A story in the Business section of yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph claiming that OnTheMarket “is trying to persuade members to hold back housing stock from rival portals” has been debunked.
The story, by Anna White, ran yesterday in two different versions – one in the newspaper, and one online. It subsequently made some amendments yesterday after complaints from Agents’ Mutual.
Both versions of the Telegraph story had reported that a memo had been sent saying that “OnTheMarket are very keen on persuading their members to hold back instructions for a while from whichever other portal is used”.
Both quote Lawrence Hall, of Zoopla, saying “this is not in the consumer’s interest”.
The newspaper version appeared under the headline “Estate agents’ site blocks online giants”.
The online version uses the headline “Estate agent wars could make it harder to sell your home” and has this sub-heading: “Dirty tricks? Memo reveals plans to scupper Rightmove and Zoopla.”
The online version also runs content from the actual memo, which it says is an “extract from the Agents’ Mutual email to its branch members” – later amended.
The newspaper version, however, describes it as an email sent from “Agents’ Mutual’s software provider”.
Although the memo does say that “OnTheMarket are very keen on persuading their members to hold back instructions for a while from whichever other portal is used”, it then goes on to say that its users group has discussed this, and that “many members see merit in deferring new listings everywhere except their own websites”.
It then explains how this can be done.
Yesterday, Agents’ Mutual boss Ian Springett told Eye there were several issues with the story.
He said: “The email referred to was not from us to our members but a newsletter-style emailing from Expert Agent to its customers. We told Anna this on Friday.
“Expert Agent is not our software provider.
“Expert Agent did not develop the ‘send time’ facility for OnTheMarket.com
“It was already in their system when we enquired.
“We provided a comment at Anna’s request, which is not mentioned at all.”
The online version of the Telegraph story does use part of the quote given to the paper by Springett.
The full statement given by Agents’ Mutual to the newspaper says: “Many of our estate and letting agent members have indicated a wish to prioritise our portal when they bring new properties to market and we have been exploring ways to facilitate this.
“It is up to our members when they begin advertising a property with each of their chosen media and we have no contractual arrangements with them about this.
“Agents simply recognise that we will create a positive environment in which to present properties for sale and to let.
“Their support for OnTheMarket.com highlights their dissatisfaction at the impact the existing duopoly in the portals market has had on the service provided to them and their clients and also at the spiralling costs of listing.
“The launch of OnTheMarket.com adds a much-needed new competitor for Rightmove and Zoopla.
“In order for what is a new start-up to enter and become established, its member agents commit to list with it and just one other portal. This is likely to lead to the existing two major portals losing significant advertising business as OnTheMarket.com grows over the coming years.
“At the outset, the company took advice as to the legality of the key aspects of its business model. On the basis of the advice received, the directors are satisfied that the company is operating within the law.
“From January, neither Rightmove nor Zoopla will be able to claim they cover the entire market and property-seekers will need to visit our website for a complete market picture.
“With more than two months to go before OnTheMarket.com goes live on Monday, January 26th, it is – not surprisingly – choosing to keep some of its features under wraps for now.
“OnTheMarket.com is a mutual organisation with a mission to provide a first-class service to member agents, to their clients and to the broad property-seeking public.
“We’ll be adding to competition in the marketplace – no agent has any less choice than they had before – and we’ll be providing consumers with a state-of-the-art search experience.”
By yesterday evening, the Telegraph had amended its story to describe the email as being “from a software provider that delivers the listing tools for agents, as seen by the Telegraph”.
However, the text of the email itself was, by yesterday evening, still being billed as being from Agents’ Mutual. The online version of the story is here
Tomorrow, Zoopla – which powers a number of property search facilities for newspapers, including the Telegraph – is due to announce its maiden results to the City, previewed today in the Telegraph here
The newspaper report is below
Below is an extract from the email from Expert Agent to its customers
Comments (46)
Why take a risk and step into the unknown when Rightmove and Zoopla work – at least they do for us. Is there a need to put your head above the parapet when there appear to plenty of others who are willing/foolish enough to do this for you. See what happens in 12 months time, do you think they are going to turn business away? AM is a huge leap into the dark for five years and once you have signed there is no going back! In our location only a small handful of companies are joining, to do so for us would I think would be commercial suicide.
The bigger agents really don't like the fact that the 'playing field' has been levelled. Small agents can now advertise their properties everywhere. Their plan is to get as many small agents on board and restrict where they can reduce the reach the smaller agents have. The big firms websites are simply terrible to use. Ask a member of the public. I think the big firms may find that they rely on business from Zoopla and Rightmove portals more than they think. On our website you can get a list of properties with one click, try doing the same with one of the big firms!
I started my business so that I could do things my way – and that's the way it's going to stay. No need to learn from your mistakes when you can learn from someone else’s!
“Why take a risk and step into the unknown when Rightmove and Zoopla work” The answer my friend is pretty obvious – in my case EVEN ASSUMING RIGHTMOVE DIDN’T INCREASE THEIR COSTS AT ALL – OVER THE NEXT 5 YEARS I WOULD HAVE PAID RIGHTMOVE OVER £100,000. And we already know that Rightmove will up their fees – they’ve already told us that, so that £100,000 is a minimum.
“Is there a need to put your head above the parapet when there appear to plenty of others who are willing/foolish enough to do this for you.” Wrong attitude surely. If you believe in something strongly enough, why not act on it?
“AM is a huge leap into the dark for five years and once you have signed there is no going back!” If it works, why would you WANT to go back?
“On our website you can get a list of properties with one click, try doing the same with one of the big firms! I started my business so that I could do things my way – and thats the way its going to stay.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t lie awake in bed at night stressing that I had to click a few more times to get what I want. If you can’t be bothered to click a few more times – you can’t be looking seriously in my book.
I’m guessing, maybe, sometimes, when you stack RM, Zoopla and AM together you figure AM’s the placebo but dude, this aint Sophie’s choice and that kind of thinking only gets you seniority on public transport. In or out, we can chop this up and that’s cool but giddy up launch day because I’m stoked RM & Zoopla are b*tt hurt off AM’s relevance. A buck and change wont post my bail but it should buy those guys enough Vaseline to ease the pain.
I’m not being sarcastic, but as a proud Gold Member of AM, my already good day just got a lot better. Thank you.
We are operating something similar at the moment and in fact I was going to suggest to AM that they do the same for OTM at their pre-launch meeting; so I’m glad it was already being discussed. At the moment we e-mail out details to genuine buyers registered on our system AS SOON AS WE SEND THE DRAFT DETAILS TO THE OWNER TO CHECK. As soon as we get the draft details back approved, the property goes live and appears on our own website, RM and Z at the next update. Of course, the genuine ones on our system have been given a day or two head start as they received the details before it ever appeared on ANY website – including my own. If buyers don’t want to be registered with me – that’s fine, BUT don’t complain if the buyers that ARE registered with me get a few days head start on you. If you want to hear about properties as soon as they become available, then register your interest instead of just “keeping an eye on the websites”. It’s up to the owner how fast they approve the draft details, some do it the same day, while some take the best part of a week to get them back to me, but the average is probably 3 days. The longer the owners take to get them back, the longer the head start the registered buyers get. I really love this potential feature – PLEASE PLEASE press on with it, and don’t be deflected by moans from anyone with a vested interest in stopping it inc RM or Z.
Just had an email fro RM asking me to fill in their survey. Guess what, OTM are included on almost every question.
If RM and Z are not worried, why are they giving AM/OTM so much publicity. Mind you, they will probably be invoicing for it soon.
Just like everyone else, we have not received any advice from AM to hold back. Just nonsense as we all know. The dirty tricks can be expected to get really dirty over the festive season and watch this space come 26th January as all out war can be expected from RM & Z. Which says everything …….. if OTM wasn't such a good viable business proposition, they wouldn't give it a second glance. If you haven't signed up to OTM, do so now. I expect those that don't will have to explain to their clients, why not?
Err, sign up in a year if or when it has traction, save your money for now and get results from your current provider – this is the smart thing to do, not risk your entire business on a brand new portal that might not even take off.
If OTM were so sure of their model then why even offer the "one other portal" rule? The answer is that they can't promise the traffic that the other portals can and they know it.
Agree with you partly on this. I think it is too big a risk signing up at this stage so I am going to sit on the fence and see what develops. However hats off for the rule of one other provider, this will gain them market share so as a commercial business choice and the way they have sold it well done to them. Just a case of will it work and if so what effects it has elsewhere in the market place….
Is your bias because you are not allowed on OTM?
"… risk your entire business…"? This has to be the most ridiculous comment yet on this subject. If you had even the tiniest idea of how estate agency works you would know that a successful pro-active estate agent should never become dependent upon Z or RM to survive. The biggest threat to the survival of all estate agency businesses at present is the way that RM and Z increasingly use their dominance to screw their customers, the agents, in every way they can, and if they get the chance to put us all out of business in their quest for ever higher share values, they will not hesitate.
as with the nonsense coming out of the city analysts, what's being said is irrelevant……..and clearly not true, it's the fact that http://www.onthemarket.com is clearly worryinging Z, which is a good thing because they have much to worry about. – Jonnie
"www.onthemarket.com is clearly worryinging Z"…It appears that Zoopla re not the only ones worried as apprarently both Nick McKittrick & Peter Brooks-Johnson of Rightmove sold down some of their shares on Friday.
Instead of these constant snipes from the media about high street agents (seems like this is in fashion at the moment) why not highlight that online agents cannot expose themselves to everybody, The little old lady who has no internet access and only looks in the window or newspaper. Or the people that have no internet connection – YES believe it or not their are still people that do not have internet either through choice or circumstance. Why do the "Journalists" not highlight this? Or the fact that we are no sale no fee or the fact we actually progress sales and keep them together!
Exactly the point I have been making for years. If anything we have seen internet activity drop off over the last couple of years and foot traffic increase.
Hmmm, some very quick research shows 22 million households/84% of population have internet access, and 74% ordered goods and/or services this year (Source: Office for National Statistics). Indeed over 90% of all searches for new homes start online. The internet genie is well and truly out of the bottle and roaming free, and the last thing the industry needs is a Luddite mentality. There is as much future in Estate Agents focusing on a non-online minority as there is in the conservative party focusing on the over 80's. Both strategies promise nothing but a slow, lingering demise.
At Paul H – isn't that what OTM are doing…dictating to you on how to run your business.
Until any marketing/advertising is launched, or indeed I can see a website I would be insane to even entertain any commitment to OTM.
To paraphrase Bill Clinton, 'It's about the audience, stupid.'
"At Paul H – isn't that what OTM are doing…dictating to you on how to run your business."….No, it is ME that's dictating how I run my own business. OTM set out their proposals (exclusivity rule) and I thought it right for my business hence I signed up, it was my decision and one that I have (over time) continue to be satisfied with. It is now Mr Hall of Zoopla who is stating that "it is not in the consumers interest" for an agent to decide how they market property. I therefore suggest that you raise your issue with him and not the thousands of agents who have signed up to agents mutual.
74% ordered online – by my math that's 26% that need a High Street Agent! or 90% who start search online still 10% not reached…… You are keen on stats, how about online agents only have 2% market share! – All high street agents advertise online. OTM is online!!!! – we are just fed up the ridicules, lazy bias reporting that goes on. Why are online agents better? They take a fee upfront and are reactive not proactive FACT! – Lazy journalists who go for a headline and an easy target such as estate agents.
So it appears that agents are now being told how to market property and being told how to run our businesses. Directing the consumer to an agents own website or any other website to create some exclusivity about the property is no longer permitted and instead all properties must be up loaded on to the portals. What's the point of human interaction we may as well all be robots. If ever there was a perfect example of the problem we have created with the duopoly then this is it.
Sorry what's the point???????? Am I missing something? We always hold back instructions and list on our own website first or offer to our "Preferred" applicants – This is just good business practice.
….In the same way many agents may have excellent buyers on their own mailing lists that they may wish to contact prior to even putting them online at all. It seems that so many agents on this forum think that you can only get a good buyer from either Rightmove or Zoopla!
or OTM?
Forgot that one fanboy eh?
"or OTM? Forgot that one fanboy eh?"…..Yet another classic quote of no significance whatsoever from someone who really should ,in my opinion, learn some estate agency industry knowledge, instead of quoting nonsense in the hope of achieving I don't know what?
Complaint to the Sunday Telegraph me thinks! As I member if Agents Mutual I have received no such contact, whether by email, letter, phone etc. So, an apology/correction required for this weekend's Telegraph.
You know the true irony of this article is that it quotes from the very sources, that themselves, are trying to stifle the competition from their cosy duopoly and have promoted more "money being left on the table" situations than would have existed, by allowing short cut, portal only selling to become prevalent.
I'm not even sure what the issue is, surely as we all discuss marketing of a property over several weeks to generate the best interest doesn't staged marketing make sense. There certainly is no compulsion to display property on every portal and newspaper at the same time in the interest of "fairness". I will launch a property to buyers whom I consider to be the hottest first, these are often ones registered, they are after all likely to pay the best price. After I have exhausted that, I will use other forms of advertising. This is a complete non issue and certainly one stirred up by the anti Onthemarket protagonists. We get clients to sign agreements giving us marketing over 8-16 weeks, why is that, to blow all of the marketing in the first two days and spend the rest of the time waiting for someone else to come along?! Hardly going to achieve the best price is it.
Just a couple sod things that strike me here. Springett trying to back pedal saying these are not the plans of agents mutual but the members etc… So why are you enquiring to software providers about it then ? Also further down the article " it's up to our members when they start to advertise property ….. No , it's up to the consumer who pay our bills , craziness
Good morning Danny. AM are asking about it, as members have asked them to ask about it………………………As for the next bit……. Do you just load a property on a website sit back and wait?………. As an agent if you are being chosen on your ability to get a property on RM or Z quickly then you are not being chosen for the right reason……… The web should only be treated and sold to a potential vendor on a listing as a window to property for the buyers and nosey people who have not yet registered with your agency as serious buyers…… as that really is all it is……. a decent agent will be calling their mailing list out and not waiting for the websites to provide a lead or two……. Perhaps Danny you are the reason Online Only Agents stand a chance (assuming you are not already one)….oh and remind your vendor on the next valuation you do….. you ONLY GET PAID on completion…….The consumer only pays our bills when we have done our job, so to be honest ONLY the internet only agents could agree with your last bit, as a NSNF agent will always be working to get paid.
Danny, as usual way off the mark (in my opinion)……If we analyse what you continue to say then there is only one logical outcome to "best interest of the consumers" and that is advertise their property "EVERYWHERE"….and why not spend a couple of grand on seo for each property as well. Of course this is NOT in any way practical. "It's up to the consumer who pays our bills"…..perhaps you will do a bit better when you finally realise that it is NOT up to the consumer….its up to US (as their agent) what we do….That is why it is called a SERVICE industry….WE provide a service for sellers who don't expect a call from us after instruction saying "Hello client, now you have given us instructions what would you like us to do next, any ideas on how we could market your house!!!"
Thanks for the opinion Wilko,I hope the irony of a lesson on business relationships in response to a story about an advertising medium that's telling you where you can and cannot advertise, talking to your software provider about how they can block property going anywhere but there first is not lost on you .Of course your a supporter of AM and I genuinly hope it works and competes. Im not prepared to be dictated to about what I do with my business or my clients property…
"I hope the irony of a lesson on business relationships in response to a story about an advertising medium that's telling you where you can and cannot advertise"….AM is not telling people where they can and cannot advertise and they are not dictating to anyone. Have you not read the above article at all Danny?! If you cannot see what is wrong with the assertions being made by Mr Hall of Zoopla then you need to have a real think about what the job of being estate agent entails.
Danny,"Of course your a supporter of AM" why are you so obsessed with the OTM portal?? I simply stated, yet again that agency is NOT just about advertising on online portals, it's about lots of different skills and decision making for our clients for each property we market. You haven't (not the first time) even answered my comments, preferring to quote nonsense like "Im not prepared to be dictated to about what I do with my business or my clients property…"….When already know how you do business…..you ask your clients!
The press won't like AM this is just the start, it won't wash
Sorry Simon I don't understand that. What do you mean? Irrespective of the editorial content of the press, print or online, the press advertising sales departments will always be very keen to keep agents sweet. Zoopla andMr Hall might not like this, but focusing the public's attention primarily on individual agents own web sites ahead of ANY portal has to be a good thing for the individual agent.
Both Archant and Northcliffe might have something to say if Mr Hall's comments motivate Agents across the land to not only think about their online spend but but the print spend to.
Robert, what I am saying is that this will be the first of many negative press articles about AM. It may not have been the most accurate or incisive but the core criticisms I have made all year are only just starting to make headlines. After the launch the negative publicity will build and build, the public and the popular press won't understand or care about the agents point of view, they will see AM as an organisation putting their own interests ahead of the interests of their clients. Are you saying that newspapers are likely to surpressed negative articles about AM because of commercial interests or have I misunderstood?
I disagree Simon, RM has major share holders which are estate agents and they put a block on direct to market sales, supermarkets and a number of online agents……. Don't see them getting too much grief from the "Hacks"
Sorry but I don't follow, this is not about RM getting grief from 'Hacks' it's about AM getting grief and I don't see what can stop that happening, it's already started and the site hasn't even launched yet. Even if you think sellers won't be influenced by this at the point they choose their agent, if they are an OTM agent competitors on and offline will use the bad publicity to take instructions.
You said it was the start of negative publicity and this will snowball over time. I disagree with this, I think the whole concept has issues (AM) But negative press or not in vendors best interests is not the real issue, these are just arguments anti AM agents are highlighting. The press will get over it couple of stories will all blow over and you will just hear the bleating of a few miffed onliners which unless the public look really hard they will not find. As for the public they too will not care, sure some will but majority will trust the agent, being that most will stay with RM as the other agent they will also have that security. Z will loose out from the start it's then a waiting game to see if RM and ultimately onliners loose out.
Sorry for the delayed reply Simon but I have stuff on this week. It is hard to keep up with the plethora of quangoes and regulators so it is hard to say who will have a view on this but with Mr Hall, being the mouthpiece for Zoopla, finding so much 'support' from, as Trevor pointed out, connected interest media, the media needs to be careful that journalism isn’t seen to be compromised by collusion. A factual and balanced response that upload control functionality has been practiced since the earliest days of property portals ( 1997) would soon have Anna White re-thinking the patsy /copywriter reputation she is likely to create for herself.
Such is the complicated world of corporate involvement in the supply of services to Estate Agents that any bad press for not looking after clients’ interests is very easily countered by the simple observation that Estate Agents are clients of the portals, newspapers and software suppliers. As soon as the Supplier/ Customer relationship is remembered, recognised and respected balance ought to be applied to what is and isn’t reported.
I am not suggesting or expecting editors to suppress content but simply expecting them to ensure content is correct and in this case un- biased by the media group's commercial interests. What I am suggesting is that Agents and Agency should not need to tolerate a service supplier (Zoopla) to their service suppliers ( Archant & Northcliffe) creating bad press and seeking to control public opinion about an issue that has nothing at all to do with changes to the level of service offered by agents.
"Lawrence Hall, of Zoopla, saying “this is not in the consumer’s interest”."
Lawrence Hall needs to explain to exactly what he means by that. For the cost of a stamp I sugesst every agent writes to Mr. Hall for an explanation with a requirement for him to reply in writing, by post, with an individually addressed letter.
It is really easy to gob off to your chums in the press and receive widespread media coverage, its about time some traditional values ( consequence and customer loyalty) were applied to to the Agency /SUPPLIER!!!! relationship.
Oh my……. or oh well?……. another point goes to OTM in my opinion…………… I mean how many "still to launch" businesses have ever caused such a fuss, making it to the nationals!…………………. I don't think the public care about the reasons behind AM but what I do think is, we have just hooked a few more visits for the 26th January!….. #otm26.1.2015 exciting times.
The telegraph property search is powered by primelocation:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/ . ………………………which is part of the zoopla property group plc
Well I've signed up to agents mutual and not received any email that mentions holding back listings or even that there is the facility to do this with my software provider.
This is a complete non story and extremely poor journalism by the Telegraph reporter.
If the reporter had been reading EYE she'd have been able to write this story two or three months ago – as that was when posters were discussing this tactic!
There Ros – you don't just REPORT news – you actually MAKE it while you're on! ;o)
To say that Agents mutual are encouraging agents to do this is as far as I'm aware not true. If individual agents wish to do this then as long as they are up front with their clients then that is their business. This Telegraph article is a complete stitch up.
Why, if OTM agents did put property exclusively on OTM for say 5 days prior to putting on with Rightmove would this be 100% not in the interest of a seller. That sort of advertised exclusivety could mean MORE people looking at OTM FIRST which could be of benefit to the seller. Those that reply to this post saying "without going on the other major portals means they may not get a buyer/best price" are placing far too much emphasis on the portals in general, in my view.
wilko, Paul H et al – what's NOT the real issue here is whether or not it IS in the customer's… whoever "the customer" is… "best" (or "worst") interests – it is what THE CUSTOMER "THINKS", surely that is being played upon here.
And sometimes they "think" what they are told they should think…