Major estate agency chain Acorn has decided to drop Zoopla when OnTheMarket launches on January 26.
However, the decision to stick with Rightmove appears reluctant – and fires a warning shot across Rightmove’s bow. Yesterday, the firm had seriously discussed whether to drop both Rightmove and Zoopla.
In the end, the firm stayed with Rightmove, but Acorn CEO Robert Sargent said: “While it was an easy decision, it doesn’t leave me feeling good.”
Sargent, a high profile supporter of OTM, said it would have been a “hell of a risk” to have dropped Rightmove.
That decision was discussed yesterday by the Acorn board.
Sargent said the message sent out is that portals need to change the way they engage with their member agents to survive
The decision to stick with Rightmove came against a background where the entire role of portals was discussed at length.
The Acorn group has 32 offices and significant businesses in London and Kent, and its brands include Acorn, Langford Russell and John Payne.
Sargent told Eye yesterday evening: “After lengthy consultation between the Acorn Group main board and our senior management team, we have resolved to no longer post our clients’ properties on Zoopla.”
He said: “In the end, the decision was reached relatively easily. Interestingly, a significant number of our directors and senior management team proposed removal of all our instructions from all portals other than OnTheMarket.
“I have personally represented this sentiment to Peter Brooks-Johnson of Rightmove in the hope we may see a change in the way they engage with their agents in the future.
“We, like many of our competitors, enjoy a very different relationship with major suppliers to our business than we have experienced in recent years with the portal sector.”
Sargent also told Eye about its own market research.
He said: “An interesting finding from our market research, and one that we hope may help our peers when considering how to tackle a polarising portal sector, was the fact that our brands brought prospective buyers and sellers to the portal and not as we are told repeatedly the other way round.
“When you dig deep with your clients, portals were just a convenient way of getting in touch with us and not a determining factor in making that contact.
“When talking to vendors specifically, many were keen to see a controlled approach to online marketing and did not see the benefit of their home being displayed across multiple sites when a single search portal or even Google reveals their property so easily at one click.
“Furthermore, some vendors expressed concern at seeing the data pertaining to their homes being scraped from the internet and then displayed by a tier of lower level online marketers without formal consent.
“My team also believe this tactic smacks of desperation and does not form part of a galvanised and professional sales and marketing strategy.”
Comments (72)
Without a doubt Zoopla will become the biggest private listings website in the UK within the next 2 years, this will force Righmove to do the same, they hold 10 years data on every home in the UK. Lets face it they have the power to put every Estate Agent in the UK out of business.
It's going to be interesting to see what happens. Having been an independent for a number of years, and now part of the biggest corporate, the future will be interesting. Either way, as others have, in my opinion, rightly commented, the most important part of agency is service, doing what we say we will do, calling the vendors for regular feedback and giving regular post-viewing feedback. I have been shocked about the number of properties I have listed since Nov simply because so many of our competitors have failed to do just this. Not one vendor has asked what portals were are on, and we are on them all (less OTM of course). Not one. They ask what we will do for them, how we will do it and then want to see this being delivered. I wish all well with OTM – I really do. However without the main focus being on delivering great customer service, it doesn't really matter what portal anyone is on. They will lose market share.
Jam01…."Not one vendor has asked what portals we are on"…this is the very point that's been discussed to death for the best part of a year now and mainly stated by the OTM crowd, good to see that also now agree. It is of course all about service, portals are there to aid the agent, nothing more.
Forgive me….. the 2 posts previous to mine?…. from PeterGreatorex & Chrispy….. sadly I have to break this news to you and the portals you represent or work for?…. the property stock/inventory and the agent that places it make a portal…. if Rightmove cease trading today the public will move on and search elsewhere, if Zoopla cease trading the public will move on and search elsewhere….. if I move one of my estate agency offices to the other side of the street my clients will visit there instead of my old office?….. and so the wheel turns. Having discussed Property Portals and the arrival of OnTheMarket.com I can tell you that most of my clients are happy to trust MY judgement as they employed ME not the property portals to sell their home…. so, as OnTheMarket.com grows so Rightmove and Zoopla will fade like ageing lightbulbs, their perceived power failing…. and eventually they will sit glowing dimly in one small almost forgetton room at the once great Property Portal Towers with the few dinosaur employees left sitting there exchanging stories about the Property Kingdom they thought they ruled! Like it or not Portal Supporters…. your websites are simply Online Shop Windows…. and like the clients that we act for who are moving home….. we are moving home! My 2 Offices in High Street Locations now promote OnTheMarket.com as do my fellow agents….. Brand Awareness for OnTheMarket.com has started in the High Streets and your portals are being erased. The Magic Potion which you peddled as Magic was no more than a bottle of standard online marketing….. we're buying a different brand now, that isn't trying to be Magic….. it just does what we always wanted at a realistic price without the distracting Bells & Whistles! Pack your Magic Bags Magic Portals…. your ship is sailing soon!
gPl, I partly agree with you but.. And it's a big but…. The distracting bells and whistles aren't there to take up space or look pretty. Consumers use them. I had my OTM rep showing me the website and all the rest of it . IMO it's substantially worse than what's already there … There is substantially less information on OTM than the other two websites and the general public will make their decision whether or not they like this approach. Sadly I ant think of a single situation in business or buying where having less information is a good thing…I'd be happy to be stood corrected if you can think of one. I think this is why OTM is doomed to failure , it's 2014 , the Information Age. You can't try and just miss things out anymore
Maybe it actually being 2015 might put a different perspective on it?
I think agents don't understand the difference between price and value and I firmly believe both RM and Zoopla offer great value. I feel sorry for the clients whose agents are making the decision to leave them in the dark by making the move. On the upside, what a great canvassing opportunity for agents supporting
Zoopla and Rightmove who will offering a marketing solution reaching the widest
audience which is actually in the clients best interest – surely!?. Zoopla have invested £200m in 7 years to get the point they are at now. I give OTM 2 years max before their members realise what a disaster it will be for them. At that point I hope Zoopla charge 4 times the current rate for those agents to get back on board.
So Peter – 'Zoopla have invested £200m in 7 years to get the point they are at now' – where do you think this money came from? Private equity, major banks?
BrianP – Spot on, more boring drivel from 'businessmen' who wouldn't last 5 minutes in the real world, any agent worth his salt accepts that the main 2 portals have done a blo**dy good job to get to where they have and provide a tool that the public use, like and most importantly don't have an issue with.
Can't wait for the launch as it will be great to hear all you clowns on here talking about how the public are demanding that their property must be placed on OTM zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
this stuff is priceless. Why are all of you here if it as easy as you all believe? Why are you all not on your private beaches in the Caribbean?
As for the comments in this article, let me translate for you in a different way as it seems many have the rose tinted specs on 24/7.
Acorn CEO Robert Sargent said: “While it was an easy decision, it doesn’t leave me feeling good.”
Equals
We make a shed load of money from Rightmove so no chance we would drop them but also bucket load from Zoopla but have got ourselves in to a situation where we need to drop one for a few months to avoid egg of face. ***fingers crossed we don't lose to much market share and hopefully we can find a way out of this pickle***
OTM has certainly aroused plenty of interest but RM and Z have done nothing to address the causes of this shift = arrogance or ignorance?
Just going slightly off-topic however relevant I feel… looking at Zoopla's dwindling share price and their stock market value having dropped from just over 1 billion recently to under 700 million today… I read the share chat today and in particular I quote part of one comment "…..the only thing keeping this company afloat is there 'member fees' and inventory. Agents hold the power and are letting the likes of Zoopla and it's greedy C-Levels know they want control back. Sell". Meanwhile our infamous analysts…. one of whom had a target value only months ago of £3.20 is now re-targeting at £1.80!?….. forgive me….should the term analyst not be replaced with the word "observer"…. these are the very people who hyped the portals future value? Anyway…. my point comes back to the fact that in my view we are not trying to teach Zoopla or Rightmove a lesson, it is simply estate agents as consumers using a service as part of their overall marketing deciding that the ever increasing and unjustified costs together with (certainly in my case) poor service were no longer viable and with the arrival of OnTheMarket.com we saw an alternative which provided what we actually wanted…..a UK property portal that focussed on property and wasn't based on securing increasing annual profits to filter back to shareholder, directors and employees! As Zoopla's walls come tumbling down we must consider Rightmove's future position as we supply the inventory and member fees (see the earlier comment)…. Rightmove's deafening silence is a very clear indication of them trying to sale through stormy seas and endeavour to be a seen as a friend and not a foe! I will remember this fact about Rightmove….. during the property recession their fees never fell to accommodate estate agents shrinking income, they continued to increase annually and as we know they still do! So what if Rightmove go down the Autotrader route?….. forgive me but there will always be private sellers who think they can do as good a job as an estate agent?….. fine, that is their choice. I know this after almost 30 years in this business….. most good estate agents/estate agency businesses will survive as demonstrated through our last property recession as Homesellers out there do appreciate what we do… and if they don't it is up to us to deliver/excel on our service….. I know this!…..Rightmove don't sell my houses, they don't pay my bills, they don't work as hard as I do and they are no longer the only property portal in town! Be afraid Rightmove, Be very afraid….. you may have very deep pockets however we have the inventory and we pay your fees!…. there is a very cold wind coming your way. and just one teeny weeny extra through….Rightmove offering their "live data feed" out to other portals as a way of "helping" make portal uploads easier and saving us development costs…..yeah?….right!….. it's a scene from the remake of The Wizard of Oz with the song in the background playing "follow the Rightmove road……"…… and somewhere along there in the dark portal forest lies the Witch with the Pointy Rightmove Hat!….. cackling away! OnTheMarket.com should fly solo and avoid any links with Rightmove otherwise I fear there may well be a penalty to pay for playing friendly with the Witch!
Love it! – And some great points brought to life!
The thing that is concerning is my clients don't know when I close my office, I step into my Spaceship and head home to that Galaxy Far Far Away where there are No Rebels, No Darth Rightmove, No For Sale Boards!….. nothing!….. except a telephone, when it rings…. I never pick it up!….. probably "Are you due compensation…."
So all the fence sitters are waiting for what? Nearly all say they would love to switch to OTM but won't. Get to grips with all the benefits OTM offers you that RM does not. If you do not know why then speak to AM because clearly some haven't by the posts they make. And "Smile Please" you talk nonsense as and when it suits you.
Might be nonsense to you Woodentop but thought out business principles to me. What you are saying is "Don't worry about it, jump on board it will all be fine!" – that to me is nonsense and reckless.
I thought I would provoke a response SP. I do have my doubts about your authenticity. How do you find the time to be on this forum every hour? I was under the impression you only looked at it 7.00 am from previous post you made when challenged by others. JUMPING on board will not in any shape or form stop you or anyone from being an estate agent if in fact you are, will not drive your customers away and will certainly not be detrimental to your client vendors/landlords exposure on the web and of course you will still be on RM if you wish to stay with them as well. You have not come up with any creditable objection to date, which is where other successful business take the lead and so many have with OTM. You need to talk to AM and then come back and tell us why it will not work, then you might have some credibility and expose all those that have signed up, have made a mistake.
Pleased to not have disappointed you for once Woodentop! You have doubts about my authenticity? – You got me my name is Nora and I am a retired grandmother of 8! what does that even mean?! How am I on the site every hour? not sure I am but granted I do post a fair amount, keep the window open on my browser and check in every now and then, that okay with you? and yes I am in about 7am everyday and here till 8pm most days. I believe my reason for not signing up are credible as obviously I have not, at least one other poster feels the same. I have spoken to AM at length and other agents and i have also asked the contributors here at Eye to help with my concerns and its not been possible. But here's the thing woodentop i have not once critised you or a single member joining OTM but if i or anybody dares voice concerns you and a number of other posters resort to putting people down and questioning them. I have been incredibly consistent and balanced in my views and thoughts and expressed them as such. You and a number of other come across like little children who don't get there way. I would question if you are an agent some of your posts make me believe you are a rep for AM / OTM. Still i wont loose any sleep over your thoughts (you really are not that important to me) but its looks like doubters keep you awake and upset you daily. One thing may i ask what "Nonsense" do you believe i spout? and what's your reason behind why its nonsense?
Your prose says it all.
Has anyone considered that making Rightmove's market share weaker may just encourage them to opt into the business model where by the public can list their own property? The only thing that is stopping them now is the fact that they don't want to p**s off all of their customers, however if the very customers that you supply and up and leaving then the alternative model may be better, even more profitable than the first… Everyone could be creating a rod for their own back..
A fair point to raise……..but the type of seller that uses an onliner / budget agent is really a modern day private seller with a lad like Russell Quirk bunging them on RM, pre internet these sellers made a for sale board in their garage and put an ad in the local paper and RM has them on there now, all 2 % of the market. I suppose that if RM became a private sale site these people wouldn't need a budget onliner like easy jet they could keep their ten quid and give it to RM instead – Jonnie
So which agents are terrified of private listers? Anyone at all?
Maybe the reason the online lads haven't made it bigger yet is because they don't have the money to ram it down peoples throats – however, Rightmove, a house hold name, the go to place to sell your house, with millions of pounds of backing is now allowing you to do it yourself… now that's a different question. They wouldn't even need to charge much to out-do their current model – and who would be able to stop them? Scary prospect biting the hand that feeds you…
Am I terrified of private listers? January 2015 no I am not. But as an industry I do worry about the future. There is an appetite for private listing the formula at this time does not work. Maybe in 5 years the public will be more educated, more confident and a better offering is available to them. I would encourage every agent to keep private listing at bay and help keep it there.
If stock governs where the traffic goes – as AM agents repeatedly state – then it will go in even greater volume to RM because OTM will weaken Z's stock and even where 100% of agents drop Z, RM will still have at least the same amount of stock or more. In any event "stock governs where the traffic goes" is too simplistic an assumption – brand awareness and habit drives the majority of RM and Z traffic and OTM will not generate anywhere near the same awareness or break established search habits in the critical (IMO) first 3-6 months. The board of AM may be prepared for the long game but IMO agents will quickly start twitching if OTM's early effectiveness doesn't match their expectations or hype – and especially if they lose instructions to non AM agents. Another issue for AM agents will be staff morale – I bet there are many who have doubts about the wisdom of dropping Z, and especially RM, and they won't whitewash the issue if OTM doesn't quickly establish itself.
Harree, I agree with you when you say "OTM will not generate anywhere near the same awareness or break established search habits in the critical (IMO) first 3-6 months"… But I'm not sure that the first 3 -6 months is "critical" in the case of OTM as there is a 5 year commitment plan which gives a great amount of time to raise awareness massively. Also it isn't "critical" (in my view) because we are still advertising on Rightmove (majority) and Zoopla, who as you rightly say, have achieved the brand awareness required for our stock until OTM reaches that level awareness and public habits change in favour of OTM.
wilko, thanks (genuinely) for the engaging reply. The resolve to stay with the 5 year commitment, even for Gold agents, will IMO weaken if OTM doesn't quickly (3-6 months) start to meet expectations or at the very least not affect valuations and instructions. Walking away and losing £3,000 is immaterial and for non Gold's it's an even easier break. IMO some agents will leave OTM during the first 3-6 months and, depending on the volume doing so, will be critical to AM's ongoing success and morale.
I genuinely only get maybe 1 valuation from RM every month to 2 months (Ive just checked last 364 days for the office I am in now and 5 market appraisals leads sent)……. I actually get more from our own website (2 over the past week, no doubt as this is where the potential vendors judge us more)……… so I don't really follow why any estate agent will judge OTM on valuations obtained via the site…….surely your local presence is powerful enough that if a potential seller is getting 3 or 4 agents out you will be one of them……..if not, work on your local presence in supporting schools, other businesses, get sold boards up in prominent positions and have local residents recommend you and talk about the last great job you did for them……… I am not saying OTM is key here, as you sound as if you need to forget about website Harree and think differently? (just based on the above)
Only thing I will pick you up on Ric is you may have only had 2 valuation request from RM but how many opportunities has RM given you to obtain valuations from applicants registered. As much as I dislike RMs pricing structure this is often overlooked by agents.
I think he may be implying by saying "at the very least not affect valuations and instructions," that by being on OTM you risk LOSING valuations–not the ones that presently come through the portal websites, but ones where other (non-OTM) agents convince the vendors that they should seek maximum marketing of their home and therefore not sign with an agent not on RM/ZPG. Harree, sorry if I read that wrong.
Hi smile please….. Yes agreed there will have been countless phone calls, but then I go back to an argument I have said before on PIE and one RS of Acorn says above………. RM is often just an easy place for a house buyer or curious person to see more about the house where "that for sale sign was" or "their mate talked about" ……… and even if it was a direct visit to RM not lead via a different source first, without my stock or as they RM called it "Listings" the person would not phone me……..its all a bit chicken and egg I know……………… but for me property and estate agents can survive without RM, but RM cannot survive without property and estate agents.
Very true, We can survive without RM but RM cannot survive without us! – It might get home to them one day!
I agree with with GPL. However, I think many of the 'fence sitters' are firms like mine ( 6 offices ) who have only ever been on one portal, (in our case RM), and the major corporates. For Firms like mine, dropping RM in favour of OTM would be suicide at the moment & signing up with OTM as well would just create a considerable additional overhead. Having said that, I am absolutely 100% behind what OTM are trying to achieve and am hoping that they gain enough traction to allow us to drop RM in favour of OTM. I have never been able to fully comprehend why Agents have ever felt the need to be on RM and Z, I can honestly say that I have never had a member of my staff complain that we have lost an instruction because we were not on both.
If OTM can get enough traction to enable every Company like mine to cross over, then the Corporates will have to follow because it's the Independents that carry the the best quality and the most stock.
So, I sincerely wish OTM all the best for next week and hope that my 'fence sitting' days will soon be over!
Another significant shift of stock from Z to OTM….Who's continuing the swing o meter analysis today?
We can now see that with 32 Acorn Branches at an average of £600 per branch that takes around £230,000 of annual membership fees over to the centre ground held by OTM and deals another crushing blow for Zoopla in their London and the South east heartland but will this be indicitive across the whole of the UK, tune in for more portal news as and when it comes in……
RM maybe big but are despised by many agents, Zoopla will go pop in the summer and RM the same in 2016. They both made hay while the sun shined but at least 5000 agents have seen the light. Any stupid agent fixing rates with RM now is being led by the hand up the garden path.
…. and into a bed of roses – just watch!
"the decision to stick with Rightmove appears reluctant" I can relate to this, I actually want to cease with Rightmove, but the business head is leaning towards Zoopla as it would seem that most agents are getting rid of the latter; and there is merit in following the crowd.
I still wonder what on earth it takes to get the vast majority of UK Estate Agents to get on board OnTheMarket? As a small Independent Estate Agent (in Scotland) we committed to OTM in Dec 2013…. we invested along with thousands of others to build up the £6 Million start-up funding…. and then others have joined up since then…. clearly not all? Watching the decline of Zoopla is absolute proof that it is the property stock/estate agency members who drive the portals in terms of where the product is displayed online…. as we must be intelligent, what on earth are the fencesitters waiting for?…. those, including our own small company, that committed our money have opened the door for others to follow…. we don't need praise, we don't need a pat on the back…. we DO NEED the fencesitters to GET ON BOARD OnTheMarket.com!…. in order that we as UK Estate Agents can get this portal nonsense sorted! The reality is the No 1 Portal Position is in our hands and the public will get on board when the Online Shop Window moves from Rightmove to OnTheMarket.com….. this is no cartel, this is simply the business of wanting a property focussed portal that serves our clients at a reasonable price without the features/3rd party advertisers that are there to drive shareholder profit & distract from our clients properties. All these grand announcements from estate agents delisting from Zoopla etc are fine however let's not kid ourselves…. OnTheMarket.com is all about the No 1 Portal and the sooner we get to the Tipping Point and crossing over the better! I didn't invest our company's money lightly, I haven't spent time, effort and more money branding OTM in my branches, newspaper and local magazine ads for fun!…. I am in this 100% so whether you are a big or small estate agent….. just on this one occasion…. can we put aside the personal competition, the browny point scoring and GET THIS DONE! OnTheMarket.com is here so it really is in our own hands to make it the No 1 Portal and then get back to the business of real estate agency! Surely the fencesitters get this?….. those who have already committed have opened the door for you! And for The Big Boys making these announcements?…. the announcement I WANT TO HEAR is when you part company with Rightmove. I have remained on a monthly contract with Rightmove from Day 1…. always with the aim of hopefully walking away!…. I have resisted their & Zoopla's efforts to tie me in because I support OnTheMarket.com 100%!….. I made a substantial committment from the Small Firm position so Big Firms & Fencesitters?….. it's time for you to step forward! It's the Big Firms that Rightmove will be sucking up to however just for once!…… those firms MUST forego self-interest and instead serve the interests of the UK Estate Agency market. Special mention to those estate agents in the North of England & Wales who have created their own Tipping Point and ditched Rightmove!….. I really want to hear more from them as they deserve to be heard loudly & clearly!
Spot on and very well put. For the life of me I just can't understand why the fence sitters don't get it. This is a one off opportunity. If we don't make this happen we will forever be at the mercy of the portals and all the problems they create.
GPL – I like what you say and admire you for putting your money where your mouth is. I am one of the fence sitters and I will say why I at least have not at this time committed to OTM (at some point I hope to) 1. No direction – I understand the long term goal and support it, but I have not heard how it will get there or milestones that need to be achieved by x date. 2. Cost – its actually almost twice the price for me to drop Z and back OTM. 3. Z is not the problem RM is – If agents are not dropping RM now why will they in the future. 4. I don't trust the board – Sorry I just don't, too many dreams sold not enough direction and I do not believe 1 vote etc. 5. The effect it will have on other portals – Will this push them into more direct to market advertisers? 6. The blinkered approach some agents are approaching OTM – They just follow not question. 7. Market Share – Will I loose market share to agents on both RM & Z? 8. Unproven – How long till the bugs and clitches are sorted. 9. Lack of transparency – Adverts how much % will be attributed to advertisements rather than "Running costs" 10. I don't believe in it enough – I love the idea and the claims but I just cant see how OTM will get to number 1, I know how hard it is to arrange a curry for 5 mates on a place, day, time. Trying to get 1000's of agents at some point to switch off RM will be a herculean task. Other fence sitters may have other reservation but these are my top 10 – I got excited the other day when Ric mentioned at some point stage 2 is to ditch RM – This did get me excited and if the roll out process at least addressed the RM issues in some depth as opposed to break up duelopoly it may have been enough for me to risk it.
Completely agree with your points which is why I too am one of those "fence sitters". I have to agree that I too don't trust the board… by Ian Spingett's own words, the smaller independent agents are the rent payers. So why would it be in the interest of the larger multi branch agents who are spearheading OTM to save us fee's? He already said they receive preferential rates… Something just doesn't add up. It would be nice to know what he's earning at the moment for a company that hasn't even launched. Point 6 is bob on – some people on here are acting like young patriotic Scots voting in the former referendum with no clue other than "FREEDOM!", has anyone actually done their research? The main point is that none of this matters unless OTM beats Rightmove and unfortunately I just don't see that happening. I heard a good saying on Dragons Den once "When an elephant sits down, get out the way."
Q: Have you ditched RM yet?
Well said GPL ! Like you we are a small independent agent that has seen our monthly RM subscription rise from £150 at inception to over £1000 for both sales and lettings. We have ditched Z and have stripped all our add-ons from RM who have advised their rates are increasing again in April. This is when we expect to drop RM as well because the public will quickly catch on to who holds the most up to date available stock and only one national portal is required.
I really cannot understand why any entrepenurrial agent wouldn't want to support a portal that will hand back control of his business to him (or her).
You've hit the nail on the head there by referring to 'entrepreneurial agent', sadly many aren't.
Looks a well thought out argument and one we will all be giving a great deal of time to over the next months and years. My guess is that he is right about RM. They will be a private site within a few years and I'm sorry to see Z go but cannot see any way they can survive.
Sorry but this particular story has crossed the border into the plain daft spectrum. There is simply nothing risky about dropping Rightmove and to claim so is akin to a petulant child not being able to face their first day at school without their favouritist teddy bear of comfort blanket.
“HMS Illustrious, HMS Illustrious, HMS Illustrious, this is day skipper Sargent I insist you put about at once, I am on starboard and have right of way!”
If you were in a heavily dominated Rightmove area and all your competitors were on Rightmove, would you ditch them? You would be ripped apart on valuations.
Nah- Not so, that works for single office firms but multiple office firms have a problem where their fringe offices are in a Zoopla favoured area. What is the message those valuers can put out?
OTM has ZERO traffic, how do you expect a business (that relies on portal traffic) to survive without said portal traffic? Are you stupid?
Yes thanks, I am incredibly stupid, but I am satisfied from all your gobbing off on here that I am at least smarter than you. Selling property is not about portal traffic, Estate Agency is a service industry based on selling to those already known to an Agent ( YOU will have trouble understanding that, an Agent won't) Property portals only introduce applicants unknown to an agent. Any agent reliant on Rightmove or Zoopla for anything more than that does not survive for very long. Thanks to 4000+ branch contracts OTM has a 5 year , bills paid, tenure. It doesn’t need traffic!!!!
In all your postings you have never made the simplest of logical jumps in understanding how Estate Agency is more like the service department of a car dealership than forecourt sales. Until you do you are the fool on here not me. Being smart enough to understand eventually you will be embarrassed by your repeated and un-erasable postings of arrogance, naivety and industry ignorance. I don’t expect your ego will allow you to thank an idiot for helping with your education but then I am pleased enough to have helped.
Not true, I buy 1 BTL property each year, most of the local agent don't know my plans. Therefore if there properties are not on the portal I use, I will not know about it.
I am interested in an area that covers many branches of some agents, but the agents branches are not interested in me, as if I buy some anther branch, they don't get the bonus.
ringi – You buy 1 btl prop a year …… Let me guess why, you do your research, find a bargain and snap it up. News for you we can all sell that property 10 times over!
You need to learn how to be an applicant! By that I mean the sort of applicant that negotiators have on their mobiles and who they call when the come out of instructions and on their mind when they go in. Somehow you are as credible as Portal Person.
You say ringi will not be one of your "preferred applicants" Tike Nick 😉
Tike Nick. I imagine I have forgotten more than you will ever know about most things. Spouting off insults toward me won't help your stupidity 🙂
You are probably correct but in this industry it is game set and match to me, here you are the enthusiastic slow learner and please believe me those are observations rather than insults but it helps you get over the fact that here Simon Shinerock is more respected than you so be it.
Portal Person…."Spouting off insults toward me won't help your stupidity :)"…..tell me does it help with yours when you do it?????
Shock news: OTM has ZERO traffic……. I will be writing to AM to ask why OTM has had no traffic and visits, it is a disgrace I have not had a single lead from them yet so concur with PortalPersons findings…… I thank PortalPerson for bringing this to my attention……….. I thought them [AM] getting the stock before launching to give people a reason to visit sounded like a good idea…….I am stupid too!
Are we done now PortalPerson? This is embarrassing even by your (low) standards.
PropertyPundit – what are you on about? …… Ric… really, you're going to argue semantics, you again crack me up with your intelligence or lack thereof and your fanboyish attitude to all things OTM?
PortalPerson…… simple question then as I am daft and you say "OTM has ZERO traffic, how do you expect a business (that relies on portal traffic) to survive without said portal traffic? Are you stupid?"………………… as a tech person……. would you expect a website which has not launched to have had traffic which could be considered an indicator to its future success?….
Member agents know the traffic will not be great in the early days which is why they are also on another portal e.g. Rightmove. The public will find the site in a matter of weeks. I think the problem is with techies is they think selling a property is the hard bit. Its not, the hard bit is getting instructions! – you can sell most houses 3 times over its the instruction you want. I had this debate with a PPC sales person telling me I need to drive 1000's to my website. He could not understand it when I said I don't want purchasers I want potential sellers. Suddenly his 200 clicks for "Houses for sale" were not relevant I wanted "Sell my house" which are infinitely lower. Estate agency is like no other business, this is why all these new offerings fail because they look at it from the wrong angle. Take Eye's latest "Partner" rateragent nobody wants it! Houser, its free! – Big deal!
prediction…… we will all come off rightmove within 2-3 years and they will become a private listing site.
zoopla are going to have to reinvent themselves or go under. shame as they were far nicer to deal with than RM
been saying this for months. 🙂
Me to but every time I suggested such an idea was jumped upon. No agent in their right mind needs to be advertising on RM when OTM can do the job and the public has switched. Only time will tell if they do but all those agents that have signed up, agreed to cease RM advertising after the 26th even if they stay with them.
OTM can't do the job this is the point. It won't be able to do the job until it has traffic, it won't have sizable traffic until people can find it, it can't be found without first having it's few months in a sandbox while google works out what to do with it. It's simple science, every other website on the planet has been through it but OTM and their members think they will somehow be different? …. cracks me up every time
PortalPerson: What are you talking about?…………….. When/Where/Who has said OTM will NOT need some time, effort and money to gain traffic and become recognised…………. Some of the stuff you say with reference to techy issues seems good, but then you say things like the above to make out OTM agents believe OTM will be Googles most searched website by the 27th January…………………. the comments referencing OTM as a number 2 portal relate to the stock share NOT Google or anything search related…….. now you have seen RM today suggest listings are what excites and keeps their audience……… forget your tech brain use a bit of common sense……………….. why send traffic to a website with no content? Equally why have a website with content and no traffic – either way ask yourself…………. What should a property portal ensure it has on launch day to keep the audience interested?………………….What will make said audience come back or say to a friend "hey have you seen that website it has loads of….." ……………
An excellent summary of the situation.
The relationship between RM & agent is like a love-less marriage. Whilst currently we both need each other, sentiment changes and eyes wander to a new "need". The 73p in each £1 paid to RM which does not touch/impact upon the business operation shows a "unhealthy" situation for the agent's well being.
Completely agree with this – it has been my belief all along that agents bring the public to the portals by (I) listing on chosen portals and (ii) promoting those portals. How many other suppliers receive so much brand awareness and free advertising from their customers?
Then the other story will compound that RM think this themselves BUT still chose not to actually say it…… PBJ says "Unlike a traditional publisher, Rightmove does not create lots of editorial features to attract advertising: “Our users tell us our listings are so interesting they don’t think of it is as advertising.”…………………………..stock is everything and RM continue to sound arrogant in not pointing out we owe ALOT to our advertising agents.