OnTheMarket has scored a big win with the recruitment of over 300 offices.
Belvoir, the UK’s largest franchise group, is joining OTM to list all its properties. Belvoir will also actively promote the OTM brand through its Beelvoir, Northwood and Newton Fallowell outlets.
Dorian Gonsalves, CEO of Belvoir, said: “We have for some time believed that the property portals landscape was ripe for disruption.
“OnTheMarket is the first serious contender for several years to be injecting genuine competition in the interests of agents and property searchers alike.
“It is agents who provide the portals with the majority of their content and income. It is also agents who serve their clients and property searchers on the ground in selling, letting, buying and renting property.
“I’m very pleased to be announcing our strategic support for OnTheMarket as an agent-backed business and am confident that with agent momentum building it will continue to go from strength to strength.”
OTM chief executive Ian Springett said: “While we have already been working with some individual offices within the Belvoir Group, we are absolutely delighted to welcome the entire group to OnTheMarket.
“As an outstanding business with 300 lettings and estate agent offices up and down the UK, Belvoir continues to expand its network.
“Belvoir has an enviable reputation for combining strong central and supportive management with an entrepreneurial culture and high quality local client service.
“Its decision to support OnTheMarket is a strong testament to our success to date in increasing our agent base, our consumer traffic and the value we are creating for agents.”
Maybe the tide is actually turning?
If OTM reach 12,000 branches then 15,000 must be achievable in which case the Rightmove One Portal Party will start wobbling.
Let’s hear more 100 plus Branch announcements…..
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I am another high street agent thoroughly disgruntled with paying Rightmove’s extortionate charges, looking to jump ship just as soon as (maybe before) a truly credible alternative shows itself*.
I have seriously considered applying to join OTM but have resisted thus far, even with the initial ‘freebie’ on offer, fearing the possibility it will grow into someone else’s cash cow, in contrast to the ‘mutual’ it set out to be.
Can anyone please reassure me this would not be the case?
*PS – At the moment I am excited at the prospects of Rummage4 fitting the bill.
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Well realistically no, nobody can give you that assurance, but you can be assured that Rightmove will continue to rape and pillage our businesses as long as we allow them to. OTM will know how NOT to treat their customer base.
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Rummage4 will be a great product but I don’t think it will replace a portal.
As Paul says, you cannot have a guarantee but OTM is substantially owned by the users so the chances of this happening are much lower than with Hoopla or Wrongmove. OTM has had a very heavy bashing from people with agendas to pursue but seems to be coming through relatively unscathed – so far!.
We are a Gold Agent on OTM and don’t regret it, despite all the money we have spent – we just hope it is in a good cause.
No sign of rape & pillage with OTM.
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They will turn to a RM at some point, but a 10% a year rise from £250 (OTM now moving forward), over the next 10 years, is better than the 10% rise from £1,000 or more as we are with RM now.
Property Prices have cycles and crashes.
Estate Agency Fees have cycles and drops.
Portal Memberships defy logic! So… OTM may rise, but 10 years of less pain sounds ok to me.
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I try to keep a respectful distance from the OTM success stories and wouldn’t have posted had you not involved me. This is their party and although I’m here I prefer to stand quietly in the kitchen.
rummage4.property has been designed to compliment the portals (especially OTM). I’ve built what’s coming next; the combine harvester that followed on from the threshing machines.
A lot of people thought my early days comments about OTM were negative, bashing posts. They weren’t. I have a unique domain knowledge and experience that goes back to pre DOS CRM systems so I’ve built the bit agents need, not what they want. They’ve got what they need from OTM; an alternative to the ‘duopoly’ (credit me – October 2011) they don’t need another alternative.
Portals do one thing; they help agents sell property ( portals DO NOT sell property) we are about helping agents win instructions. Agents need to win quality saleable instructions to go onto the portal, whichever 1, 2, 3 or more they can afford and justify. that’s what we help with
Enough from me. Congratulations Ian. Well done Dorian!
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Had 3 leads from on market and 1 from rightmove yesterday…
People – go where the property is.
Property is on rightmove because agents put it on there.
It’s our move now- I just hope on market has a plan to rally the troops before feb. I won’t pay 2 portals.
++++ don’t allow pay any way agents on. If they follow this mantra. P bricks and rightmove could be gone by March.
Bless you all my sheep.. now is the time to become lions.
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What has actually happened here?If this is anything other than the free 6 months, all Belvoir Northwood have done is increase their outgoings. Are they still listing with Rightmove….yes! How many offices do OTM have to recruit to make them a serious player? If 12000 isnt enough then something is seriously wrong.
Dorian can talk disruption all he wants, but all that is being disrupted is their franchisee bank accounts.
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In principal, I agree. However, the aim for OTM is to sign up enough branches on their free offering for the next year to prove to agents and consumers that Rightmove is not the only place to view houses.
It requires the co-branding to work, so agents absolutely have to get behind then to support it and at the end of the day, if OTM prices aren’t kept low like they say they will, agents just won’t use it.
I’m right behind OTM as I think Rightmove is ruining the independent agent which is the backbone of the industry.
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Rightmove can’t be knobbled by monopolies because on market ruined that (ironicly) . We should be lobbying trading standards so rightmove charge by stock levels not office.
Seeing as u can’t enter the market without being on rightmove this can deemed as ‘,Not fair practice ‘. I feel £100 for every 10 properties would be fairer.
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Very good idea.
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I can assure you not one of the franchise owners will be anything other than delighted with the news.
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TPFG next ???
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Purplebricks next???
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Let em on.
They are where they are and are what they are, the market will turn against PB as it already is and they are on “the best site now”, so to have their stock on it is no bad thing and will not harm High Street EAs. Stock stock stock maketh the portal.
Get to a 80% plus market share of stock and things look very different for OTM.
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I agree that Burple *ricks should be allowed to advertise on all the portals but only if they pay per LPE to level the playing field with ordinary agents who pay per outlet, I suspect that once that happens the players in the market will sort themselves out!
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Funny how as soon as OTM became a profit driven PLC rather than simply being a disrupter it starts making ground?
Still, no complaints if it kicks RM into to touch, let’s get the gloves off……
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Rightmove is going down.
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Not for quite a while but Hoopla is starting to look VERY vulnerable. Its a good job they have invested much of their new found wealth in other parts of the market. Mind you Wrongmove are 100% portal with nothing else to fall back on. How vulnerable does make them look in the medium term???
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Silverlake have been sold a pedigree pup with hip dysplasia; great as a pet but as a stud no real future.
Vebra, Core, CFP (and latterly Jupix) bolted together into “the Whitbread of the property world, all feeding Think property to beat Rightmove”…. only one problem someone forgot this was the agents’ need and not a commercial opportunity for a few well placed individuals.
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Anyone capable of counting: (quickly and easily)
RM Property Stock
OTM Property Stock
and providing a figure of how many of the RM stock is also on OTM.
Thus being able to, purely as an exercise see the number if you were to subtract the OTM stock No. from RM and understand what the market share would be based on Property not agents.
I feel more interested about the stock than the agents, 100 agents with 100 houses, can be worth less to OTM than a 20 office network with 2,000 houses.
Zoopla has taught me this time and time again, when we say “Don’t care that Corp or Indep is on it” half the houses are missing in your search, which is why we only go on RM.
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OTM need Foxtons and Dexters to shake up the market take up.
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As demonstrated in the last week by Ian Wilson, you can’t get Rightmove to stop their price hikes through the CMA route….the only way is OTM or Zoopla.
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Will we still see these press releases when OTM start charging agents and they leave?
XXXX Agent with 25 local offices have cancelled their subscription to OTM, A spokesperson for the company said “We gave it a shot as we wanted to help ourselves and the industry, sadly when analyzing where are clients want to be advertised and where we were generating leads OTM was just not cost effective, We feel sad that a portal that is agent owned sees that increasing fees in a tighter market is justified.”
In other news the much heralded £5.00 per share at launch for OTM is still bobbing along at £1.30
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I’m in shock….I mean it’s so unlike Smile Please to put a negative spin on a massive positive news story for OTM.
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I’m in shock agents still think OTM is the saviour and they will not shaft us all AGAIN 😉
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Yes but that’s because you’ve lost the argument, that’s why you’re in shock.
Even if you were proven to be right, then in the very least OTM will clearly be the lesser of 2 evils…as demonstrated by Ric above when you consider the extremely low base that OTM fees are starting from as opposed to RM.
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How have i lost an argument? For a start i am not even arguing. I am just stating facts or backing up comments with reasoned opinion not just clapping my hands saying how wonderful OTM are (they are not).
Feel free to go back through the archives, everything i predicted about OTM has come true, The only think i was wrong about was ‘Danny’ calling him a troll, he was right.
For clarity any agent that has come to the party late or forgotten, here is a list of misleading comments or actions, OTM have made since day it came to exsistance.
1. Only three tiers to membership, sign up befre the deadline or you will pay enhanced fees.
2. No additional products, on launch they wanted to push additional products.
3. All the agents have a vote where the business goes. We then had overseas property nobody wanted and was a waste of funds.
4. They use Google Analytics to measure their ‘hits’
5. They started offering reduced memberships.
6. They never released updates on numbers, it was the likes of me measuring the branches
7. Whilst it was a mutual the reps did not actively look to recruit members.
8. They promised if gents agreed to float they would be awarded shares at circa £5 each
9. They gave away free listings.
10 They have awarded large late comers to the party such as Arun estates free membership and a free chunk of shares
11. They now have outside investment which means they must increase subscriptions
12. The agents that are in contract and walked away they have not chased for money
13. They still have no back office system despite constant promises of one
14. During the mutal period they did next to no advertising despite million received
15. The shares that were allocated on float that were kept secret to who received them
I am sure i have missed a few as well, OTM have shown time and again they are not to be trusted, yet some agents are willing to be burnt all over again. Its madness!
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You literally had those 15 points written out in a word doc ready to use at the right time didn’t you?
You’re agenda is clear Smile please.
I guess the fact that half of them are not factual is not important to you though!
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Nope, when you have had your fingers burnt so many times it tends to stick with you, its called learning from past mistakes. Shame others do not.
While we are at it lets vote for regulating the industry so we increase red tape and increased expenditure.
I have no agenda. I just think some agents are naive or maybe good agents but poor business owners and need educating.
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SP – you missed a point. OTM does not generate any leads? my main concern when the rep comes in soon asking for money as the freeby is over.
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They won’t because they won’t be able to if we are able to bin off rightmove, once you’ve removed the head of one bully all the other potential bullies think again and play nice. If not they in turn get the lomachenko.
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If OTM really wants to succeed it’s got to stop shooting itself in the foot.
Three years ago they came to see us and pleaded we join; we said no because the one other portal rule would have been commercial suicide in our area.
Two weeks ago they approached us with the offer of a freebie, which we accepted with relish, only to find we are “not eligible as you don’t have a shop front nor are your premises registered as commercial”.
We are a rural, boutique agency, with four people working out of offices we had built for the purpose on our own land. 7 years in, we are a dominant force selling character homes and land. One look at our website and client feedback says that is so. But OTM cannot see past their own rules! With so many people now working from home or virtually, they really are a decade behind the times. Bonkers…
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Sales volumes down across the UK, race to the bottom on agents fees and RM arrogantly believes now is a good time to put up its fees. There is no single magic bullet and as individual businesses of all sizes and models, we will all have different views and desired outcomes. OTM is a PLC that seeks to do what RM has done (commercially). This will, however, take some years to achieve and who knows what will happen in that time?
I do know that if there were to be a majority shift to OTM and other means of marketing our clients homes such as that built by Robert, and a move away from RM leading in, say, three years to a dominant OTM market position; the cost to agents would be a great deal less over those years than it will be to stay with an ever more hungry arrogant RM for the same period.
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1 selling cycle, (normally 13 weeks) is the fingertip grasp Rightmove has over this industry. They have lost agents’ hearts and minds and that makes them vulnerable.
As the market becomes harder, whacking stuff on the internet and expecting it to sell isn’t enough. In one selling cycle the myth of needing to be on Rightmove is dispelled.
Such is either their arrogance or more likely their hopelessness they can’t even put up a spirited retort to the stories or posts on Eye.
All that kerfuffle about the Yomdel secret filming? personally I would advise any agent have a rep in for a subs review meeting makes the rep aware that the meeting might be filmed by Yomdel as part of an on-going program of service supplier adjustment and to make sure the rep is comfortable with that.
Not knowing if the belligerent, high handed arrogant negotiations are being filmed and possibly shared with the Rightmove sales executive might make a few of them a little less……. errrrr…. confident, especially if the film could also be shared with industry colleagues or EYE!
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To be fair i do not think its the reps fault.
They probably have no authority in regards to membership fees. I tell RM everytime i speak to them i hate their company but its not directed to the person i am speaking too.
I think what is best at the moment is agents going to the basic listing, loose the bells and whistles its not needed. A few Facebook forums for estate agents seem to be understanding this.
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#backtobasiconly!!!
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I am amongst OTM’s harshest critics (formerly biggest supporter!) and I’m in no doubt that any exodus post Free OTM Membership will sink the OTM ship.
However… if the numbers build to 15,000 plus and OTM can retain that number then I do prefer the OTM Portal because it’s not a multi product display on property searches – although one wonders how long that would last?
If OTM morphs into OnTheMOVE mimicking Rightmove in order to satisfy shareholders then we all land back at Square One. Ian Smugitt will either have cashed in by then or unable to resist milking OTM for more personal gain.
In my view OTM V1 could have acheived all of this 1st time around however there were darker/more personal motives being pursued by those at the helm.
Regardless, we are where we are and OTM are beginning to earn some credibility.
Rightmove’s failure to engage with/address their subscribers legitimate concerns on costs etc suggests they are Happy to accept/ignore Our Unhappiness.
Rightmove versus OTM? It’s no longer a 1 horse race. It may well be that Rightmove are planning for a future without its current subscribers, if so that should trigger a mass exodus.
I for one will require a meeting with my Rightmove Rep this year when the Annual Increase Letter arrives and I would urge every single paying Rightmove Subscriber to do likewise …..it’s time for Rightmove to sit down face to face with those that pay monthly for Rightmove’s pleasure!
OnTheMarket ……OnTheMove?
Rightmove …..Wrongmove?
A Genuine Challenger? ……maybe they really are.
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….and from my perspective any Portal is merely a Digital Newspaper so we don’t need 3/4/5 or 100 Portals.
……providing the Chosen Portal doesn’t just keep ramping up their costs annually (take note – OTM), with no legitimate reason.
…….that’ll be the Rightmove model then!
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asked two friends looking to rent and buy, both had heard of Rightmove but neither had heard of OTM.
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Did you ask the friends if they knew the names of the agents most likely to let or sell to them? Looking to rent or buy in a competitive world means the portals should be the last place applicants should be looking.
If, without cheating, applicants can get a relationship with the agents most likely to sell or let to them and get the heads up on their new home before anyone else they would be mad to wait for the email notification from the portals and deliberately join the competition with all the other people in their position.
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But in the real world that isnt how buyers or tenants think. They think more about seeing all the properties. If you are looking for a mortgage do you go to a select few banks who can offer you a good deal, or do you go to a broker who can offer you all the deals?
Yes i know the analogy isnt perfect, but this is how buyers see looking for property.
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More fool them, that is why a lot of people miss out and are left wondering how other people have bought the property that should have been theirs!
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No RM.
Most people dont care about the agent, if they like a property then they will deal with that agent.
That is the reality.
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Selling property isn’t about most people, it’s about 1 occasionaly 2 buyers, the others don’t matter.
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I have OTM coming in at the end of the Month . Once signed bye Rightmove . Just got to see out the 30 days
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As a Belvoir Franchisee I can tell you that myself and all the other owners I have spoken to are very happy with the OTM deal.
We are all sick of RM extortionate fees. The more support for OTM the better.
RM can be challenged. Who ever thought Walkers Crisps could overtake Golden Wonder as the big brand!
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