Two agents have told of their concerns about Rightmove’s pricing. Both are single-office small businesses dealing in sales and lettings.
One agent, in the north, has quit Rightmove after being told that if he took lettings off, he would be charged £350 more per month.
The other, in the south, has just been told by Rightmove that the monthly subscription is going up to £1,700 a month.
The agent is keen to hear from others as to whether this is in line with what they are paying – or, as he suspects, more.
The agent in the north, employing himself and four others, was originally in lettings only and paying Rightmove £500 per month.
With the impending tenants fees ban, the agent decided to go into sales and was initially charged £700 per month for both sales and lettings for six months.
After that, the fee was raised to £1,150. However, the agent said that there were few lettings leads coming through and asked to have a sales-only package. He was quoted £1,500.
The agent said that Rightmove would not budge on this, and that when the amount was queried, “they tried to give me advice on how to run my business, and told me to put my fees up”.
The agent said that as a result they left Rightmove last September and are using a combination of OnTheMarket and social media to market properties.
The agent said: “I did rejoin Zoopla, but although they are a lot more negotiable than Rightmove, I have also given them notice. I found I was getting three times the number of letting leads from OnTheMarket than Zoopla.
“What I have proved is that agents just don’t need Rightmove. We’ve been brainwashed into it.
“I had a choice to either lay off a member of staff or leave Rightmove, so I left RM and sent my staff on social media courses which has proved to be valuable and we’re doing fine.”
In the south, the agent has been told that from April 1, the Rightmove monthly subscription will rise from £1,585 to £1,700.
The agent has an enhanced package, but Rightmove has said that it is the core membership element that is going up by £115.
The agent has also been told he will now have an option to purchase Rightmove Discover, which was previously only available to agents on the Optimiser package.
The agent told us: “I believe that £1,700 a month for a single-office business must be more than most similar sized agents are paying.
“However, as the fees charged are not transparent, I would be extremely interested to know whether we will be paying at the very top of the scale, or in line with others.”
Rightmove has been approached for comment.
Comments (38)
Promote your own website through Social media and put as many links as possible between OTM and your own website, Onthemarket are the only portal that allows reverse links RM and Z don’t.
We promote OTM to every enquiries that come through we send back a link to our property page with onthemarket and tell the client the benefits of using us and OTM.
Dear Enquiry, thank you for your enquiry one of our agents will contact you shortly, in the meantime please check out all our properties by following the link “our property page with OTM” do you know that OTM list properties 48 hours before RM of Z.
Don’t lose out on your next Home register for property alerts now. follow this link….. https://www.onthemarket.com/login/?target=%2Fmy-account%2Falerts%2Fcreate%2Ffor-sale%2F&creating-alert=true
“Onthemarket are the only portal that allows reverse links RM and Z don’t.”
Sorry – but that’s factually incorrect. Allow me to fix that for you, HIT MAN:
“OTM are the only portal out of the three named in this sentence that allows reverse links RM and Z don’t.”
There ya goes – it’s right now!
Back-links, calls to action and click-throughs are rummage4 innovations designed to promote direct interaction between applicants and agents and bolster individual agents SEO
I don’t have a problem with the innovation being copied but don’t claim it as a USP
Copy everything I do, including the price!
“Onthemarket are the only portal that allows reverse links RM and Z don’t.”
Sorry – but that’s factually incorrect. Allow me to fix that for you, HIT MAN:
“OTM are the only portal out of the three named in this sentence that allows reverse links RM and Z don’t.”
There ya goes – it’s right now!
Thanks PeeBee
Pleasure’s all mine, HIT MAN.
I realised you were under a misapprehension, rather than making false claims.
It needs to be en-mass. Obviously the leave numbers are growing but there are also agents setting up left, right and centre that are replacing them.
I’m lettings only, south side of Glasgow. In Scotland we’ve had the fees ban for a year or so already and coped. We also ditched Rightmove – glad we did and other agents locally are doing the same. Whilst OTM appear to produce plenty of leads they tend to be low quality and repetitive. Lettingweb (Scottish) and Zoopla do a very good job for us at a fair price.
The odds are the older generation will look at Rightmove first, but then they will look at Zoopla, OTM, Primelocation, search the local agents websites- if they are seriously in the market . Who only looks for property on Rightmove only -unless they are braindead. The younger generation have all the apps on their phone- so will get notified by ALL the portals anyway for new listings…..because they are switched on.
Social media marketing is also the way to go…Google / Facebook / twitter / blogs etc..
I left Rightmove a year ago—-funnily enough we are still selling property….with a high street office no less…
Rightmove are there to make money for investors – hence hiking up prices….thinking they have the upper hand, which they do because we let them- they wont be happy until they are milking 2k + a month.. Anyway ive done my bit…hopefully the message will get across to you guys on the fence…
This….again….so quickly. At this rate, there will be a daily discussion. Just leave already.
I pay over £10,000 a month for 5 branches, 1 lettings subscription. It ridiculous.
Drop the extras, you do not need them. Take the saving an put into a new staff member of social media. We did, have not looked back.
I may well do that. We have everything and i dont think the public notice anyway. Although I am sure once I tell them i don’t want the extras the price will go up!
Only if you want the extras back.
Honestly, lots of agents have dropped the extras and nobody i know of have missed them. They try and scare you to keep you spending on them with all their stats.
You should be able to drop it to £1,200 / £1,300 per branch.
I’ve emailed my rep. let’s see what she say, and thanks for the push i needed!
Anything to help another agent, kicking RM in the balls is an added extra 🙂
Turns out I will only save £279.68 a month even will all the extras I have. It’s crazy.But she did mention that i will lose £8,000 worth of extras lol
279.68 X 20,000 x 12? ALL PROFIT. How many Chief executives would relish explaining that to the board and investors?
Can I just ask those agents who are making use of social media, which platform gives the best response please. We are leaving Rightmove next month and I need to ensure our alternative ducks are lined up!
What is it you are looking to acheive from social media? – Reason most do not think social media does not work for them they have not go a plan set round it to acheive X
Know what you want and work back from that.
Social media should be about brand awareness and driving traffic to your website in my view. In which case, have a good website.
Facebook works well for us. We put all our properties on you need to set us a business page. You can limit your ependiture per day/month. We spend arounf £20 per month !
It’s an interesting tactic from Rightmove, let the smaller stock agents leave due to overpriced Rightmove monthly subscriptions, just keep spreading any losses over the remaining agents ……with the half-baked thought that the stock from the agents who have left and are no longer on Rightmove will be swallowed up by the remaining local Rightmove agents.
Looks easy when you paint the picture in the Rightmove way.
Yet, the independent/smaller agents rock-on in most instances, because enough local clients get what the independent/smaller agent does better!
So, as the Rightmove cake shrinks, the remaining agents would like to think bigger slices to share out? ….yet, on the other side of the Rightmove picture is that smaller cake – yet a bigger price per share!
Remaining Rightmove agents may think they are safe, nestling in, cosy with the thought that they can ride out the annual Rightmove increases.
However, lets just look behind the meaning of Rightmove ……RELENTLESS pursuit of annual growth at the expense of Agents – no matter what the collateral damage is.
Those remaining Rightmove Agents better have VERY DEEP POCKETS! …..they will never stop increasing your Subscriptions, and you effectively work for them ……and you pay them …..to work for them.
History holds plenty of corporate wobbles and corporate crashes ….time will tell if Rightmove’s RELENTLESS pursuit of profit at the expense of their subscribers is sustainable ……or whether it was a mad dash for cash as they knew it couldn’t last forever!
”Party On Dude?” or ”Party Over Dude!”
Look on the bright side 🙂
Those DIY, pay upfront “estate agents” are sitting ducks !
#Rexit
We left a few months ago, the only one in our patch to do so. No drop off in enquiries/registrations. Competitors tried to make capital out of it as expected, all bar one potential client were quite happy with the myriad of other marketing channels on offer. We’ve reinvested the savings into our own site and social media. There are other issues with the market, but RM no longer one of them!
I would be very interested in hearing more about your experiences with regard to this.
We left on the 31st December as a sales agent, thousands now saved. We are an established agent of 30 years. You have to make your mind up if you work for Rightmove or work for your yourself. Taking my properties off Rightmove is a small disruption to Rightmove, however, their model is unsustainable for us as an independent. We took the view that their prices are likely to double within 5 years and within ten years probably four times greater, this is not an option for us, and to continue in this way would be suicidal even for our business. We continue to use Onthemarket and have commissioned Zoopla. We have not been dis-instructed on one house sale and there is life outside Rightmove. Be brave, take back control!
Can I ask which agent you are? Or if not, whereabouts in Yorkshire are you?
Likewise – I approached rightmove in the autumn and told them I was wanting to leave… They have given me £1500 a month “extra “to help me realise just how good rightmove is…! It hasn’t bought any further leads and like you I had some patronising lady telling me that if my business wasn’t doing well they could do things to help me.
I’m at the upper end of the market and based in the north – On The Market produces many more quality leads than Rightmove. I’m not on Zoopla.
I know I’ve had backlash before on here; but the ONLY way to break the RM stronghold is to support OTM. Who cares about Ian Spring-it and his historic behaviour.
Give it a chance – the stronger we (and OTM) become the more chance we have of lowering the ridiculous RM prices…or just leaving them all together.
I wish I could get all the agents in my city to leave RM. even for a month. The buyers would soon find us!!! Mutiny on the bounty?
Just to clarify the extras that Rightmove have offered me include premium listings and banner adverts.
Which are worth precisely nothing whatsoever – except to RM.
Exactly the same here. They want to put our fees up to just under £1700 per month, an increase of £150 . We are a small independent agent offering sales and lettings. I gave them notice and then got a call back with them trying to tell me about how I’m not using some of their wonderful features and offering me even more of them to stay. I told them those features cost Rightmove nothing and that if they prefer to lose our current £1500 fee instead of withdrawing the increase that’s upto them. The more agents that leave Rightmove, the less valuable the portal will be. We too are getting loads of enquiries from On The Market, it’s deffo getting there.
If every conveyancing firm does as we do – advise all selling and purchasing clients to always first look to OnTheMarket.com when thinking of selling/buying as that is THE place sellers are now using over Rightmove – then we can all get the message out there.
Gracious.
Conveyancers giving advice on portals.
What next – maybe electricity switching services?
If that constitutes Professional Advice then #impressiveConveyancing had better have some good P.I. cover.
I was also told how to run my business by RM in July 2017 – so I told them F*** off.
RM greed has lost them many great agents off the site and many more are still coming away.
If more agents come away from RM, them RM has no choice apart from increasing fees for the ones who are left and that is why agents keep seeing price hikes.
Every product has a cap and RM has reached the cap and is shows by how many agents have left RM. Stock still remains an issue for agents and I know many agents around us will soon be closing their doors. RM days are numbered.
Just leave. As a lettings only business, we quit last year. Despite the fee ban our turnover has increased.
RM needs agents not the reverse
Most people think rightmove is an estate agent…
Don’t presume people even know what rightmove is.
They find it because they learn where all the stock is.
I.e. get it off rightmove until they charge a fair price.£495 be about right.