A series of new testimonials released by OnTheMarket strongly underlines that high street estate agency has become a divisive battle of independents against the corporates.
Whether this continues the real battle – as opposed to online agents versus more traditional models – is yet to be seem.
The latest release of OTM testimonials yesterday afternoon came after it was confirmed that one of its earlier investors, Gascoigne Halman, is quitting – with the implicit warning that OTM will have to deal with situations whereby independent agents will be snapped up by corporates with loyalties to Zoopla.
However, according to the latest testimonials, independents are more than happy with their membership of OTM.
In one of the new testimonials, James Birt, director of Naylor Powell in Gloucester, says: “For quite some time we had felt that the leads produced by Zoopla were not particularly good quality in the sense that they rarely converted into instructions or viewings.
“Now that we are listing on both Rightmove and OTM, the volume of leads has increased.
“More importantly to us, the leads from OTM are of a much better quality in that most of them are from committed ready-to-go clients or applicants.”
He adds: “My clients often comment that the OTM website is intuitive, simple to use and clear because the portal is not marred by adverts.”
In another, the agent says: “Right now, we still receive the majority of our email leads from Rightmove, which is what we had expected at this point while OTM builds its consumer traffic.
“But the huge difference is that over one third of OTM leads convert to valuable client or applicant introductions and business, compared with a tenth of those supplied by Rightmove. OTM is working for us, no question!”
A third testimonial from Ben Hudson, director of Hudson Moody in York, says: “Retaining Rightmove and joining OTM has proven to be an excellent strategy for us.
“OnTheMarket.com currently provides around 25% of our online leads which are of far higher quality than those we received from Zoopla, and the 60% we receive from Rightmove (our own website leads also account for 15%).”
“I believe OTM is the only option for professional high street estate agencies who would like to take back control of their industry.”
Ian Springett, OTM chief executive, said: “We’ve had a fantastic start to the year with record traffic levels and we’ve recruited a record number of contracted offices since January 2015.
“We look forward to welcoming more agents to OTM throughout the coming year as the portal continues to grow.”
i was at a conference recently and the vast vast majority of members I talked to have given up pretending it’s any good .
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We have just been to the OTM update meeting and after speaking to many agents, I found only 1 out of a room of around 100 was unhappy and he had saved over £11,000 against his fees when he stopped advertising with Rightmove ! He appeared to be unhappy that OTM was not the number 1 portal already !
All that I spoke to had more ideas of what we can do to progress OTM to the number 2 position quickly and all members seemed pretty focused on where we want to be in the not too distant future.
What I noted of interest was how quickly Zoopla are sending applicant data to their larger corporate subscribers to gain valuation instructions. I have always protested that they are feeding the corporates unfairly by using data that WE provide to them. Wake up and smell the coffee guys – the duopoly of R and Z are not helping us by channeling this data to the larger corporates !
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SJEA – TWO were unhappy, to be precise.
The lack of bacon butties was an obvious disappointment but apparently until we at least double our monthly spend we will have to put up with dainty pastries.
I’m not cancelling in feigned disgust, though. ;o)
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I’m not knocking your comment Danny. How many was that? 2 out of 3? 20 out of 30? 200 out of 300? How many did you talk to?
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There was about 15 or so …
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someone dislikes how many agents went to an event …
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Wasn’t me. Promise.
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danny – is “fifteen or so” people actually large enough attendance to be classed as “a conference”?
Where did you hold it – a telephone box?
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About 15 OTM agents I spoke to PeeBee,all crammed into a phone box…all saying it was fairly terrible .the phrase I’ve given up pretending it’s any good was used … Just saying
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Yet more words which are ruining the reputation of estate agents
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What reputation??
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