An independent agent has said that the launch of OnTheMarket could add £1,000 to his monthly portal bills.
The agent, who has asked not to be named but whose identity we can verify, was not on Rightmove before OTM launched, but was on Zoopla.
He now says that he may need to quit Zoopla to join Rightmove.
He gave us these sums:
“Before OTM – I paid £400 for Zoopla, £0 for Rightmove = £400
“After OTM – I paid £350 for Zoopla and £400 for OTM = £750
“Now that OTM has hurt Zoopla, I may need to go to Rightmove = £1,400.”
The agent said that in his town, it is the corporates that are on Zoopla, whereas the large majority of independents are on Rightmove.
He said: “I don’t particularly want to join Rightmove, but my staff will not thank me if we are losing instructions.
“As far as leads are concerned, 90% of these come from within the town, so a sales board would do it.”
He said: “In my area, it is the corporate agents that are keeping Zoopla going.”
He said that a good immediate strategy to boost OTM would be for all its member agents to quit Rightmove.
He said: “All that has happened is that agents have killed David and not Goliath. In doing so, they have created a weak competitor that no one has yet heard of.
“I do feel that a very urgent new strategy is required to make OTM work, and to help the agents that it was supposed to.
“One urgent strategy required is for all OTM agents to come off Rightmove.
“The agents still on it have only their own very short-term interests in mind and should put their sincerity where their mouths are.”
Invited to comment, Ian Springett, CEO of OTM, said: “In deciding to join OnTheMarket.com, our agents overwhelmingly embraced the strategic opportunity to control their portal costs over the longer term.
“Indeed, most of our members have fixed their listing fees until 2020.
“Each member decided individually which ‘other portal’ to retain. It turns out that over 90% chose to retain the market leader and that Zoopla as the No. 2 portal has therefore experienced the most immediate impact.
“Having made a successful and disruptive entry to the market, our next objective is to overtake the No. 2 portal in terms of available UK residential listings and from that point continue to build a credible, sustainably low-cost alternative to Rightmove.”
Springett has also explained the strategy for building OTM’s inventory, by offering listings to some agents who have signed letters of intent but who are not yet paying.
He said: “Among the increasing number of agents who are happy to sign a letter of intent expressing their intention to join OnTheMarket.com when we secure the support of 7,500 offices, many are currently listing with only one of the two other major portals and are therefore eligible to list with OnTheMarket.com now, whilst we build to that figure of 7,500 supporting offices.
“Such agents in selected areas have been offered the opportunity to list immediately with OnTheMarket.com for a period when they sign a letter of intent.
“These agents will have the opportunity to convert to their choice of standard tariff at the end of that initial period.
“It is a reality that there are many estate and letting agents who have a ‘wait and see’ approach to joining OnTheMarket.com.
“It is equally a reality that the more agents who join, and the sooner they do so, the more powerful OnTheMarket.com will be in continuing to disrupt the duopoly and in providing an alternative search service for consumers and agents alike.”
Comments (56)
As a central London agent, I was around when Primelocation started. Springett was the founder, The Internet was relatively new and the only competitor at that time was right move. PL was fresh, aggressive and proactive. But that was then!
I’m not a lover of Mr Springett’s business model and this ‘get rid’ condition. Yes, he does have the experience and wherewithal to set up what could be yet another good property portal but the fact remains is actually Zoopla (who own Primelocation) does everything you need it to do.
We’ve used OTM since inception. We hardly get any enquiries and for those we receive are ****. Why? Because very few people use it. We’d like to leave but we’re contracted til oblivion.
Let us not forget that these are service industry tools. We’re not looking to cure cancer here!
Just a few questions: 1. Why do people not use their own names when posting comments? 2. How on earth have agents, who are doing a good job for their clients, got the time to post comments during the time when clients and colleagues expect and need their time? 3. Why would any agent think it is a good idea to strengthen the Rightmove dominance of the portal market? (The majority of OTM agents – by default , if by no other definition – clearly support this position) 4. What sane person would even contemplate paying full fees for something that others, without any commitment whatsoever, can get for a fraction of the cost, if not no cost at all? 5. What sane person thinks that, by limiting the choice of the consumer (no online agents . NO corporate agents. NO credible amount of new homes) you will appeal to today’s savvy consumer?. 5. who on earth would, without proper measured thought, put their business at risk of CMA penalty by collective agreement to which portal they would come-off? 6. How can any start-up realistically support and sustain massive, successful corporate-like, overheads from the outset and in the initial planned “growth period”? 7. What relevance is ‘valuation leads’ when principle function of a property portal is to attract buyers?
In answer to your list of questions:
1. Name is irrelevant – it is what is said not who has said it, Mr Wilkinson (assuming of course that is your name…).
I am a Junior Negotiator.
I am a Branch Manager
I am Global Director of the RICS
Whose posts would you give more attention to?
Same guy has held all three positions.
2. Multiple choice answer available – take your pick. Either
a) It’s called multitasking and some of us are better than others at juggling jelly…
OR
b) Do you take a lunch, Mr Wilkinson? I don’t… nor a fag break – I’m at my desk around eight and don’t leave until the work is done. Longest I’ve ever done in one sitting is 42 hours but I have to admit to nodding off for about 30 minutes at around 3 in the morning.
In other words – we do what we need to do; when it is needed to be done. HOW we do it is up to the individual to decide and account for if questioned by those they need to answer to – is it not?
3. Correct me if I am wrong – but your company strengthens the dominance of the portal market duopoly by subscribing to both RM and Z, does it not?
4. I think questioning the sanity of anyone is inappropriate here. You pay what you pay for your portal subscriptions. Have you ever questioned your sanity when there are hundreds if not thousands of Agencies enjoying preferential rates to those you signed up to?
5. Again – questioning sanity is inappropriate. However in answer to your question there is no proof whatsoever that people (that’s real-speak for “consumers”, by the way – and the minute you label your past, present and future customers ‘consumers’ you’ve lost sight of the rabbit) have any less accessibility to choice than before. In many cases, Agents who were originally only on one portal are now on two following the arrival of OTM. Quoting ******** doesn’t make it fact.
5. Over 5000 branches – under the ownership of thousands of individual Owners, Partners, and Directors seem to have a very different viewpoint on this matter, don’t they?
6. Watch and learn, I guess.
7. None whatsoever in the context you are making – however I struggle to see where the question came from in the first place. Please enlighten – as I cannot find any reference to ‘valuation leads’ in the main body of the article.
I look forward to your response. Please note the time of my post. I ‘finished’ early tonight – last customer spoken to at 7.25 but as I’m typing an instruction between tea and beddibyes I thought I’d respond now.
Hate you to think I was slacking at my desk.
Roger just a quickie as I’m already on my way to my second appointment this morning, I know Roger Wilkinson and I know for a fact it isn’t you but I have no doubt he would be very unhappy to learn that some may think your twaddle came from him.
Good spot, Woodentop. For the prosecution, maybe I added 2 and 2 and came up with 5 with which ‘Rogerwilkinson’ the poster actually could be – but in defence there didn’t seem to be a lot of other alternatives show up on a search.
Would the real ‘Rogerwilkinson’ stand up and come forward…
Why do agents continue to support a business (RM) that encourages your competitors to work against you, who are openly trying to put you out of business? If you listen to those that support Easy and Ewe and Purple about how they are revolutionising the house buying market …. are you mad or hiding your head in a bucket of sand? ohh that’ll get some dislikes.
And there we have it ladies and gentleman …. agents haven’t taken control of their own business and allowed RM web portal to dictate.
The common theme is why don’t agents drop RM, well stop talking about it and do it. As previously reported we have done it twice before, didn’t effect our sales but yes we did get hit with lower new instructions only because the other agents ridiculed us and this was pre OTM. Now it is a different story as the customer is only looking for a one stop shop on the web. If every high street agent went to just one web portal they would win win win, as it happens that is currently RM but all they have to do is switch to OTM and hey presto! Who has the bottle? Good communication with your customer audience is all you need, you watch your applicant list grow and grow without RM, for they are the worst for making armchair buyers.
Until OTM drops it’s prices and allows all agents, including online agents, to advertise on it, it will fail. Great shame – It was setup to kill off RM but totally backfired making RM more powerful as it bit into ZPGs share. If everyone ever does leave RM, RM will shaft the industry and allow vendors to list direct for say £50 per month and agents become listing improvers. Either we all keep paying RM their extortionate fees or they start to kill off Estate Agency. Be prepared people!
I, along with many of my competitors in west wales left RM a year ago, guess what…. still here. The area is dominated by OTM agents. Best decision I’ve made by far.
In our area all of the OTM agents dropped Z to stay with RM- if the ‘big guns’ like Knight Frank & Savills, who were involved in AM/OTM from the start, had the courage of their convictions and dropped RM instead then the indies (like me) would have had far more confidence doing the same. Everyone in our area dropped Z because the big boys did and the independents followed suit. We’re all saving money which is nice but in my view a trick has been missed.
Whats wrong with promoting your own website to win instructions? not enough balls to leave Rightmove is the problem here.
Zeus, we have this morning cancelled our account with Zoopla (due to masive rate rises) and Rightmove are going as of the 1st January. We are not with OTM anyway.
So now we have no portals to advertise properties on but with my analysis of late, we get buyers and tenants from the smaller websites. I am now saving in excess of £2k per month –
Brave or stupid? Before you call me stupid, I have this morning secure a deal where I am offering a different model to the traditional/onoline/hybrid service – Time will tell but I am confident my lack of the big 2 + 1 will not have an impact on our buisness
I applaud you Pierce, well done!
Thanks Robert – I actually can’t tell you how good it feels to have done this to both portals as I was starting to think we are being held to ransom.
I do have to say this, although we are leaving both portals their support was exceptional but for a small agency like ours we can’t sustain their costs with little or no return when it comes to valuation leads – We have needed to do a bit more creative thinking which appears to be looking very favourable but as I say, it is early days 😉
You weren’t being held to ransom, you were effectively a worker bee collecting pollen!
Good luck Pierce!
Now that is very brave, best of luck.
Thanks Zeus – No regrets yet but it is early days
I’m afraid you’re very wrong Mr Anonymous. In may be that in your town or even area all the Indies are on Rightmove and all the Corps are on Zoopla. But in my area of the South West none of the independents are supporting OTM and are all still on Z and RM.
In my town of Cullompton only one agent is with OTM and quite frankly that has helped me win instructions off of them, so long may it remain this way, yes I may have saved myself £300 or £400 a month in portal fees but I have made 10 times this a month by gaining the additional instructions which the other agent has lost to me. In fact in any of the towns and cities in Devon and Cornwall none of the major players are on OTM. Yes you have the likes of Stags but apart from them no one else of real note and as long as it stays this way OTM will never be a force in my area, which is a shame as the concept is good. Although I personally don’t trust the set up!
North devon; Barnstaple, Bideford, South Molton, Braunton, Ilfracombe & Torrington are totally dominated by Agents Mutual with the likes of Webbers, Phillips Smith and Dunn, Stags and Greenslade Taylor Hunt to the point where both Rightmove and Zoopla could be turned off with no ill effects on sales volumes.
I would suggest both Webbers and GTH are agents of real not and the smaller independents are the very dominant majority of all agents in the area.
jmeapps01
Rather than attempt to dismiss you with a ‘Dislike’ I want to debate your post if I may.
You are correct in your statement that only one Agent in ‘your town’ – whether it is or isn’t where you are actually based is largely irrelevant but serves as a prime example of Duopoly entrenchment – is correct. But, come on – there are only four in total on RM and five on Z… of which one of those is Lettings only and another one of those works from a PO Box and seems to cover an extremely wide area!
However, when extending your statement to cover the entire area, another picture becomes apparent. OTM currently lists thirty three Agency offices in ‘North Devon’ – that’s approximately thirty three more than the “none” you state above.
The single Agent listing on OTM have 30 properties of which 50% are SSTC. The three others (one of which presumably you are one of…) have a total of 122 of which 60% are SSTC. There will be a multitude of reasons why they have a smaller market share than others – of course you can claim OTM as one of them – and in some part you may be correct but not by any means the sole reason and you surely acknowledge and accept that.
Tell me, jmeapps01 – what damage to your success as a Lister would it cause if you had to sell your service without one of the ‘Duopoly’ portals to call on?
So to summarise…OTM has damaged his business and his bottom line…well that must be RM’s fault obviously!
“Such agents in selected areas have been offered the opportunity to list immediately with OnTheMarket.com for a period when they sign a letter of intent.
“These agents will have the opportunity to convert to their choice of standard tariff at the end of that initial period.
Strange when I’ve spoken to an agent who’s signed up for free as he wasn’t on Z and then his rate from Jan 2017 is £50/mth
Do PIE get their children to put these stories together, 90% of business comes from the town, we don’t need portals, we need to be on RM to win instructions.
It’s like seeing the headlines on the Daily Mail.
Get on with REPORTING and stop pandering to your main advertiser.
zzzzzzz
90%, just one of those figures which had been pulled out of the air. We all know in 2015, it no longer works quite like that.
“As far as leads are concerned, 90% of these come from within the town, so a sales board would do it.”
What a truly bonkers statement. They might be in the town but the lead came via the portals. I’m unsure how anyone can win an instruction without Rightmove AND zoopla.
‘I’m unsure how anyone can win an instruction without Rightmove AND zoopla.’…….an even more bonkers statement!
It’s easy Disillusioned. …………………
Lost me there Trevor, what’s easy?
OH, NO…………………………….!
Hope you’ve got a spare hour…..or six.
@Disillusioned – its easy to not be on RM/Z and still win listings, get fees up and gain more applicants through the door than a sole agent who does RM and Z 🙂
Hello, Stephen
“I’m unsure how anyone can win an instruction without Rightmove AND zoopla.”
Don’t worry about that admission costing you credibility – no-one here expects you to know.
We all know you’ve never carried out an Appraisal appointment in your life.
Obviously correct. As you know, I’m merely a marketeer. However, I’m pretty confident that if I sat in a room with a so called punter, I would win against said independent who’s not on Rightmove.
Please, Mr Jury – I know you are paraphrasing another poster but let’s at least you and I give prospective customers the respect they deserve – okay?
Sounds like a challenge!
Stephen
A question if I may.
Have you ever noticed a For Sale board on a property, and the gone online to find out more?
Can someone – anyone (but preferably the person concerned for absolute clarity) – please explain why such a perfectly reasonable question would receive a ‘Dislike’?
Is it so long since you were at primary school that you’ve forgotten the stock response [by the more manipulative only child sorts] to a hard question was to quiver the bottom lip, start to cry and then flounce of muttering “don’t like you any more!”? The dislike button is a digital flounce!
I to would be interested – what is to dislike. Very odd.
What do I do when I see something I am interested in, be it a property or a product… I go on-line to find out more information.
1TB – thank you – it’s quite a time since we agreed on anything! ;o)
It’s interesting, as always, to note who is saying what in this thread – and then work out the why.
What is shown in perfect clarity is that the myth that everything starts online is perpetuated and tightly clung onto by those that depend on it most.
Nope.
I found my first home on Find a Property and I’ve found the one I’m buying now via Rightmove. Personally I wish for sale boards were banned (hang on, I can feel a campaign coming on)
Easier said than done. I’d love to ditch RM, would do in a heartbeat, if only we didn’t work in such a cut throat industry. Herding cats would be more achievable than bringing all of the agents in a town together to make a mutual decision.
The big corporates, who let’s face it pay nothing to be on RM, would be lost without it.
Sorry forgot to mention Rob Larson CIO CRMLS is in the West End seeing UK estate agents december 17th being this Thursday, 4:30pm at the Double Tree Hilton.
His US platform is already 3-4 times bigger than RM and Z put together.
Its time for agents to work together. Not have a platform where they advertise to compete in the same place?
Ros kindly reported that Rob Larson CIO of CRMLS who is overhauling the whole Amerian MLS come jan 1st (thats 1m realtors) will be talking to now 7 softwares looking to integrate MLS for the UK and a Q&A with UK agents at 4:30pm in the West End London. http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/all-onthe-market-agents-should-quit-rightmove-at-once-says-independent/
‘Sub agency’ is mentioned in the latest Property sales Guidance by NTSEAT, thus lawful. If agents listed more with one another they wouldnt all need to be on all portals.
Think what agents could save + gain access to more ‘other agent’ local listings.
Key point to take away from this story before the usual portal-fight sparks off on here…?
“As far as leads are concerned, 90% of these come from within the town, so a sales board would do it.”
a) This shows that canny advertising and use of targeted local adverts on social media can be equally as effective (if not more so) than the portals in some areas and,
b) Why local agents retain a major advantage over those who rely solely on Rightmove and Zoopla
Seriously? A for sale board will do to sell a home? I wish you well, but I’m unsure how you could win any instructions with this pitch.
Chuckle, Stephen, Stephen, Stephen!
That wasn’t the point being made though I suspect you know that Stephen 😉
Any agent who just sits back and relies on calls to come in from a portal, website, local newspaper or for sale board is failing their customers. They may sell their customers home at some point however, the likelihood of that agent achieving a better price for the owner is significantly lower. A fact that data consistently backs up.
Even Countrywide quote 65% of punters come from within 6 miles which tally’s about right.
Thus agree with Chris that FS boards are V Important locally. What’s more, water them enough and they bloom into SOLD stc’s, and a stc is worth 4-5 in the bush (or is that birds 🙂
It’s just old fashioned agency – that still holds water.
Mr Mealham – did you call industry customers ‘PUNTERS’?
Oh, dear.
No PeeBee, applicants/buyers/tenants
Not agents – the buyers and sellers who move locally.
I think you need to read my questions – and your initial post – again, Sir…
What is the point of this story exactly? I think it is ‘I have made a really bad decision and it is going to hurt me’, which is credible and understandable, but a bit of a strange story to be putting out there about yourself.
And anyway, why are you paying £400 for OTM? Everyone knows that new sign ups are paying £50 or even £0 per month – why don’t you just tell them that you want to pay £50 too?
The point is, his costs will go up 300% if he follows the sheep. Who judging by these comments are blind sheep as well..
Ian Spriggett answer means nothing unless your a shareholder (oh yes…the agents are supposed to own it,,,forgot that)…Rightmove still wins…should be going after Rightmove and allowing zoopla to survive. Zoopla is a much better product and younger buyers and sellers prefer it anyway.
I might come off all Portals, sick of them dictating my business when ….a for sale board will do…how many buyers dont drive around where thet want to live …bless thee who do not know your own business.