The Guild of Property Professionals is recommending Boomin to its members after today announcing its full support for the soon-to-launch platform.
The decision to back Boomin comes after an agreement was struck between the parties that The Guild says guarantees the integrity of data and its ownership rights, as well as the primacy of the agent/customer relationship.
The Guild says it has been in discussions with its membership and the leadership team at Boomin over the last few months, and although opinion has been divided, The Guild believes that there is a need for fresh competition in the portal space.
In November last year The Guild hosted an open debate to freely discuss the Boomin offering to agents, and at the time there was “a polarisation within the Membership regarding the new portal”, according to Iain McKenzie, CEO of The Guild of Property Professionals.
He commented: “We wanted the network to be able to voice their concerns so that we could address them directly with Boomin.
“Members were concerned about two main areas, namely whether the portal was, in the long term, planning to go directly to consumers cutting out the agent, and who owns the data and how Boomin intends to make use of it.”
To address these key concerns of the network, The Guild asked Boomin to provide them with a specific integrated tech platform and solution, which they agreed to.
McKenzie continued: “What this essentially means is that members listings data will first pass through The Guild’s platform and then feed through to Boomin in accordance with the agreed service level of each agent. This gateway provides the necessary reassurance that the Guild Members’ data is protected.
“As a result of the agreement and the open and transparent engagement with Boomin The Guild is recommending that members sign-up to Boomin, safe in the knowledge that there is no conflicted data play, and that the portal has no intention whatsoever of going direct to the consumer.
“We believe that Boomin will act in the best interest of agents, providing them with more options and additional revenue streams.”
Michael Bruce, executive chairman and founder of Boomin, is understandably delighted to have secured the backing of The Guild.
He commented: “We are proud to have entered into an agreement with The Guild that reinforces beyond any doubt our commitment to an agent and customer relationship and puts pay to any concerns of a data play. To be very clear Boomin has not, and will not, ever look to move to a direct model, something this agreement guarantees.
“We encourage all agents who are yet to sign up with Boomin to join other leading agents, as pioneers for change, rather than be forced into a future that does not embrace and support them and their customers and almost inevitably continues to feed a financial model that is, or will become, unaffordable for the vast majority of agents.
“We will work tirelessly at Boomin in partnership with agents, to repay their trust, deliver on our ambitions to provide a transformational experience and earn agents more income than they pay over in fees.”
Totally irresponsible of the Guild to back this.
All they are doing is costing agents more money for yet another portal that wants to charge agents for their own leads.
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Smile Please – are you a Guild member?
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It’s free for the first year and then will generate income to pay your costs monthly…? Surely a no-brainer?
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You weren’t around when Rightmove launched, were you?
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As yet another promotion for Boomin appears you have to beg the question why The Guild aren’t getting behind initiatives which are taking place amongst local agents which are likely to be cheaper options and encourage community events?
All it takes is get a quorum of agents in a locality to band together like those in Sutton Coldfield to make the public move with them and that should in turn bring in the other agents
An ideal town ,highly desirable tight area including the Four Oak Estates dominated by a few agents
ACRES
“In our local area, we are definitely leaving and between the three of us we will take 70%-80% of local listings with us to LocalMove and off Rightmove.”
“It will only be a matter of time before house hunters in the area notice Rightmove has just 20-30% of the inventory and begin using LocalMove, which we will promote via our marketing and branches, instead. People will always go where the properties are.”
Substitute Boomin for Rightmove
“Once agents see it working in areas near them, then the idea will spread and, town by town and area by area, we will win the battle. I truly believe this will work.”
So Guild Members for Sutton Coldfield Quantrills & Bill Tandy are going to snub Local Move ?
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I have to say Hilof Wad71, I have been impressed by these local portals like ‘Local Move’ & ‘We Are The Meerkaat’ – the principle is exceptional
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What a crock of sh*t
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If the Guild are backing/promoting membership of Boomin there has to be something in it for them. Nothing wrong in that per se but some transparency to members? I’m an ex-Guild member – just for transparency!
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David – or maybe the Guild have used its collective bargaining position to secure guarantees of Boomin to protect its members?
Maybe, they see Boomin as an alternative to Rightmove beast and have looked at it objectively and thought this was a good thing.
Nahhh – of course not because the Guild are part of a evil plan to take over the world of U.K Estate Agency and are in cahoots with the Bruce Brothers, Area 51, Rightmove, Nessie and man on the grassy knoll.
The Guild are a force of good for the industry – stop thinking everyone is everyone’s pockets. In all the years I have met Ian MacKenzie – I have always found him straight down the line.
and no – I am not a Guild agent because another agent in my town is their man
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I take it you’re an independent agent James? Can I ask if you’re a high street or online agent? I don’t understand why a high street independent would favour this coalition, but I can see why an onliner would.
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I reckon if you stand in Soho Square you’ll be able to hear an audible sign of relief from Rightmove towers as once again here’s a deal that takes the pressure off them and heaps it onto their competition
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There’ll be some sort of back scratching behind the scenes, that I know for sure.
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At a tier above most agencies, the corporate and investment level, there are people and funds who have worked together on other projects, not necessarily in the same space. It isn’t back scratching if parties work together on new projects where they have learned from things that went well or not so well from previous projects. Because of the strength of traditional agency, all the local awareness, reputation and history ‘disruption’ was never going to change the face of agency in the way that was being promised or predicted. If you take the good parts of disruption and find a way of applying it to traditional agency the model expands from a 5% penetration to a greater one. This article articulates the concern many agents have and what will prevent them getting involved with Boomin. What the article will also do is prompt some agents to question is the necessity of the role the Guild as a data filter/policeman
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Robert_May
Whilst I and probably many other agents will agree with the final part of your comment regarding questioning motives and arousing concerns. To imply that previous workings together does not promote back scratching is a little naive? Our industry is rapidly becoming one where large animals are forming. Large animals who can scratch at every corner of the industry to ensure they remain dominant for the interest of themselves, and their bed buddies. This very publication falls onto the same faces and names to gain ‘comment and content’. Those same names all appear to head up the larger organisations, and believe they speak for all.
And what really irks me. These big names who have made a bundle along the way with their back scratching, have not been near the coal face for years, but feel they know what is best and how to advise the smaller guys in order to extract even more of their money from them,
I am relieved to read the comments above, and there are many, which allude to the murky dealings taking place here, and in other corridors.
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when a vendor buys a new home they will most likely go to their previous mortgage company for their new mortgage.
Perhaps it is naive or an over simplification to see the connection between Eprop and PB and regard that as nothing more than a funding transaction but that’s my view of their world. If Bruce Bros impressed previous backers with what was achieved last time round but ultimately previous projects didn’t work out as expected its obvious there will be a head scratching to figure out how to put it right or do it better next time round.
I have a helicopter view that allows me to see things differently from those on the ground, I’ve been expecting this announcement for a fair few months, simply because of the obvious connection between the two.
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Never the shy, unassuming one are you RM? ‘Helicopter view’! I’ve heard the b lot now!
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I come on here and post my thoughts on the stories, not to attack or discredit people who don’t share my opinion.
If I’m posting something that someone doesn’t like or putting forward a viewpoint they hadn’t considered that is what this section of PIE is here for; to provide balance to the one sided press release.
I already said I am ambivalent about Boomin and I have said why. Instead of explaining all that again I used a phrase most people will know means the same thing to explain my neutral viewpoint. I don’t have to like or dislike the Bruce Bros or their latest project, it doesn’t affect me or mine. That doesn’t stop me understanding the people who are supportive of it, those who will wait and see and those who never will.
It’s your right to shout me down but that doesn’t benefit the conversation or the comment section of a B2B discussion platform.
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This is quite sad… our industry can be a joke sometimes. The sheer amount of service providers and agents that are willing to forget who these guys are, who then come back after a rebrand of themselves; all of a sudden caring about agents… they even set up foundation for mental health. ALL of this after spending years slating the industry. Millions was spent doing this. Not a single concern of mental health or the well being of their fellow peeps in the industry back then…
Now, a new idea comes along and of course you jump on a piece of technology that will no doubt make no difference to your bottom line but because a few others have signed up, it must be good. They were so confident in it they had to do what they are VERY good at, which is not give all the info at the outset… build up that suspense. The Bruce’s are extremely good at that… they know their audience, they know there’s still a lot of agents willing to jump on everything that comes along and they know you follow each other!
For those that haven’t and perhaps are debating whether to sign up. Just be strong (lol sounds pathetic that I have to write that), but seriously, try not to give in to the FOMO syndrome. You’ll be okay without it and you won’t fall into the trap of ‘Keeping up with the Bruce’s’ 😉
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Have agents signing up to Boomin really thought this through? They’re encouraged to join a portal that the Guild feels safeguards on feeds need to be set up before using it, and all for what? Paying for 4 portals after the ‘free’ period ends? No they cry, by then agents will have new income streams to cover the cost! So every agent will be selling these same products in competition to each other to the same people looking at the site with pop up ad’s etc etc. What do you think the reaction of the consumer will be to these relentless adverts and ‘selling opportunities’? Will agents be thanked for the offers to buy ‘white goods’, holiday insurance (who remembers holidays) etc? Personally I expect the consumer to be totally hacked off with the process and even less trusting of our industry?
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Maybe the merger rumours with OTM hold some weight? Rumours have it that a couple of the so called challenger portals have been knocking on the door at OTM, I wonder why?
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“urges agents to sign-up to the soon-to-launch portal”
So, the pre-christmas launch has slipped a bit more.
Will PIE still be churning out these PR pieces until Easter ?
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Yes, but they are not saying which Easter. A bit like lockdown will end by ………………
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Glad we are not with The Guild. Better options out there the do have our interests at heart instead of their organisation’s own
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Boomin is struggling to get over the first hurdle, members?
Maybe ‘The Guild’ should have explained why members need to use the portal over the others around. The public certainly don’t need another one and ‘EasyProperty’ is on the way back!
Have Boomin written it in the contracts with agents that they will not provide a ‘for sale by private sellers’ service now or in the future?
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the first hurdle isn’t members FOMO has already meant that people who dislike every fibre of Bruce Bros and what they represent have already committed to signing up to Boomin because other competition in the town had committed too. Members will go to them because they have identified influencers and convinced them.
A month overshoot for a team with no limit on resource or money and a brief that hasn’t changed means something else is delaying Boomin, I suspect its the same something that stopped Sam & Giles rolling out the Homesearch portal on the 25th of May
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