An online agent’s description of high street firms as “smug, suited slime-balls” has been removed from its page on Rightmove after EYE raised the issue with the portal.
Yesterday, EYE found that BetterMove, headquartered in Swansea, described itself on Rightmove, saying:
“Introducing our friendly online estate agents *takes a bow*
“It’s no secret that estate agents have got a terrible reputation, so our online estate agency have ditched the usual commission-based model and instead we focus on fixed-fee pricing and a quality service – we’re committed to proving all the naysayers wrong!
“Any reference to estate agents tends to conjure up visions of smug, suited, slime-balls, making unrealistic and over-enthusiastic promises – then sitting with their feet up on the desk instead of actually doing anything to sell your home.
“It’s fine; we’re not offended… but you have our promise that at BetterMove, we do things differently.
“We know that while easing the financial implications of selling up is a big help, that isn’t necessarily enough to convince you of our worth. So we’ve developed our core values around you, the customer, to ensure that you get honest, straightforward advice and support every step of the way.”
EYE contacted Rightmove, which swiftly removed all the text other than the first sentence.
Yesterday evening a spokesperson for Rightmove said: “We provide all agents with clear rules on what they are allowed to reference in their agent descriptions. We immediately removed this text as it goes completely against these rules.”
However, a spokesperson for BetterMove told EYE that the glitch could be blamed on Rightmove’s own systems. He said it was old text that should not have been showing, and that the firm had changed all of its wording.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/estate-agents/agent/Bettermove/Nationwide-102082.html
Comments (18)
Hello everyone, what I am about to say will make me deeply unpopular.
I think all traditional estate agents should offer a two tier fee system
first the traditional “full agency service” at you normal fees and
second a cheap fixed fee service.
Before you click the dislike button (which I may well do myself in any event) consider this.
If you have a vendor who wants to control their own sale, chase solicitors, buyers and surveyors and do their own viewings and therefore feel they should pay less for a reduced service as all they want is the advertising & marketing well why aren’t we offering them this?
Consider for a moment, you go out to a market appraisal and offer your best advice on asking price and likely selling price, the vendor nods and agrees with you and before you know it, the property is up for sale with…… yep you guessed it an on line agent.
Why?
Well when you go to a market appraisal it has something to do with selling the property, of course, but mostly it’s about the vendor and what they want. If you didn’t sign them up why? was it you, your fees, your pricing, your agency ?
It was you, it always is every time.
No you won’t win every instruction, of course not. No one ever does.
Not every vendor wants a cheap alternative to your full agency service, in fact I recon about 15% to 20% of your market place want a reduced service the rest want you to do what you do best and are happy to pay for a good service.
So consider this, do you dig your heals in and say to hell with it or do you reflect our changing world?
Like I said I don’t like what I am writing, but I don’t think we can afford to ignore our market either.
there i did it i clicked dislike to my own words.
PP
No ‘Dislike’ from me (no ‘Like’ either, mind – jury still considering) – just a question or two:
Have you implemented this approach yourself?
If ‘yes’ – how is it working?
If ‘no’ – why not?
Look forward to your response.
Just starting it now trying £699 (pay upfront) with advertising, brochures, boards and arranging the viewings. After that it’s down to the vendors.
We offer them a load of info, tips and encourage them to phone us if they hit a sticky patch,
rolling out radio, newspaper advertising and leaflets too tell everyone they can choose their preferred service.
So far
Not one taker, they prefer their estate agents to do the whole job. I’ve taken on a few properties with the vendors having the full knowledge they could do it for themselves if they wanted.
But it’s early days and the general selling market are over 50 years of age (may or may not be relevant!)
I have been deliberating this this for 18 months and I finally came to the conclusion, it’s not what we want it’s what the clients wants and it our job to satisfy their requirements not dictate what we will or won’t do.
I think as the younger market become home owners and sellers they will come to expect a choice in how they dispose of their assets. If they have free time and the energy then why not let them do it themselves? If they are working 50 plus hours a week and need to move they would probably rather pay for the kind of service that does everything for them (traditional service).
Finally if you are anything like me, you don’t want to see the likes of PB succeeding if they do it our fault for being inflexible.
“Just starting it now trying £699 (pay upfront)…”
Why £699? Isn’t that just undercutting for the sake of it?
sorry for the slow reply
yes and no,
yes it’s cheap and
no; and this is something I haven’t mentioned before.
Traditional estate agents aren’t known for charging a poultry amount (£699, £800 etc) and at present the general public see a clear division between the two camps. At the moment I am not being considered for fixed fee services even though I have leafleted and every MA ive attended the vendor ism’t interested in this service.
Therefore I have to assume the vendors that want a low cost alternative aren’t looking at traditional high street agents at the moment.
The thing to do is ask me again in three months.
“New polling by Ipsos MORI shows that politicians remain the profession least trusted by the British public, below estate agents, journalists and bankers.”
A new PeeBee poll shows that when most blokes walk forwards, an @r$£ lags in second place behind a pr!ck.
What’s your point?
https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/politicians-are-still-trusted-less-estate-agents-journalists-and-bankers
Well done PIE! End of the day you are a journalist too!
New polling by Ipsos MORI shows that politicians remain the profession least trusted by the British public, below estate agents, journalists and bankers.
When you say “New polling” do you mean 2 years ago? You could work for the online brigade “Newly listed”
And people wonder why high street agents do not have a love affair with on-liners. Shall we see the caped duo Ducky and Lamb conjure up some response in support for BetterMove?
I’m not Ducky or Lamb, but from what I’ve seen, high street agents aren’t kind in what they have to say about on-liners either.
>Shall we see the caped duo Ducky and Lamb conjure up some response in support for BetterMove?
Don’t get me started.
>making unrealistic and over-enthusiastic promises
over-enthusiastic? Nothing to worry about then, just a little bit of innocent over-enthusiasm when it comes to valuing your property or telling you how busy they are and about all the people they have lined up interested in properties like yours. Bless them.
That’s OK, when you’ve had no viewings they’ll suggest you reduce the price without even blinking 🙂
‘when you’ve had no viewings they’ll suggest you reduce the price‘ Come on then Einstein, how else do you generate interest in a property? Cut the lawn? Shampoo the carpets? Chuck out all the clutter?
Nothing to worry about then, just a little bit of innocent over-enthusiasm when it comes to valuing your property or telling you how busy they are and about all the people they have lined up interested in properties like yours. Bless them.
I wondered how you were going to throw PB into the story.
Shame on Bettermove.
Shame on Rightmove.
Im so disapointed at Rm approach to the onliners.
I wrote to North Support at rightmove about this on 28.6.17 to highlight what they were saying but they did absolutely nothing about it.
Next time enroll the help of pit bull terriers at PIE 🙂
Don’t you just love the denial from Bettermove ‘However, a spokesperson for BetterMove told EYE that the glitch could be blamed on Rightmove’s own systems. He said it was old text that should not have been showing, and that the firm had changed all of its wording.
…apparently theirs and Rightmove technology now write their own text. Now that is Artificial Intelligence!
That they ever wrote and published the derogatory text confirms they are NOT the bettermove when deciding which agent to sell your home with.
Bettermove? No Thanks! I’ll choose a professional Estate Agent instead.
Well spotted PIE.