OnTheMarket announces recruitment of 11-branch regional firm

OnTheMarket has announced that Millerson, an 11-branch estate and lettings agency firm, is now listing its properties with it.

The family-run firm of estate agents covers Cornwall and west Devon, and has been in operation for three generations.

Jeremy Miller, operations partner at Millerson, said: “Millerson estate agents are excited to be joining in with the success of another influential property portal to provide even greater exposure of our properties to a wider audience. This will help landlords and vendors in this ever-changing local, regional and international market place.”

Helen Whiteley, commercial director at OTM, said: “It is great to see yet another multi-branch firm throw its weight behind OnTheMarket.com.

“It has been an incredibly exciting few months as we have watched the momentum build behind our disruptive strategy for an agent-backed portal.”

OTM announced on August 24 that 10,500 agent offices – about 57% of the market – are now in contract with the portal. Most of the newly recruited agents are on free trials, with some also being offered shares as incentives.

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27 Comments

  1. GeorgeOrwell

    Zzzzz Zzzzzzz Zzzzz

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  2. Moveaside01

    Snooze away but this could just be another indication of growing resentment towards Rightmove, perhaps momentum really is growing?

    ’Snooze you lose’…….

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    1. GeorgeOrwell

      Absolutely right! Thankfully I wasn’t dozing like the many, many souls who never joined V1 OTM

      I put my hand in my pocket on Day 1 for OTM and still do every month for OTM

      Forgive me for dozing off as the number announcement department broadcasts every so often, I heard all this V1

      Action & real marketing would be a sign of change however we yet again have Richard & Judy, sorry, Ian & Helen with their intermitent numbers broadcast

      Cynical? me? No, just watching Ground Hog Day all over again and this time it’s a free entry show

      Wake me up when the public know who the **** OTM is, until then I’ll keeping throwing my £250+ per month down the drain

      It’s reality versus fantasy and so far it’s still Dreamworks in charge

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  3. Ric

    Anyone got the numbers of stock for each website which would show… each individual stock count for OTM, RM & Z…

     

    But then RM Stock which is also displayed on OTM? (I assume almost all OTM stock is on RM anyway)

     

    Would be interesting to know what OTM stock coming off RM would do the pecking order.

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  4. ArthurHouse02

    Everyone loves a free trial dont they. Better remember to cancel before the end though otherwise they may start charging you!

    But seriously the true test of OTM begins when these freebies and share bribes end. At this point OTM has no presence, they are not advertising, the public have not heard of them, so why when the free trial ends would an agent pay them. Yes resentment is high towards Rightmove, but for their to be a viable alternative there has to be value in this other service provider.

    Not bashing OTM but at this point, i really dont see the….point.

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    1. Ric

      Was a huge fan, then not so much of a fan, now I don’t really care, but…

       

      We are getting a growing number of good and unique leads mind you, and from some people who seem to be favouring OTM over RM for house hunting (or at least this is how they look for my stock).

       

      What OTM is doing is hopefully making RM think twice before sticking 10% to 15% rises on our accounts each year.

       

      I think the reality is we only need one, and whether that is RM, OTM or Z – wouldn’t it be nice to reset the cost counter a little, as we know ultimately all portals will have to increase charges as time goes on, so why not increase from a lower figure moving forward. Just my opinion.

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  5. AgentV

    The numbers are interesting. However, I will never understand for the life of me why this wasn’t done from the very start of OTM’s launch.

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  6. Russell121

    Still holding my breath waiting for the much talked about marketing campaign.

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    1. SLF

      Could be a long wait

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  7. scruffy

    Such antipathy is so depressing. It is up to us to inform our clients of the choice of portals, much as we gleefully advertised Rightmove during its growth period. Pitiful pleas for more OTM advertising rather illustrates how we deserved the limited choices that until recently were available, .

    Yes there have been growing pains for OTM. But I, for one, will warmly embrace anyone who can offer a well laid out portal that functions to my satisfaction and that delivers good quality leads. My principal motivation for doing so is not down to the quality of RM’s portal, which is excellent, it is my resistance to being exploited.

    OTM now provide a viable alternative and if ZPG had a better offering, I may not have considered OTM at all at the time I joined. Little seems to have improved at ZPG, so the biggest cost saving I can make without adverse consequences is to tell the grinning rep from RM that the party, at our expense, is now over.

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    1. ArthurHouse02

      Are you serious??? You think it is our responsibility to promote OTM above other portals, you are dreaming mate. If OTM want to be a viable alternative they need to create mass public awareness, not rely on us informing the public 1 by 1.

      Like it or not, yes blooming expensive but RM has done what they set out to do. Create a portal that the public have heard of and the public feel is the best place for the homes to be advertised. If OTM want subscriptions to start once the free period ends then they need to start promoting themselves.

      As for leads, the emails that come through from RM, Z & OTM are mostly the awful “request more details” that never go anywhere. Thankfully the phone calls from RM & Z are usually very productive. Phone calls from OTM, never had one!

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  8. Eastsidestory90

    If I were OTM I would be wanting to surprise RM before they can respond.

    I’d have 3 or 4 key multi agent brands lined and and ready to go live a few weeks before the marketing kicks off. If they have, between them, 1000 to 1500 then that would immediately push them to number 2 portal and would no doubt be mentioned in the marketing campaign.

     

    I can’t believe that romans, thamesview, LSL et al are now not taking a serious look

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    1. NotAdoctor32

      Why would LSL take a look?  They know how much advertising it takes to grow a brand, after all it isn’t long since they wasted £10m on a TV advert that had zero effect on brand awareness or market share.

      Where are OTM going to get £10 – 20 – 30m to spend on brand awareness?  The last round of adverts had no effect, certainly not outside London from what I can see because Joe Public still doesn’t know who they are.

       

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      1. Eastsidestory90

        “Where are OTM going to get £10m, £20m, £30m?”

         

        From the high net worth investors plus Schroeders who put in the cash pre IPO.

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        1. NotAdoctor32

          Well, it obviously hasn’t been put aside for a marketing budget.

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  9. just saying

    Surely as agents all we want to see is the end of the Rightmove control over our businesses. They are like the Mafia, calling round each year to collect more money, threats that we cant survive without them abound. Unfortunately they are correct, pay up or fail, until somehow we break the cycle.

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  10. Property Poke In The Eye

    RIP Rightmove, the agents are starting to fight back by showing support.

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    1. NotAdoctor32

      How many have left RM?

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      1. smile please

        You can count them on one hand …..

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        1. NotAdoctor32

          Exactly.  Therefore there is no ‘fightback’.

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          1. Eastsidestory90

            Smileplease…as per my question on the last OTM thread last week.

             

            Can you confirm if your still advertising with OTM or are you in some sort of legal dispute with them?

            I ask as you seem to want to give the impression that you speak for the industry so would be keen to know you’re actual standing on this subject?

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  11. GeorgeOrwell

    Antipathy someone mentioned earlier

    At what point do the Free OTM arrivals not think that the PAYING members actually want to see real value for their monthly investment rather than this prolonged give-away that 7 months on has only added 5000 branches!

    7 months of free giveaways and a blast of tv advertising and then scuttling back into their bunker

    Millions raised on funding albeit not what was showboated pre flotation, yet we have the Dad’s Army announcements re – we’ve signed up another 11 branches?!

    Really, this is it, 7 months on?

    It is simply NOT GOOD ENOUGH OTM! We are being duped again!

     

     

     

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    1. GeorgeOrwell

      1 comment dislike so far, and with no effort to actually post what “your” dislike is, you demonstrate as much effort as OTM are making on Brand Awareness.

      Think, Fart & Jar!

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  12. J1

    This shambles is turning out to be the biggest example of slight of hand I have ever seen.

    The herd mentality of agents all walking toward the light, but falling off a cliff edge before they reach it is hilarious.

    How much money have the original gold member agents ploughed into this nonsense only to support the feee advertising of new comers?

    I would like to open an office in five more towns; would my competitors like to pay for my advertising please?  Oh hang on a minute, they already are on “Never heard of OTM.CON”

    Think what you could have done with all the money you have spent on RM products and OTM this last few years.

    You would have been much better off ploughing your own furrows – the saying “fools and their money” springs to mind…….. all of you!!

     

     

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    1. Valador03

      I don’t suppose now would be a good time to mention that site traffic to OTM has doubled in last six months?

      Moreover, money being spent towards controlling your largest cost seems to me to be quite wise, even if the payback takes time. I don’t suppose you have an alternate suggestion on how estate agents might control Rightmove’s pricing? From what I can tell, asking nicely isn’t working very well.

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      1. J1

        Agents can control their spend on Rightmove by reducing their spend on additional products and not being seduced so easily; in any event it is an awful lot cheaper than the newspaper advertising it replaced.

        OTM is not delivering on its promises and never has.

        Since when was agency all about the portals?

        It won’t be long before Purplebricks drop Rightmove and do their own thing for example.

        Savvy Agents should spend as little as they can on portals and spend the rest of their budget promoting themselves and on staff training.

         

         

         

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  13. GeorgeOrwell

    circa 66 Million traffic Rightmove

    30 Million Zoopla

    9.5 Million OTM

     

    circa 25% land on OTM website direct

    30% Zoopla

    and 100% Rightmove

     

    As an estate agent, choosing the 1 portal, in my clients best interests, it remains Rightmove

    Here’s a thought, UK Estate Agency joins together and negotiates a flat rate with Rightmove, that’s NOT a cartel, that’s a Members Club joining together looking for a volume discount

    Otherwise, watch OTM try and mimic Zoopla who years after starting out as a rival portal, still DON’T rival Rightmove

    In the meantime I’ll keep throwing my monthly £250+ at OTM so they can it away?

     

     

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