Estate agency software provider Reapit has said that it is “categorically” not in any talks with ZPG that could result in its acquisition.
Speaking after Wednesday’s announcement of Zoopla’s acquisition of Expert Agent, Reapit director Simon Whale said: “The talk in the wider industry has been the mergers and acquisitions activity but although a little more under the radar the estate agency software movement is no less relevant.
“Some people cite owning the desktop is all important but really as long as you check your contracts and ensure your supplier has no rights to that data without your expressed permission then it’s not an issue.
“However, shadowy clauses that obfuscate the picture just make you question who you’re dealing with.
“Make no mistake, to a large degree if you’ve not got a rent roll your data is your business.
“If you hand that away, then your exit plan becomes as realistic as a Take That tax return.”
Reapit, which has traditionally dealt with larger agents requiring bespoke packages which can take a while to put together, has just launched into the smaller agent market via a re-seller, JET, offering much cheaper standardised packages which it says can be quickly up and running.
Comments (20)
History tells us when a company says ”
“it is ‘categorically’ not in talks with”
You can possibly rest assured they are!
I was lucky enough to be invited to a box at the rugby last week. I met a guy that runs a mid sized removal company. He found out what i did and we got chatting. He buys home mover leads from TwentyCI. The leads don’t have Vendor names but they do have instructed date, sold date etc. They cost him 28p. He can pay more to get them back filled with owner details from the Land Registry for a further payment but chooses not to. They are the best source of leads he’s got – he’s been able to give up lots of advertising. I guess without vendor details, the fact that a property has come onto the market or been sold STC is in the public domain – we send to RM and Zoopla and then 3rd party businesses either scrape that data or get it re-keyed. This guy said that TwentyCI have a big overseas operation – no idea if that is true.
I hadn’t considered the idea that the addresses of On Market and Sold STC properties without client data were valuable until now.
If Reapit is “.Net hosted on Rackspace”, what assurances can they give us that data stored in RPS/Jet is not being collated/aggregated and used to advantage Reapit? – especially seeing that as recently as 23rd January, they published some research about how how many leads from portals were ignored by agents…
Surely this research must have been conducted using their customers data? I would like to understand the wording of the clause in their contract which allows them to do this, and whether this also allows them use our data for other purposes?
Also, they say they are “‘categorically’ not in talks with ZPG over any deal”, but are they talking to others? It would be good to get clarification that they are not going to sell out to someone else soon, too? If they do, what happens to our data then?
Whaley…
What does “obfuscate” mean?
It means wearing Pink suits and talking louder than anyone else! 🙂
With ZPG’s acquisition trail effectively narrowing the market, ReapIT with its new Jet product would be unwise to enter into any negotiations. I suspect ZPG is hoping for economies of scale with certain resources being shared across Jupix, Vebra, Alto and now Expert Agents. Most of us have received marketing emails that include both Jupix and Alto.
ZPG Sales Pitch Qualification Questions:
“Do you like red?” If ‘yes’ proceed with Jupix.
“Do you like orange?” If ‘yes’ proceed with Alto.
“Do you like blue?” If ‘yes’ proceed with Expert Agent.
If none of the above, give them Jet’s phone number…
And I think that if you have a bad experience with anyone of the ZPG brands, you’re likely to shy away from the other ones and that’s where ReapIT will win.
Despite his taste in golf attire, The Whale is really on to something with their current product development and some good strategic hires.
7th February 2017, STAND BY OUR MAN Leicester City give Claudio Ranieri vote of confidence as club issues statement backing manager……. 23 Feb 2017, Club Statement: Leicester City And Claudio Ranieri Part Company 🙂
what percentage of Reapit is owned by Countrywide, these days?
zero looking at companies house.
Companies House holds director information and not shareholder information. Subtle difference.
Are you say CW do have an interest in Reapit? – if so also interested to know the stake.
I’m pretty sure ZPG only want to add cloud products to its portfolio, meaning Reapit is of no interest to them.
Maybe one of the real concerns is the real-time data feed.
When we were setting up our in house system, we were against a deadline for testing and told by Rightmove that after the deadline, if we were not ready and running correctly, we would have to move to one of the established software firms.
Does this mean any new company that wishes to develop new Agency Software may have difficulties with Rightmove testing ?
RTDF is representative of modern integration methods. BLM feeds are an outmoded technology – where else on the web would you wait overnight to make a small change? The other portals are following Rightmove’s lead. It’s a better experience for all when changes made in software can be reflected immediately on portals. Reapit’s web services are also used to make many agent’s website real time now too and we’ve invested heavily in the infrastructure to keep thousands of property records up to date in real-time wherever they’re published.
The worrying thing for me over all of this and the article above is how it’s “your data” right up to the point where you want to access it when it then suddenly becomes “up to them” them being your software provider, as to who can, and how quick, it can be accessed.
Last time we changed software providers it took over a month for “our data” to be made available and even then it was given in such a basic format that most of our historical information had to be sacrificed!
As years roll on and we all see the value in our databases the way things are presently, unless you have a proprietary software such as companies like Foxtons do, then it’s the equivilant of having one of your children, bound, gagged and held to ransom somewhere in a server room in Greenwich!
Realistically, for small businesses, the data they hold isn’t worth much on it’s own. Only as a collective does it become useful and valuable. So unless a larger multi-branch business, or agents openly share data with each other directly (clearly not going to happen), then some people are living in cloud cuckoo land. The data provided to portals is clearly available to all agents in a round about way through there back end products, such as Rightmove Plus. This if used well, can support any agent.
Wise words from Whaley.
Our provider does not harvest our data.
However I am sure many reading this are starting to figure out their lucrative date is being harvested after the have ‘Sleepwalked’ into signing a contract (who reads the small print!).
Do any of our legal contributors know if they can contact their software provider and stop them harvesting data? And if so the process they should take?
Smile Please,
You are absolutely right. Let’s face it, most of us never read the small print, because we don’t have the time, the knowledge or the inclination to understand it properly. We rely on the person selling it to us to tell us the truth (and yes I know how stupid that sounds)!
Perhaps PIE could do a major article on software and portal providers contracts and what certain clauses actually mean? I am sure we could provide all the contracts between us….and there has to be someone out there who could help Ros with interpretation?
Uh, I wouldn’t make a point of saying you habitually ignore small print.
I personally enjoy doing it – solve the riddle and question the stuff that makes no sense. If you don’t understand it, refuse to sign the contract. Easy.
Afternoon Mr Harvey
What do you make of these T & C’s?
Have you ever seen them?
Are you bound by them?
Cut and paste into your browser:
http://media.rightmove.co.uk//ps/pdf/guides/adf/RTDF_EULA.pdf
I would be interested in your thoughts once you apply a data control perspective and the consequences of such?
Remember real time data is required to feed instant alerts.
Are these two most valuable aspects of traditional estate agency being drawn away from your own websites?
Some very intriguing clauses?
4.3 to 4.5 Do these clauses appear to brutally cover loss of business?
What are the consequences of refusing to agree to the T & C’s of this ‘licence’ ?