It’s been two years in the making, and Boomin, backed by the Bruce brothers, is now ready to launch. The new portal will go live tomorrow in a bid to challenge the dominance of Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket, but the website has already been rejected by a number of agents. 
Agents took to EYE’s comments section yesterday to let the founders of Boomin know what they think of their new venture.
Here are just some of the comments posted by agents yesterday:
smile please: “Do we need yet ANOTHER portal ……. NO just another 400/500 per month expense.
“And to make things worse he [Micheal Bruce] has tried to put high street agents out of business for the last few years.”
hampshirebornandbred: “Why would any agent want to support someone who took great delight in stabbing us all in the back with PB [Purplebricks] and kept twisting it until he’d made enough money to scarper and think about another way to make even more money at our expense?”
gardenflat: “No thanks.”
JonnyBanana43: “Hopefully soon it will be “Bustin…”
Jay Watcher: “My concern is first he [Micheal Bruce] tried to put all estate agents out of business. Now he will do the same by using the agents on the portal to manipulate figures and use this against the agents not on the portal. What he does not realise this is going to affect small agents who work very hard to put food on the table to give another £400 to another “not required” portal.”
Property Ear: “This guy [Micheal Bruce] insulted me and tried to put me out of business – I wish him nothing but Boomisery.”
MarkRowe: “Crazy. If you align yourself with this then you really do fall into the gang that has the FOMO.
“Take a step back. Realise the history and journey of the Bruce’s.
“Recognise that you have survived without them for a very long time. The industry doesn’t need the Bruce’s to come along and save the day.
“You are okay and will be more than okay without another website, especially from someone who only a few short years ago was saying how traditional agents ‘didn’t work hard for their money’…. now he’s asking for a portion of that money… go figure!”
purplepatchy: “Do you think I’d be stupid enough to even give you the chance to let me down? #Boomisery. ”
jimboglos8261: “No thank you, Mr Bruce!
“Anyone that thinks this is anything other than an opportunity to make the Bruce brothers another fortune, at the expense of high street agents is frankly an idiot.”
Trisha H: “Just like Wrongmove then and I bet you still list with them don’t you.”
AgentQ73: “Rightmove is a parasite, it needs the host to stay alive. The Bruce Brothers in their PB guise tried killing the host off. Big difference, but I suspect you knew that already.”
Gangsta Agent: “Seems the Boomin brothers have a fan, but we know the way this goes, big it up, get money from idiots, give themselves shares, then sell them off for millions. Only 2 people having it off here!”
New Order in a Joy Division: “Bruce damaged this industry, he used agents to insinuate that their value was negligible and the public didn’t need them. This has created animosity towards Bruce, who is very clearly not on our side.
“Agents have long memories and better customer service.”
Russell121: “I think they’re [the Bruce brothers] hoping that if they throw enough of other peoples money at something, then it might stick. Purplebricks are still waiting 9 years on.”
OverHalfWay: “Share buyers may have been gullible, buying into ‘ShXXt Bricks’ making you, your fortune. But estate agents I hope are not. I think Boomin to Busting. So as JonnyBanana43 repiled eariler its the ‘F off’ from me too.”
Cheesybiscuits: “I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything to fail so much. If you are a Boomin’ rep, I think the above comments tell you everything you need to know.”
It is clear that many agents do not plan to sign up to Boomin, as reflected by a recent EYE poll (see below) , but we are also interested in hearing from agents that are supportive of the new portal. You can send your comments to editor@propertyindustryeye.com, or post a comment below.
Boomin off to a bad start as soon-to-launch portal fails to impress agents
Comments (17)
#8
BOOMIN FOR DUMMIES.
so let’s have a closer look!
as a vendor I could create a listing ad and publish it on boomin.com (Matchmaker seller). I have to enter all the info, including the expected price. I can publish the listings too without an agent (so I get access to a portal with properties of other agents !!!)
All buyers on Boomin will be able to see the add and could request an ‘intro’ via an estate agent.
Seriously what stops Boomin to just do the intro directly? the vendor is on Boomin and the buyer is on Boomin and the listing is live on Boomin, why one needs an agent?:)
Boomin could always introduce their own agent in that transaction at only £599 or £899? it is a great come back after Purplebricks.
Now all the pro Boomin sales agents going to write ‘Boomin cares about agents, most honest people in the market bla bla bla’.
Boomin made a solution that looks like an opportunity for agents, but it is just the first step in removing agents from the market!
I prefer Rightmove!!!
This has been my exact point for months. Boomin needs agents to get traction with the public or it will fail.
Once established what is to stop Boomin from turning into a ‘For Sale by Private Sellers portal and dump the agents that built them?
No-one has ever responded to this question. Are you telling me that Bruce & Co never read PIE, considering they are an advertiser and keep sending articles to the editor to promote their venture.
The silence probably says it all, so the question has to be, IS THIS WHAT THEY INTEND TO DO?
Just saw that – anyone who signs up to boomin is a turkey voting for xmas!
So much hatred and negativity. People like this makes me ashamed to be in the property industry.
Just had a look at the agents in my area who are on it. Surprise surprise it’s mostly the corporates who love a bit of referral income.
This lot have got more front than Brighton Pier. Did they honestly think that any self respecting agent would sign up to a service with any connection to the Bruce’s? I’d sooner set fire to £500 every month than see a penny of it go into their pockets.
Quite a few have though
They said self respecting agents.
I have no idea what they are like or how much they respect themselves
I’m not a PB fan, but I’m also not afraid of competition. PB has made us all look closely at what we do and made the High Street agents stronger by upping our game and delivering better service than online only agents do by a mile. There was a gap in the market for online agents to take on the cheap agents and offer a different way to sell your home. I prefer to compete with a cheap online agent that does what you expect it to do, than a cheap High Street agent that ties you into 4 month contracts and doesn’t deliver on its promises because they’re not in writing. Boomin is good for portal competition with a fixed fee rate and possible passive income. Anything that has the potential to disrupt Rightmove’s stranglehold on agents is welcome in my opinion. OTM and Zoopla are by there own admission have stopped trying to compete with RM and are going down different routes now. So I welcome someone else that might just even the playing field a bit and dilute the dominance of RM
What disruption has done is undermine the portals, it is now possible to list on the Duopoly portals for free, via Rayhan’s Free service. You can get a portal listing service for £99 all the way up to about 1%. You get the same listing, the same passive level of service and achieve about 4% nett less than a half decent estate agent would achieve.
Any agent who wants to come off the portals without fear of vendor pressure can now do so safe in the knowledge that portal introduced buyers pay about 5% less than an actively managed applicant database buyer.
“Sorry, no we don’t list on 3 portals we find 1 is enough. A national portal only introduces applicants to us, from there it is our job to vet and select the best applicants for each home we sell. Any serious buyer will have seen our sold boards either because they live or work in the area already or they have visited the area. People look at the portals but over 95% of buyers buy through traditional agents. We are not looking for ‘people’, we are looking for buyers who are serious about a purchase.
We are a little more expensive than other agents but that’s because we will get you more. You can almost certainly save yourself 1% or even 1.5% off my fee but there is every chance if you do find a buyer they will pay less, about £4,000 for every £100k achieved”
Agency has beaten disruption 95%-5%, whack it on the web agency has failed and will likely fall back further to 3 or 4% and in doing so has proved that portals don’t sell property properly, only full service agents (with or without offices) can do that.
I’ve had a change of heart… I wanna be a Platinum Plus Member…
You have to be a Corporate EA for that – as for Diamond membership ………..
I cannot get my head around why any agent would support the very same people who tried to ruin our industry, bad mouthing absolutely everything a high street agency did.
if somehow you were duped into signing up I would urge you to remove your listings now.
how any agent can support this is a head scratcher.
Never was so much damage done to so many by so few.
Me first then. Could this be a Boomin disaster?
The advert is underwhelming, lacks punch, I really don’t think the public will warm to it. No one needs another portal.
Sadly it’s mildly misleading too. Claims you can book to see properties not on the market and book viewings 24,hours??
The Boomin team have been whipped into this blind positivity, happy clappy ‘we will succeed no matter what’ environment. They don’t suffer any negativity towards their brand 🙂
Got to admire their tenacity Interesting times indeed
Site up and running already up in beta mode but no sign of Foxtons on the site yet.
Unlikely to see Michael Bruce appearing in TV adverts repeating his rallying call against agents when CEO at Purplebricks now turned gamekeeper from poacher in a volte-face.
Self-appointed guardian of their best interests .
“They’re nothing but a high street presence, a face for their brand”
Maybe Sporting Ken will be putting in an appearance on TV kicking a ball or astride a horse if he can take time away from his football club Larne or his racehorses .
Sporting’s trainer “Sumo” Quinn sincerely hopes he won’t as he has virtually become Sporting’s private trainer.
I guess the BODS at Purplebricks are having a wry smile now the estate agent world has found someone else to hate and moving away from their anti high street message