An estate agent has called for the industry to unite behind OnTheMarket – as a way of reining in Rightmove.
Carl Warden, of Bell Ingram, Perth, suggests that agents could list exclusively on OTM.
Bell Ingram is primarily a chartered surveying firm but Warden heads up its estate agency business across five offices.
He said the firm has recently had its Rightmove prices raised by £150 per month per branch, to £950 per month per branch.
He said: “Soon we will be paying £1,000, and then £1,300, and so on – as things stand, this is only going to go one way.
“Rightmove is the market leader because agents have made them so. We do need to be on Rightmove – but, boy, do they know it.
“At the moment it is out of control and their increases are certainly not in line with inflation.
“It is a good portal, and I am not saying otherwise, but we are the ones that should be in control. Instead, we are the ones that have created the monster that is Rightmove.
“It is notable that every single meeting you have with a Rightmove rep is always all about price. Their attitude, if we complain, is to suggest that we are not using it properly, or that we need to buy more add-ons and spend more.”
Warden, whose firm has been a paying member of OnTheMarket since the start, says that OTM’s initial ‘one other portal’ rule has helped create the situation.
He said: “When OTM launched, the ‘one other portal’ rule led to a lot of agents walking away from Zoopla and only strengthened Rightmove.
“It is now biting the very hands that feed it.”
He said that it was hard to compare leads from Rightmove with those from OTM because they were so different in terms of quantity and quality, but said: “The important thing is that Rightmove should realise it has competition. At the moment, it feels like a monopoly.”
Separately, another agent has said he has signed up his four branches to OnTheMarket.
Paul Gray, managing director of Suffolk firm Flick & Son, said: “As a big believer in Rightmove this was a big decision but equally a no-brainer as it’s free and I would love it to work as Rightmove costs are just getting crazy.
“I currently spend £100,000 a year on Rightmove. My thought has always been that Rightmove is such an important part of our business as we use it to all its benefits and if you ask 100 people in the street outside the M25 where they look for property I think nine out of ten would say Rightmove.”
Gray added: “As the market gets tighter I have found that our new hub servicing our branches with its phone-out culture is winning over Rightmove leads. We have bucked the trend this year with an increase in market share by 12% and a sold market share across the heritage coast of 33%.”
Comments (81)
If Coke Cola was cheaper than Pepsi, would all those who enjoy drinking Coke stop buying Coke for Pepsi? I think not. As they personally get more from drinking Coke even though Pepsi would be the cheaper option. Then there are the others, who just prefer Pepsi. And there is nothing wrong it that…
If all independent agents dropped RM and promoted OTM we could leave the corporates with RM. Customers will visit both, where the properties are.
Just do it!
You are missing the point. OTM are exactly the same as RM and dictated to by investors/shareholders. If they hadn’t done that then I would be 100% behind what you are saying but for us that boat has sailed. Don’t you get it?
The 3 of them are the same thing it is just OTM are a little behind the other two and they too have to focus on profits. Getting behind OTM is just as bad as sticking to what we have now – you just might get a year or two of lower fees. If you want things to change you have to be brave and do better than than just boycott or flip. We need something else mate. We just need to put our heads together to come up with whatever that is.
If all independent agents dropped RM and promoted OTM, some would go out of business.
1TB
Some will go out of business anyway. What’s your point?
Just an idea.
How about we all consider National Withdraw/give notice from Rightmove and move to OTM Day, say for next April 1st.
It will concentrate everyones mind and it gives time for agents to actually speak to each other. I can assure you if the ground swell of opinion becomes one voice RM will have to listen, watch that share price tank in March if they dont…
That’s not the answer for me I am afraid. OTM are exactly the same as RM. They are offering everything now but soon as they have us signed up they will start controlling us too. They have no option. They have shareholders/investors to look after. I just read some other article on here about how they took an offer away from an agency because they had no window! Why are they doing this? For me now I need some other solution or go back to how it was without a portal. I do agree that if we find it (whatever ‘ti’ might be) we have to support it on mass or we will be back to square one. By pushing us all to OTM its just out of frying pan into fire and I am already burnt with it all.
Not quite. Any move to leave RM would reduce their preeminence. Even if OTM did become more expensive at least the monopoly would be broken.
This is straight off the OTM website
‘The key proposition of the business remains the creation of an agent-backed, full-scale property portal to disrupt what is otherwise a duopoly of Rightmove and Zoopla by offering a premier search experience to consumers whilst charging sustainably fair prices to agents.
Agents provide the majority of income for the property portals and also supply the majority of their most valuable content – the property listings. As a portal with significant agent support, the Directors believe OnTheMarket.com is uniquely positioned to create an alternative to the leading incumbent portals and to provide an opportunity for a broad base of agents to participate in the equity value of their own portal.’
If they become a monopoly like RM or Z presumably the agents will bring them to heel.
Missing the point with ‘leave RM day’. The share price will tumble in anticipation. RM would be forced to come to heel. We probably wouldn’t even need to move.
I’ve given RM notice this month. If only everyone else was as brave.
Talk is cheap. The only way to take control is to be brave.
My brother has 4 offices. Has a meeting where they said they would be applying a massive increase. He asked what the price would be if he took the add ons off. I think it reduced it to £2900 per month from over £4k or something. A couple of weeks later at a second meeting where the rep brings his boss he tells them he’s reducing his package to £2900. Guess what their response was? The costs is no longer £2900 but more than he was paying before. They’ve reviewed their packages apparently.
That is the sort of company RM are.
This is like many other posts I have read on here of late. I posted my thoughts here recently:
https://www.propertyindustryeye.com/sole-trader-agent-comes-off-rightmove-after-complaining-that-subscription-is-so-much-higher-than-rent/
To summarize my thoughts on this, I am just as concerned about OTM – as soon as shareholders/investors become involved they become the same. Even if they wanted to (RM Z and OTM) their investors will require price increases.
I think we should not have to sign up to ANY contract and that we should be able to use any portal and quit whenever we like.
I actually asked a lady the other day which portal she used/preferred and she said she had never thought about it and flits between a few. She says to retrieve exactly what she wants she often used a google search because for example in her case she wanted a property with a specific feature and she couldn’t do that on the portals. She google it ” her feature” plus her desired “location” and “for Sale” and felt that was the easiest method for her, and that determined which portal or other site she landed on.
Quags “Rightmove have just told us that our MONTHLY fee will go up by over £300pm from June next year. Over £3,000pa.”
My question is – what has changed about your listings/agency that justifies this price hike? Has your service been improved? do you get any extra privileges? are you listing loads more properties? I can bet the answer is NO to all. It is daylight robbery.
“I ask again”. As a small agent in a town of 50k chimneys, I get 90% of my leads from RM, 1% max from OTM and 1% ZPG. I get spam emails with virus attachments from buyers wanting me to see their requirements (ZPG) and a lot of “looking within 20 miles) emails from ZPG. Please, is this just me !!!! I dont see the value in ZPG, very questionable value of OTM (it’s free at the moment but wait for the £££), so what choice is there??? not a trick question, just interested on common sense views please
You could consider asking your clients which web sites they visit and why? How do they search and what is influencing them in their thought process. I have no doubt you will find many follow a perception that they must all be on one web site if all the agents in your town are advertising just RM, while other customers have recognised that not to be true and go to the other site just incase they are missing out on their dream property. Are you or your competitors promoting other web sites , if you do …. you will get enquiries if you support and follow up that advertising.
The good agent who has a data base of customers and developed a relationship with their local community and applicants (vendors are also applicants) doesn’t need the web for many of their sales are from the agency service (staff) etc etc etc. The list of what you can do it extremely long but regrettably many poor agents have fallen into the trap that they can sit back and let the web do the work for them for an easy life.
Possibly think, if I had no internet web advertising, what would I do to sell properties!!!! Switch from I can’t survive without the internet and competitors dictating to me, to how I can use both of them to my advantage and make myself a success.
Thank you for your time woodentop. I take on point your comments. We do work our database and find that probably 50-60% of our SALES come from working leads we had on other properties etc. My point (and sorry fi this was not clear) in my post I think was more around the very significant difference in “initial leads” we get from RM to others and I just wonder if this is due to Z and OTM being stronger in certain parts of the UK, which may well just be the case? most agents in our town offer 2 or all three portals, but they will never disclose their true return from these.
We list with both Rightmove & Zoopla. We get 80% plus of our leads from Zoopla, however, if I dumped Rightmove, my competitors would certainly use that as a stick to beat me with. I’ve tried OTM, but their one other portal ruling nearly ruined me and I’d never trust them again.
Rightmove have just told us that our MONTHLY fee will go up by over £300pm from June next year. Over £3,000pa.
Daylight robbery, but they have us tied. I’m not sure we would survive against our competitors without it, from a listing point of view.
Make it public, tweet it, tell the world how money grabbing and selfish they are. Get it trending.
Sign up to On The Market and they will have you tied. Be careful what you sign!
Quags
Do you use OTM as well?
What sort of increases has those agents who defer their RM listings had?
We do yes, still on the freebee. We’re on all the portals.
No surprise to hear that rightmove have stuffed another customer with a ludicrous price hike. They might as well wear a mask and stripped jumper. He should have told them to jog on because as anyone can see the next six months will be tricky at best. 9 months without rightmove and I will never go back.
If one of the major players had the guts to leave RM I think that would be the end of it-the reason why that will not happen is that Countrywide , Connells and LSL in particular have hugely discounted deals and so an unfair advantage over the smaller independents.
You might be suprised by how much investment has been used to keep them going! Top heavy overheads, the highest sales failure rates and discounts hemoraging. Meanwhile the smaller agents which out number them in every town are still going.
There are two differing opinions showing through today but generated by the same old story, RM hike in prices. Maybe, just maybe those that are reluctant to even consider leaving RM should do some actual research of what their customers are really doing TODAY, for it this that will influence whether you wish to leave RM or not. You may just be surprised by the results you get back and why some agencies have found the move away has worked for them. Your choice obviously but it does sound that the arguments for not even considering leaving were relevant years ago … the industry and technology has move on since then. It is unlikely that the major players that have invested in RM will move but they are the minority in the industry when it comes to agents branches and it always was the smaller agent that are better agents and still in business. So many bigger agents are no longer around … the list is long (yes small agents have disappeared to).
Okay, if you are a single branch selling 2 or less properties a month, and you are only competing with a dozen or so other estate agents, Please stop saying how you have left RM and its made no difference to your business.
Your business is so small, most of us cannot survive on the figures you do. Our mortgages alone are more than your turnover.
Its a nice business for you good luck, for most of us its commercial suicide, not because we need RM but because other agents will use it against us and steal our market share.
Before any small / backwater agent says ‘sell yourself on service don’t worry about other agents’ that’s the reason you do not sell more than a property a week.
Well said Smile it’s not as easy as just pull the plug unless everyone does, that won’t happen as one (probably me) wouldn’t and use that as a competitive advantage over their well intentioned competitors and that’s why we’re all going to hell in a hand cart!
Nothing wrong with selling one a week. Depends what your average fee is 🙂
Very true, and assuming the name ‘Surrey1’ you are right – But knowing Surrey as well as i do, you are not competing with a dozen agents its at least 30 odd, And i also know the moment an agent in Surrey would drop RM the others will jump all over their stock.
This is true Smile and the very reason that I’m not ready to leave Rightmove (yet) but it would be nice to think it might happen as OTM grows.
In 2008 I had a meeting with the competitors in my town to discuss ditching the local newspaper advertising (over £1000 a month to advertise every week) and they paid lip service to me but never did anything about it. With a disastrous market pending I switched to fortnightly advertising and discovered that hardly any of my vendors had noticed. I took a risk to survive the downturn and dumped the newspaper. My competitors rubbed their hands in glee but not for long. I worried about it for a few months but told every vendor the reasons why. No one left us and by the end of the year no one advertised in the newspaper. I have never succumbed to the ‘you won’t be market leaders if you don’t use Zoopla’ and I’ve never ever advertised on Zoopla. I told my vendors that I refuse to pay a Company that shows an automated valuation of houses for sale that are often completely different to the market value. I was also told a few years ago by a particular training company that my business would not survive if I didn’t use Twitter to market my business.
I chose OTM and reluctantly choose to continue paying Rightmove. I would love to ditch them right now if only because of their arrogant disregard of paying customers but I probably won’t because I doubt that I can get my competitors to.
We’re all in the same boat. For now.
Sounded a tad condescending.
Is it time for Ros and the gang to get someone on from Rightmove to pass comment on the ill feeling that is out there towards their brand???
The reps get all of the stick. Where are the bosses?
Don’t think RM particularly care because despite all of the moaning which has been going on for years and years about their fee hikes, everyone just keeps paying their subscriptions anyway. As long as the shareholders are happy then why should RM care what the agents think about it all? Until this industry gets its act together, stops all the infighting and pettiness and collectively acts then the situation will just carry on, and all the same moaners will be on here next year, and the year after, and the year after that still complaining about how unfair it is but continuing to pay their increased subscriptions and doing nothing about it!
Well I know it’s getting close to Christmas as you are all posting the same whining as 2017-2016-2015-2014-2013 you get my drift and RM know it, they won’t change so you must and it’s the only way but it means that you must trust that you can and will work harder, RM isn’t as strong as it was, agents don’t use it against you like they did so if you don’t want to be a moaner this time next year but in fact laugh at the Moaners, LEAVE NOW.
Others have done it, me too and my business is still afloat and doing ok in what is another tough market.
Good luck to you all.
Removing your stock from Rightmove is a bad move, mostly for your vendors as it’s the most visited portal. As said previously, ditch the banners and the premium listings as they make no difference whatsoever, save yourself £250 per month and feel better knowing that you’re starting to take a stand!
#backtobasiconly it’s a thing!
Vendors choose Agents, not RM.
Absolutely agree. We left Rightmove some seven years ago and not one client has ever told us they were going elsewhere as a result. (The vast majority have never seemed bothered one way or the other.)
The way things are for some of the agents around us, even if they closed shop and came back after 12 months, they’ll be in exactly the same financial position.
So coming off Rightmove for a Month or completely makes no difference to business. If anything you focus even more on customer service by picking up the dog and bone and being a proper sales person and selling.
My brother tried that. They put the price up. I’m sure some of what they are doing is actually illegal.
Smart business having OTM as a sole lister? I think not. Lets be really honest now…. OTM have no consumer presence, so that would be a very poor decision. However, RM & Zoopla both have the consumer presence. OTM are fighting a battle they are very unlikely the win unless they actually generate some decent traffic, which they are yet to do.
OTM doesn’t need to generate traffic it needs to generate sales
Not sure that is right. Agents agree sales, web sites are purely advertising to hook an enquiry, the property nearly always sells itself and anyone who has been in the industry long enough will know what I mean. PB are a case in point.
Portals are a last line of defence for an agent who has exhausted known interest, they introduce applicants previously unknown to the agent, from that perspective the volume of traffic is irrelevant. They’re there as a string to an agent’s bow
That might be your experience however that is not everyones experience. If you have existing applicants all the time, you wouldn’t even need to market at all. The issue is, most agents hate portals which is silly as in any other industry, fees for advertising are astronomically higher.
Agents do make sales, that is very true but what agents struggle with is advertising & marketing. Traditional marketing is highly expensive, portals are IMO extremely low cost.
And that’s exactly my point, OTM will only improve if we show more support and address the larger portals that we have created. Why can’t we now create OTM into a much bigger portal and one that we have more control of? The cost saving ultimately can be passed onto our clients.
And there we have it – some numpty thinking it sounds hip’n’trendy to splatter the ‘c’-word all over their post and that we’ll all bow to their clearly eminent opinion.
Not.
The only ‘c’-words that Agents in the real world use – the only ‘c’-words that actually mean something to them – are
Customer
Client, and
Completion.
Suggest you take your overused and inappropriate buzzword *********** (credit: Jonnie) and post it where the sun won’t bleach it.
RM will remain number one, until as @gardenflat says… action is taken… action is not RM charge me less, as it will simply result in harder hikes in future years.
We are the unpaid workers of the portals…. working in 1, 2 or even 3 (for some) of the portal shelf-filling departments, and they have managed to get us working 24/7 not pay us a wage, but actually tax us on our zero wage.
Make it worse, our businesses (most) offer all our services for free, allowing sellers to change their mind at no cost. Perhaps the way forward is to charge a RM listing fee to each vendor! They may they say nah… happy to stay off it! OTM is Free, RM is £120 for 6 months and £300 for the year. Comes off your final bill if we sell, otherwise we keep it. (coz that’s what RM do to us but times 10!!)
But lets be clear, OTM will charge more as time goes on… but 10% a year on £200 is better than 10% to 15% on £1,000…
So… I am coming off tomorrow…. oh wait… no I am not, because the other local agent who thinks the same as me, will tout the ***** out of my stock tomorrow and say… business is business… and one of those houses I stole from you just paid for this months RM fee.
No fan of PurpleBricks obvs… but taking the marketing money upfront… like Auto Trader, eBay listing fees etc… no so stupid really.
Ric,
You’ve said it and I totally agree.
Your words…..“We are the unpaid workers of the portals…. working in 1, 2 or even 3 (for some) of the portal shelf-filling departments, and they have managed to get us working 24/7 not pay us a wage, but actually tax us on our zero wage”.
RM sit on a mountain of data paid for by agents over the years….I wonder what other ways Rightmove monetise this for their benefit only?
I think you hit the nail on the head with the doubters ….. “I am coming off tomorrow…. oh wait… no I am not, because the other local agent who thinks the same as me, will tout the ***** out of my stock tomorrow and say… business is business… and one of those houses I stole from you just paid for this months RM fee”.
That has been the fundamental reason why many agents frankly became lemmings. Now try and turn it around, how many properties has your competitor got on RM and unsold? You know how effective or not RM are for you. Explain you reasoning to your vendors and what the public are actually doing TODAY, they are not searching RM, they are not bothered which web site their property is on, as long as it comes up in a search result (which it will). Sell your service, not another web companies that is charging you! Just a thought.
Well said.
‘Sell your service’
We did online survey . 30 respondents. Rightmove and on market 50/50 zoopla about 30% . So people are finding and using onthemarket … somehow
Morning guys,
If you’re planning to take all your stock off Rightmove for December would you mind letting me know where you’re based so that I can let my friends know who work in the industry, as you’ll obviously be notifying all of your clients that you want to make a stand for the good of blah blah blah and that they’ll be the one’s to suffer, it makes sense for them to have the option to have a chat with another agent that doesn’t spend all day on this site ******** and moaning about how tough their life is but is simply trying to do their best to sell their property.
Thanks in advance ; )
It’s good for the customer. Rightmove allow anyone on their platform. Pay any way is corrupt and many buyers hate booking viewings online .
As you seem very good at assuming other people’s positions, I will assume that you have never run your own company?
Still surreptitiously ”flying” the Rightmove flag Seller0169?….Must be all those ”friends” in the industry 😉
Will be off Rightmove end of the month. Staying with OTM/Zoopla.
no point being on OTM if your still with rightmove why would you do that ?
With all due respect Mr Warden, you have the power to leave, but you won’t because you’ll hand a massive advantage to your competitors.
They wont leave because they know they’ll hand that advantage to you.
You’ve all be down this road before… nobody can be trusted to do the common sense thing.
I took a break from this industry for over 15 years – on my return, I find it’s still an amateur, childish and mostly unprofessional trade.
We are in Greater Manchester & We’ve already started to move away from Rightmove. We’ve taken our lettings off Rightmove 6 months ago and the quality of leads we are receiving through OnTheMarket & Zoopla are phenomenal. Our vendors aren’t bothered one bit and it’s working brilliantly. Sales leads aren’t as prominent yet but the results from lettings are further ammunition and proof that soon, We as agents will be calling the shots against Rightmove!!!
’ll be at the front of the que to watch them crash, burn and come squirming with reduced rates.
We have never listed on Rightmove and have only ever used Zoopla in the last 5 years. Buyers don’t care about the portal just the property. We are very successful with sales despite not being on Rightmove I don’t understand why agents think they really need Rightmove we have proved otherwise. Their charges are astronomical. You could get an investment property and the monthly payments would probably be less with some return. We are old school, in the industry 30 years come on guys believe in yourselves ditch the robbers! You are the ones that actually do the hard work.
As you may know, i’m not a mass supporter of On The Market, but also agree RM is out of control. What frustrates me is when you hear people moaning about the cost of RM, then you see they are pretty much paying for all the bells and whistles which is needless.
Cut back with RM, ditch the premium listings, the banner adverts etc and you are saving money straight away.
Carl Warden; I’m sure he’s an OTM rep…?
Isn’t that how we label anyone who supports OTM on here…?!
Great news. Now the share price should start rocketing too.
No your wrong! Labelling is never wise and one of the first things you learn in Agency.
Carl Warden, of Bell Ingram, Perth says “we do need to be on Rightmove”.
Less than £1000 per month to be in business seems quite cheap to me!
I have been off Rightmove since July 2017.
It’s makes no difference and as a small independent we are on track to make 2018 our best year ever.
It’s all about providing excellent customer and winning hearts and minds.
Absoluely. Time the doubting agents woke up to the fact that customers use smart search facilities today that provide results from all web sites without them having to takes ages searching individual sites.
How? Do you mean simply Google ‘properties for sale in xxxx’?
I am a small independent trading for three and half years now and I have been in the industry for twelve years. Started up without Rightmove and I have far exceeded my business forecast. The proof of my completed sales have spoken for themselves. Be brave-
Agreed! but only if that was it for the whole company. That’s nearly £1000 per month per branch. It’s ONE Portal.
Actions speak louder than words!
December 2018. NO PROPERTY, NO RIGHTMOVE
Rightmove has had its day and have pushed the agents too far.
Agents need to start again and back another option.
Agents are too weak to stand together and will keep on getting shafted by Rightmove.
If agents want to make a stand, start by removing all properties in December from Rightmove.
December 2018. NO PROPERTY, NO RIGHTMOVE.
I hope you haven’t told your customers that you advertise on RM. I think they would be justified to presume their properties will be live on RM throughout December.
I can’t see any respectable agent who has told their customers that they advertise on RM removing their properties.
It is matter for the agent where he advertises, just as the customer has a choice which agent they wish to use. Never ever heard of a customer not using an agent because they use OTM or because they withdrew from Zoopla. We hadn’t used RM for years and saved a fortune, it is how agents communicate their service that matters. Customers have come to learn that you do not need to go to a specific web site to find a property, that loyalty ended a long time ago with smart search facilities, it is only the agent that shows loyalty to a particular brand. Not sure, just ask your customer if they only search on RM, even better ask them why they went to RM, you will be surprised by the response!
What happens when the investors cash that is subsidising passive intermediary listings is turned off and the commitment to list until sold puts the passive intermediary listing firm in the situation where they are knowingly trading insolvently?
As you were, you did specify respectable agent
I know how many big corporates trading over the years only kept going because of backroom investors and when they pulled the plug they went into insolvency … the list is very long and is being added to by the failing web-only agents.
…..and the voices get louder and more persisent Rightmove, however you keep silent?
That tapping sound is all those unhappy estate agents at your windows Rightmove.
Do you think you should just keep ignoring all those estate agents Rightmove?
J1 mentions below about it being perhaps time for Ros/PIE to seek an Official Statement/Response from Rightmove
…..summed up perhaps as follows – the growing discontent amongst Estate Agents who subscribe to Rightmove and who have voiced clearly their concerns about Rightmove’s charges, annual increases and Rightmove’s failure to actively engage/address these legitimate concerns.
Over to you Ros/PIE? You engaged with OTM/Ian Springett during their pre-AIM Flotation period. Is it time for Rightmove to step out of its own No 1 Shadow and directly/on-the-record respond to the concerns voiced by many in Our Industry.
Surely the paying subscribers have as much right to receive a response/engagement with Rightmove or are they to simply be ignored in favour of the Shareholders interests being exclusively served?
Rightmove will not feel they need to reply….yet! They have a duty to their shareholders and it is only when their business starts going into reverse, will they feel they have to make comment. If they make statements about listening to market forces and how they will cut subscriptions, they will be slaughtered in the stock market. This is why such businesses get in trouble when changes are made…invariably the rot has set in and its too late. Most investors see them as a world class business due to the stickiness of their subscriptions and a 75% roce.
Their mid year showed their staff surveys were not as rosy as they were; so things are stirring and there is discontent within the ivory tower. Their numbers of agents are at an all time high…a risk as who are the new subscribers…better push the rates up then!! Their largest membership comprises single office and small agents. They are the ones who can vote with their feet, but will only work if the leave in big numbers. The stress in the market and if there are lots of insolvencies could accelerate that. If the corporates and agents with over 100 offices flexed their muscles, it would help. If the developers flexed their muscles too, it would help. Lets face it, the developers gravy train days of buy to let and help to buy are running out and they will need to legislate for lower average sale prices and slower sale rates. Their direct advertising helped Rightmoves numbers and also set the developers in direct competition with the agents trying to help serve them.
There is ‘noise’ that Rightmove will not react to. Its disappearing £££’s that will bring them to the table.
I remember the Glasgow Herald Newspaper, the Dominant Broadsheet Newspaper in Scotland with a hugely successful Property Section being brought to its knees by West of Scotland Estate Agents.
The Glasgow Herald had settled comfortably, as Rightmove have, into squeezing Estate Agents on Ad Pricing/Automatic Annual Increases etc, then colour Ads came along and that was another reason for them to squeeze agents even harder!
The Camel’s Straw had finally arrived and agents had enough, so we approched The Scotsman Newspaper – Edinburgh/East Coast and The Herald’s arch rival between West & East Coasts.
Anyway, huge drama plays out in Glasgow Hotel with both Newspapers in different rooms and The Herald initially not budging because they were “The Herald” …… after lengthy negotiations/debate we were ready to collectively move our Advertising Business/Income to The Scotsman, and literally as we entered the opposing room to finalise the deal The Herald ran the White Flag up and settled to the agents satisfaction.
It’s a wonderful example of the No1 being given a monster reality check!
Rightmove can continue to keep their door firmly locked however they have their own monster problem looming in the shadows and at some stage they will have to unlock their door and come out to engage, or do they continue to gamble that their garden will always be rosy.
OTM are clearly now a Shareholder owned Business and it seems they are not willing to openly forge an active link with Our Industry, instead they are building the next Rightmove? …..who knows, only time will tell, however the glaring omission in Our Industry is a Collective Voice…
Interesting times and Rightmove perhaps don’t realise that they are sitting on their own version of Brexit …..Rexit !
The interesting thing though GPL is that all the agents did was scr*w over the nice people at The Scotsman for their open approach to negotiation by staying with the organisation that made you angry in the first place.
My take on that situation is that the Herald acted in bad faith throughout INCLUDING their final capitulation.
Yet they were rewarded because they kept all the business in the end, even if it was slightly less profitable.
I will change every single service provider I have as regularly as possible because there is NO loyalty. Mobile phone companies, energy companies, ISPs. The lot. Why should I pay a higher price because I’m a loyal customer rather than get a lower price for exactly the same product (give or take) from a competitor.
Companies like Rightmove should be rewarding me for their loyalty with an equivalent of a “no claims discount”.
Been with us 10 years – fantastic. Let us give you 25% off our advertised rate.
Wouldn’t that just be fantastic?
It’s a fair point AnonCoward however both Newspapers were in the same Hotel and knew exactly what was taking place.
The Herald capitulated, Yes …..however The Scotsman obviously never delivered the “killer punch” otherwise we would have kept walking towards them, and never looked back.
The wider agenda was West versus East which is akin to Rangers versus Celtic…. and that’s a much bigger can of worms that’s best not to get into
However AC, you get my point in my previous post.
Some great points here. Loyalty only works one way with the portals.