areas: governance, employees, customers, environment and community, and every three years we get assessed by a charity (B Lab), who examine all of the evidence we have to provide to show how we’re scoring in each area. It’s a great way to operate and it’s one of the reasons why many of our agencies choose to work with us, because they know they can trust us to do the right thing. We’re also part of 1% for the Planet, which means 1% of our revenue goes towards supporting charities and organisations we believe in.

In terms of our actual products, the Home Setup service helps to enhance the customer experience offered by an estate or letting agency. By embedding our product into the sales or rental process of somebody moving home, we drive conversion for our agencies, and also increase revenues by offering commission on services sold, like broadband and insurance

For letting agents and property managers, our Utilities and Void Management platform helps to streamline the change of occupancy process, saving teams 90% of time compared to manually processing move-ins/outs. Void energy switches generate commission for letting agents, and dovetails perfectly into our Home Setup service.

We have the highest Trustpilot rating within our sector so focusing on genuinely helping our agencies clients is of the utmost importance.

What is your greatest achievement in your current role and what made it so special?

It’s probably Just Move In successfully recertifying as a B Corp last year (which is a huge undertaking). Going through the process when there were less than 10 people was tough, but when you’re 50+ people, it’s even harder, and requires real commitment from everyone to invest the time and effort to achieve a higher score than we did in 2018. We’d encourage anyone considering it to start the assessment process on the B Corp website (https://bcorporation.uk) and to reach out directly to us if you have any questions about how to get started.

What is the most satisfying part of your job?

It’s definitely watching members of the team develop and evolve as they stay with you for multiple years. No question.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing estate and letting agents at the moment?

Interest rates and a lack of stock. Both are going to impact the market in a big way over the next couple of years, and I don’t believe we’ve seen the knock on impacts yet of what’s been happening since the disastrous Truss/Kwarteng experiment.

What is your property prediction for the next 12 months?

Less transactions on the sales side, big increases in repossessions as interest rates start to bit, and lots of consolidation with suppliers in the industry. 

Country house or city apartment?

As I already live in London, I’d love to have a country house one day.

Trendy roof terrace or traditional English garden?

Definitely the garden.

Would you rather be a free-moving tenant or settled owner occupier?

Owner occupier, as you can always rent your place out and then you have the choice.

What is your favourite room in your home?

The living room. We recently renovated the entire house and it’s a very relaxing place to be.

Homes under the hammer or location, location, location?

Both. And Grand Designs while you’re at it.