OnTheMarket announces record estate agency recruitment

| Rosalind Renshaw

OnTheMarket achieved a record level of traffic in January and achieved the highest recruitment of contracted offices since January last year.

Total visits were in excess of 6m, with 2.8m unique visitors, as measured by Google Analytics.

The figures include a record number of visits to the newly updated OnTheMarket.com iOS and Android apps.

January also saw the portal’s highest ever number of visits from its property alert emails and a record number of leads provided to agents.

It was also a record month for the recruitment of contracted offices since January last year, in the run-up towards OTM’s launch at the end of the month.

OTM has not put figures on membership or recruitment numbers but is known to be focusing on getting to 7,500 contracted members through its current Letters of Intent campaign.

According to EYE’s helpful reader “smile please” on our Arena forum, on January 4 there were 5,854 contracted branches – an increase of 132 branches compared with the previous month.

It therefore looks as though there must be well over over 6,000 contracted member agents now.

Ian Springett, chief executive of OTM, said: “January proved to be a fantastic month for us in many ways.

“The website marked its first birthday in style, smashing its previous record of monthly traffic of 5.7m visits – achieved in October.

“More property-seekers also used the newly updated apps than ever before.

“Many people said OnTheMarket would not reach its first birthday but instead it has proved that it is thriving and is continuing to grow in every way and we look forward to welcoming more and more agents throughout 2016.”

Again, we do ask “smile please” to keep the figures coming.

EYE’s Arena is here

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26 Comments

  1. fluter
    February 4, 2016 at 09:21

    09.20 and no comments from the OTM detractors. What is the world coming to?

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    1. HarryN
      February 4, 2016 at 09:54

      Can’t be ars*d any more.

      Running around signing 100 agents a month paying £0 or £50 while your loyal founders and investors pay 6 or ten times that is as shocking as it is unsustainable.

      I totally understand why Knight Frank and Savills would put up with this (after all, they don’t care about everyday agency, they just want their own portal back), but a normal high street agent?!

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      1. fluter
        February 4, 2016 at 10:04

        “Can’t be ars*d any more” eh HarryN? Unfortunately you are not true to your word. Oh the irony………..

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        1. HarryN
          February 4, 2016 at 12:18

          I know, I know.

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  2. Property Paddy
    February 4, 2016 at 09:23

    Yes please keep us all posted on the stats.

    If they continue to thrive I’ll be making a path to their door too.

    Now who do I have to sack RM or Z ?

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    1. Woodentop
      February 4, 2016 at 10:11

      Be brave … both. That is what agents need to survive in the future.

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    2. inthefield
      February 4, 2016 at 10:17

      Just drop Z to start with (if thats who are weakest on brand awareness in your area at present), there’s no use in making life too difficult for yourself on vals just yet.

      Once more like you do the same then we can all go to the next step.

      Glad to see youre looking to jump, I hope others follow your strong lead.

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      1. Woodentop
        February 4, 2016 at 11:18

        It was a bit of tongue in cheek when I said both, but in reality that is what is agents need to consider sooner or later. Inthefield is correct, keep one until you gain  ground with OTM.

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    3. 1stTimeBuyer
      February 4, 2016 at 18:55

      Might I suggest some leads figures first… no figures in 12 months, tut tut OTM.

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  3. GilesH
    February 4, 2016 at 09:24

    If Rightmove or Zoopla did not give specifics on memberships everyone would moan.

    Ms Renshaw – you use their headline and then let them get away a with announcing no numbers…this is not journalism, more like advertising…

    One rule for them…

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    1. AgencyInsider
      February 4, 2016 at 09:31

      Perhaps Ms Renshaw has rather deftly drawn attention to the fact that there are no numbers and left the more intelligent readers to draw their conclusions about the OTM claim?

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  4. the message
    February 4, 2016 at 09:44

    I think the lack of energy in this chain shows the lack of heart most of us have left, either pro of con OTM

    Just a couple of minor points from me, as someone who does track traffic, and thinks its the only important metric for a site that does advertising.

    Rightmove gets about 100m visits a month, from about 10m unique customers. so each person goes to the site about 10 times (averages of course). This seems reasonable, ties in with what I would expect

     

    A visitor to OTM goes about twice, oper the stats they have themselves just released. Why? there are four solutions as far as I can see

    1 The “unique visitor ” number is incorrect through ineptitude and miscounting. Not able to split out someone coming via mobile, on computer or tablet. real number about 600k

    2 its is deliberately misleading – ie a downright lie, to tempt new members in, and to keep tryng to show existing that the “plan” is working

    3 It is true, and people only go on average twice because when they get there they realise its a rubbish experience and dont come back. Forget about the inventory, R and Z have now set the standards for the kind of experience a prospective house buyer expects to see on  aportal, and what OTM offers isnt that

    4 it is true, but most of the traffic they get is “rubbish”, and arrives via something called “payperclick”, a very expensive form of advertising that rightmove or zoopla hardly do. Its very expensive, and when turned off shows a true traffic number (looks at the sharp fall in traffic in november and december)

    For what i is worth, I think its a mixture of 1 and 4. The uniques number cannot be that high, I am hoping they wouldnt delibverately lie, just increases my concern that they have no idea whats going on. And doing any PPC marketing is silly, they are forced into it because of the stupid statements made about the traffic levels they can achieve very quickly. Throwing good money after bad to buy themselves more time feeding at the trough

    Sorry for pointing out facts, as opposed to blindly following.

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    1. Woodentop
      February 4, 2016 at 10:23

      “Rightmove gets about 100m visits a month, from about 10m unique customers. so each person goes to the site about 10 times (averages of course). This seems reasonable, ties in with what I would expect”

      That’s interesting and I don’t believe it for one minute. If you take into account the number of properties for sale, they should all be gone! Having worked nationally, the market has never had a new applicant list of 10m a month in the UK. RM month on month tell me I get 1/4m hits …. absolute tosh.

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      1. Property Pundit
        February 4, 2016 at 12:08

        Remember the old days when your local newspaper used to boast ‘85,000 potential buyers for your property’ as if every reader could be looking to move. Same noise coming from rightmove. The figures don’t stack up at all or equate to what is really going on in the market place.

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        1. the message
          February 4, 2016 at 14:08

          its still where everyone who looks to move goes though. The only people it appears who go to OTM go there by mistake via clicking an advert on the top of google. And then they dont go back. And the more people that go via that link(and dont come back) costs OTM even more money. ANd noone queries it because Napoleon has said it makes sense, and so you all nod and go back to ploughing the fields. History repeats itself again and again and again

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          1. Woodentop
            February 4, 2016 at 16:47

            Do you honestly expect an agent to believe that. I haven’t LOL so much for a long time. I showed to all our staff and they haven’t stopped either.

             

            I have no axe to grind with you, but this rhetoric is sounding very biased …… to quote you:

            “The only people it appears who go to OTM go there by mistake via clicking an advert on the top of google”.

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            1. the message
              February 4, 2016 at 18:27

              you all Lolled because you just dont undertand how digital marketing works. Go and look at the stats for november and december, the traffic to OTM disapprward/dropped by about 60%. Why, because they stopped the PPC advertising. This shows the true traffic numbers.

              Were the office laughing at why an OTM user only goes to the site 2x a month (per OTM own figures), and stays on the site a fraction of nthe time they do on R or Z? I am sure you werent, I am equally sure you have never even considered it, just as I am equally sure that were George orwell alive today he would be writing a new novel as we speak!

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  5. smile please
    February 4, 2016 at 10:24

    As luck would have it today is the day i do the check up.

    Its in the Arena if anybody is interested.

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  6. Stevie
    February 4, 2016 at 12:48

    So aside from this article being overly biased it is also wrong with regards to ” it looks as though there should be well over 6000 now” well an increase of 84(110 signed up and 26 withdrew, some monthly record that!) makes the new total 5938 or maybe Ros wants to play on words for the assistance of bias but of course I haven’t counted those letters “of intent”lol

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  7. Clarkuk
    February 4, 2016 at 13:47

    News just in RM get 127million visits in Jan 2015. OUCH!

    That’s 20x more.

    when I read OTM figures this morning I thought ‘good on you’ but now it looks a little low!

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    1. Woodentop
      February 4, 2016 at 16:54

      Maybe they hit the advert on google by accident? Joking aside that is pretty impressive but one can only accept their figures and anyone else’s if it is put under independent and reliable scrutiny. I’m not seeing that from anyone. Just about every agent logs into RM for comparables on a daily basis, as do other organisation, not forgetting those that have an inside system to trawl your stock for marketing, doesn’t the automated trawling repeat itself many times a day. No matter what, the proof of the pudding is why so much traffic and the dog and bone is relatively silent?

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      1. the message
        February 4, 2016 at 18:24

        it is independently verified by hitwise. As I said before Boxer old chap, they have about 10m unique visitors, who go about 10x a month. Now again, and I will say it slowly, not all of those people are househunting, but they go to RM (and Z) because they love property, and all the information on the site (info that OTM have, in their window, decided the consumer doesnt want/need to have available).

        Now, and this gets technical, so many apologies Boxer, rightmove spend hardly any money on PPC, because they are aware the traffic that comes from that source is mainly rubbish, and they dont want to pay for it. Z are the same. OTM are quite happy to pay for it because they are desperate to show growing traffic, despite the face that its traffic they are paying fortunes for.

        Now I know all of this is far too technical for you, and doesnt tie into the pretty little stories your masters have been telling you. But sorry, its life, and the pain will get worse until OTM wake up and start acting more professionally.

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        1. Woodentop
          February 5, 2016 at 11:59

          I think you need a reality check, read my comment below. And RM have just announced an extra 21 million increase from last year. Think about it and get your head out of stats. Take away all those people in the country not looking at properties. Typically 18% of the population move the property market, now do your own calculations and see why your analysis of stats is a farce. Yes I do understand stats but you clearly are trying to manipulate them and then argue your point when someone with some intelligence starts to question your authenticity. You let the cat out the bag when you started to venture into the anti OTM.

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  8. Woodentop
    February 4, 2016 at 17:00

    Oh I forgot to mention the UK population for 2014 was  64,596,800, so have we had that much migration that 100,000 million hits every month on RM is realistic? Use your own calculations to work it out, no matter how you divide that number in your favour, it sucks.

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  9. 1stTimeBuyer
    February 4, 2016 at 18:58

    January the busiest month the year, and visits go up… now there is a shocker, goodness me…

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    1. PeeBee
      February 5, 2016 at 13:51

      1TB makes a sarky comment on an article relating to a company he doesn’t have share in…

      …now THERE’S A REAL SHOCKER.

      Report
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