Rummage4Property has launched – with the softly, softly, announcement made by founder Robert May in a post on EYE yesterday.
May said in his post: “We launched very quietly on 1st March with a number of builders and agents.
“We are growing organically expanding at a pace we can cope with dealing with the inevitable challenges of moving from a beta system through a UX phase where we are changing and modifying things.”
May later told EYE: “The launch last week was more of a consolidation. We finished the last of the phase 1 elements and are now slowly piecing together a userbase of innovators and early adopters, agents from the full range of agency types and models, independents, corporates, franchise, traditional, online and hybrid.
“Each of the customers we are taking on are beta partners who are tolerant of delays and are working different elements.
“There isn’t much to report or see – we are simply getting stability into the system before we start to open up to a wider audience.”
Rummage4, which has been some time in its development without receiving any kind of financial backing, has drawn great industry curiosity and support.
However, it is yet to be drawn on its exact business model. It appears to promise some kind of cost-saving alternative to the portals, and we understand there will be more detail before long.
Comments (65)
Just seen this about Rightmove boss departure. Has this already been covered on here as I don’t recall seeing it?:
https://www.onlinemarketplaces.com/articles/24197-Rightmove-chairman-Scott-Forbes-leaves-in-wake-of-shareholder-troubles
What is fascinating is that R4 & Robert haven’t made bold and outlandish claims, either in terms of what they will deliver or how fast they grow, yet this moderate approach of slowly developing their product, testing with a myriad of agency models and developing from there appears to be a disgrace to many readers. Whilst it does not follow the build fast/fail fast model of almost all tech today with huge early rises and bonkers pre-revenue valuations (which get an even bigger kicking on here) there appear to be a lot of angry people. I am also somewhat mystified by the myriad of agents who think any portal/listing service should apparently be run as a non-profit – why is this? Do we work as not profits?!? Good luck to Robert & the team in the coming weeks and months as this continues to evolve.
It would also be quite nice for some of those with the strongest negative opions to come out from behind the pseudonym and tell us who you really are- after all what are you so afraid of?
Sounds like it’s going to be amazing. I’d love to develop an Australian version down the track with you Robert.
it would be sensible to be talking to me now
Sent you an email via the Rummage4 Website.
Good luck to the Rummage4 team!
Good luck to them.
It is quite disheartening the way anything/anyone trying to bring in something new gets slaughtered on sites like these. It makes no sense. Many complain about RM, Z and OTM but when anyone who takes on a challenge to bring in something to help address these issues they get shot down. It’s pretty unpleasant to watch. I completely understand constructive criticism/feedback is needed. I also understand new things might not be everybody’s cup of tea straight away – that is fine. The same will apply to members of the public, they will either love, hate or not care either way. It is about giving agents and everyone else that choice (and a couple of alternatives to RM for a start). From the bits I have seen it is looking good. OK there are broken links but we know they will be fixed in time. At least now part of the concept has been revealed and it is looking pretty good. My one question to Robert is this, will it take our properties from portals or just each agent’s website via Google and those other locations? At least that is how I am assuming it works. @cyberduck, I don’t know the history between you and the developer (Mr May) and you often make some really valid points (maybe it is because you have more knowledge of these things compared to the rest of us?). All I would say is maybe let’s wait and see what the final thing is when it is fully live and working as intended? Maybe give them a break if a link isn’t working before making a final judgement? Our own site has problems like these all the time and can imagine they (rummage) are most definitely aware. It is catch 22 I suppose, you can test it forever on an offline site where you will never see faults that will only occur when live, or bite the bullet and see how it fairs when live (hense their soft launch I am guessing) and then deal with it. I personally like seeing and trying anything new. It costs nothing but a little time and if its not for me I move on. If we ever want things to change for the better then we need to get behind ideas and give them a chance to at least bed in and see how they develop.
One last thought, if something developed by someone so known and well respected in the industry gets this god help anyone trying to break in from outside the industry.
The real agents don’t snipe at Rummage, Anthony, just the peculiar assortment of non agent posters who couldn’t do the job if if their lives depended on it, yet have for some reason best known to themselves developed a fetish for this site.
I think Americans refer to this character type as Cucks.
Well said. One particular poster on here is obsessively seething with jealousy – honestly, it’s actually destroying them – and would say anything to see it fail. It absolutely won’t.
Hi Property Pundit. Do you have a personal interest or involvement in Rummage4 ?
I only ask as you are very defensive about the non-believers on the thread.
Good luck to Robert and the portal, it will be interesting to see how it pans out. As others have said, if it offers a viable alternative to Rightmove et al then it can only be a good thing.
Hey NotAdoctor32, I know how to spot winning ideas after many years serving the industry and I give them as much support as I can to help them succeed. For this reason you won’t see me promoting the dying & fading online sector.
‘I only ask as you are very defensive about the non-believers on the thread‘
If they knew what I know, they wouldn’t be non-believers.
‘if it offers a viable alternative to Rightmove‘
Oh, it does SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much more than that.
The broken links are us turning stuff on and off as we build, test and change. Its all part of making MVP into a live product.
One of the things that slow us up is feeds from CRM systems, we are not stealing or scraping data, we are having to build feeds from CRM systems and bespoke housebuilder feeds. All the data is there because we have sat with people, showed them what we are doing and they have signed up to the service we offer.
Thank you for your understanding of what we are faced with and thank you for the post If you want to have a detailed run through please ask Ros to forward your contact details to me.
>The broken links are us turning stuff on and off as we build, test and change. Its all part of making MVP into a live product.
Why didn’t you get things you know aren’t working to work before release?
Just can’t get my head around why you would release with known problems like the ones I found within 30 seconds.
>we are simply getting stability into the system before we start to open up to a wider audience
It’s there for the whole world to see. No mention of it being in beta on the website.
rummaged for “new build” properties “oops something went wrong” on every listing.
“no image available” for 10 of the properties out of the first 18 properties.
That’s with just a 2 second test.
Never seen such a poorly tested release in over 30 years in the business. 4 years waiting for this? Damaging to the reputation of fine companies like Redrow.
As you know cyberduck46, I am a Subscriber to Robert May’s rummage4.
What feeds your personal agenda against Robert/rummage4?
So what are you saying? i have a personal agenda so ignore what I say?
I’ve got 30 years experience in IT and I’d be ashamed if I put something like that before the public and then went and announced it to the trade press.
How would you feel if a web development company put a website together for you and it went live and looked like that?
You test things in house. A completely amateurish release if you ask me.
But you are entitled to you own opinion which is?
As I am actually working in Estate Agency it is my choice how I develop my business, what tech I choose/or don’t, where I advertise/or don’t …..you get the idea cyberduck.
I have chosen to Subscribe to Robert May’s rummage4 and I will be able to judge its value as it develops.
I don’t wish to be with Rightmove for well documented reasons, and will ditch Rightmove as a supplier, however it’s my choice when/how/whether I make or don’t make a particular decision whether business related or personal.
I ride thousands of miles each year on my motorbikes and every decision I make whilst riding is mine, so far I’m still alive and riding …….if I trusted other roads users I would be dead by now, many times over!
I read your comments however until you ditch the underlying bitterness directed at rummage4/Robert May, how can I or any others judge your comments as being valid.
If you have an amazing “tech offering” then you know where I am, you can email me and explain why your product or service will deliver better results than others.
On a separate note you alluded to my “bitterness” about Purplebricks ……forgive me, when a company uses marketing to mislead and only tries to mimic real estate agents, to try and “piggy back” onto Our Industry to enrich themselves ……. you can’t think I won’t call them out? Don’t confuse bitterness with a genuine concern to provide “balance”.
My “balance” may well be delivered with passion/drive however its not based on some level of bitterness.
Life’s too short for bitterness, bitterness serves no useful purpose.
The property sector desperately needs solutions to actual problems that the portals and others have steered to protect their own, not their clients best interests.
Anyone who can change this for a fair price and for the benefit of the sector has my vote no matter how long it takes to get right.
I trust Robert May as he has already shown integrity and commitment to our sector at a considerable personal cost to himself without reward.
He has taken a huge gamble based on faith, considerable experience, and expertise and perhaps you should consider taking a small gamble if the status quo is ever to be truly broken?
All the best, Robert!
Thank you
This rummage setup should have been set up as a non profit making organisation run by estate agents who have been voted in by other Estate Agents. Only then would all agents back this.
Even though the intentions may be good, I can’t see this taking off as agents love being shafted by property portals, especially by RM.
But good luck with the venture Robert.
rummage4 HAS been set up benefit agents and housebuilders, the costs are being kept as keen as possible and everyone pays the same.
It is important that a business is run properly and well and has the motivation of profit. but that said I have build a system that gives the stakeholders the choice of profiting from what I have built or protecting theimselves. I do not get a vote on the ultimate destiny of rummage4, the members have the controlling vote.
But what does it actually do??
It does things. Beautiful things. Really beautiful things. Honestly, they’re beautiful things. And biggly. Very, very biggly. It’s gonna be great!
I did enquire what it was and just got the holding email of “Thank you for your enquiry and we will be in touch”. That was about a month ago and nothing since then. Is this just a teaser campaign or is there any substance?
Sorry RentBoy. I have had a word please enquire again and ask the enquiry is passed to me.
I have a directory of #local estate agent that says who sells/lets what and where and I put their individual listings on the internet.
I am able to show who has sold what and verify that against a unique to me clean of errors and duplications set of land registry data.
I am able to bring forward any one of 24,000,000 historical transactions and provide a house price index indication of how a particular outcode (plus1) has performed in the time since a previous completion.
I provide a system to help agents win instructions and control their costs, I reinforce an agents digital branding and internet presence
I also enquired on Feb 25th, Robert, and got the same holding response and nothing else since.
Having just fired RM I’m looking at all options.
please ask Ros to forward an email to me. I will reply personally
Given the way Robert works, and those of you who know him will know what I mean, the launch of R4 matches his MO. Methodical and with a lack of unnecessary froth. Like all things it needs to be judged on what it does, not what auto detractors think it might.
Trouble with some people is they want it now and instant birth. Anyone who jumps in with two big feet … ends up in a mess and open to a volley of critisism. It takes years of careful planning and innovation (always evolving) to launch a business venture sucessfully, those that don’t often fail miserably. The proof of the pudding it was Robert eventually puts down on the table for the industry to use, he and anyone else would be foolish to offer something that still needs work and for people to critisize on something they haven’t seen, is nothing more than being a TROLL.
Respectfully, maybe Mr. May should focus less on commenting on every article in PIE and more on building his business? To be fair I heard good things about him, but his hyper activity in PIE doesn’t make him look good.
And honestly , what is wrong with your homepage? Just at least add “about us or something”. It looks like it is made by a 10 year old. You could do better! Make it real…
Got to love the armchair expert! Now get back to work before your boss notices you spending time on here.
If you don’t like it … thats your problem. PIE serves its purpose very well. Next you will be asking for the colour purple logo.
i don’t get this secrecy. How can one have an honest / helpful approach and hide things at the same time? This is the weirdest launch process ever. Unless somebody can give examples of another successful venture with similar approach?
From today’s national news…. Huawei? They arrived pretty stealthily?
LMAO… no comments…
I don’t believe there is any cynical “secrecy” involved with this project.
Of course as with any new ( or even established ) business, there is an element of confidentiality for perfectly reasonable commercial reasons.
That said, I have always found the team at Rummage4 to be completely open and straightforward. If they do not know the answer to a question – they say so. They also appear very willing to genuinely listen to comments and criticisms in my experience.
We have had numerous conversations with them and they do appear to have something that is genuinely different and potentially valuable to estate agents and the general public.
We may or may not proceed with them, but have no doubt that these people are very serious. Above all they are, in my experience, honest and happy to engage on a direct basis. I would urge all agents, corporate, independent and franchise models ( whatever those over used phrases mean! ) to connect with them and listen to what they have to say.
I believe that their cautious and realistic approach is a credit to them.
whatever man 🙂
Oh joy. I am transported back to about 1968. Far out man!
Cool dude.
Simon,
Have you ever been told that you will get your pages listed at number one or high up in the listings on Google?
Have you asked them what this is worth in terms of enquiries?
Comments from the company suggest this is part of their marketing strategy to talk about positions in Google. The question is though whether these positions are worth anything. The “top positions” I’ve seen beeing achieved are for search terms that get zero or very little traffic. So pretty worthless.
There seems to be a lot of secrecy about this aspect. By asking Estate Agents to get in touch with them rather than answer questions publicly they are perhaps excluding people with relevant expertise in internet marketing are they not? We all know how a salesman likes to get one on one with their prospect.
What’s clear is that you’ve never launched anything commercially in your life ever.
How much does EYE get paid for these adverts?
Just to be clear – again – no company or individual can purchase editorial space in the news column of EYE. If we bring you a story that contains an element of promotion (almost inevitable in many cases because the writer or source or quote is from an industry supplier) then that is because we consider that the story or opinion has genuine news value. You may not always agree with our choices but the judgement call on a particular piece is always made with its news value in mind.
Nick, appreciate you have the right to be subjective and also, you need to fill your pages but where was the ‘genuine news value’ in this? Simply because the main protagonists behind Rummage (whatever it is – still not sure) spend an inordinate amount of their time posting comments in your media, doesn’t make them newsworthy.
Nail on the head right here.
It’s managed to get over 30 posts (so far) – More than any other story today, so I would suggest that the interest/’Newsworthiness’ has been proven.
Click bait Mr Hedgehog, clickbait…..
No one is holding a gun to your head GH78. If you aren’t interested don’t read/comment on it.
Touche, Mr Hedgehog, touche…
Respectfully I totally disagree with the first two comments.
it’s very refreshing to hear of a launch of an estate agency service that is not claiming to immediately “disrupt” and take over the world within a few weeks!
The people behind this project are experienced individuals with integrity, credibility and real business acumen.
Thier pragmatic approach will increase their chances of success.
Thank you Simon, that comment alone makes it all worthwhile; being respected for who you are, what you do and how you do it is the most valuable thing anyone can earn.
I agree…if something is worth doing it’s worth doing well. That takes time. PIE reports on what we in the industry are likely to be interested in….and many of us independents are very interested in something that has been developed to support us and our businesses.
The first two disparaging posts are by people not interested in the best interests of the majority of the industry.
‘The first two disparaging posts are by people not interested in the best interests of the majority of the industry‘.
Along with all the non-entities busy clicking thumbs down on this thread. Get a life, you know you might just deserve one.
Grow up
Well said Simon!!!
Simon
I completely agree with you disruption doesn’t come overnight, but requires a good idea, an audience that is ready for change and the team delivering the solution to have domain experience and the desire to succeed.
The team behind this initiative are certainly capable of making this technology work and supporting agents and overtime disrupting the portals
Great work Robert and Anthony
Comedy gold.
That micro-second of excitement when you clicked ‘POST COMMENT’ is about as exciting as your life gets, right?
Comedy gold #2.
The never ending saga, what is it now 4 years?
‘There isn’t much to report or see’ Yet it’s still worth yet another publicity piece by PIE ?
Storm Freya has blown some rocks over and look who’s crawled out! Welcome back ‘Splashn’dash’ Dom! So Dom, while we have your attention, did you pile in when your favourite stock fell below £1 recently? Did they sell your more recent project or are you still using two agents to shift them on?
Cynical comment DP 134. What have YOU done to help to improve our industry?