A new property portal owned and operated by estate agents has had a problematic launch, it has been claimed.
Australian portal Squiiz.com.au launched in October.
At launch, there were some 3,500 agencies listing on the site, with another 2,000 due to be using it shortly, according to CEO Nick Christian.
In Australia, there are an estimated 10,000 agency branches all told.
The site runs a “freemium” model where basic listing is free but upgrading costs money.
Squiiz does not have feature listings or banner advertising and does not take private listings.
However, one critic said of the site: “It’s clear that something serious has gone wrong. Really, really wrong.
“They forgot to do even basic level SEO on the website and the two main search engines, Google and Bing, have essentially rejected them.”
Property guru Simon Baker highlights both Squiiz and OnTheMarket in his online publication, Property Portal Watch.
He says: “These two property portals are owned and operated by real estate agents and they are both operating in markets where there is a clear and dominant market leader and a profitable (and large) number two player.
“If these portals manage to pull off the seemingly impossible and disrupt the current market structures, then the blueprint will have been laid for associations around the world to take on and beat the market leader.”
His blog is here
Comments (81)
Paul H – "It looks like quite a few mistakes have been made on Squiiz PeeBee and this may possibly be due to the whole venture being rushed through."
To hope or rely on a "possibly" as being the problem, and that 'it won't be the case here' as the solution is only speculation though, Paul H. This raises questions that NEED answering – and 61 comments later, NOTHING from AM and "possibly" is the best you've been able to offer to help fill the static.
The property world is watching – and we can't allow ANOTHER train crash to happen when we've just witnessed one. I sincerely hope you agree.
You won't! if you look at the Squiiz site there is a photo of what looks like a committee. As the saying goes; a camel is a horse designed by a committee!
G3, G4, G5 is not in my experience the decider on whether a site flies or fails. The big deciders are the traffic you target, the volume of that traffic which visits your site and how much of that traffic your site converts into leads or purchases. I run multiple sites across varied markets and techy guys have often said my sites are poor. Well … my 'poor' sites convert 25%-40% of visits into leads compared to many high tech G4 and G5 sites that convert at a fraction of that rate, 3%-15% being the average rate. Websites are no different to salesmen – some of the scruffiest looking are the best closers and many of the shiny suit and booted are the worst.
Hello Harree, you are right and as someone who was selling a G2 (DOS) system in 2000 I have a first hand knowledge about what does and doesn't sell. Part of the message of that post was that if AM rely on OTM being a no legacy G4 site they will still be competing head to head with RM and Zoopla and starting with stock but no traffic other than that generated by the Agents themselves. If agents sit back and think Google SEO and the AM tech team are going to deliver traffic without them doing their bit ,everyone is in for a disapointment. Given the passion for AM I don't think that will be a problem. If you re- read the post I was careful to suggest that G5 isn't necessarily high tech. I consider the human side of agency far more important than the technology side and I can even rember posting to that effect a while ago (can't remember where though)
Gaw blimey – I'll just leave you two guys to sort it out then… where's my introductory fee? ;o)
It's like a different language aint it PeeBee, far too advanced for us mere agents!
Hello Paul, sorry! Liken this to mobile phones. G1 is a lady sat at a switchboard plugging in wires to connect callers. G2 is the round dial telephones, G3 is the Trim phone G4 is mobile phones and SMS/MMS text messages. G5 is smartpones.
There is no point OTM being a Nokia C2 when the general public want an Iphone or Galaxy. In these terms RM is a Nokia 3310 and Zoopla a 6310
"The property world is watching – and we can't allow ANOTHER train crash to happen when we've just witnessed one. I sincerely hope you agree."…Totally agree PeeBee. AM have had more than enough time to get this portal together. The point I was making was that Squiiz came about in May time that's 6 months to get as many agents together, put in place a website and sort out SEO and so on. It's a recipe for disaster and perhaps the reason why AM needed 12/18 months to prepare to get it right. This is before we even touch on the finer details of the Squiiz business plan such as Exclusivity, fees for fixed for 5 years and so on. Let's judge AM on it's results but I say again that if the similar mistakes on SEO, and other issues are made for AM then I (along with many others, i'm sure) will be extremely disappointed and will be asking questions as to why!
Also just to add PeeBee and following on from "To hope or rely on a "possibly" as being the problem"….You have to remember that AM havn't done anything wrong yet!
"You have to remember that AM havn't done anything wrong yet!"
Pick any of the following to add to that sentence, Paul H:
1. "… in MY eyes, at least." 2. "…as far as I am aware, that is." 3. "…erm… I hope – for all our sakes." 4. "…have they?" ;o)
"Pick any of the following to add to that sentence, Paul H: 1. "… in MY eyes, at least." 2. "…as far as I am aware, that is." 3. "…erm… I hope – for all our sakes." 4. "…have they?" ;o)"…I'm talking about the delivery of the portal and everything associated with that delivery PeeBee, not the finite details, which i'm sure you'll be surprised to hear still leads me to state that…AM havn't done anything wrong yet!;-)
"Hello Paul, sorry! Liken this to mobile phones. G1 is a lady sat at a switchboard plugging in wires to connect callers. G2 is the round dial telephones, G3 is the Trim phone G4 is mobile phones and SMS/MMS text messages. G5 is smartpones. There is no point OTM being a Nokia C2 when the general public want an Iphone or Galaxy. In these terms RM is a Nokia 3310 and Zoopla a 6310"…I've replied here…I think that's pretty much explained it, thank you Robert. I'll be happy if we get something that's user friendly that allows the user to find properties quickly and easily, perhaps something not to di-similar from the 3310 but without all the detail of the 6310!
Hmmm… "I'll be happy if we get something… not to di-similar from the 3310 but without all the detail of the 6310!" Personally, I was happy as a pig in you-know-what the old 2110i, matey – did exactly what it said on the tin… then someone switched off the analogue network and it became a doorstop. Now I've got a chuffin' BB – can't stand it but it SOMETIMES does SOME of what I want it to, when it's not switching itself off in my pocket, that is! Like Robert says – OTM should be aiming to give the public MORE than the current offerings – otherwise they are going to have great difficulty 'stealing' the traffic away from them.
I might regret this but more isn't always a good thing. without doubt 'more' is the philosphy at Zoopla and they seem to have forgotten who the paying customer is. I
No, Robert – you are absolutely correct – 'less IS more' a lot of the time. I was referring to your valid point that OTM needs in some way to differentiate itself from the pack – and that by being the 'iPhone' of the breed it would give the public what they 'want' – and what they really NEED – if it can incorporate a 'human' side to it.
You asked me about 'Vicky' – ah, yes… I remember her well. I had a nice chat with her… however I am sure she got a little bored waiting for me to respond to her seductive temptations to give me one – valuation, that is ;o) – but she made for a very different user experience on the site I have to admit. I have previously steered clear from any 'Live Chat' malarkey but I can see where it is going now. But like everything there is good and bad – as having tried it once I had to have a second 'fix' – and as reported here my experience on the Tep**o site was abysmal. The whole thing was so differently presented to the Yomdel offering that I can only assume …hope… Ms Beeny uses a different company to provide the live chat feature. Or NOT provide it, as I found out!
Above, you say "To give you some idea the G4 specifications I was writing in 2001 are only just being rolled out into agencies like yours." I find it incredible, Robert, to read that it has taken the industry so long to start to introduce technology that should have been available to us. It raises questions – WHY? being the most obvious, of course… but I suspect the answers will be deeply hidden in code of 0s and 1s – and no doubt a million long-since signed confidentiality agreements…
The answer as to why it takes so long is having a customer base to keep happy. Established firms have to maintain the existing code at the same time as developing new stuff.
One of the biggest challenges is to find developers who in most cases are not natural sales people to understand Sales. The result is that perfectly logical code gets written and tested but when delivered to customers like you, what works in testing and in the controlled environment of a sales demo works perfectly suddenly doesn't work. All of a sudden systems are full of bugs and annoyances which quite rightly demand to be fixed.
With property portals the G3/ G4 stuff has had its day so it will be interesting to see if OTM is G4 or 5
Robert – I refer to your last post of yesterday. Rather than this be 'lost' in the middle of the thread, I'm bringing it here in the hope that you (and others) see it and we can take this further.
With regard to the Squiiz website you said "…at best Squiiz is a low end G3 site."
As a man who is still wondering how something you put in a can of Boddy's to give it more head (hopefully the ****-filter will allow that…) possibly adds to the functionality of a website, I have to admit to being completely lost by that single phrase. Hopefully I am not alone in that admission and there are some other readers who want to know more but won't 'fess up to ignorance… if I am alone then you can all laugh at my ignorance but hopefully at least I will have learned something when you give me an 'idiots guide' to what you mean!
Thanks in anticipation. Phoebe. (is it too early to call you Roberta…? ;o) )
You really don't need to get me started on explaining Widget technology Peebee; before Estate Agency I used to design Oil and Gas Well cement and used the same technique (Nitrogen shots) to make sure that Dorset and Hampshire didn't fall into a massive sink hole when they were drilling exploration wells. (I designed and pumped 6lb/gallon cement at Horndean. How about that for a seriously obscure world first? ( Fresh Water is 10lbs/gallon; a block of that cement floats))
In hindsight I probably shouldn't have posted yesterday as someone was bound to ask what I meant. "Low end G3" isn't something very many people will understand, even the Techies who have me imposed on them in the form of "domain knowledge" (I translate Agency into Tech). I have a scale which I use to assess and date technology for Estate agents and Property Managers a bit like Dendrochronology for dating wood.
G3 is the internet age- Digital colour photos, emails, SMS and Property Portals; Homes on line, Asserta Homes, Propertylive (V1). The Squiiz site is no more advanced than those portals which were about in 1996. The G4 stuff (Rightmove and all that has come together to form Zoopla and so on) are G3 'legacy’ systems; they are mid 90's technology which has been tweaked to give a modern up to date feel by use of mobile sites, digital mapping etc but both are still not where they should be. Come 26th January I will be delighted to see how much of what I refer to as Generation 5 is incorporated into OTM as that will be the decider whether the site flies or fails.
I deliberately didn’t use the term G5 technology simply because G5 incorporates more human interaction into the technology. You might remember a live chat with Vicky at Yomdel? That is a little bit of G5 and a bit I think is a must for any G5 product. To give you some idea the G4 specifications I was writing in 2001 are only just being rolled out into agencies like yours. I started on G5 in 2004 and Live chat was one of the first things I benchmark identified to help agents get in closer touch with their applicants and vendors. Essentially Agency is lagging about 10 years behind where retail sales are in their use of Technology so without trying to be too knowing can suggest that Agency needs to catch up or it will lose out to G5 ready businesses.
Now there is a lot in there for you to give me a damn good Peebeeing but hopefully it explains why Squiiz should not have a single Cent more spent on it.
Hahaha – class – the s.m.u.t filter doesn't allow the word s.m.u.t! Go on then – censor yourself, if you must! ;o)
I have to ask, What?
Ahhh…. sorry, Robert – I was having a chuckle to myself about how the filter that asterisks out any hint of posted dodginess (which I have previously dubbed the smutfilter – but with a hyphen) had asterisked out the first four letter word. It DEFINITELY filters ****. There – see! ;o)
Well, I just Googled "On the market" and … we came up top of the list.
See http://www.onthemarket.com/
Taff, trying Googling "property for sale in (any town/city)" and see if OTM appear. That is the real acid test.
"Well, I just Googled "On the market" and … we came up top of the list." Funny, that – you type in eleven letters and the 'top' result on a search engine is the one website with ALL ELEVEN LETTERS, IN THE CORRECT ORDER! What is EVEN funnier, however, is that if you look carefully, you will see a faint grey line under the listing. That, I believe, is an indicator that it is some form of premium listing – which YOUR money is in part currently paying to hoist it up there.
Biggest eye opener to me on this thread is that PeeBee may in fact be Phoebe… a female. Don't know why but I always imagined biceps, rugby and an elaborate mustache.
Then again, my bad, look at the mother in law.
Biggest eye-opener to ME on this thread, Blue, is that you admit to have "always imagined biceps, rugby and an elaborate mustache."! ;o)
Well… just to clarify matters somewhat – the only "elaborate" thing about my 'tache is the grey highlights I have spent years adding to it; the biceps are more like bingo wings these days and I'm more of a darts man than rugger! And as far as 'Phoebe' – well… what's in a name, eh? ;o)
He is only Pheobee at the weekends!
I spent 20 minutes on Squiiz, the techies coding Squiiz were only just born when the type of site they have been asked to code was cutting edge. Either that or they have used someone with a wealth of experience who has done this before and has done it again. I don't wish to upset or insult anyone but at best Squiiz is a low end G3 site. Turn it off and start again but do not spend a single AU$ on SEO, that is not the problem. Google and no-one at Google is old enough to know what that is or what it is supposed to do.
NEWSFLASH! I typed in OnTheMarket and up came our website…I typed in Rightmove and up came theirs!…. then I typed Zoopla and theirs came up?! Wow!… so I NO longer type in Rightmove or Zoopla, just OnTheMarket, bookmark it and that's it! Jolly Good it's that simple, and that will tie in with all the branding & marketing we have, that features neither RM or ZOOP. Who would have thought with all the Rocket Portal Science spun on here by the anti-AM'ers…. when clients have to type in OnTheMarket?… up it comes! A wonderful invention this internet thing… is it coal fired or are the RM/Zoop employees powering it with their hot air!
I've been waiting all day to read exactly that. When you know what you want, you type it in….Simples!
SEO in my experience is a what is banded around by those who think they can make money out of the poor souls that dont know better. Millenium Bug, who got bit by that one then?
RealAgent you say "Again that's a very simplistic viewpoint. Come January three letters are likely to be the most searched for letters in the property market OTM" Absolutely not a chance! RM get 8 million+ monthly searches by name and Z get 3 million. OTM won't get anywhere close to those figures within 6 months never mind in the last 5 days of January.
Harree, IF you are an Estate Agent and that is a very big IF, why are you so negative and desperate for OTM to fail?
And how many of that 8 million plus do I need in my market place Harree?!…Mrs Smith who lives two roads from one of my offices, why does she HAVE to go to RM or google RM when Ive pushed a left]let through her door saying that from Jan there is a new portal our properties were on. You ignored what I said earlier that selling houses is a local business, what we do locally shapes our business, what EVERYONE does locally shapes an industry, and what buyers will pick up on is that IF they are looking for a house, OTM is a good place to be looking and as other posters have pointed out, that hasn't got to be by Jan 31st 2015. As I have said earlier if you want statistics, how many searches do you think On the market will get when its on easy news channel throughout Jan, when its being covered in every newspaper, every agents window, every local paper. How many searches will that equate for?
No wonder it's gone all wrong the aussies are trying to copy Easy Chris…..
http://www.squiiz.com.au
As they have used orange in their logo do you think easychris will take them to court for breach of copyright?
His probably already got his legal team on the case!
Actually, I think it's quite a fine website…certainly up there in terms of looks and functionality.
Granted I know nothing about the Aussie property market or areas but I put in Canberra (I think that's a fairly large city) up to 700k 3 beds and no results……. Hope OTM will have a better showing! – But yes nice easy to use website!
MY knowledge of Oz is on par with yours, smile please – so I left all the boxes blank in the search facility – and only 20 pages (400 properties) were displayed! That's 0.114 properties per Agent, based upon the 3500 participants quoted! Something seems amiss…
But… here's something no-one seems to have picked up – have a look at the 'Map Search' icon (third from right).
Vaguely familiar, maybe? ;o)
Yeah… a proper Dolly the sheep job, Paul H! Even down to distances – http://www.squiiz.com.au/Listing/182488 you will note the phrase "Footsteps from the renowned Waterfall Gully Bakehouse". Yeah – A THOUSAND or so of them, actually – Google say 800metres walking distance – which if you yomp over 46 garden fences can be brought crashing down to just over 600! As our conspicuous-in-his-absence orange friend would say – "…a short walk…" ;o)
It looks like quite a few mistakes have been made on Squiiz PeeBee and this may possibly be due to the whole venture being rushed through. From what I can find online it appears that this all started in May/June of this year. That's 5/6 months to go from funding to launch which is a big recipe for disaster.
An interesting article by Property Portal watch. I very much hope that the people at OnTheMarket towers are taking heed and learning from any mistakes being made by the Australians. A very good point was made many months back by Robert May where he stated that at least 6 months will be required to ensure that the search engine optimization issues are dealt with in time for the launch, clearly he has been proven correct here as proven by the Squiz launch. I would hope that Ian Springett will be on top of this and perhaps we will find out more in the launch briefings next week, but if these very basic fundamental and crucial issues are not in place by 26th Jan then I for one will be disappointed, taking in to account the amount of time that Agents Mutual have had to get the launch right.
Paul H, it usually takes 6 months at least for a new site to get 'recognised' by Google and in turn to start edging up the SEO rankings. Seeing as AM have yet to launch the OTM site they will start from scratch on 26 Jan effectively with no SEO rankings and no search traffic from Google or Bing. I don't buy into "OTM will grow over the next five years". IMO the huge optimism of AM agents will quickly fizzle out if OTM fails to make a big impact within the first six months and possibly even as little as three months. If agents see few or no leads and lose instructions to agents remaining on RM/Z they won't hang around for 1,2,3,4 or 5 years hoping it will get better, especially non Gold members. They'll be off OTM like a shot. And IMO it won't take many agents to drop OTM early for the exodus to start.
It seems that people simply just don't get it. It really doesn't matter if OTM generates significant leads or if the public can access 100% of property via RM (which they won't be able to as invariably, some agents will ditch RM). The plan is simple – to disrupt the current market, most likely by killing off Zoopla, then focus on the other player, most likely RM.
The plan isn't to become the next big portal overnight. It's to eventually take back our listings and aggregate them into an agent owned site. Whether this takes 2 years or 5 years, it really doesn't matter. It's the end game that we should be focussing on.
Agreed Shaun77, i've not signed up to OTM expecting overnight success, and i'm sure this is the case for most who have joint. For me currently i'm only on one portal so going on to OTM will be an instruction winner. Currently I don't need a portal for leads as I already get them through other means. I'm happy to play the long game.
"A very good point was made many months back by Robert May…" One of MANY "good points" which I have to say were at the time met by hostility from the majority of the pro-AM sector…
When it was mentioned earlier this year I said that "how do you know that Agents Mutual do not already have this in hand and have measures in place" To be fair at that point no one knew if this was the case. What I do know is that in a recent update email received a few months ago it was explained that AM have already got "external SEO specialists" working on this side of things. From what I have seen so far Springett has left no stone un-turned, I would imagine this would be the case re SEO, but I would be disappointed if the launch is has unsuccessful as Squiiz.
Paul H, you can have SEO specialists in place but until a site is actually launched Google doesn't know it is there and can't categorise it or rank it. Without stock OTM doesn't stand a cat's chance of getting ranked in the top 100 pages of Google never mind on page 1 so any SEO work can't start to affect Google rankings until 26 Jan. After that it will take 6 months or more to stand a chance of getting any significant 1st page rankings for the 10s of 1000s of keywords that searchers enter when looking for property. And I doubt whether OTM could displace RM, Z or PL from the top three positions for a few years, if ever. As I said earlier, AM will need a massive, constant and costly advertising campaign to break the public's habit of using RM and Z by default. If AM don't achieve that in significant numbers within the first 3-6 months my guess is that non Gold agents will quickly lose their motivation and resolve and quit OTM.
Again that's a very simplistic viewpoint. Come January three letters are likely to be the most searched for letters in the property market OTM. However you cut this up, there will be the uploads of some 5000 offices, there will be buyers directed there, sellers directed there, copies amounts of press some good some bad but again traffic directed there nonetheless. But here is the crucial point, none of the agents on there NEED the referrals from that site initially, they all have other avenues of introduction AND their other portal of choice.
“They forgot to do even basic level SEO on the website and the two main search engines, Google and Bing, have essentially rejected them.”
Probably a simple case of sandboxing which will resolve fairly quickly once Google and Bing learn they are a Bon Fide site.
Robert – I bow to your infinitely superior knowledge on all things software-related – I'm a bread and butter Estate Agent who thinks a "sandbox" is something my grandkids play in, so help me out please. Is this 'sandbox' like a 'pending sales' drawer – where some leave it to drop through (or fall flat) on its own, but others, if they chase it through, always get it done quicker? And do you think that OTM will suffer the same problems? Thanks – Phoebe ;o)
Richard à Brassard
I tried to type a one-word response to the above "Sorry?" but it was rejected, stating "Your comment was too short. Please try to say something useful." I think that one word was more than sufficient – but seeing as I'm here I might as well milk the situation. Mr Get-a-Gent, please would you mind explaining what the chuff posting the above name has to do with the price of eggs or anything else for that matter? Does the individual concerned know you are posting his name on a public forum? And is he happy with that?
Peebee you just closed down development of at least 3 software firms and 4 portals. The idea I have any kind of knowledge of Tech will have resulted in at least two dozen coffee soaked keyboards and a scalded nasal cavity! Google doesn't have a customer interface that can be hurried or manipulated, it relies on 'magic' to check things out, ensuring it isn't being manipulated by someone smarter than Google to artificially bypass the revenue opportunities for Google. Will OTM suffer? not if agents are telling people where to look and as the site is already live it is already being checked out by Google , Bing and all the rest to make sure it isn't full of the unpleasant stuff that can be found on the internet.
OTM has been live for coming up 6 months so it isn't a new site. The natural Google rankings (to end up up near the top of page 1 Google) might take a while but Ian has an experienced team to accelerate that process but other than having a up to date knowledge of the criteria and tweaking thing accordingly there is no more influence to be had than that.
This probably a subject where Portal Person could shine
"OTM has been live for coming up 6 months so it isn't a new site."…Did you see that part of Robert's post Hareee?
I said "infinitely superior knowledge of all things software-related" meaning to MINE, Robert! Trust me – you don't need much to win that prize… but the thought of dozens of techies haughtily snorting coffee all over their keyboards (I thought they all drink RedBull or similar…?) was worth the effort of the post though, don't you think? ;o)
"This probably a subject where Portal Person could shine" Oh I dunno – I think that it is in the "wit" department where he shines brightest.
Yes, Portal Person is most definitely, in my opinion – and in the wise words of Reverend William Archibald Spooner – a shining wit of the highest order.
"Property guru Simon Baker highlights both Squiiz and OnTheMarket in his online publication…" Sorry – property GURU? This guy states in the blog "It is estimated that just over 40% of agents in the UK have committed or are likely to commit (but not necessarily signed a contract) to the new portal." This "estimate" is, of course, based upon your poll. If he thinks that some 7,200+ Agents are going to be on OTM come January, he should be writing science fiction. Oh, look – he's started already… ;o)
"If he thinks that some 7,200+ Agents are going to be on OTM come January, he should be writing science fiction."…Anything is possible mon ami 😉
This site sounds that it will lack the funding for traction, website traction comes from surely using other sources of advertising, such as heavy tv, radio and national press, to create brand awareness. As soon as soon as something is seen on main tv viewing channels, it becomes branded and if done correctly on tv it becomes a "must purchase item". As this site appears at entry level free, I believe the users of the site i.e. the agents won't put energy behind it and promote it as hard as if they were investing in it. A reason why Property Live failed perhaps.
Simple 'ID ten Ts' issue! Easily fixed- don't employ id10ts
Re SEO, RM, Z and Primelocation in that order dominate the top three positions. In a recent analysis of SEO click thru rates/CTR (the number of times and % that a website is clicked on when it appears in a search) the following applied … Position 1. 31% … Position 2. 14% … Position 3. 10% … Position 4. 7% … Position 5. 4% … Positions 6.-10. 3% … Position 1 Page 2. 4% … Position 1 Page 3. 1.6% … These figures mean Position 1 gets double the traffic of Position 2, treble the traffic of Position 3, four times the traffic of Position 4, six times the traffic of Position 5 and ten times the traffic of Positions 6-10. Google's SEO ranking algorithm will make it near impossible for OTM to oust RM, Z and PL from the top three spots and OTM will face a battle to even get on the first page of Google (exclusively visited by 84% of searchers) within six months of launch. What does all of this mean? RM, Z and PL are getting massive FREE traffic to their sites and OTM will receive a fraction of this free traffic, if any, in the first 3-6 months of launch. That means OTM can only drive significant traffic quickly by massive costly media advertising and/or massive costly PPC advertising in addition to the support advertising of AM agents (which IMO will be insignificant in the big picture). The majority view of AM agents is that OTM stock levels will drive traffic. They won't. Customer awareness will. You could have the biggest, best stocked and cheapest supermarket in the UK but if it is unknown and stuck away on an industrial estate that no-one knows about it will fail. That is my concern for OTM and why I won't join. And for those of you thinking: yes, I am an estate agent and yes I am very experienced in digital media.
"You could have the biggest, best stocked and cheapest supermarket in the UK but if it is unknown and stuck away on an industrial estate that no-one knows about it will fail"……………..very true, but just a thought……………. You could have the most well know supermarket in the world in the best position in the world but with no stock the customers will eventually stop coming, unless you disagree and believe people would continue to shop in a store with no product, Phones4U great name, oops no stock BUST! …………………….Phase one always had to be get the stock, as to be fair…… if OTM lets say did get the SEO spot on and were right up there, if they had no houses on it and little backing the people would stop visiting it………..small steps, small steps……… you cannot change the world over night and no point trying…It seems people have read "AM say it will be Number 1 by June 2015" yet AM supporters know it is a 5 year project in theory.
There is also a huge BUT that you are forgetting. The housing market in the UK is made up of lots of smaller local markets added together, it isn't one national database of buyers looking all over the UK. 85/90% of an agents buyers will come from the immediate market they are in, less of their landlords to be fair however. In addition there isn't a standing stock of buyers that have found a portal and are waiting for houses to appear. Come end end of Jan the only buyers that will matter for agents are the ones that have started looking next year and its those that need to be reached. Provided the message is across in the agents offices, local papers, national adverts then they are not dumb they will find where the property stock is. Now is that going to generate the search traffic Z or RM does, no of course not, but then no one has ever been able to say how much of that traffic ACTUALLY buys!
Agreed……………….We looked at the stats for our 4 office network and all the agents who cover it and (this will make the pro RM crowd happy but Z will be feeling it) RM have 100% property listings in our 4 villages now……..Z have 68%…… come January 26th we now know it will be…………….RM 100%………….Z 28% and OTM 72% (based on the stock levels for agents remaining similar)….we have one fence sitter who if they join would make it Z 22% and OTM 78%….. if we all agree to list on OTM first and hold back uploads to RM that will be some message around us for sure….. Z will basically be the portal for 2 competing corps and nothing more.
Ric, if RM have 100% of the stock why does anyone need to look on OTM? I understand that AM will be advertising OTM but I bet RM and Z have spoiler TV campaigns that will compete with and dilute the effectiveness of the OTM campaign. I keep reading that 'real buyers will find where the stock is' … the danger is Z users who find stock lacking will just transfer straight to RM as the 'obvious' other place to look. AM agents clearly think they will transfer in significant numbers to OTM. I think that is a dangerously optimistic assumption. The more I think this through the more I think that AM is handing RM a massive platform to increase and solidify its position as the absolute dominant portal.
Glad to see someone else has figured this out… RM is licking their lips at this ripe opportunity!
Actually no. Clearly you do not understand the situation. If agents stop using RM and use OTM. It is as simple as that. Interesting today RM sent me details of the new RM Intel guide. Very interesting comments full of what we asked for … err no we didn't. If you fall for that hype you need your heads looking into. It has nothing to do with what you can use to improve your business, it is what they are doing with the data they have hood winked you into believing. And yes it will become very messy in January but the public have a short memory and will follow the agents choice which they will see is no different exposure for their property on OTM.
If you apply that logic, why has anyone ever looked at Zoopla?!
"If RM have 100% of the stock why does anyone need to look on OTM?". What makes you think that RM will have 100% of the stock after 26th January 2015?
We've never advertised on Google. I don't know how we've managed to sell a lot of houses for the last 15 years…
Woodentop, I'm afraid it's you who doesn't understand the situation. Glibly saying "If agents stop using RM and use OTM. It is as simple as that." denies the truth that the majority of agents are sticking with RM and dropping Z. You might WANT agents to drop RM but the fact is they aren't which renders your position hypothetical at best and head in the clouds at worst.
I see your point but mine is simple, all that agents need to do is what they did to create RM in the first place. RM is basically not offering the public anything different to OTM. It is was it offers its members, the key to all this bickering. As for the majority sticking to RM, that happens to be open to conjecture. The statement should read, "we want to see OTM work before we jump and get the public switched over". As for having my head in the clouds, well you may be right if OTM fails, but I don't see it can fail if agents join. One need to get away from this one other web rule. No-one can afford to be on all the web sites in any event, can they? OTM were correct as a business plan to use the rule. You have the choice to join or not.
Hold on surely this type of balanced reporting explaining the problems
being experienced by an agent owned portal that's not done things properly should be reported in the other property publication….or the daily mail or telegraph.
Looking forward to the briefings next week from Agents Mutual at which we can see the product and ask the relevant questions. From what I have seen and heard so far I'm very confident that we are in safe hands… and being in the UK our Portal will be the right way up! lol
Oh no, you didn't just use LOL
I know – how uncool. Nearly (but not quite – not by a long chalk) – as nerdish as 'Liking' your own comments, innit, Mr Jury…? ;o)
And DEFINITELY less nerdy than 'Liking' it THREE times. So – your morning so far has consisted of: 1. Post inane comment on EYE. 2. 'Like' it. 3. Log out 4. 'Like' it again as a guest. 5. Do the same again on your shiny new iPhone 12 or whatever number is the latest. ALL before 10am. Careful – you'll be kn@ckered by din-dins at this blinding rate of productivity… ;o)
It's my fat thumbs on my mobile. I'm not shameful enough to like my own comments…… however I do normally have a great point
You wouldn't recognise a great point if it pierced your bike tyre… :op
"I'm very confident that we are in safe hands…" In exactly the same way that I'm very confident that those very words were uttered by some 3500 Aussie Estate Agents prior to launch, GPL… ;o)