The launch of the new Boomin portal has been delayed until next year.
Boomin had planned to launch the new website this month and have invested heavily in a highly-targeted marketing campaign.
It was hoped the launch would help attract more agents, with all property listings now live on the platform.
It is a disappointing start for the still-to-launch portal. It has been suggested by more than one agency that they may not have had the take up of agents they expected.
A decision on the new launch date will now be made by Boomin early next year.
Here is the letter Michael Bruce, executive chairman & founder of Boomin, sent to founder agents yesterday:
Good afternoon,
We hope you, the team and their families are well as we move towards the end of a strange year.
We continue at pace to create a truly different proposition in the property market. We’ve been delighted with recent Agent sign-ups, tech development and the spirit amongst the 150+ Boomin team members who have all adapted brilliantly with a challenging year working from home.
This morning we’ve launched an updated website, which includes a new video on our platform showing upgrades to the look and feel of Boomin, as well as a full overview of the functionality and proposition (boomin.com). We’ve also added some further Q&A videos and a new detailed FAQ page, which answers the questions most frequently posed to us by our current and prospective Agent partners. Please take a look; we’d be delighted to get your feedback.
Openness and transparency will be the hallmark of our business and I believe we’re making public more information around data, fees and future plans than any other new property platform has done before.
In that vein, I’d like to update you on the next phase of our development.
I am so pleased that we are starting to see all the hard work and dedication across the business come together into what will be a transformational platform that will provide a truly first-class experience for Customers and Agents. Our people have been working around the clock throughout the pandemic to perfect everything and will continue to do so right up until the Christmas break.
Our plans were to launch in December 2020; to create the quality of execution we know is so important to you and us, we have decided that it would be better to publically launch in early 2021. This has the added benefit of giving our people the opportunity to take advantage of the slightly relaxed restrictions by spending precious time with their families. We remain committed to a full 12 month free period for all Founder Agents. We are so grateful for the support you have been providing and for your patience.
Please don’t miss the opportunity to nominate your Founder Agent representative (which can include yourself) to the Boomin main board; a vital part of our plan to put Agents at the heart of every decision we make.
Should you have any questions, please email me directly.
All the best,
Michael Bruce
Executive Chairman & Founder
Comments (45)
Looking forward to the one million 5* trust pilot reviews from agents that have successfully sold and saved using Boomin’ before it even went live. Ooops – too soon? Touch a nerve? #brucelooseaboutthishoose
They have twice as many members of staff than agents signatures, wonder when they will decide to call it a day and lay everyone off!
I was going to buy Boomisery.com but someone beat me too it. I like that it takes you to the site. That’s my name for it from now on.
So that answers the claims they are sending out in postal circulars to join, they have thousands of agents already signed up! Lol.
WE don’t need Boomin, they need YOU to make them a household name and then …..
WHAT IS TO STOP BOOMIN TURNING INTO A FOR SALE BY PRIVATE SELLERS?
When can we anticipate the return of CyberDuck to PIE. Much like anyone who’s signed up to Boomin, he’s quackers too! (sorry).
Awwww Good old Cyberduck! Those were the days. He still comments occasionally on LSE PB share comments, but he doesn’t have an axe to grind anymore. I miss that Duck squabbling all the time. Made me laugh a lot.
If Boomin actually gets to the point where it lists…. unlikely but there always seems to be a muppet (investor with no common sense) who wants to throw their money away so who knows… and if Cyberduck buys a few hundred quid worth of shares, we’ll see him around fluffing his feathers again for sure!
He moved out of Purplebricks sometime ago.ahead of the game.
I think he just enjoyed the banter here and if your read some of his comments on the share chat site he recognised that their expansion overseas was a complete dice roll and likely to end in tears .
In fact he had a notable spat with another poster Jimmy with Cyberduck correctly forecasting that the share price would plummet from its heights which proved correct.
As he used PB to sell his property and he was happy with the service ,I guess he could only talk from his own personal experience.
Many of course were quick to say that others were not so lucky and generated understandably a backlash! .As he fought fire with fire here I think that was the reason he was banned rather than anything he said the various comments were causing too much dissension in the ranks and personal spats
Still good to have a bit of healthy crossfire on here
Reading the comments on this story warms my heart.
I am glad agents have not forgotten.
It is hard to forget, and for anyone who has, just search pie or google and it will come flooding back just how bad it was
‘Trust’ no thanks
You were clearly not insulted by the derisive Bruce/Purple Bricks marketing SLF – maybe you weren’t around. If they’d had their way they would have had mainstream professional estate agents shut down but they now want to jump into bed with them. They deserve nothing but contempt.
The negative and derogatory comments on a new start up business in the industry is beyond pathetic. How about at least waiting to see the full offering, the marketing and the ealy response before commenting.
I’ll await for the predictable thumbs down from the the usual suspects…you know, the ones that throw all their money at RM but still carry on moaning about them or who’ve spent years slating PB without ever having worked there or really understanding how they operate.
You are missing the underlying issue here, it isn’t about RM, its not even about another portal it is about the founders.
15 enough for you?
I will never forget this direct quote from Michael Bruce back in 2017 that appeared in the major national papers; “Bruce says of traditional estate agents: ‘They’ve been able to charge people too much for too long for too little.”
Why would any agent give their precious listings and data to them?
Hear Hear!
The bruceys are just like the school bully who tortured you for years, stole your dinner money and sweets, made your life a total misery, had you self doubting everything you did, made you feel worthless, caused stress and anxiety that impacted on loved ones too. Then, turns up years later offering to support you with your ‘mental health issues’ and at the same time wants to sell you something! Hypocrites!! Talk about rubbing salt in wounds. Also disappointing to see the news about yet another in the industry going across to their agents together marketing PR machine. It is sickening. If that person was truly only interested in mentoring (and same applies to all the others) then why oh why mention it in the trade press and not just get on with it? Big egos and always seeking publicity!
Boomisery? Ha!
I saw your post and went to buy the domain name. Someone beat me to it! www.boomisery.com has been forwarded to the site 🙂
it’s all for YOUR benefit!!
I’m getting that damned ear worm again….. The King is in the altogether…..
Two key issues here. Firstly many agents just see this as another portal, and most agents are fed up with being sold the “this portal will change your life” spill. Secondly the owners popularity within agency or unfortunately lack of it. The 1st issue can be other come by proving its worth. The second point is not a quick fix. Even appointing a popular figure head would not cover all the feelings within the industry.
If the Bruce’s want to take down Rightmove, I would suggest the best way would be for them to join and run Rightmove.
ouch!
‘If the Bruce’s want to take down Rightmove, I would suggest the best way would be for them to join and run Rightmove.’
Sentence of the day.
Must be time to call in Quirk to sort this out.
Or Stanton. He can usually sort things out.
Ha! Have either of them been invited to this party?
Its a good job for Boomin that, and I quote from a previous EYE article –
“The new company has so far recruited a team of well over 100, including an internal tech team of over 60 people, led by CTO, David Kavanagh.
Lesley Dunn, formerly a member of the senior team at Rightmove and thereafter the Corporate and National Sales Director at Zoopla, has been appointed to the role of Sales Director.
Phil Lloyd, who was previously the Global Head of Advertising for Paddy Power and more recently the Chief Marketing Officer of Carwow is the Boomin CMO. He is working alongside Brand Director, James Kydd who spearheaded the launch and enormous brand growth of entrepreneur led businesses like Virgin and Purplebricks.
Andrew Stewart, COO, has joined from Cazoo and Zoopla and will be responsible for some key customer experiences and driving revenue for agents.”
……that’s a lots of mouths to feed whilst they still wait for income to be generated, and who are not I would imagine on £25k a year.
Yep, the PB money that Michael received was well beneath the 1B+ he was personally shooting for.
He told people this.
So the new gamble will see the shirt off his back I’d say, because he wants to be a Billionaire he will persist thinking he knows better and I don’t think this idea is the way for them to do it.
Luckily, they’re naive and narcissistic enough to plough on with their own money, so justice will hopefully be served.
Someone should get in touch with Neil Woodford and see what he reckons of the investment…
It’s strange how Neil Woodford own downfall first started after dealing with the ‘Bruce Brothers’ they bought him bad luck. I think most of us Agents agree the same.
Has PB been invited to the party?
Tells a tale that that PB haven’t jumped on board. Wonder how many Ex TO or LPEs that have set up on their own have joined up.
Think about it, what would it tell the industry if PB was in the first or second tranche of sign-ups? There’s no doubt IMHO they will be on board for the official launch.
The account girl covering our area has borderline harassed me to get on a call with her.
when I advised I wasn’t interested she asked me if it was a ‘product or founder issue’?
Clearly everyone is thinking the same. Considering how many years they spent trying to persuade the public how much of a rip off we were they have some nerve and wont get a penny of my money.
OMG!
They’re right into scripts, so it’s painfully obvious that they fully realise that they made their bed and they’re figuring out how to “LIE” in it… 😀
Deeply embarrassing!
Huge tech project, of course it’s over run
Keep spending your “hard-earned” $$$ boys…
Be time for a round of fund raising any day now.
In other words. They’ve had nowhere near the level of take up from agents as they expected and going live would be a complete waste of time and money.
And/or they’ve bitten off far more features and functionality than they can chew…
Not sure about that. If its built , its built ..
Maybe its not built… needed agents to get investors to release more money maybe.
Then bruceters could cash out again.
Maybe they have done too much listening to their own propaganda?
The spin machine won’t work on agents like it did on consumers.
I love it that there’s a plonker giving this brilliant, clear, accurate and concise comment a thumbs down. One can only hope that it was from Michael or Kenny Bruce. 😀