Ed Mead said yesterday that far too much “guff” written in the national press recently about the launch of OnTheMarket has been wide of the mark.
Mead, who is director of London agent Douglas & Gordon and is also on the board of Agents’ Mutual, has made these points:
- Rightmove and Zoopla both have about the same agency penetration of 85-90%. So dropping one really alters nothing for the consumer.
- The largest agents, Connells, LSL and Countrywide, are not joining OnTheMarket. For the record, these agents represent little more than 10% of the agency market.
- Is giving the public the choice of three portals to look at rather than two really that much of an inconvenience?
- Portals are simply shop windows showing our goods. Despite purporting to project great power, it is estate agents that actually sell properties, NOT portals.
- For a portal to claim that not being on its site will lessen property values or lengthen the time it takes to sell a home is arrant, not to say arrogant, nonsense. See point 1.
- The public is being fed the line that this is an attempt by large agents to “line their pockets”. However, 80% of existing OnTheMarket members are agencies with 1-3 offices, and are hardly leviathans.
- OnTheMarket is a mutual, so one member one vote, and whether you’re Sibley Pares in Maidstone or Savills, your vote is equal. Not a recommended scenario for the larger agents to get rich.
- The brickbats being thrown about are all the more remarkable given the public haven’t even seen the site and the enormous advertising campaign hasn’t started yet.
- Detractors have much made of the fact that Rightmove and others spend tens of millions on advertising whilst claiming OnTheMarket only has about £7m. That money was merely seed funding to get to launch. The thousands of agents joining are bringing their advertising spend with them. These sums will be commensurate with what the other portals are spending. The site will be clean and bang up to date too.
- Those looking to sell should know that around 60% of purchasers are found through portals. The best buyers are usually found off-market or from databases.
Comments (77)
So what about those that do not have the internet. Government says 60% have, which for once I would agree with as our data base confirms this with 20% who have say they prefer us to do the leg work for them. We have actually seen a reduction in internet account holders over the last couple of years due to recession/affordability which hopefully with the media plugging a price war between ISP's will move forward Or do you not get any leg traffic?
That's why I said the 'majority' Woodentop, yes we get some footfall, but even then, more often than not, when someone visits the office the conversation will start 'I've seen a house on RM'
………and, I've seen a board, you have one in the window, it's in this weeks paper, I've seen one in your website and so on, as well as I'm looking for a ( add house type here), no one says I've seen one on Z though? – Jonnie
All of the above Jonnie, although Z enquiries as rare as the proverbial hens teeth! What I was looking at was the assertion that the majority of sales come from our databases, which I do believe to be true, but I was highlighting the fact that the people on our databases originate with an enquiry from all the potential sources you mention, but the majority are from a portal, which seems to have been forgotton in the original statement.
'Ed's right – most of our sales is from our database' That of course has always been the case, but where do the potential buyers on that database come from? They come from enquiries generated from advertising, it has always been the case that someone responds to an advert (the newspapers in the old days) more often than not, the property they first enquired about is not one that suits, but we qualify them, add them to our database and away we go.
What's the most effective means of advertising these days? That will be the portals, so like it or not, the vast majority of buyers originate with the portals!
PROPERTYLIVE 2 RELIVES END OF JAN
It would be PL3 Trevor, Balderstone did V1, Turnbull did V2, this is the Wyatt/Surrey version which technically is number 3.
Ed's right – most of our sales is from our database – not the portals. It is people that sell houses. The sales we have had in Nov/Dec/Jan have been as a result of…wait for it…NEGOTIATION….making deals happen. This just does not happen via portals or on-line agency without active and proactive contact with the buyers and vendors. The magic happens WHEN the phone rings. The magic is not just in MAKING the phone ring. RM, Z or OTM – it doesn't work if those answering the phones cannot make 'IT' happen.
Spot on JAM01. No matter how good a web site is, it cannot produce the level of service customers need, it is nothing more than a reactive tool. It can only do what it is programmed to do and any estate agent worth their salt will tell you every potential sale is different and one reason why web only portals or web portals NOT supported by agents remain in the shadows.
Of course RM and Z don't sell property … and neither will OTM. Portals advertise property and whether it is a portal, newspaper, radio or TV the bigger the audience for the advertising the more effective it will be. Nobody can possibly disagree with that. And yet, when I or anyone else queries the decision to take advertising off RM or Z and place it on the unknown, untried and untested OTM we are ridiculed. The duplicity of AM agents knows no bounds.
No 1, is incorrect. They have some cross over but both from my understanding, also have unique audiences.
No 3, maybe, maybe not, perhaps they just agree with the majority of estate agents. What is it… 75% have chosen 'not' to sign up to AM?
No 3, less is more, personally I'd prefer 1 than 2, 2 than 3…
No 4, also incorrect, how much information is on both RM and Zoopla which isn't about a specific property. Schools, crime, distance to tube, etc info.
No 5, this clearly will, if not why would any agent advertise on a more than one portal (also see my no 1)
No 6, incorrect. Add up all the large estate agent groups signed up to AM and the number of branches, I suggest this is a lot more than 20%.
No 7, does the consumer care? Hell no!
No 8, true, AM hasn't even a live site or one lead yet, so no one knows
No 9, Time will tell, Clean site, err, meaning empty with little info to support the consumer, the reason estate agents exist
No 10, I've no idea if true or not
No 3, maybe, maybe not…. should be No 2 🙂
Who really cares?
Bletchley Park may have been able to help with that post.
If prices drop, I'll eat my hat! In fact, the opposite is true. If someone really believes the switch to OTM makes properties harder to find, this could give the impression of a decrease in supply, which is more likely to increase price not reduce price. Basic economics regarding the impact of an imbalance of supply and demand on price isn't it?
Here we go yet again. There are some pretty stupid comments being posted as well as good ones. Takes far too long to trawl through. You will just have to wait until May 2015 to see how things pan out and who is right. Get on with life in the meantime and think on the bright side, it's 2015.
Reading the various comments and opinions on Ed's piece makes me smile. I don't understand what all the fuss is about? What difference does another portal make? A good agent can sell properties with or without portals. Yes, they help increase exposure, but to suggest agents are doing their seller clients a disservice by supporting a third portal is utterly ludicrous!
A couple of years ago, I stopped watching the news on television. It no longer reported on the facts that had happened, the reporters filled their little bit of air time with speculation and pathetic questions to those that had suffered loss etc "how do you feel right now"? "How do you think it happened"? "What do you think Mrs Merkel will do next"? "It is possible that it was bombed out of the sky, or might it have been pilot error". For god sake, report what you know, you are not qualified to speculate. All you knockers of OTM, wait and see. If you were computer nerds and psycho analysts, you wouldn't be estate agents.
Probably the best OTM post i've seen on this website. States the facts and makes no wild assumptions of how successful OTM could or will be. However it seems to be the same old comments popping up again about "brand awareness" and "SEO rankings" blah blah. Really need to change the record and come up with something new.
It's the only point of attack the RM/Zoopla employees/shareholders who post on here have James.
Don't forget that the majority of buyers log on to portals and either download an app or set up a search and bingo the algorithms do the work! Easy work to monitor 1 2 or 3 portals, so buyers wont worry initially. Just make sure you put your stock on OTM 48 hrs before your chosen portal…tell the market and all agents in your area..it will soon go viral. AM gold members…sort out your viral marketing based on privileged early info!
Oh we have don't you worry about that. Infact we are more pro-active than some!
Right, if you are a member of the public reading this then firstly don't worry about @commonsense, they are a bit odd and new to this site, they have a lot to say and it's right that they have a jolly good blither and get it all out. I'm sure they will go quiet soon. Second is the main point, if an estate agent tells you alot how important the portals are to selling or letting your house then they are best avoided, yes we all like to be in RM or Z, some of us will be on http://www.onthemarket.com as well as one of these but it's one tiny part of what your agent will do for you. There are several agents to choose from on your local high street, pop in and see them, you will find one you like very quickly……although if they call their clients properties inventory or use the word real estate best you avoid them. – Jonnie
This screams of desperation. It's quite sad really.
RealAgent – you just don't get it do you? You come out with smart (you think) comments without understanding the points I am making. Let's try and make it clear (especially for you) … 1. You have previously said on more than one occasion that ANY 'serious' buyer will look at ALL portals – no they won't. 2. Like any other agent we establish the reasons for selling prior to the home visit and valuation. 3. We did the survey at the valuation not afterwards by email or whatever. 4. Why WOULDN'T we ask a seller at a valuation which portals they will use to find a home? If they say RM or Z or both is it not a plus point that their property will be advertised there? 5. This information is the only way to get a true indication of search habits which in turn is/was useful to the OTM decision. 6. We aren't sending letters to OTM listing agents (read my post) we are emailing a valuation confirmation which includes information on the launch of OTM, participating agents in our area and links to press articles … just in case AM agents don't pre-advise sellers that as from 26th Jan they will be coming off RM and Z. Now RealAgent … have I made that all clear?
Harree thank you for making it clear for me, let me return the favour and make estate agency clear for you. Imagine I'm a buyer, keen to find a home, I know property is advertised on RM, Zoopla and OTM, why WOULDNT i look at all of them?! To say hot buyers wouldn't be active on their hunt is ridiculous and only something a portal would say!!! So your valuation, are you seriously trying to suggest that at a valuation when you are trying to get a house on the market you are sitting there conducting a survey on which portal they might use to find a house?! Again ridiculous and I just don't believe any valuer would do that. Why wouldn't you ask about which portal they will use? let me tell you, you are in a market where supply is low, no self respecting agent is going to be telling a vendor anything other than "we will help you find a property" If you really thought you might struggle to find them a house and you wanted to complete chains you will be suggesting that in addition to their favourite they should be checking out ALL websites INCLUDING OTM, not just nodding when they say they use RM, Z or maybe both. Then to add to that you are suggesting that you email in your post valuation letter, links to a website that they haven't even mentioned (presumably)?! Drawing direct attention to it and robbing yourself of the opportunity to control an objection or question only if it arises. Oh and don't forget Haree you are an estate agent who justifies their fee by explaining to clients that have portal advertising covered but thats its one small part of getting them a buyer at the best price. You will no doubt suggest you have a huge mailing list of buyers already registered, you have possibly even been to see a client who would be perfect for their property. In fact probably the last thing you are going to be doing is focussing on the portal advertising you will be doing or they may as well use Purple Bricks!!..No Harree I don't believe you are an agent and if you are then you are a pretty poor one!
RealAgent says "Imagine I'm a buyer, keen to find a home, I know property is advertised on RM, Zoopla and OTM, why WOULDNT i look at all of them?!" … Oh deary deary me. Despite your arrogant non de plume and smart rs comments you STILL don't understand that just because YOU would look at all portals you assume EVERYBODY else will !! There is nothing in this world that EVERYBODY does except die … you are going to have more egg on your face than is cracked over breakfast of a morning once OTM is launched. By your ridiculous reasoning the viewing figures for RM, Z and OTM should all be virtually the same virtually from day 1. They won't be. And as for calling me a pretty poor agent … we convert 70% of our valuations to instructions. That no doubt is pretty pour by you standards.
Harree, the other thing EVERYBODY does when they feel insecure is publish figures to attempt to justify their status, just as you have. The fact remains that your posts at best belay a naive approach to estate agency and at worst probably mean you are one of the ranks of failed estate agents that have become Z or RM reps. You lied about your statistic gathering and its a shame you didn't have the good grace to admit that. Oh and if I was a smart *rse as you imply then I would certainly have ridiculed you over how embarrassing it is to try and deliver closing statement and make a spelling mistake or two!!
RealAgent, you say I have lied?? Exactly where and what have I lied about? And as for your crass remarks about me being a failed agent that is a stupid and false remark based on nothing more than your arrogant opinion of yourself. And as for a spelling mistake I wrote 'rs' not 'rse' so YOU have spelt my so called spelling mistake wrong!! And, it wasn't a spelling mistake merely an abbreviation.
Read the last line of your previous post Harree, that was the spelling mistake (s) ….These failed slam dunks of yours are actually getting a bit awkward now, I can feel myself stretching my collar out for you now!
RealAgent, instead of crassly pointing out a typo – not a spelling mistake – I ask again WHERE HAVE I LIED? Do not make accusations of that nature without backing them up. Your continued displays of arrogance and crass attempts at point scoring just make me laugh. People like you are the easiest people to wind up. I wish I was in direct competition with you- then you'd see if I was failed agent. Again, man up, WHERE HAVE I LIED??
Oh you are not winding me up in the slightest I am having quite good fun with you. You clearly lied about doing a survey just to make a point. Oh and your spelling mistakes were poor and your….write them out twenty times each.
RealAgent, clearly lied?? So you decide because you don't like the results, can't see the point of the survey or whatever and tell me I have lied. Well, RealAgent, I think YOU are lying that you are a even a half decent estate agent, lying that you have done any real research to determine that dropping RM or Z will not affect your business, lying that you are so stupid as to believe that all genuine buyers would look at all portals and best of all lying that I am not getting right underneath your thin arrogant skin.
now now you two…..
Harree, there is only one of us in this conversation that has felt the need to justify their credentials. I would say from that last post of yours, it is pretty clear which of us is getting under the other's skin!! Oh and can you post those spelling errors twenty times each, at least then you can prove one thing you've done.
Oh come on Ric, its a quiet news day, don't spoil my amusement!
RealAgent … let's look at some of your spelling and grammatical mistakes …. "belay a naive approach" no it's 'belie' (belay means to fasten a rope 🙂 … "which probably a far" 'is' after 'which' … "robbing sellers of an addition 33%" 'additional' not 'addition' … "any other agent would assertion in 2 minutes" "assert" not "assertion" … that's enough of your mistakes for now RealAgent. You see, this ridiculous little exercise sparked by your crass pointing out of my typo, just goes to prove that you should NEVER BE SO ARROGANT as to attempt to belittle others when YOU YOURSELF can be the victim of exactly the same treatment in return. A trait of arrogant people is they think they are perfect … grow up RealAgent.
That is so funny! I can't actually believe you went scurrying back through my old posts looking for mistakes!! How tragically sad of you Harree! I can almost guarantee that you were the lad at school who went home with spit on the back of your jacket!
Oh and it was crass pointing out of your typos ….not typo. There were after all more than one.
RealAgent, I only had to go through two posts to find a bundle of mistakes. You must have flunked English at school.
ALL buyers will automatically search ALL portals to find property? No they won't. SOME will, SOME won't. On every single valuation since March last year we have completed a questionnaire on portal use specifically to determine whether or not we should join AM. One of the key findings is that c40% of users ONLY SEARCH ON ONE PORTAL with (in our area/survey) a 60/40 split in overall use between RM and Z respectively. Consider this … if the massive advertising and brand name awareness of RM and Z cannot get a sole RM user to switch to/also search on Z (and vice versa) what chance does OTM have of changing a sole users search habit? Everybody, me, you and the rest are guilty at times of assuming that what we would do represents what everyone else would do. NOT TRUE and a fatal mistake when applied to business decisions. The only way to find out the facts is to ASK THE CONSUMER in significant volume for the findings to be statistically significant. And, if the findings are not what you think/believe/want do NOT ignore the findings and follow what you think. Question – what independent professional market research did AM conduct to establish that the consumer would react positively to OTM? I'll give you my guess …. NONE.
Personally I'd be rather annoyed at myself if I ruled out one of the 2 current property portals when looking for my next home, only to find that my ideal property had been listed on the other portal all the time because the agent only listed on one. Would I be annoyed at the agent? No, not really but I certainly wouldn't make that mistake again.
I think it is how you ask the question…… My similar canvassing, (lets not have you thinking you are talking to lots of AM supporting agents who are stupid, you sometimes talk about "good business decisions" as if the rest of us are guessing our way through the last 24 years) I returned 100% of people saying "yes we would visit OTM for sure, especially if it will have properties on there which are not on RM or Z"… that is not made up by the way completely true………..! One chap said he could not believe we did not own Rightmove and assumed we did (as agents) why have you not done this before he said!!! (the conversation went on for another 3 hours of me dribbling)…….. Its not what you say its how you say it…… The only SELLING an agent does is the belief they have in their company and services they offer and if they do this well and can demonstrate success……………consumers will trust, after all you were called to sit in front of them for a reason when they wanted advice and help on selling…… I agree, if I am unique to my finding OTM is doomed….. but we are all on here talking of our own finding and thoughts, the 26th January 2015 to the 26th January 2020 will tell!
You have completely missed the point Harree. It is OUR stock that supports the portals, nothing else matters. In areas where Z have most stock you will find they are the portal of choice for the buyers and the same goes for RM. If the % stock levels drop and buyers are no longer sure of finding all properties they will look elsewhere. Simples 🙂 Better still they will find my properties on OTM at least 48 before they get to Z or RM.
Why would you put your stock on one portal and then 48 hours later put it on another??
Harree, you say you conducted your survey of every valuation you did since March last year. Firstly I'm still not convinced having seen some of your posts that you don't work for Zoopla but still let me question some of those things. I have seen a survey carried out by the Property Academy, which probably a far better survey than an agent could carry out itself, which states that 79% of sellers put their property on the market BEFORE they look to find a house to buy. So if 40% of yours (?) actually only use one portal it ISNT to buy. When selecting the agent of choice only 18% visited property portal websites to aid their decision. It seems it is true to say however that 60 odd percent of those surveyed used the "portals" to find a property but interestingly 33% found their property to buy through the agent, boards, newspapers etc. I probably shouldn't reveal more stats than that as I am sure the Property Academy copyright their information, but to all those that feel we only should ever have two incumbent portals and further by not being on both you are damaging a sellers chances of selling, I would reverse that and say most traditional agency models advertise on at least one of the main portals (sufficient clearly) and for all those online only firms they are robbing sellers of an addition 33% of enquiries by not being local. Now that DOES affect the price someone gets for their property!!
Your continued belief that I may be a Zoopla rep again shows how blinded you are to anything other than your own beliefs.
I'm not really that bothered whether you are or aren't really Harree, but I am interested to know why an "estate agent" looking to ascertain where their buyers came from, would choose to canvass the valuations they attended!?!
RealAgent, if you aren't bothered whether I am an agent or not why keep posing the question? You ask … Why would an "estate agent" looking to ascertain where their buyers came from choose to canvass the valuations they attended!?! Errr… I'm not looking to ascertain where my buyers came from … I'm looking to ascertain the search habits of people who are selling a house and looking to buy a new one. There is a big difference. WE know there is far more to selling a house than simply advertising on the portals BUT many sellers don't. They assume that because they look on RM and Z to find their new home, that's also how buyers will find their home. Perception is often far more relevant than reality where Joe Public is concerned. Some of my questions were to sellers were 1) Will you be buying a new home? 2) If yes – How will you find that home? 3) If the answer was just RM or Z – do you only use this site or do you use others? No putting words into mouths … whether you think the answers are relevant or not is your decision. I do, and they formed a large part of my decision not to join OTM.
Harree, I actually think you've completely made that up. You said buyers, in fact you said "All buyers will search all portals…no they won't" So you did want to know about "buyers" But instead now you are saying you canvassed possible sellers (who are looking to sell, not necessarily buy) to ask them when it came to finding a house whether they would use RM or Z or presumably both and whether they would be loyal to one particular one. Why? Why would any estate agent be asking valuations that they presumably wish to get on the market, which portals they will use when they want to buy a house? Why would you go to a valuation, when any other agent would assertion in 2 minutes the sellers "reason for moving" if they hadn't already in the pre val phone call, then leave not knowing whether they were buying another house, and then send them a survey asking them were they going to be buying another house??!!….Quality agency there, oh and I believe it was you yesterday saying all your letters were going out to OTM listing agents. I think your vendors should be more worried about the fact that "their" estate agent intends to sell their house and then tell them to go off and find one on the portals, but at least they've told you which portal they will use eh Harree!
Ed for president!
You mean the butter? He will need some lubrication or things are going to get rather sore for Ed come February…
6. The notion of large agents trying to help the small agents sounds as fishy as the week old fish left out in the open in the middle of summer. Even two different branches of the large agents are at war with each other (managers compensation and performance go hand in hand), let alone a small agent three windows down. If you want simple explanation of 80% of the existing otm members are small agencies, what else can it be? There are only limited number of large outfits and more smaller agencies. “line their pockets” – There will be premium offerings and guess who will be able to afford them? That is if otm goes anywhere.
I am not sure week old fish left out in the sun make a sound.
If you eat it, it will make lot more than just sound
As usual Mr Mead writes reasoned opinion backed with experience of the industry. Unfortunately 'commonsense' appears to have no understanding of estate agency and is talking out of his hat!
I guess 'CommonSense' drew the ticket this morning to become another expert first time poster. Their posts are so naive I can't be bothered rebutting them but it's clear they are not an agent.
Ed states that 60% of buyers come from the portals. He is consciously hiding his customer's properties from half of that audience from the end of January. Let's be generous and say just a third of that audience. That means that at the end of January he is consciously hiding his client's properties from 1 in 5 buyers (Ed – even you cannot think that onthemarket is going to produce results for months – or even years?). Could one of those buyers be the one who offers asking price and blows the bargain hunter out of the window? Now put yourself in the shoes of the vendor of that £3.45m pad in Oakley Street, Chelsea who has trusted Ed & co with the sale of their property. How much are they paying you Ed for your services? £40-50k? Who is taking the risk in that scenario? How will they feel that you've reduced their pool of potential buyers by 20%? Happy? Might just move on, don't you think Ed? Reasoned opinion?! I don't think so.
Another misconception "it is estate agents that actually sell properties, NOT portals". . . no one "sells" property, people buy property. The only thing that "sells" a property is a viewing.
"The best buyers are usually found off-market or from databases". . . you mean those people are such hungry buyers that they are not all over the portals every day or do they just sit at home waiting for an estate agent to call ?
Spot on….. and the best agents can demonstrate to any vendor on a market appraisal that they will not be waiting for the internet to do their job….. and the internet will simply back them up if their registered buyers are not interested….. This is where a ****** good property crash sorts out the best of the best…..
5. Once again you are missing the point. consumers are used to going to these portals and they have good repeat traffic. Which means people keep coming back to them. Estate agents, we go where the consumers go, we do not go where the estate agents go. You can launch a site with 99% of the estate agents but if the consumers are not there, the agents will start leaving you faster than usain bolt.
Other portal rule, protects your Usain Bolt theory, AM member agents have dropped the portal THEY KNOW their clients will not mind and clearly do not believe in as a portal or performs for their agency, otherwise they would stay on the fence or indeed be Anti-AM……. ………………so the OTM point is…. if they got 99% of the agents (you talk of) we would drop both RM and Z like a brick….leaving just one site to chose……. It all ends up with Stock at the end of the day…. and once OTM launches THEN we will see what could happen if all the OTM agents left RM…… I suspect RM will be waiting for the 26th on this basis, as that is when they will know which of their agents who have not dropped them BUT who are not/never on Z will clearly be thinking of ditching them at some point.
4. This one is interesting, if there was no shop, there will be no shop window. Sellers sell properties not the estate agents. estate agents facilitate buyers and sellers towards a smooth transaction. On the one side you say, portals are not valuable and on the flipside you are launching a portal to compete with portals. Do you see the irony in that?
Sellers DO NOT sell properties you are 1 trillion miles of beat with that! Buyers Buy property, Agents Market properties and vendor chose who to trust in allowing the process to take place…. Good agents will defend a price, or suggest a change to make a property suit, suggest another property as perhaps the buyer missed one, or one about to come to the market no-one knows about (could be considered selling), but truth be known 90% of buyers know what they want and then you become right…….. we help a smooth transaction, foreseeing problems, dealing with them etc…… I agree again, shut down all the portals would be best HOWEVER if there were no portals, I would make one for you all to join "for a small fee obviously, well in year 1!"
lol, best comment of the day. agree.
3. Is giving the public the choice of three portals to look at rather than two really that much of an inconvenience? ☺☺ it has been proven over time, consumer want less choices not more. Tomorrow the big three connells, lsl and countrywide launch another portal, then what? It will only be four choices. Unless you have something game changer for the consumers, good luck with your one more choice.
…………………Sorry posting one by one rather than one post. your comment section needs rich editor……..
"it has been proven over time, consumer want less choices not more" really…… So if I survey 100 people today outside my office saying….. "if you had more choice by having to visit one extra website would you like this?" you think over 50% would say no?…………………..People actually love playing on mobile devices and computers etc now…… you can see fingers hovering, whilst their brains are thinking what can I visit next, what can I search for…..I don't want to talk to people I just want to tap away on the internet. I agree sites offering the same things are a touch pointless so 3 websites all offering 100% of property stock why? but come 26.1.15 OTM, RM and Z will all boast some unique stock….so consumers WILL visit all 3.
Ric, well thought response. the point is, if otm is not offering anything more than the big two but have lot less inventory, what will motivate a seller to go there. the buyers actually don't have to visit otm at all to still get access to 100% of the inventory by visiting the big two. if the total inventory in the market is 100 and there are only 100 agents. otm signs up 40 of the 100, 25 leave zoopla and 15 leave rightmove. consumer still only have to visit zoopla and right move to access the inventory of 100.
OTM will have unique listings, Z consumers who do not care for RM will try OTM as will RM users who care not for Z…… fact is RM and Z users will find missing property and be told where to find them and it will not be "hey Z user, try RM for the properties we just took off Z" On a local level the advertising by the strongest agents and disruption this will cause is being under estimated… (I have a busy day of appointments, so not sure how much more I can offer this post today!)
That is exactly what I have been thinking all along. Instead of most purchasers just being able to have their one favourite RM or Z they now need to look at both, which will be an inconvenience in itself, but why on earth would they want to look at a third (OTM) if they have already seen all the properties on the other two. I can't believe there will be that many 'unique' ones to make it worth the hassle.
When we talk of visiting these sites, I assume we know we can type in the web addresses on the computers and mobiles which will be next to them……….! and we know they do not have to drive to each property portals head office!!! better still they can save short cuts and visit three different sites by clicking just 3 times (or 6 if we are double clicking – before PortalPerson has a pop at me)…… really 3 portals in one day…. looking for a car I visit Autotrader and nearly every other car site in the country, as I do with Holidays etc……..Biggest purchase someone will make….. I know they will visit 2, 3 or however many it takes IF they know they must to find ALL of the property stock…….
@Bridget…do you not think that most buyers will simply set an e mail alert for new properties in their range for all 3 sites?…I don't believe it will be an inconvenience at all. In addition to that, if you really believe purchasers just want(and should have)their favourite site with all property on it then you can't be that business savvy, as most of us recognised where that scenario was heading……hence the founding of the new site.
1: The corporates referred to own significant shares in at least one of the current two large portals, hence their reluctance to back a portal that will damage their investment.
2: Countywide launched their own portal some time ago, aggregating their own brands (propertywide.co.uk). It has failed miserably.
Hi Shaun77, I think pw.co.uk is a good indicator of how little influence the corps have on the market…… not enough of a market share between every CW office to come close to making it work and no respect from the public……. this for me is the difference: you have some very strong agency names on local levels talking about OTM……. Anyway the 26th will be the next real point at which a whole new set of arguments can be put to PIE about OTM….. who is on, the true numbers and an easy way to calculate the potential effect of those on it coming off RM.
1. I guess you don’t really understand who holds the power? It’s the consumer and regardless of what agency penetration rm and z have – they both have the traffic and built it over extended period of time and are known by the consumer.
2. The largest agents, Connells, LSL and Countrywide, are not joining OnTheMarket, because there is a reason they are the largest, they are smarter than those who think, they can change the world by creating another portal with less inventory and still charge the agents to list. They know it is not going to go down well with the consumers
1. Why do the consumers go to RM & Z at present? It is stock and stock alone! Forget how long it took to build or how much money (which we know it does)… the fact is if consumers went on RM or Z for the next 3 weeks to find no properties or half the stock they will search on the next website claiming to have the missing pieces. Get over that, its just going to happen FACT………………..2. C, LSL and CW are the largest ONLY by terms of their office count. In terms of stock and trust, they are rarely classed as the best and BEST is the tag a decent agents looks to achieve not the largest. I simply do not get your "they are the largest for a reason" comment. They are a way in to the mortgage market and the more offices they own to open this gate the better for them. That's all…….. every agent has a chuckle at least once a day when a consumer tells them a "what they [the corp agent] did to annoy them" story…… Largest is not always best……. Who on here can say they have a corp as a market leader in their village?
Surely people aren't still bringing up this mute point over and over again… RM and Z have consumers (and visitors to their sites) BECAUSE they list properties. If they stopped listing properties then the traffic would DECREASE and so would their market share and power. It's really not rocket science.