The Say No To Rightmove campaign shows no sign of slowing as it continues to grow its membership. In a first-of-its-kind, the campaign has surveyed its database of over 1,000 business owners, representing nearly 2,000 branches, to get a real-time snapshot of sentiment toward Rightmove.
The results of the survey point to much dissatisfaction with the portal.
84% of responses stated that they have either already left Rightmove, have served notice or are strongly considering leaving Rightmove in the very near future.
The 84% breaks down as follows:
Strongly considering leaving = 52%
Served notice in the last two weeks = 29%
Already left = 3%
A resounding 93% stated ‘yes’, they support the aim of the Say No To Rightmove campaign by seeking a 3-month tariff-free period.
The 7% who answered ‘maybe’ or ‘no’ to the same question, also stated they have either already left Rightmove or are strongly considering doing so.
Not only will the results of this survey be a wake-up call to the board at Rightmove, but to the wider portal market as a whole, with 63% saying they are now considering their position with other portals as well.
The Say No To Rightmove campaign is also reaching out to various other groups online to help promote each other’s core messages. Rob Sargent, CEO of The Acorn Group and the man behind the campaign said:
“We would love to hear from anyone running similar groups – and we’re already aware of several – to share ideas and to see how we can work together.
“Although we have over a very short time accumulated a large following, I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceberg – now is the time for our industry to stand together.”
https://www.saynotorightmove.co.uk/
Comments (47)
How comes that Acorn is still on Rightmove? Is it just a negotiation of fees, or is it a real ‘NO’? Feels very much like Corbyn’s “I don’t want to take a stand on Brexit” stand.
If you really want to “say NO to Rightmove” – file a legal claim against its monopoly behaviour, and how bullying agents knowing they can’t leave, how prices are changed every 6 months, and how there’s no protection of agents’ data and rights. Ask Rightmove to compensate each agent for this behaviour, over the years, from its gigantic profit pool.
But then again, Acorn is still on Rightmove – so sending surveys asking the sheep what they think of the slaughterhouse (“do you want to cut costs?”) is just a waste of time.
It’s very rare that organisations who take advantage of the monopoly that they have created for themselves don’t come unstuck at some point. It’s a positive outcome that we are now seeing very fair and public challenge to how Rightmove have maintained their business partnerships and I fully expect that we will now see a far greater level of effective challenge to their model and their principles. That can only be good for the customer – the property businesses that they cater for.
The agents that have left Zoopla and Rightmove have all got FREE PASSES until the market adjusts given them whatever free period they need, both portals offering new deals are nonsense they keep changing every day and different offers to different agents, its time to give OTM a chance and if it doesn’t work for you go back when this whole mess is over and when you’re ready. SIMPLE…
It takes an “outsider” like you, Agent’s Friend to pick up on this. As an industry, we have more than a tendency to be blinkered and find it difficult to think laterally. There will be a sea-change of attitudes to everything once Lockdown is over and the public will be looking at ways of saving money even more in a new age of austerity and businesses like Rightmove will be looking at how to profit from it.
By all means leave, just be sure your competitor has left as well otherwise back to the drawing board.
by competitors I mean large agencies, PB (are they still trading?) and the like, you can probably live outside the rightmove bubble if the majority of agents in your area are out but not so easy if you have a listing gobbling machine in your vicinity.
personally I think a rightmove overhaul is long overdue. Reasonable charges would keep them in reasonable profits for the long term, remember what happened to Icarus when he flew too close to the sun?
…….and I have emailed you Nick.
……Oh, the “edit/remove” Police seem to be in play today. Must be new rules? I missed them. I didn’t realise having an opinion was a “censor” offence. Odd that no explanation given Nick? Take the courtesy to email me direct then with an explanation, as I take the time to interact with your forum.
This survey just goes to show how out of touch Rightmove are and have been for a long time. Interim price hikes when they lose custom, the ill-fated deferred payment plan, a gross lack of customer care and an arrogance bordering on contempt.
Those of you who have seen my previous comments on Rightmove will know that we left in June 2019. The last 4 weeks was tortuous with them calling every other day telling me that “I wasn’t using RM properly”, “I needed to buy more products” or the classic “Would I like more training?” When I repeatedly told them I had been doing this job for 30 years and that I was there when Rightmove started, they persisted in using their stock answers.
However, the best one came 48 hours before we left. A “senior” person in Retentions phoned me and questioned why we were leaving. After a couple of minutes of nonsense I tried to finish the call, only to be told “We’re Rightmove, we’re too big to fail”.
Be careful what you wish for.
As one of our clients put it, “if Rightmove closed tomorrow, it wouldn’t stop people buying houses, would it”
I just want to wish all those of you who see it through and leave Rightmove the very best. Life is much better once you’ve done it. More time to focus on quality leads, no-one telling you how to do your job and, most importantly, using the money you save for new marketing ideas that actually work.
“As one of our clients put it, “if Rightmove closed tomorrow, it wouldn’t stop people buying houses, would it” “
Nail.
Head.
Here is a twist to the argument.
Most of us hate having to use the property portals, particularly Rightmove, but they are a major part of the British house buying and selling public’s lives. Even if you take into account the fact that a lot of people like browsing for the sake of it and the fact that property transactions have reduced dramatically over the past few years, the monthly visits to the 3 main websites are mouth-watering: Rightmove 75 million, Zoopla 35 million and OTM 12 million (and rising). The next two down the list receive only 400,000 visits a month each.
Compare this with our close neighbour, France and there may be a warning here. Similar population, similar sized economy. Their “Rightmove” Le Bon Coin receives only 11.2million visitors, Se Loger 5.3 million and Particulier a Particulier only 2.5 million. Interesting the next 5 portals down the list receive between 1.4 million and 2.8 million each. A different house hunting culture I know, but the warning here is that Le Bon Coin is actually a classified ad website, but millions of house sellers use it because it cuts out agents’ fees and it is very much the norm. Abandon Rightmove and it will have no problem then adding private sellers to its listings which would transform the UK market overnight. A major private sellers portal would destroy our industry as we know it more than any Coronavirus.
Richard makes an interesting point, as an outsider to estate agency directly (but an industry supplier) the danger of agents pushing Rightmove into a corner where they become ‘Purplebricks on steroids’ by offering a direct sales option is a very real one. They have spent millions building up by far the most recognisable property name in the country, it surely isn’t a massive jump for them to go direct to the public if it suddenly makes commercial sense to do so.
Not advising any agent to change their strategy and I certainly acknowledge how Rightmove has brought a lot of this on themselves but I do think agents should be careful what they wish for because Rightmove will not roll over and capitulate.
Just my opinion, good luck everybody when we come out of this.
AgentsFriend and Richard Copus
“…the danger of agents pushing Rightmove into a corner where they become ‘Purplebricks on steroids’ by offering a direct sales option is a very real one.”
I don’t think so.
For Rightmove to make such a sea-change to their operation would be one I very much doubt they would wish to – or have the capability to – undertake.
First and foremost, Rightmove are not Estate Agents. They don’t operate like Estate Agents. They don’t work like Estate Agents.
Most importantly – the crippling thorn in the paw of your idea – they don’t think like Estate Agents. That is the one thing that Agents are painfully aware of through their experiences of dealing with the rogue behemoth platform.
Rightmove have the advantage of watching the Estate Agency industry from a grandstand seat.
They have the best seat in the stadium – all paid for by the players.
If they had wanted to make that move I suggest they would have done it long before now… and maybe if that had happened, as Mr Copus suggests, the Industry would be a very different place to what it is now.
Never going to happen.
Our position is that, strategically, it’s not in our best interest to leave RM right now but we wrote to Robert Sargent to say that we fully support the campaign, and that we will leave RM in the (near) future.Strange that we we weren’t surveyed..? We think Rightmove’s contempt of its agents is deplorable, and at our Director meetings over the last 2 years we regularly discuss leaving RM. I sincerely hope this is the end of Rightmove, and that this will become a salutatory tale to other portals not to bite the hand that feeds them. They are, after all, nothing WITHOUT Estate Agents.
If you really want it to be the end Brian and think they’re so deplorable why on earth don’t you do do what you want to do and get out? My firm is extremely vulnerable, it was a significant decision to leave last week but the writing on the wall indicates Rightmove have now more than served their purpose and we’re already saving money. Strength in numbers will win the day, staying on the fence just prolongs the agony of paying through the nose!
Weak.
Its an interesting chart and movement and well done for Rob grasping the nettle and dealing with it. I sure as heck would not want the job of doing it.
But i am a member of the group, i filled out the questionnaire …. I still have no idea what we are looking to achieve.
Sameway i was part of Murrays group, we got an extra couple months free zoopla which i thank him for and saved a few quid on RM for 3 months but what does it change in the long term?
I would get more excited with a voice coming out giving clear direction we can all get behind. The best i have seen over the last few weeks is Homesearch i actually believe these guys can do it IF they get momentum and don’t become greedy, give it away for a year give agents no excuse not to join.
The thing is… Agents regularly moan about RM prices (rightly so), but when it comes to the crunch, 99.8% never leave. As ultimately, deep down the majority of agents believe RM is a must have for the business. Believing anything else is just wishful thinking.
With the current situation in the world/country, people will be stressed and frustrated. But when bite comes to crunch, longer term, agents will remain on RM. And RM know this.
No, 1TB – their days are numbered. If something is wrong in the game of estate agency, agents eventually get it right and come through. Home Information Packs – killed off, Purple Bricks – virtually defeated, Rightmove – the death knell is sounding.
I think you can safely use ‘your’ not ‘their’
Disruption went into decline #portaljuggling was stopped- as soon as their listings weren’t permanently top of the shop or on page 1, the coincidence of buyers finding a listing or being sent repeated notifications of a listing by the portal meant that sales became harder to achieve. With the playing-field levelled cheap could not compete with service.
Additionallly with most of the perfomance claims shown to be…. not as claimed, it was suddenly much harder to be cheap and unbelievably impressive.
Good work but alas the bully that is RM will still take your dinner money…..
Awful corporate culture / sour from the very top downwards
A CEO who must chuckle himself to sleep after counting his gold coins one by one ……..
Keep the three main portals fighting amongst themselves to improve their offers. Discounts and counter-discounts will be forthcoming. Reduced rates linked to lengthy contracts will become just ever reduced rates, open ended. As usual, Rightmove will be reactive rather than pro-active. They may even believe their current offer is as far as they need to go. Good luck with that.
What is now fact is that high portal rates are a thing of the past.
I am confused.
A website called “Say No To Rightmove” returned results that its registered users would say “No To Rightmove” and this is a surprise?
MH-RM has the key question; How are the numbers growing?
If you sign up to SNTR do you have to pick a type of registered user you are? and by this I mean… sign up and select: Leaving RM, Might Do, or something like that so the survey is ongoing based on user registration and an ever increasing picture is being painted.
All the above tells me is, over half of “SNTR” agents, are actually saying “I really don’t know to RM”
and shouln’t the 52% (Those strongly considering leaving) captured in the 84% Yes answer, be transfered into the 12% undecided category.
That would surely be the actual true headline pie chart?
Have another cup of coffee
think about it again and you will come to the conclusion that unless Connells and Countrywide leave then hardly anyone will…… do the graphs don’t matter really …..
The boys at the top enjoy their free trips to Monaco too much
Hi Ric, I am confused too. Why are so many hanging on in there waiting for a response from RM? Waste of time, as with great respect due to Robert May, it is to suggest they drop to £335 for sales – no chance! Too many agents are procrastinating instead of doing what they have threatened to do. They should save their present £275’s – and a return to many more £1,000’s RM will claw back in the future. Get off the fence guys and get out now.
I am simply suggesting a way out for Rightmove. The reality of competition in our industry is that the corporate and non geographic agents who pay less than ARPA won’t come off Rightmove.
The non geographic agents do not have a business without the portals and the corporates could be about £5.88m per 600 offices better off per year than their independent competitors so my suggestion is based on the likelihood that those who are coming off are coming off and not returning, but those who say they’re coming off but want to stay need to negotiate a deal that is fair to all and without penalty for those who want to go back.
Only by Rightmove being uncertain of their eventual customer base will agents establish a proper Customer supplier relationship. There is no justification for more than £335/month but at that figure Rightmove would be good value.
If Rightmove don’t offer that to everyone they will allow the vacuum they create to be filled by people with better tech and a better understanding of how to treat customers.
We gave notice Monday. A bit of a non interested (perhaps demoralised) employee at rightmove taking the call – as if it was the umpteenth of the day with “we’ll call you in a few weeks”…
Being a single office and having spent the price of a decent house with them, it’s disappointing! Yeah just like a tenant throwing dead money in until we take ownership.
If Zoopla gets this right – they will have more of a strong hold than Rightmove – If you list with them, use a software ZPG owned, if you run your website through Techniweb they will have you by the short and curlys long term. Very clever business model but don’t be fooled, they are a business ultimately owned by an american silver lake company who paid billions of £££ a few years ago – they will want to see a future return!
Of the players in this game right now Zoopla is the weakest of the lot. Their income is heavily influenced by CRM subscriptions and with a lot of staff on furlough that will have an effect.
17,000 fixed costs for Rightmove till Christmas is about 20% of last year’s operating profit. With the duopoly broken and with ZPG taking an aggressive stance agaist Rightmove on ‘Duopoly Friday’ Rightmove could quite easily and sensibly blow any offer ZPG can make to agents out of the water.
As the demand for old school portals is preplaced with a desire for hyper local portals that can be controlled by agents the behemoths have to come up with something radical and compelling.
If Zoopla get this right …
maybe…
“If Zoopla get this right …
maybe…”
Forgive me asking – but why would you consider a platform that actively enables ‘gaming’/#Portaljuggling – call it what you will – of listings as a worthy alternative to another platform with its’ own set of fatal flaws?
As much as I loath Zoopla what is the alternative?
OTM? Rather not.
Best hope is Homesearch but they have their work cut out. 1000 / 2000 agents are good but still less stock than OTM.
Slightly bias given these are the agents who have signed up! …(me included) indeed hilarious that 4% who say no to right mover actually are saying yes to Right move … Funny…
Rob … A question …
What’s the latest numbers ? are they growing at pace or have you seen the peak maybe?
Yes numbers are growing by the hour. The key is organic growth of our supporters among the small to mid size UK independents. Its the most lucrative sector for Portals, and the one that needs to stand up hardest to the current pricing regimes.
Rob Sargent CEO – The Acorn Group
Hilarious!
The 1000 Agents are ones who have registered with the “Say No To Rightmove Campaign” and 4% aren’t considering leaving Rightmove.
I love these random surveys.
Same old. Same old.
I don’t think you should be quite so dismissive. 1920 branches coming off Rightmove is about 11% of the current user base. They contribute by my reckoning about 14% of the operating profits. That alone would require the CEO to explain why rather than delivering on his promise of £2500 ARPA the profits had contacted by about £25m.
Additionally there will probably be 2 or 3 other branches in 1920 activity centres no longer feeling the pressure to be on Rightmove because their competition are.
1920 could easily become the 6000 branches who for 3 years I have been saying are agents that do not have registers to support their Rightmove spend ( and that was pre CV19)
If just those 6000 branches leave that will be a 42% reduction operating profits (£73m)
I think Rightmove have to come back very quickly with an offer where all branches pay the same, agree that subscriptions mirror HPI. – £335 for sales, £335 for lettings and £500 combined would be the offer I would be making to placate an industry that likely to contract back hard and harder still if Rightmove attempt to return to an ARPA anything like it was.
As a service provider their job is to keep agents in business, perhaps they have forgotten that.
I think teddy is referring to the following:
Served notice in the last two weeks = 29%Already left = 3%
3% of 1000 is 30 agents….
The 29% who served notice, a chunk of them won’t leave when the time comes or will have already reversed it.
It will be interesting the see the results in two weeks time and if its changed.
How do you get all of that from what teddy typed? Do yo work together in say, Soho Square or Milton Keynes?
Realistically this is just donkey dealing, it is the customer pointing out to a supplier that there isn’t another set of customers the supplier can turn to. The agents who leave will leave and every one who does WILL NOT be replaced by some eager agent waiting their chance to be on Rightmove.
This is a unified show of strength at least 6000 agent who couldn’t afford to be on Rightmove before Covid now have the excuse they need to come off without appearing weak.
Rightmove has transitioned from a must have need to a take it or leave it want.
What is worse for them is where they have failed to innovate they are left very vulnerable to challenge.
All the Woooo Hooo about them adding a tab to display videos shows just how far behind they are.
This isn’t something that has a 2 week timescale this is forcing Rightmove to the negotiating table and they really ought to be getting on with it
Spot on. I also believe that in no way RM is worth more than £500 a month. That’s the way top end one could spend for a portal listing. Any office should not have more than £500 as portal fees as it simply Doesn’t add up. There are so many alternative avenues to market online nowadays that a bill of £1600 Per Month or (an employee’s wags) isn’t worth tbh. RM should come up with a per property pricing for smaller agents. This is the way forward. This way an agents is more flexible and thus a constant stream for all portals.
The ironic thing is at £500 and forced to innovate and streamline their platform and staff the fixed costs would plummet and leave them with a higher profit margin (84%)
The actual profits would fall back to about £85m but who would mind that? (other than the shareholders, but £85m is much more appealing than what they’re headed for if they don’t act soon)
I was part of the going to leave category but have now handed our notice in. Would urge all agents to review their position in the coming weeks or months. There’s so much more prop tech out there its worth aligning too for the benefit of your customers and yourselves. Paying increasingly inflated costs to list your clients properties on a portal that seeks to introduce modifications to try and eek out even more money from you, is a relationship that is unhealthy at best and bordering immoral Terrestrial TV lost its grip on TV audiences when Sky came around, Blockbusters disappeared when Netflix appeared and the same will happen with the portals who have taken far too much from their customers in the coming months and years. Spend time speaking to the Guys at The Guild, Homesearch, Rummage and others who are introducing some great tech and see where your business can gain traction with the public rather than remaining with a self devoted partner like RM
They say timing is everything!
I’m not at all surprised by these results. Feelings are running very high. Could the ill-fated ‘Deferred Payments Scheme’ be Rightmove’s ‘Ratner’ moment?
My blog, ‘Where Next For Beleaguered Rightmove?’ will be published later today.
As promised…..
Where next for beleaguered Rightmove?
As the lockdown hit the property market, Rightmove initially responded with a price freeze. As the pressure mounted, this was upgraded to an ill-conceived ‘Deferred Payment Plan’ which was received with derision by the industry. Two days later, after criticism from all quarters, there was an embarrassing, price slashing u-turn. Could this be Rightmove’s ‘Ratner’ moment? Over 1,000 firms have signed up to the website ‘SayNoToRightmove’. The agents maybe revolting, but will it make any genuine difference? You can read my take on Bit.ly/WhereNextForRightmove
Well done Rob. A long, long overdue effort to motivate us all to escape from this abusive relationship.
Good luck !
Keep up the good work Rob
We at the Estate Agency Union and Boycott Right Move are behind you
What’s the good work? Getting agents to say they want to pay less? We’ll see it when they don’t ask “planning on leaving” but instead ask “have you left”..
And how comes that Acorn is still on Rightmove? Is it just a negotiation of fees, or is it a real ‘NO’?
If you really want to “say NO to Rightmove” – file a legal claim against its monopoly behaviour, and how bullying agents knowing they can’t leave, how prices are changed every 6 months, and how there’s no protection of agents’ data and rights. Ask Rightmove to compensate each agent for this behaviour, over the years, from its gigantic profit pool.
But then again, Acorn is still on Rightmove – so sending surveys asking the sheep what they think of the slaughterhouse (“do you want to cut costs?”) is just a waste of time.