The battle for property portal supremacy went up another gear yesterday as both Zoopla and OnTheMarket stepped up their battle to win the hearts, minds and budgets of estate agents.
The portals war heated up with claims that more agents have returned from OnTheMarket to Zoopla – but with the latter saying that Zoopla’s estate agency numbers are still well down on those before OTM’s launch.
Zoopla Property Group kicked off by saying that in the past two weeks over 40 estate agent branches have returned to listing with Zoopla and PrimeLocation.
The returners included branches of Howard Cundey (Surrey, Sussex and Kent) and Jeffries (Hampshire), said Zoopla. Both Howard Cundey and Jeffries have issued similar press releases on their return.
Zoopla Property Group said that others include Taylor Millburn (Essex), JonSimon (Manchester) and Midcalf Nicholls (Stourbridge).
Mark Goddard, managing director of ZPG Property Services, said: “Agents now firmly grasp the ZPG value proposition and cannot afford to be at a competitive disadvantage, using services that simply do not deliver value for their business.
“We have the most effective marketing platform, the best software solutions and are now generating new revenue streams for our partners through products such as MoveIT.”
However, a spokesperson for OTM retaliated by saying: “While we are naturally disappointed that any individual firm chooses to withdraw its support from OnTheMarket.com, two inconvenient facts remain for Zoopla Property Group.
“Firstly, according to its trading updates, Zoopla’s latest UK agency partner figure of 13,275, announced on August 31, remains 19% down compared to the figure of 16,373 announced on September 30, 2014, which was prior to the launch of OnTheMarket.com.
“Secondly, OnTheMarket.com continues to grow and the number of agent branches listing on the website at the end of September had increased by 16% year-on-year.”
* Separately, OTM has done a deal with London publishers Absolutely Magazines, claimed to reach 1.1m readers.
The result is a co-branded search website: https://absolutely.onthemarket.com
Ian Springett, chief executive of OnTheMarket.com, said: “So many of the agents who advertise regularly in Absolutely Magazines are also members of OnTheMarket.com that it was a logical step to create a search which will benefit those agents and both our businesses.
“Our relationship with Absolutely Magazines will increase the exposure of OnTheMarket.com even further by building on the common interests of both companies.
“Last year we announced a similar partnership with Country Life which has proved to be a tremendous success for agents, their clients and the property-seeking public.
“Visitors to the Absolutely Magazines website will be able to view properties listed by all agents listing at OnTheMarket.com.”
With reports that the better, more lucrative, utility switch commission is worth about £250 the I’m not sure the agents receiving a fractional commission of that is what I would describe as value.
It is agents goodwill, reputation, experience and investment that generates instructions and subsequent inquiries so it seems reasonable that agents should benefit the lion’s share of any vertical earning opportunities arising from THEIR [agents’] BIG data.
The role of a service supplier is to provide services not to vacuum cash away from their clients so it is probably a good time for Agents Mutual to review providing a more equitable distribution of the income available from verticals.
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OTM has a challenging future however, Agents Mutual has a golden opportunity in front of a wide open goal.
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I’m bound to get into strife for saying but OTM should be a single product with a suite products owned and operated by the affinity group Agents Mutual. The value of Agents’ data has now been clearly identified effectively the business case has been proven viable..
ZPG are demonstrating just how much income can be derived from the bolt ons associated with the process of selling or letting property. It is inexcusable that with such a clear map laid out for them the combined agents of AM ought to at least explore the benefits of adding one or more products to the line up rather than having a sole focus on OTM
6000 agency branches is 360,000 vendors, 360,000 buyers, roughly 1.23m tenancies an awful lot of opportunities for a group of, by definition, entrepreneurial business owners.
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Well said…the bolt on added value is constantly overlooked by the OTM detractors. Your data is helping the shareholders and directors of Rightmove and Zoopla. Build OTM into a viable platform and the same could be done for the members in the future. Right now it needs to build into the number 1 choice. Some big corporate agents are threatened by the national house builders they represent to remain on the big portals, wouldn’t YOU like to have the choice to decide for yourself!? Play the long game, you have already allowed the new industry disruptors to get a proper foothold. Two more reasons to look at empowering agents rather than the other way around…or are agents happy to have created businesses that they have no control over now worth £3bn when combined!
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As a first stage before anything else 6000+ branches ought to be exercising control over their dead file data
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Would love to see visits figures for those Absolutely sites Mr Spriggett – your inconvenient truth perhaps? As you say, Agents regularly advertise with this lot, so it’s agents advertising to agents again! Property seekers do not use these sites / have never heard of them. Inconvenient truth no. 2 perhaps?
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Linking up with some London Publishers?!
Ian, 1992 called and wants it’s marketing campaign back.
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Coming to a dental surgery near you…24 months out of date and totally irrelevant….
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Zoopla plugging as always.
I’m guessing it was Zoopla who pushed for those PR stories instead of the those clients themselves, especially as there were more plugs than a router for Move you and iswitch.
Jeffries actually created move it and sold it to PSG so I’m told
We still use OTM and whilst figurus aren’t great, the quality of the leads which come through are consistent.
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Mr Springett forgets that in February (after a slower winter) OTM gets dragged through the courts. For all the good he says is happening. AM/OTMs board are doing 10 times damage by holding on to unfair trade restrictions
** Can we also get a comment from the illusive Mr Springett as to Articles 101 and 102 which clearly define anti competitive behaviour.
http://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/legislation/articles.html
The Connells (Gascoigne Halman) court case is likely to smash the foundations of Agents Mutual subscribing agents. The judge in the case is an ex high ranking.competition expert.
Equally, Zoopla/Uswitch/PSG are now holding an awful lot of agents data collected by agents. …
It appears portals are integrating agents as puppets more than any other partner agents have in the industry.
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Trevor, give it a rest, same old story, ranting over something that is well documented and known by readers. Your hatred for OTM is commonly known, you don’t need to go on and on and on. Try and bring something new that we haven’t heard before, preferably constructive? Your turning into a Troll.
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/\
|
What he said!
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My grandad kept saying the same thing over and over…..we wheeled him off to a nursing home.
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Ummm. The three wise monkeys
See no, hear no, but falls down on speak no.
And as the Titanic went down the musicians played on. Love it.
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@ Woodentop:
a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the deliberate intent of provoking readers
Umm. sounds more like you Woodentop
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Ive another definition:
tragic (tr–agic) adj
Liking ones own comments on a forum…
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I’d say tragic was more about not liking someone elses comments. Shame
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Now isn’t that exactly what you were doing! I’m only responding to your actions of sowing discord, off topic message knowing full well that there are people who do not agree with your some what biased opinion which you have repeated I don’t know how many times as soon as OTM is mentioned. I think your initial response is childish to my suggestion you should be brining something more constructive to the table. Enough said for all to see and make their own judgements who is the troll Mr Mealham.
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Real name please Woodentop. Shame you feel you have to hide behind psuedo’s. i know many would take you more serious is you came forward
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“i know many would take you more serious is you came forward”
I doubt that – certainly you can’t include me in your mythical “many”.
WHO ‘Woodentop’ happens to be off-EYE is irrelevant.
It’s what he/she says that matters – and it resonates with me one hell of a lot more than anything you post, quite frankly.
Always has – and I suspect always will.
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Hi PeeBee, No the knock wasn’t at you as you weren’t one of the three wise monkeys. …..
The same as they feel for their side of the topic, so do I substantiated by the link I gave.
** The industry is in quite a mess and I’ve had to become thick skinned from thick or naive assumers in a place that is riddled with legislation and sadly more enroute which some don’t take into account or understand the impact of in the industry.
Meanwhile many have a go at my multi-listing efforts. Then today I call up some of the sub agents having a listing we brought to them and I find we have non portal viewers coming from various outlets that one agent alone couldn’t have done.
Just trying to do my bit, which at times does work.
The name bit to me gives other readers the opportunity to see the standpoint from which a view is made, be it from an agent of 12 months, 12 years, a solicitor, a techie etc etc.
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“No the knock wasn’t at you as you weren’t one of the three wise monkeys. …..”
I didn’t say it was – and don’t give a fuppenny whether it was or not.
“The name bit to me gives other readers the opportunity to see the standpoint from which a view is made, be it from an agent of 12 months, 12 years, a solicitor, a techie etc etc.”
Then simply ask the poster what experience they can draw upon to offer their opinion.
“Just trying to do my bit, which at times does work.”
Mr Mealham – there is no doubt that your input into various industry matters has borne past fruit and hopefully will continue to do so.
BUT – and I’m probably the last man who should say this – you really don’t do yourself any favours sometimes.
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18 years in law and 30 years in estate agency. 20 years of the latter in the family business. The other 10 years would be a book but as previously disclosed contracted confidentiality restrictions prevent me from saying anymore on that subject, hence my pseudonym. You name it I’ve just about seen and heard it. Able and willing to learn more that is not tosh!
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Doesn’t matter which way you slice it AM/OTM is a dead duck and the £50 per month membership they’ve been offering everyone, including me, I’ve heard described as a “closing down sale” by one of the Zoopla reps. Gave me a good laugh. Personally I want AM/OTM to hang around – I’m winning instructions I wouldn’t have won 20 months ago and while the market in London is tough right now it’s really helping to offset the post brexit lul.
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Are you saying you are only doing better because OTM is handicapping your competition? if that’s the case keep quiet.
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Well Simon you may be interested to know that Zoopla are in fact offering some desperate deals to get agents to return.
So I guess that would make someone extremely blinkered to see one as a closing down sale and the other as shrewd business move.
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PSG, ZPG, Uswitch – thats a lot of collective consumer data in data flow systems.As fees for agents get knocked by budget entrants, portals seem to be doing very well. Appears agents collect data and digital platforms make much more via data handling. Looks like agents are in the right game, just on the wrong side of the fence.
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For Zoopla/PSG the agent is the conduit to a range of other sales opportunities. They will continue to value and feed this relationship, however, the property transaction on its own will be of less interest. The Zoopla/PSG marketing proposition will be subtly changing to encompass these ideas.
When I did the maths, PSG’s eyes definitely lite up at the proposition of getting a slice of over £11 billion in POC fees across the UK through their estate agents software…
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Yes and no. I wouldn’t say I am benefitting because otm are handicapping my competition. I would say my competition put a foot very wrong and halved the exposure for their properties and as a result people in the local area are more open to agents like myself. We’re quite good agents here but were operating at the fork in the road between a good ‘normal’ agent and an upper tier/’posh’ agent.
I take on stock every week for 450-850k but there are some properties around 1m-1.5m which traditionally we would take on the odd one or two but now we’re taking on one nearly every month. At the same time an agent nearby who is with OTM has less £1m properties than it previously has.
My understanding is that all portals are doing deals at the minute to get people on board, rightmove included. Coincidentally the agent I’m referring to above is also doing deals to try and retain and onboard vendors so I guess we’re all in one boat or another. Thankfully though I’m not on the HMS OTM Titanic.
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Unfortunately you are not on the Good ship Agents’ Mutual either
Realistically you are being denied the opportunity and the industry is being denied your involvement in something far more valuable than a generation 3 property web site.
OTM is a product and as such it should be strong to the point where people retain their enthusiasm and desire to be on the site. The whole portal dependency thing is a Dumbo’s feather, a crutch to rely on. Good agents really do not need portals to win instruction or sell property, they are simply and advertising system that harks back to when agents were rubbish at being on-line. Things have changed in the digital environment, an aggregating portal doesn’t cut it, it’s like comparing VHS with DVR
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Well said Robert and Simon
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Gosh – good to have others who use their real names 🙂
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How do you know they are using their real names?
What makes their comments “well said” in your eyes, Mr Mealham?
The fact they use what you believe to be their real names?
It seems that everyone else’s comments meet with your disapproval.
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More London centric advertising!
Are OTM aware there are agents outside London?
How much of the budget did this cost?
Hardly innovative and forward thinking. More lazy.
As for Zoopla they called last week asking us to come back.
Whilst we have been less than impressed with OTM we will not return to Z.
What OTM has shown is you only need one portal RM and as such we have increased our exposure on it.
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My thoughts exactly.
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Just had a look at the magazines’ website. Top end luxury stuff, totally London centric.
OTM really don’t get it, do they?
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Have to agree …. wrong use of agents funding. Marketing should be targeted at the agents masses, not elite of elite agents.
I’m still waiting to see AM take off with a nationwide and relevant marketing campaign with the public …… more effective and beneficial to its members.
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Just had a look at the titles …Apsire , Relais and Chateaux , Couture…doubt it will help me list anything around £250,000 in Yorkshire….
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Advertising spend will be concentrated in London where the founding members benefit most.
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“Separately, OTM has done a deal with London publishers Absolutely Magazines, claimed to reach 1.1m readers”
What a joke.
Print lots of magazines and give them away. These are not paid magazines which the user has subscribed to. They are free. Also they are not solely property magazines, they have other stuff like food etc. Therefore this is pretty much untargeted adverting in a magazine no body reads anyway.
I think they will just have a search facility on absolutely dot london. The actual website gets very very little traffic. For example they rank 11th on Google for chicken restaurants 🙂 but that’s about the best keyword they rank for.
Do OTM know how many of these kinds of search facilities Zoopla has on other property websites? I would guess the figure is into the hundreds…
I suggest OTM concentrate on SEO – which needs a lot of work.
Foxtons do not advertise in magazines, they do not do much leafleting if any and they do not use Adwords. They just rank on Google. Just a few thousand a month could rank OTM top for all the keywords Foxtons and RM rank so well for.
OTM will never do well unless they fix their SEO.
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or until they fix their CEO
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I agree LondonR90
SEO is very important.
Question:
What will instant alerts drawn in by real time feeds do to your and others Google SEO?
Has RM got this covered with their own very expensive ‘Optimiser’ product?
Could it be that real time feeds were introduced for ‘free’ to capture your fresh new instructions so as to draw in those hot applicants and your clients data?
At least we shall have some magazines to sell to people on street corners now, unless us small shop owners wake up to the fact that big business is charging us to carve up our sector, one slice at a time?
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According to another story the top end property market is going into meltdown.
OTM really kicked the ball in the back of their own net here by doing a deal with Absolutely-Useless-Magazine hitting the high end of the market!
OTM/AM need to start thinking about the little fish in their pond.
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Although we believe that OTM was set up to help us all I cant help think that some of their decisions are based purely to aid their London/ high end marketplace. Absolutely magazine and Countrylife are 2 such offerings that do not benefit the majority they benefit few agents and only those at that end of the market. Admittedly there isn’t a magazine that I can think that aims purely at the lower end of the market but are these really good decisions for all. Is this really helping all Estate Agents?
With no shareholders to satisfy are they still pushing to be No.1 (or 2)? or are EA’s pushing for them? are YOU doing the hard work telling everyone about OTM or are they? If it turns out you’ve put all properties on their website and you are doing all the work advertising their site then what are you paying for? you are meant to be paying for a service but where? what service do they offer you all? they give you ineffective internet space and ask you to do the rest for the good of the industry (or Elite agents)
OTM need to pull out the stops for you. Not you working for them to increase their viewers so that they can peddle their wares in glossy magazines.
Rant over – just frustrated that lots of EA’s aren’t seeing anything back from OTM and then they go and make another top class decision
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Anyone else wonder whether Vebra Alto’s heralded new ‘toy’ – the ability to mark applicants as valuation prospects – has the potential of being a poisoned chalice?
Surely good Agents already know their applicants, their positions, and whether there is potential for an Appraisal on their property?
We don’t need to be able to run off a report.
We also don’t need to be adding our brush strokes to an entirely bigger picture.
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Agree. Too much info for the cog turners.
Agents arent just giving a tick but giving away intel on tomorrows listing. Crazy.
If the pc boots up with a screen saver. How long till it tells agents to drop their pants. Proceed with CAUTION
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It’s late…. I’m tired…..
however…..
Dear ZoopBLAH………. You’re the Lost Donkey Property Portal plodding along the beach…… with an old rusty megaphone, cackling away about why folk should ride your Donkey!
OTM/AGENTS MUTUAL…. It’s time you gave the We did/They did …..a rest! Get on with moving OTM/AGENTS MUTUAL forward! ……..and if it’s just inside the M25 then write to me quickly and explain the tactical plan there?
It’s a Dumb Trail of Donkeys that waste time and money trotting in behind ZoopBLAH!!! ……..if you want to pick a portal then choose Shaftmove and Kiss your Future Industry Goodbye…… however, that’s your choice. Picking ZoopBLAH……. seems dumb to me unless your Local Market stats show ZBLAH are THE Market Leader by a Long Way!!!
Those that support Agents Mutual and OTM are there for the right reasons…….. if you rejoined ZoopBLAH then do me a favour and send me the same money that you are burning with them…… as you clearly have money to burn!
It’s DUMB that our industry, knowing what it knows, pumps money into Rightmove…… and fuels the dismemberment of ESTATE AGENCY UK, whilst creating wealthy Rightmove Sales Staff, Directors, CEO etc…… however, to then slot another Cartridge in the Twin Barrelled Portal Gun pointing at our industry and support ZoopBLAH?! ……really, REALLY!?!! ……… it’s NOT enough to shaft our industry by supporting No 1…… however just to demonstrate that the “definition of Dumb should have an additional meaning – Estate Agents who also support ZoopBLAH!” …….we also pump money into ZoopBLAH?!
It’s incredible!!! …….I’m sponsoring a Cage in The Zoo to put those DUMB Estate Agents in…….. however the Public will pay to see the Intelligent Monkeys, and drift past the almost Extinct Estate Agents Cage!
Ian Springett, Agents Mutual, OnTheMarket…….. get your finger out, those THAT SUPPORT YOU want to see ACTION! …….if I wanted to watch someone tinkering at the edges I wouldn’t pay to do so!!!
RADICAL ACTION Required!!! I and many others that support Agents Mutual and OTM don’t give a Toss about ZoopBLAH! …….Rightmove don’t care about them….. take note of that!! the No1 Portal doesn’t give a Toss about ZoopBLAH, because that Portal is used as Potty Paper in their staff loos!!!
The only time Rightmove woke up from their Rich Slumber was when Agents Mutual pushed open the door and whispered…. “Here’s alternative Jooooooohnnnnnnny Portal”…….. since then, we still play Ping Pong with ZoopBLAH!!!
Ian? Agents Mutual? The Bunker?…….. Get on with It!!! ……and NOT just inside The M25?! ……..I am 100% behind every UK Estate Agent in every corner of The UK that wants Agents Mutual to move forward and provide an Alternative, however YOU have to deliver at HQ, for all your Members!
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