A new property portal with a difference launches today, planning to turn the whole charging model on its head.
Instead of agents paying it to list, it will charge nothing. It will also pay agents for the listing if an arising transaction is monetised by cross-sales such as conveyancing.
OneDome will, as from 6am this morning, be operating its portal of the same name across the south-east of England before rolling it out nationally.
International expansion is also on the cards.
OneDome founder and CEO Babek Ismayil said: “We recognise that estate agents’ data is valuable. OneDome is the only portal that actually pays agents. When we make money, they make money.
“Over the past few years estate agents have become reliant on property portals that charge an ever-increasing amount for listing properties.
“However, as these portals would not exist without the content that agents supply them, why should agents have to pay?”
The new portal will offer listings guaranteed to be free for 100 years, and will also share revenue from the money OneDome makes by selling services to home movers.
Initially these are conveyancing and mortgages but others will be added, including utilities.
Ismayil told EYE: “Listing on property portals is one of the largest lead-generation costs for agents and it is increasing every year.
“We are building the first search engine that not only doesn’t charge agents but pays them for their listing if we can monetise it.”
The new portal aims to be a platform which provides a genuine end-to-end process for consumers – everything from the property search through to conveyancers and mortgage brokers.
OneDome, a proptech company whose services include the ability to arrange viewings online, is inviting agents to provide a live feed to its portal, in the same way that they do to other listing sites.
Ismayil said that this is OneDome’s preferred option, and that so far the approach is being positively received.
However, the portal also has the ability to collate listings by indexing all agents’ websites, meaning that agents do not have to do anything to have their clients’ properties displayed.
If agents do not want their listings indexed, OneDome will remove them at the agent’s request.
There will be no scraping of other portals, including Rightmove and Zoopla.
How will the public be made aware of the new portal? Ismayil said that there will be an active marketing campaign with TV advertising a “part of the plan”.
The portal has been under beta testing in the south-east and goes properly live in that region today. It will then roll out region by region over the next 16 months to have a fully national presence.
The portal will also offer a different search experience from, say, Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket.
Home hunters will be able to search for property using free text as they do with search engines such as Google.
For example, they could be looking for “a two-bedroom flat in Southampton near a good primary school for £400,000”. Artificial Intelligence based search will find and display the properties that match the criteria.
Comments (30)
This could work, and if it does, then Agents may be able to say goodbye to Rightmove.
I hope OneDrone makes use of “robot control files” in the same way as Google, so any agent that does not wish to get index by search engines can avoid doing so.
When I am looking to buy properties, I often have to pay for land registry checks before I even decide if I wish to view. If OneDrone provided all the land reg documents for free, they would become my top option when buying.
Another portal
Big advertising budget is it?
Free or not, no marketing then no market !
Must say it makes a change from, for example, ZPG. Go to their site and buy a service I don’t think you’ll find that being shared with the agent? It’s also high time the search function on existing portals was updated. People moving to, for example, London, do not want to have to do multiple searches in different areas. One google style search that will cover those multiple areas makes much more sense. Now OOP is out the way I’m not sure why anyone wouldn’t try it…..
Have only skim read this so apols if I’ve misread anything but some commentators here think this this thing is a good idea??? I’m afraid anyone who says ‘The new portal will offer listings guaranteed to be free for 100 years’ should just be laughed at both long and loud…..
Why? Have I missed something?
I have been watching One Dome for a while and i think for the ‘right’ agent its a good proposal.
However that agent is a lazy, reactive agent as opposed to a proactive agent.
If you do not pass solicitors, mortgage advisers or surveyors leads (or utility switching) then this is perfect for you, additional advertising source for nothing other than the cost of the feed.
BUT if you are one of the 70% proactive agents that looks to maximise relationship and income this is not a great concept. Its like RM advertising local mortgage advisers to your 100% of your clients through the One Dome platform.
Agents need to wake up and realise the true value of their data and stop giving it away. Problem is as i have said many times most agency owners are good estate agents but not necessarily good business people. Would you find Google, Microsoft, Amazon Giving their data away or do they look to acquire more of it and keep theirs to themselves?
Thank you so much for your comment. You are right – a good agent should monetise their data. OneDome’s goal is to help with that. The rates we pay to you are competitive within the market, and importantly this does not prevent you from upselling additional services yourself to the client as usual – it simply offers them a choice. So, it is a win-win situation for the agent who is paid regardless whether he manages to cross sell the customer or the customer engages with professional services suppliers via our marketplace.
An agent will also have an opportunity to introduce his own trusted suppliers to the platform as we are supplier agnostic. Our goal is to make the home buying process better for everyone.
We would love to tell you more about our product roadmap and what we do in order to speed the process. If you are interested to know more, please kindly contact us.[Sentence removed as it breached posting rules]
Its a good spin but essentially you are taking the food off agents plates and then giving them the scraps.
Which is not a problem, if you can live on scraps (a number of agents do) however for an estate agents that is run as a ‘Proper’ business its commercial suicide.
I dont think its for me, but it is nice to see someone looking at things a little different and trying to make a change. The next 5 years regarding portals and data are going to be extremely interesting.
Their intuitive search is impressive. Look at this 43 bedroom flat…but its a barn 🙂
https://www.onedome.com/search/property/68bbfee8-f8b8-54a0-ab29-f2640ba45f69/q=af%5B0%5D%5Bf%5D=WINCHESTER&a%5Bf%5D=SALE&z%5Bu%5D=-0.8045472437515855&z%5Bn%5D=51.246534290178346&z%5Bj%5D=50.79387451675342&z%5Bl%5D=-1.6285218531265855
NEXT game changer please
“If agents do not want their listings indexed, OneDome will remove them at the agent’s request.”
Forcing me to waste my time having to contact you to not do this. And you think this is okay because?
Hi @Peter, it wasn’t so long ago that I had to take a company called Houser (I’m sure you remember them) to task on them scrapping our data, in exactly the same way you are describing by having to contact them to say that didn’t have consent from me. Taking it one step further, I had to then threaten with legal action by contacting their website host, who then finally threatened Houser. Perhaps Ros or the team can put a link up to the previous articles on this? Now, I’m not saying these guys would be the same, but I do disagree with them scrapping the details from agents websites as we then lose control of how and where we would like our properties advertised.
that one was memorable for this quote alone
“A tech maths genius who is also an entrepreneur, a rare combination indeed and one which is, in my view, going to create the perfect storm for change in estate agency portal marketing… After six hours with Rocky, throwing every conceivable objection I could think of at him, I don’t think any agents are going to want to come off this site.”
and the kerfuffle caused when someone mis-spelt a certain somesone’s surname
It started here on EYE…
https://www.propertyindustryeye.com/new-portal-one-didnt-see-coming-take-properties-agents-sites/
Actually, it gets a mention here, from post #94 onwards
https://www.propertyindustryeye.com/strutt-parker-announces-will-ditching-zoopla/
Looks like Mr May beat me to it…
Good initiative and perfect timing!
More free competitors to Rightmove gang!!! Fed up of Rightmove harrassing the whole industry! Good luck!
No major issues with the concept apart from the cross selling of agents other incomes but website is pretty poor, yes great search option but no floor plans and not abiding by the rules of the EPC, and too much white space with description only down the left. Some work to do but of course wish them well but it ain’t going to be a cash cow
Conveyancers (and others) to foot the bill once again? There are calls for some conveyancers to invest more in technology and more experienced legal staff. Can’t see how this helps them do that.
Danny refers to the mortgage commission he presently earns. Surely under present plans this may go the same way as tenant fees, other referral fees and ludicrous RM price hikes? Better make a plan Danny !
Meanwhile, in the Dragons’ Den…
‘Could Rightmove, replicate this idea?’
‘Absolutely, yes’
‘And what are the chances of them doing so?
‘Absolutely zero.’
‘OK, I’m in’.
Colour me excited! Looking forward to this coming up north!
Be careful…
There could be a hell of a price hike after 100 years!
“The new portal will offer listings guaranteed to be free for 100 years”
Made me chuckle
The portal has the ability to index agents websites … why build this if your not going to scrape ? So basically your selling the same services that estate agents make money from and then your going to give back a tiny percentage of the profits and hope no one notices . I would only sign if the contract said free for 100 years and you match the level of commission my mortgage broker gives me , otherwise your just stealing a living off the data like others
Thank you for your comment Danny. Certainly, we won’t steal your living, we’re aiming to do the exact opposite. We are very transparent about our fees and the structure. We aim to make sure that all the transactional fees we pay for your participation in the transaction are competitive in the market. [Sentence removed as it breached posting rules]
Thanks for engaging … From your own help section under how do we make money
“We monetise leads by offering additional services, such as mortgages and conveyancing. We share this revenue with the agent who facilitates the transaction.”
So i give you my listings and then you sell the stuff I sell and then we share the revenue, I cant find the split your proposing ,can you detail down for me how much I would earn from a conveyancing lead and a mortgage lead that comes off the back of my inventory ?
Dont be to harsh on them. I know how hard it is to get a portal up and running.. This is a massive thing to do .#
Just checked the website but struggling to work out the detail.
I list for free ( Still £50 with expert agent to pay for a feed)
Then what? Do you take some of my fee like dan said?
Hi PIE:
Who is backing this?
Is it bespoke software or off the shelf software ( i cant find any off the shelf software tbf )
Agents:
Support anything that scares rightmove into stopping pay any way agents and D.I.Y sites with blatent mobile phone pictures taken upside down. ! sick of Rightmove.
No problem Danny.
It is up to you how you use the OneDome platform, but the outcome should be higher revenues for you, and a better experience for your client.
You could choose to simply take the leads we bring you, and offer clients your existing offline conveyancing and mortgage arrangement. The client might choose your suggestion, or they could choose to use the OneDome platform, or acquire a service from another provider entirely. If they use the OneDome platform we share the revenue with you.
How is the feed created. You use json/xml or scraping? (the filtering system is awsome)
If they dont see my listings on onedome they wont “choose” to use your solution …. youve essentially built a trojan horse .