Today is the first anniversary of OnTheMarket which Russell Quirk has marked by hitting out at the challenger portal.
He claims that agents are pouring their money into a financial black hole and that their support of it is proving “shockingly expensive”.
But last night, a spokesperson for OTM said: “If Mr Quirk is so adamant that OnTheMarket is set to fail, why is he so exercised about it?
“Naturally Mr Quirk is entitled to his opinion.
“Our 3,000-plus estate and letting agent member firms are also entitled to theirs and understand better than anyone their long-term objectives in supporting OTM.
“Nobody should under-estimate the strength of resolve amongst our members to regain control of their data and their costs and to create a genuine alternative to the current market leaders, which serves both consumers and agents better.
“Indeed, we recently announced that overall support, including firms who have signed Letters of Intent, now exceeds 6,500 offices and this figure continues to grow as we work towards our next big milestone of 7,500 offices.”
Quirk, of eMoov, is banned from listing his properties on OTM or being a shareholder of the business because he runs an online agency.
Quirk said that OTM’s revenues are £20m per year, all funded by its member agents.
Of that, £12m goes into marketing. He estimates that most of the rest of the balance goes into salaries.
Quirk said: “OTM’s (or more accurately its member agents’) cost to attract visitors to its website is shockingly expensive.
“We know from OTM’s own statements that they spend around £1m per month on marketing and we also know from their statements that they attract around 5m visits per month, so its members are spending 20p for every visit to a site that is not even their own but shows their competitors.
“Compare that 20p per visit figure to Rightmove’s and Zoopla’s 1p or 2p per visitor.
“Or even compare it to what an agent could spend with Google to get visitors to their own website which would be far more valuable.”
Quirk went on: “One year in and it is time for a serious reality check and for agents to recognise that there is no rational argument for throwing money away and that it is simply an emotional decision.
“And whilst £300 per month may not mean much to many OTM members, the shame is the collective wastage of the industry spending £20m per year on marketing and salaries for nothing.”
Comments (24)
Am I the only person here feeling for The Quirkster?
Poor chap – he does his usual – the slightest sniff of a column inch and he fluffs up his mangy feathers and bangs out a ******** fest aka ‘press release’.
In this case, a ******** prediction – and one that goes woefully t!ts up for him so he has to compound it with more ********. And now that’s gorn all Pete so he’s up to his nasal septum in ******** and the smell must be killing him.
What he SHOULD have done, of course, was to stop thrashing about like an epileptic alligator and let the ******** settle.
There’s a lesson to be learned, Mr Quirk.
Sometimes – just sometimes – it’s good NOT let your gob (or fingers) run away with themselves.
When I stared searching for property I found it incredibly annoying to have to look at Zoopla and Rightmove in case the property I wanted was with an OTM agent, I also found their mobile app a bit rubbish, but this was less than 6 months in…
Just an FYI, the house I bought was on with an OTM agent to start with, but came off and went with a corporate non-OTM member and sold. Although I only discovered they had switched when I tried to arrange a viewing…
Interesting how many comments are here now compared to last year…..it does feel somewhat like the party is over and nobody wants to clear up…..
A post by El Burro on 6 Jan reproduced here for the benefit of harry hood:
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 harry hood?
I love it how you care what I think.
Just wanted to mirror EAMD’s comments – the day all OTM agents switch their second portal of choice and advertise solely with OTM is the day the the online only agents start to fail.
To all you fence sitters out there – get on with OTM now, protect your business and your data and let’s move towards ONE portal !
That’s it in a nutshell and not tomorrow.
What you are advocating could well be intepreted as illegal in UK courts as cartel creation and anti-competetive
Should a case ever be brought to court, I will happily testify that as a business owner, I am able to choose where I advertise my stock. No business owner would consider advertising on one portal until it makes clear business sense. It would also be in the interest of buyers and tenants to search one website with no distraction of other advertisements or the worry that their data may be used to sell them other products.
This is where your argument breaks:
“It would also be in the interest of buyers and tenants to search one website with no distraction of other advertisements or the worry that their data may be used to sell them other products.”
When you assume and claim you know what is best for a market and eliminate competition from this alternative then this is when you become a cartel.
So what you said actualyl works against you here.
Black hole is a bit harsh, haven’t they just discovered that black holes do actually give something back
Russell, you are quite the hypocrite aren’t you. “pouring money into a black hole” How would you describe the “investors” actions that put 2.6m into your business through crowd funding?
The day that all the OTM agents switch off BOTH the other portals is the day it becomes the market leader. No-one expects that to happen for a while yet but a few years from now our savings will be worthwhile ad infinitum. That’s what the online agents are really worried about as they wont then be on the major property portal. On a personal note, our offices had record years in 2015 having switched from Zoopla. It saved us money and had no adverse effect on gross business or instructions. As it gains traction with the public I’m glad we are in early and not left out in the old ways. For those that haven’t yet moved over, it is only a matter of time. The sooner you do the sooner we take control of our own businesses.
No no no. But it’s not!!
You’re not actually taking control of your business by centralising all the portal power to one man in a London office who follows the line of the posh two.
Can you not see this?
Wasn’t this the guy who predicted the demise of OTM within 12 months ?
Russell Quirk. City AM. 29th July 2015:
“it would seem a prediction I once made of their demise within 12 months of launch, could still be on the money.”
“I predict in the next three months, OTM’s management will see the error of their ways and drop the one portal exclusivity rule.”
Spot on, eh Russell? NOT.
Quirk went on: “One year in and it is time for a serious reality check and for agents to recognise that there is no rational argument for throwing money away and that it is simply an emotional decision.
Better that than sitting here giving more and more power to ZPG and RM, which if unchecked, will destroy the estate agency industry. RM are out there right now arrogantly and unjustly squeezing their clients for vast year on year increases in costs, believing they are unassailable. Zoopla, can’t afford that at the minute as they are hanging on by the skin of their teeth having received a serious wound from OTM. If you could join OTM with your flawed business model Mr Q, I am sure you would. Did someone say sour grapes?
OTM is not value for money “at this moment”. But that is wholly down to critical mass of stock. And the sooner the industry wakes up and recognises the real need that it needs a powerful alternative to the highway robbers of RM and ZPG the sooner OTM will be a real alternative and we will have some control back over our destiny as an industry. OTM is that opportunity. If it fails, no one will follow them and so we will be faced with whatever the two giants decide they want to do,irrespective of whether it’s good for the industry members or not. And a great deal of it will NOT be good for us.
Sign up to OTM now.
“squeezing their clients for vast year on year increases in costs”
So if you are with OTM, have you passed on this discount to your customers?
No, but I didnt put the fees up every year that RM & Z did either
Well said Typhoon
Crikey, the original gob on a stick of the budget sector getting moist around the zipper again?
We will ignore the fact that the budget boys couldn’t go through money faster if they poured it by the wheelie bin full into their own black holes and smile politely while not ever understanding why this odd little chap feels the need to comment on a party he’s not invited to.
Jonnie
I just love the way Stephen in has made Mr Quirk sound like Vicky Pollard!!
It’s doing ok isn’t it Vicky? Yeah but, no but, I mean its like £20 million pounds right and that’s like a lot of money innit?
Yes Vicky £20 million is a lot of money but less than 3% of their combined fee income for the year. I can explain if you like but I’m not sure you’ll understand
And, what is wrong with an emotional decision? It’s the corner stone of humanity and community and about something online agencies understasnd very little.
Question:
what is wrong with an emotional decision?
Answer:
It loses your money and ruins the reputation of estate agents and has shown to make Rightmove completely unassailable.