Agents’ negotiating hand with the big two portals has been strengthened by the emergence of Agents’ Mutual, it has been claimed.
In a letter to agents who have not yet joined, Agents’ Mutual chief executive Ian Springett says: “The current major portals will no doubt be trying to bring you in to longer term contracts to secure their positions and to prevent you from joining us. Please consider carefully before doing so.
“The negotiating hand held by agents is already strengthened by our presence in the market and the recent experience of many firms is that they can both resist entering long-term contracts and obtain improved terms for a shorter term notice deal which allows them to keep their options open.”
In the letter, Springett says that the current Gold membership scheme will be closing in a week’s time on October 24.
Gold membership to Agents’ Mutual – which will be launching its OnTheMarket portal in January – includes a five-year listing agreement with a fixed listing fee, a 15% discount on Silver membership, and a £2,000 subscription for Agents’ Mutual loan notes, paying 7% annual interest. Gold member agents would have to pay a £600 pre-launch subscription this year.
Details of the Bronze membership are to be made available later this year, Springett said.
Earlier this month, it was announced that over 4,000 offices are now members of Agents’ Mutual, with a pre-launch target of 5,000.
It would be interesting to see how effective Ian Springett has been at selling the Agents' Mutual proposition to agents. How many Gold members are there? How many agencies have expressed interest (and are therefore on Ian's mailing list urging them to avoid signing new contracts with RMZ)? And, most importantly, where Agents' Mutual is strong, and where it has no presence at all. As usual, looks like I'll have to go and get this information myself and report back. The Real Estate Pundit.
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"Agents can resist long term contracts and obtain improved terms for shorter term notice deal"…. "Gold membership includes a 5 year listing agreement " … The 4th gold this year.. " bronze will be out later this year" so Springett is indictating those who drag their feet get better terms and haven't released bronze pricing yet… Interesting
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It's the 2nd gold membership offer this year Danny.
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I've mentioned on this forum many times that Rightmove did a tidy discount across my branches when I asked them (and Zoopla) to give me their "best prices" so I could choose which one to come off in 2015. I recently spoke (last week) to an MD of a sucessful local agent (7 branches) who is "on the fence" about OTM. He wants to see what the site looks like before joining up, which is fair enough. Anyway, he was asked a couple of months ago by Zoopla if he was going on OTM to which he replied "no". 2 weeks ago he was told by Zoopla that his fees would be increasing by 14% across his branches. He said he wanted a discount, as Zoopla would lose 100s of 1000s of properties off their site in 2015, and if they didn't he would sign up for OTM. They immediately said they would keep his fees the same, with no increase, but it seemed that he was so annoyed that they tried the trick, that he is now off the fence with one foot in the OTM garden. If he likes the site, hell join early next year. In the meantime he's still got a better deal from Zoopla, and he isn't even, at present signed up to otm.
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