Overall support for OnTheMarket has reached in excess of 6,500 UK estate and letting agent offices.
The figure represents an increase of more than 50% since this time last year.
The figure consists of contracted members and agents who have signed a Letter of Intent to join OTM when total support reaches 7,500 offices.
Today’s announcement comes just eight weeks after OTM revealed that support had exceeded 6,000 offices.
The site said that its “tried and tested use” of using non-binding Letters of Intent has been its primary method of building membership of the portal.
It said that previous versions of the letter in 2013 and 2014 were “very strong drivers of substantial growth in membership numbers”.
It added: “OTM gathered its initial 1,800 Gold member offices in 2013 with this approach and contributed to attracting over 2,800 Silver and Gold member offices in 2014. The rate of conversion to contract in both cases exceeded 80%.
“The latest Letter of Intent programme started at the end of June 2015 and sign-up by agents is now growing in momentum across the country.
“As with earlier phases, the Letter of Intent scheme runs alongside the recruitment of fully contracted members.”
OTM this morning confirmed that its next major milestone is to reach the overall support of at least 7,500 offices.
Ian Springett, chief executive of OTM, said: “This latest announcement which reveals the support of more than 6,500 offices is an indication of how the momentum behind the portal is building across the country.
“We look forward to welcoming to the only agent-owned, agent-controlled portal more and more agents who seek to regain strategic control of their data and costs.
“The more agents who join OnTheMarket.com, and the sooner they do so, the more powerful the portal will become in continuing to disrupt the duopoly and in providing a first-class alternative search service for consumers and agents alike.”
City analyst William Packer of Exane BNP Paribas was swift to comment.
He said that the figure of 6,500 compares with ‘well over 6,000’ reported in November.
He went on: “This is solid momentum and re-emphasises the risks to Zoopla of another tranche of members leaving.”
Comments (47)
“And yes, you should all get behind an industry owned website, it is a no brainer”
In fairness it’s far from a no-brainer when there is a high proportion of the industry who are deemed ineligible to use the website to advertise their listings, Pomdownunder.
Sorry can’t remember who posted, but interested to read that the idea of “featured listings” was touted by OTM but voted against. Anyone know what the numbers for and against were?
Personally I think it’s an inevitably, as setup in the right way, upgraded listings are a great source of revenue, which can then be reinvested in to marketing, product innovation etc., which lets face it, will be very much needed to unseat Rightmove.
And yes, you should all get behind an industry owned website, it is a no brainer. I do get why some people have their doubts, as OTM have made some mistakes in their early stages, and perhaps made some commitments that seems a bit eroneous, but the whole process is a bit like an old galley with people rowing to make it move. The Galley will get where it needs to go far quicker the more people it has rowing. If there aren’t enough, then it either doesn’t get where it wants to go quick enough, or it doesn’t get where it wants to go at all and just drifts, till eventually it sinks. A not so subtle analogy……
I’m new to the industry having only been open 2 years with 2 branches. I dropped Zoopla after a year to be a gold member with OTM. I am not the market leader in the area, nor do I sell the most or charge the highest (or lowest) fees.
I don’t understand any agent who isn’t behind OTM, it simply a “no brainer” – if you a fence-sitter get off that ruddy fence and do the right thing, get behind OTM and lets break the duopoly, kick Z into touch in the next 6 months, then set our sights on the RM.
Incidentally, the number of quality OTM leads I get is better than Z and almost up there with RM.
(inthefield) – forget any share prices today, the markets are taking a battering. One of my investments has lost almost 25% in a week – no need to panic though !
I know its all down a bit but PB seems to be almost double all the other property stocks!
Just hoping, thats all!
Memo to harry hood:
The idea of free speech is great but after a time if it becomes a distraction and is not constructive but vindictive and hell bent on spoiling it for others, when it is of no concern to the protagonist and when they are self proclaimed expert on other peoples business.
harry hood the cap fits and there is nothing you can ever say that anyone here is ever going to believe from you. You typify the back street driver that thinks they know it all, but actually knows nothing.
…..maybe you are right. But what has your vote actually delivered for you? Have you used it?
(That’s a question not statement or opinion which you can accuse of bias).
Some seem to think that being a ‘Mutual’ means that the business should be run by members voting on pretty much anything the business wants to do.
Can anyone identify a successful business that operates that model?
Yes we have had a vote as just about every OTM knows and it related to Premier listings. OTM runs so well at delivering what it says on the tin and that is all the agents asked for. So again you are exposed at actually knowing nothing about OTM.
Purple tricks is down 8% today if anyones interested, 10% down in the last 3 days. 😉
This is Uber v Black Cabs all over.
What many AM agents haven’t noticed is they’re on the Black Cabs side.
My issue with joining OTM is it’s board and the decisions they have made seemingly for themselves.
I’m afraid I’m out until I am left with no choice but to join them.
Gump, do you know the board? I don’t, and frankly I don’t care. So what if Mr. I.P is on a huge salary, I bet its les than the RM And Z equivalents. your objections seem to be personal, and not practical. I couldn’t give a stuff if Kermit the frog was the MD, what I care about is protecting my future by being in control of what portals I use.
I ask you one question, what makes OTM any worse than your current choice of portal?
@ao I don’t much care for salaries or who personally are on the board. It is because they are high end agents and their needs won’t be the same a Joe Blogs EA.
My gripe is with the CountryLife and Overseas lone decisions.
To answer your question; My current portal choices will allow me to advertise on OTM should I want to, that freedom of choice is unfortunately not reciprocated by OTM
“what I care about is protecting my future by being in control of what portals I use”
You seem to have an odd definition of control. How are you controlling something that is dictated to you? ie the one other portal rule
I understand your point of view, I just think its very narrow. surely you can understand that the one other rule is the quickest way to disrupt the market and gain market share? It would not supprise me at all if they open this up once they are at number 2 spot.
I think you are getting hung up on this rule any way, it has not affected my business one jot. In answer to your other points, I turn the same questions back to you,
can you vote on RM or Z pricing?
can you vote on runs the board?
can you vote on who Is allowed to advertise?
do you have ANY controil whatsoverer using RM or Z?
It may not be perfect, but surely some say is better than none?????
But it hasn’t disrupted it, it did for a month or two but it is now stagnant other than a few worthless bits of intent paper.
No I can’t vote on any of those, nor do I have control, but then neither can you with your other portal choice. And as it currently stands you can’t do any of that with OTM either. You’ve been given one vote, premium listings for an extra charge, not a particularly important vote was it. The Country Life decision was a big one, as was the overseas one but no vote allowed there and that was because that was in the boards best interests and not the majority of its members.
Of course it’s better than none, but we are not even close to there being no alternatives yet and nor will we be anytime soon
if you were part of AM you could feed all this back and help to shape its future, but your not. your with RM and Z where all you can do bend over and take their price hikes. You can argue all you like on these type of forums but ultimately your opinion is worth nought unless you are prepared to do something with it.
But your opinion is worth nothing to OTM, all the points you have listed you can do nothing about.
Lets say I join OTM tomorrow, do you honestly believe they will allow me to vote on who’s on the board or make a vote that they lower their charges?
Behave, of course they won’t. The board are shaping their future, not the members, and that is crystal clear on the decisions previously made.
All the OTM members talk a good game, yet 90% + are still with Rightmove, when you all put your complete faith in your mutual dream and leave Rightmove/Zoopla I will stand up and be counted, but you won’t because that would be a very foolish move at the moment and indeed for the foreseeable future
OTM is a no brainer if you are confident as an agent in your own abilities. We were initially concerned dropping Zoopla would harm us but we now have a bigger local share of the market despite my competitors staying with Zoopla. Traditional agents need to use a portal that puts them 1st.
Another story regards OnTheMarket.
I just wanted to say that I can never understand why any company able to join OTM has not done so already. I can only assume that non-supporters must either not understand the proposal, not be eligible to join or are staff members of corporates that have not yet joined that think Zoopla may be offering them quality leads.
I am a small business owner and I dropped Zoopla after many years following a detailed analysis of the quality of leads generated months before joing OTM. I had nothing to lose by joining OTM and fully supported the proposal as I am concerned of the ever spiraling costs of the duopoly to satisfy shareholders.
I am now seeing real benefit of a large number of quality leads, analysed daily, with often as many leads being generated as Rightmove.
So, any decision makers who are not supporting OTM currently need to very carefully assess how they protect their own business.
Finally, I am also paying half what I was paying to Zoopla for MORE quality leads !
How many votes have you actually been given?
Are you in favour of overseas portals?
Are you in favour of upper-end advertising?
Are you in favour of restritive rules?
Maybe you should re-consider what party you actually are…..
Most pointless post(er) today. Still time to be beaten though.
You personalise because you can’t refute the argument.
Please do if you can.
See my earlier post to Danny and then tell us all here why YOU give such a monkeys about this.
again – attacking the person and not the argument.
I dont think it matters whether or not a poster is a member or not as long as they are Estate Agents because they (and myself) are possibly loking to become members and I, certainly would like some solid,honest figures and not letters of intents included and I would also like like you members proof of some freebie and £50 memberships handed out (or not)
Fella’s, I want otm to work but there are inconsistencies and you may knock me for fence sitting but this info is important also I dont sell abroad except to overseas buyers coming here of course so I don’t want to be subsidising gold upper end members and I want clarity on this one member one vote as I don’t see any evidense of you getting or using a vote so far and the rep can’t provide me with it either!
So Danny may have been a bit strong in his request but it is important, there are knockers out there for entertainment and possibly fear (god knows why) but there are also good intended fence sitters and we are the ones otm should be looking to encourage with that solid, honest info.
Stevie – Your post is entirely reasonable.
Unfortunately there is a small but highly vocal group of trolls, knockers, portal reps, general P.I.T. A.s who come on here to stir things up for their own gratification or protect their threatened positions. They are not OTM members and never will be. All they will ever do is stand on the sidelines, shout loudly and sling the mud.
If someone with a genuine interest, such as yourself, wants to know something about OTM then why not speak directly to someone at OTM?
Good points Stevie but the fact is we wont know how powerful this can be unless and until you (an other fence sitters)take the plunge. I have three offices and I pay a fair bit less than I was paying on Z (who i chose to drop). As I have said before on here as long as im on rightmove (for now) then I beleive, in my area, thats the daddy. It hasnt made one iota of difference to my business levels. I would admit that the leads from OTM arent earth shattering but thats what I expected. They werent all that with Zoopla either. I would prefer to know that Ive made a stand and done my part, albeit that its going on in the background at the moment.
You really havent got anything to lose but everything to gain. Think of it as a lottery ticket with a 50-50 chance. You may end up having spent the money on the ticket and not won (that you would have spent on the zoopla lottery anyway), but you may win. And what a jackpot it would be. Take the chance.
Thank you Inthefield. You echo my thoughts perfectly.
Stevie – as mentioned by AgencyInsider – best idea is for you to visit the business owner of a firm that is already with OTM. I am yet to see or hear of any firm being offered for £50 or free – and find this highly unlikely considering this is a mutual. I am sure this evidence would have floated to the surface very quickly if it were true.
In respect of the vote (one Company – One Vote) – we had a vote mid last year on the introduction of paid feature properties. Due to overwhelming reaction from the agents voting – this was not introduced. Again, this shows a mutual works – allowing the members to decide on whether these features could be added – this would have increased revenue to OTM. The end result is a portal where small businesses such as mine can show properties in the expected order that the end user (buyer/tenant) expects properties to be listed.
Don’t be a fence sitter – I am already seeing the number of leads often matching on a daily basis those generated by Rightmove and certainly, in my opinion a better quality than Zoopla – and as a small business owner, I think I pay enough attention to the quality of leads and business generated from them.
If you search for ‘London’, Onthemarket still only has 1,008 properties and Zoopla has 10,000+. So there is still not obvious improvement from OTM, so this must be, as ever, just more OTM propaganda.
Yes JC7 because its all about London isnt it?!
Dear JC7. People like you scare me. Do you not think it odd that onthemarket has 1008 London sales AND 1008 London lettings. Spooky?
Or could it just be that you simply searched London – and did nothing else. If you took the time to look a little more you’d see that they look to have something like 17,000 London sales (I couldn’t be bothered to tot up the lettings).
I’m sure otm have their reasons for limiting the results with such a vague search. Looking at Zoopla, they look to be limiting their results too, it’s just each site has a different way of doing it.
400 pages at 25 a page is spot 10k. Allowing for the fact Countrywide are on Z, but not OTM and do like to advertise all their sold stock as available you can probably lose 3/4 it, if not more.
Danny says:
I think you owe that to your members who are paying you serious cash . I’ll await your response ….
So you are an OTM member then are you Danny?
Even if the numbers are up from letters of intent, it is UP. Great news for OTM and the free world of sensible agents. Maybe they didnt become number 2 by their first anniversary but they are having a fantastic go at it.
If you are an agent out there thats sitting on the fence, take action now and join. I joined on the launch last year and was, to be honest, a little concerned about dropping Z. One year on and I honestly havent noticed one bit of difference. I had around a week or so of questions from my clients but that was it! Business as usual. Im still number one agent in my patch. I guarantee if you dont and OTM fails, we all will be at the mercy of the other two.
Its now or never. DO IT!!!
Non binding letter of intent is different from a member Ian . Also as a mutual can you publicly confirm that these aren’t for free or £50, I think you owe that to your members who are paying you serious cash . I’ll await your response ….
No need to be bitchy corporate Dan!
Genuinely not sure why you think that as an anonymous poster on a forum you are deserved of a response to anything Danny!
But I for one would be interested in you publishing some proof showing these members you are referring to are getting subscriptions free or for £50?!!
Sooner or later one of these contracts will surface. Whether free for a year or £50/month for 2 years – something will surface. What that tells you really is there are massive differences between what one agent pays versus another. I thought that was one of the reasons the duopoly was so despised! This makes OTM no different and no more caring or dispassionate. Agents – you needed to have negotiated better on your rates with Z/RM – then you’d have far less resentment – just a value proposition. Question how your negs are doing this better than you on vals if you’re still fuming about your actual rates to portals.
Isn’t that exactly what BT do to attract new customers ? Sky do it also, Virgin etc etc.
It’s getting close to desperate measures when all the Bah Humbuggers can do is whinge about clever business strategy.
For the record I am a Gold member and understand the world of commerce and with the level of ‘I just say no to everything’ contingent that OTM are having to deal with amongst the Estate and Letting agents of the UK I feel for them. If AM was launched in a forward thinking country it would already be threatening the number 1 portal instead of having to pander to the pathetics that don’t deserve it.
Thanks for the business lesson I want to believe . I’m genuinely bothered as Ian is trying to attract me as a business . If I dumped a full service model and went to a purplebricks set up charging less of a fee I have less money to spend on marketing and as a result my offering changes. The same macro applies here , no difference. So if the client base is growing but through fees that won’t even service the staff that they currently have working for them then they are struggling … Lesson over
Who gives are monkey’s if they are discounting membership in order to attract more agents. The founder members did what was necessary to kick start the process and, as such, it was necessary to commit to a certain level of investment. However, we are all in this for the long game and the ultimate goal is to get OTM to where we need it to be. The easiest way to do that is break the duopoly and if the pricing strategy changes in order to make that possible, so what. We’re all big boys, nobody’s asking for their ball back, so why should you be. You haven’t even put your ball in!
Stop moaning and just embrace the project, ffs….
well said Shaun77
Good call Shaun
A post by El Burro on 6 Jan reproduced here for the benefit of Danny
What I don’t get about the anti OTM brigade is why are they bothered?If OTM is as rubbish as they suggest and all their agents are just flushing their money down the pan in a Ponzi scheme (HarryN) why aren’t they just letting their competitors get on with it?
Surely you’d love them making complete ars*’s of themselves, after all it’s money on a doomed project that they could be spending on much more effective platforms competing with you?
It seems to me Zoopla were openly rubbishing OTM at the start, that has given way to an almost evangelical campaign to teach others the error of their ways by a band of non OTM agents. Or are they? Maybe Zoopla decided that openly rubbishing a competitor was never going to get them many votes and a different approach was needed . . . . . .Who else would give a monkeys?
So why do you give such a monkey Danny? Please tell us.
I’ll tell you you I comment . If no one spoke out against pyramid schemes they would just snowball. Similar principle… It’s an open forum for people to express their views , simple as that