An agent who refused to pay an increased fee to Rightmove and gave notice to quit has been offered – and taken up – a subscription at far less than he had originally been paying a year ago.
The family-owned business has now taken this reduced charge up.
Antony Richards, who with his wife owns Antony Richards Property Services, a single-branch lettings business in Penzance, was paying £460 per month a year ago.
This rose to £550 in January this year.
When Rightmove said it would be raising this to £680 in January 2019 – ie, next month – he gave notice.
Richards said: “Rightmove then got in touch with me to try and tell me they were the best portal. However, I told them they really weren’t, and sent them figures to prove it.
“My figures showed that leads from Zoopla were much stronger.
“Rightmove came back to me with an offer of £300 per month.”
Richards said that he genuinely thought long and hard about whether to accept this and was given a deadline of days to take the offer – a deadline which he says he ignored.
He is now listing on all three portals.
A testimonial he has supplied to OnTheMarket says:
“We joined OnTheMarket in May and we have been very pleasantly surprised by the number of leads we have received. We are doing all we can to push the portal and we are releasing our properties to it exclusively for 48 hours.
“We have also been impressed with the quality of the leads generated by OnTheMarket.
“OnTheMarket has become a viable alternative in the property portal market giving us the chance to review our strategy. The effectiveness of OnTheMarket coincided with Rightmove unilaterally increasing our monthly payment by over 50% in 13 months.
“The decision to cancel our subscription was made all the more easier knowing we had a safe back up.
“Amazingly Rightmove renegotiated a much reduced fee when we proved it was being outperformed by other portals – including OnTheMarket.com. Proof that the market is now clearly much more competitive if the market leader is willing to renegotiate.
“We are 100% behind the idea of an agent-backed portal and we want to see it become a market leading portal which is on the side of its agent customers.”
Comments (36)
Propertyguru51 Im sure everyone would like to leave RM but are too scared.
So i have been speaking to my account manager at Rightmove as they have put our fee up to an extortionate rate, i mentioned this article and agent and they have come back and said that this story is fake and was written by OTM, i have an email from the account manager to prove this.
They are blackmailing us to pay more and even when i asked if they increase the fee can they throw in an extra featured ad they said NO.
Im still not sure what to believe is this story really fake as Rightmove are saying?
Im tempted to hand in our notice to RM anyway as our accounts manager is useless, i explained that with the price hike and the tenant fee ban coming in, smal lettings companies will leave RM as compared to the £120 Pm i pay for Zoopla, £78 for gumtree and OTM free until September next year, it make no sense to pay £800 a month to Rightmove to list 5 properties every month.
I think we should all leave Rightmove together and then watch them come crawling back for our business.
Rightmove more like wrongmove.
I think everyone had a choice and some chose different than others, I still believe that OTM is the best option for everyone it would only fail if RM reduced their fees in line or offer a better incentive, the damage from RM is already done. Long live OTM.
Well, My Company opted in absolute good faith for the OTM V1 5 Year Lock-in and provided OTM Loan Funds…. thereafter the OTM Goalposts didn’t so much move, they actually grew legs, ran out of the stadium, fled to the spaceport and took a rocket to the OTM V2 Galaxy!
Apart from growing their Subscriber Numbers (and as yet we don’t know how many will actually stay & pay) ……what is it that OTM have done to show that they are engaging/representing Our Industry, they talk about being “Agent backed” (all the portals are agent backed if we are paying them or advertising on them!), they talk about being “for the agent” etc…. and yet I see no substance to prove that they have Our Industry best interests at their core?
For those that are considering signing a “5 Year Commitment” just consider what happened to my Company and others first time around.
For what’s its worth, I Support aspects of OTM however until it provides real evidence of a genuine commitment to Our Industry with openness/honesty/transparency then it is no more that a 3rd Portal…. and if it is actually merely a 3rd Portal then forget committing to a 5 Year deal. As you should with most “suppliers” …….hammer out a 12 month deal and assess/renegotiate at the end of that period.
I wish I had with OTM V1! ……..I’m still paying for the OTM “Christmas Present” I bought back in 2015 and despite wanting to hand it back, I’m still having to keep it and pay for it until Post-Christmas 2020! …….and Ebenezer Springett haunts my bank balance every month!!
It might almost be funny? ……if I wasn’t paying for it!!!
Re OTM. They claim the 400 pm is for 2 years with a cap on increased rises of 5% if you sign to a five year deal. I still feel this is funding a “might work” proposition, so with all the comments from agents re previous deals and concerns over their behaviour in the past and the face that shareholders will certainly want increased revenue post 5 years, it;s not looking likely we will proceed.More to the point, OTM simply do not generate more than 1 maybe 2 leads per month, no ROI for me,rather save the £5k per year and have a nice holiday or explore more local marketing strategies.
GPL I am 100% with you on this. RM are staying silent because they know something is happening with agents regarding overcharging on RM. They are hoping to capitalize on this unhappiness. That would have been ok for me if there were not these other elephants in the room SHAREHOLDERS?INVESTORS. They claim they want to do the best for the agents – THEY CAN’T IT SIMPLY ISN’T SUSTAINABLE!!!. They are already RM and Zoopla. We will not be the winners in this. They only way you can protect yourself from further daylight robbery is not to agree to sign lengthy contracts. £400 is just the start, and I would say a pretty high start!
……before I shuffle off to the Land of Nod….. paulnewboy26 quoted earlier, re his Portal Costs –
“OTM free but just been quoted £400 pm for next year.”
So, is this already an example of OTM Costs rising.
ie. a mirror image of Rightmove’s strategy?
I had an interesting conversation with 2 different “informed” parties re OTM. Both stated that OTM’s Subscriber Fees will rise in order to satisfy the Major Shareholders who will expect/demand increasing revenues etc.
Forgive my cynicism in thinking, what I/many have already speculated and discussed here at PIE…. in reality OTM is masquerading as an “Agent Positive Portal” when they are intending a Rightmove V2?
Surely if OTM are true to the “Join Us/We are Your Portal” sales pitch, transparent subscriber fees should be at the top of their list to ensure openness/honesty/fairplay amongst all its Subscribers?
The more effort I make to try and overcome the Historical Negatives of the OTM V1 debacle, the more I hear examples of a Rightmove style Charging Structure from OTM which simply drives a “Coach & Horses” through the whole “OTM – Support Us, We Support You”.
Clarity re OTM’s Charging Structure amongst its Subscribers would be a good place to start if OTM wants Our Industry to Support OTM Longer Term …….and a clear statement that OTM are not just charging what they think they can get away with?
No doubt this request will be met with the familiar Screaming Silence from OTM Towers ……yet OTM remain only too happy to take my monthly payment. It’s funny that…. Customer Service, it’s a One Way Street from OTM.
Ive said on here before. Be brave ss fortune favours the brave. I gave notice at the end of October to be RM free from 1st December. I don’t get my increase notification until the new yesr so it wasnt as a response to that. I’d just had enough of them taking the ****. They accepted my notice and then a week defore my notice period was up came back with a new offer. So I’ve gone from £1050 to £630. Still too much and perhaps i could have held out for more but still a useful saving. I didnt ask them for a discount ust emailed them my notice.
Judging by previous comments there is absolutely no fee structure. Just what they can get away with.
Rsvtu97 is that for S&L? And what other portals do you use?
My RM fees have just gone up after 6 month introduction offer, S&L from £600 per month to £1000 + vat, I asked if they would extend the intro but they refused, bit short sighted really as they would have had a hold on me if they had helped me get to a stage of having more business like many other agents who are to scared to drop them. I took the intro offer when I started sales, before I only had lettings and to be honest only went with RM because of my loyalty to the other OTM agents in my town who between us all decided to drop Z. Z provided me with all my lettings leads before I used RM, now OTM provide more lettings than any portal. I just think as a start up in sales people just expect you to be on RM and if your not your competitors will tell the vendors and win the business. I will certainly be making that phone call first thing Monday.
Single office £1800 per month but we have “optimiser” bla bla – West Mids
Zoopla £160 (reduced when we cancelled)
OTM free but just been quoted £400 pm for next year.
So, we get 90% of leads that we convert to sales from RM.
Question.
Dump ZPG and OTM and reduce RM to basic package.
“Fund” OTM and hope they improve???
Stick with all three?
Single branch paying £850.00 per month for sales only on rightmove.co.uk and don’t have a large amount of stock Midlands area. I think it would be interesting if others put there rates down too. For comparison please.
Just been quoted £1190 per month on a start up business ( 50% off for 1st 6 months ) no high street office either
Bloody disgusting! Cripple a business before it has a chance to find its feet why don’t you RM. Don’t pay it, you don’t need them
We had the same reaction to Rightmove another year another 20% increase. Our disgust and outrage fell on deaf ears with our rep, so we gave our notice and signed up with Zoopla/Primelocation who were thrilled to welcome us back after a six year absence. They gave us a discounted rate with a previous client loyalty bonus. Probably all BS but who cares saves us a packet. We have been on Rightmove for the past six years after leaving Zoopla when it took over Find a Property and Primelocation. We miss FAP. We have always stuck to a single portal and our own website for our leads and that works well for us. The week before our RM notice expired the rep knowing that we had gone back to ZPG offered us a reduced rate for six months at £300.00 per month. We declined after some thought and told them it was too little to late. Not only that but I know of other agents in my area that did the same as us. Whilst we are loyal to these brands they are not loyal to us. As an established one office letting only agency we suggested that as we only ever have a limited number of listings they should offer rates accordingly. ZPG listened but RM didn’t. We will have to see over the year if we made the right decision but so far so good.
£300 for lettings only ? This man is a better negotiator than me ! I was offered £900 per month for lettings only, reducing from over £1,300 (S&l) when I asked to reduce our package.
Eeeeeek Rightmove lines are going to be busy today!
Taking this at face value – why did Rightmove not apply a “gagging order” on their negotiations as part of the deal? I would have insisted on a compromise agreement. Hope the agent has read the small print of his contract.
What every agent should have done back in 2001.
Excellent news! Well done for taking a stand. It is a bit the like the emperors clothes with these portals. They tell us how wonderful they are at generating us leads, we are sucked in and start seeing what isn’t there. It is only when someone comes along and says ‘but he is naked’ that everyone sees it for what it really is. Maybe 10 years ago a portal (which replaced the newspaper) was the only place to be seen. Things are different now, people are changing, and I actually disagree with the comment that the agent makes or breaks the portal – it is the people seeking property who have the power to do this.
Well done Mr A
What happened to the strike?
Well done. We all need to make a stand.
Well done!!
Remember: No Property No Righmove!!!
Stand up to the RM Bullies, RM are starting to feel the agent movement. Keep United and come off RM to teach them a lesson that agents can make and break any portal.
When another half decent Portal comes along thats when you can properly negotiate with any portal, not just RM.
RM days are numbered, they have poked the fire for far too long.
Happy Fridays people.
I need to employ this guy as a negotiator….for my Rightmove account.
Waiting the call from Mrs Mayhem
It’s not very Christmas-y but for 2019, I’m looking forward to the severed heads of PB and RM.
Good on you Anthony. Not quite twenty thousand of us Cornishmen as in the song but, we are making our mark nonetheless.
I wonder what else I’m getting for £950 pcm on the essential package? It’s almost as if it’s arbitrarily made up as they go.
Their pricing is ridiculous! We have been trying to go back to the basic package and have been assured that £1500 (plus VAT) is the very lowest package they now offer! Definitely made up arbitrarily! We are a fairly small one branch agency in an area with prices much lower than Surrey!
… do what Anthony did…. name a price you can afford and justify and if they don’t want your listings for the money you’re offering them……. leave
Rightmove without your stock,in your town all too soon becomes the theme park people used to visit…. a bit like Mr. Blobby’s Crinkley Bottom
Well done Antony Richards Property Services.
How much are you paying monthly to OnTheMarket & Zoopla …..and why do you think you need to use/pay for 3 Portals?
Would be very interested to read your reply.
Good question. We discussed at length whether or not to continue with RM. If I was a sole trader I think I would probably have left.
Z £209 OTM currently free but going to £250 ish
Thanks for the honest reply.
I struggle with the 3 Portal scenario for a number of reasons, however one has to assess what works best for their business.
Juggling 2 I can see the sense in order to demonstrate to the 3rd that you are prepared to switch/drop.
I’ll see what Rightmove & Zoopla have to offer before deciding which gets my business for 2019 ….and unless OTM resolves its “Trust” issues with Locked-in V1 Members I will be leaving them when my dreaded V1 Contract has expired in Feb 2020!
Retention of Free Subscribers and repairing all the V1 damage will be the major challenge for OTM, otherwise it will revert to Rightmove or Zoopla.
However….. your RM deal may well be a sign that they may just have thought a little harder about those 20,000 hands that feed their business every month.
We recently left Zoopla when they refused to negotiate on our £319 + vat monthly subscription despite the fact that for many years we’ve not listed more than a handful of properties at a time; and for an average three months each year, we’ve listed nothing at all. Arrogant reply was “take it or leave it”.
(We are a single-lettings branch in west London.)
OTM have been generating an increasing amount of good quality leads, especially this year. So good that we’ve been successfully letting properties with them during the New and Exclusive period.
We need to start paying by number of properties advertised and not by branch . £15 an instruction i reckon…
be alot of old crap and fake property taken off the site in hours with this policy.