Seven multi-branch agents announced as among latest recruits to OnTheMarket

OnTheMarket is continuing to announce more joiners, saying that seven multi-branch estate and letting agencies have joined in the last four weeks.

Leading independent Sussex estate agent Michael Jones & Company has a network of seven offices and will shortly be listing its properties.

Michael Jones & Company’s managing director Mike Jones said: “We are very pleased to have joined the portal and look forward to a successful and long-lasting relationship. It’s great to see the positivity surrounding OnTheMarket now that it has found more traction in the market.

“This decision will significantly benefit our clients and business and we are proud to support the agent-backed portal”.

Other multi-branch agents which have joined  in the last four weeks include Castles Estates in London, Churchill Estates in east London and Essex, Fraser & Co in London, Green & Company in the west midlands, Saint Andrews Bureau in Cambridge and London, and Thomas James in Nottinghamshire.

As at October 30, OTM reported that agents with more than 11,500 branches were in contract with the portal.

Helen Whiteley, OTM’s commercial director, said: “This further recent progress in signing agreements with several very highly regarded multi-branch agents is another indication of our success in expanding our agent base and property stock with a large number of medium-sized firms across the country.”

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28 Comments

  1. Chatty Cathy

    Note to Property Eye, this isn’t news so can you go and find out what the bigger picture looks like such as how much is their traffic growing by and not some random figure that Ian just gives you but from an independent source. I’d also love to now when the first group of agents who were given free membership need to start paying and how that plays out.

    I’ll wait for all the comments around how amazing it is and how the traffic still doesn’t matter……

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    1. JonnyBanana43

      Zzzz.

      It IS news; it counterbalances the years of negative press and comments from people like you.

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      1. Chatty Cathy

        I think you’ll find it isn’t news , it’s just PR from OTM.
        Three of my close friends are on the free trial and all they ever tell me is how sh1t it is and they never hear from the rep who signed them up.
        All I’m asking for is some cold hard facts from them about what’s going on, is that too much to ask for?

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        1. JonnyBanana43

          Read PIE every morning – that gives you a better understanding of how OTM is working. 
          When did you last hear from your RM rep? 
          Reps are SUPER 90’s btw. 

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        2. new life

          since joining on a freebe earlier in the year we have seen our rep twice which is twice more than either zoop or RM and whilst the level of leads still isnt great those we get are of a decent quality and have lead to business banked they have muted that when the freebe expires the cost will not be excessive ( where have i heard that before )  the way i see it is we can always tell them to do one

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  2. Ouch18

    Well the lack of leads and the quality of leads that we are getting are beyond poor.

    Out of 14 emails in 5 months, 6 have ‘made up’ telephone numbers which raises suspicion, are these genuine leads or something to ramp up figures?

    Im all for OnTheMarket succeeding,  just to bring Rightmove to its knees, but imo, early signs aren’t good and we definitely won’t be paying for it upon completion of our free trial.

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    1. JonnyBanana43

      It works for high end agents – maybe their marketing in up market publications such as Country Life has helped this. 
      Keep the faith, my leads are improving all the time. If it doesn’t work for you when the free period is up then leave…that’s what I did with Zoopla. Left it and unlikely to ever go back. It doesn’t work for me. 

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      1. Chatty Cathy

        ‘Keep the faith, my leads are improving all the time’ said the man who works for OTM……yawn

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        1. AJP123

          Don’t say that, he’s already said he’s an agent in the North East Yorkshire area who charges 2% which is more than anyone else in the area. He’s been offered several differing rates from Z but plans to leave RM. And he has an interest in London property and marketing even though his proximity is nowhere near.

          Ask yourself Cathy, what would an OTM rep who’s only appeared in the last 6 months gain by continuously promoting OTM on any OTM story? And slander RM or Z on any given story?

           

           

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          1. JonnyBanana43

            I happen to own a flat in London. 

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            1. AJP123

              Ohhhh, so that’s why the OTM marketing and interest in the London market exists. You own a single property in the highest population part of the country. Makes sense, and seen as you sell high end properties at 2% I presume it must be a big flat? 
               
              With the greatest respect JB43 most recognise you as an OTM employee, but tone it down please, it’s getting to a stage now where all you do is do damage to the OTM brand 

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          2. Chatty Cathy

            AJP123 you’re missing the point, I find the stories about the indusctry, prop tech very useful and interesting and always take something away from reading them but this does feel like a club you’re only only allowed to post on if you’ve been doing it for years or you’ll just get shouted down. The pro OTM posts seem like reading the daily mail (I don’t by the way) in that there’s such an unbalanced bias towards them.

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          3. JonnyBanana43

            “North East Yorkshire area…” Where is that? Whitby?

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        2. JonnyBanana43

          The big yawn is that you still think I work for OTM – I’ve been posting on here for longer than six months and I will often post on a variety of subjects – not just OTM. 
          I have a single office in York and generally sell residential and agricultural over £500,000. 
          OTM works for me; very well in fact. I think it needs some positivity after months/years of abuse on this forum. 
          I’m sure everybody has a different experience – a mate of mine in Birmingham says Zoopla works well for him. It never did for me. My dislike of RM is mainly around fees and the way they treat clients. 
          For clarity I do not work for OTM. Does it even have reps? 

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      2. smile please

        It works for high-end agents?

        So they put a Chas and Dave tune on the advert. Marvellous.

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  3. JonnyBanana43

    Who is it that you work for?

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    1. Chatty Cathy

      I run a branch for one of the corps in leafy Sussex

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    2. AJP123

      Here’s a clue, it’s not OTM as I’m not over ever story about them like a rash arguing how good it is with people. 
       
      It’s not Z as I have very little interest in a portal that will eventually go direct to market 
       
      It’s not RM as my head is not buried in the sand. 
      I don’t own my own agency so I can’t afford a flat in London and have limited interest in marketing in that area. 
      I do however cover the Northern part of Yorkshire and have never got 2%. Would you like to meet for a cuppa? You can teach me how to get 2% on £1m+ properties simply on the virtues of OTM 

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      1. smile please

        AJP123 please post more often. So nice to hear sanity not drivel. 

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      2. JonnyBanana43

        Wow patronising and sarcastic – what a winning combination. 
         Not really interested in the cup of tea, but thanks anyway. If you want to call me I will talk you through why I think onthemarket is working so well, you’ll  find my number in every weekends edition of the Yorkshire Post. 
        (Sorry I forgot – I work for onthemarket don’t I…!)

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        1. AJP123

          Wow! you operate in a city centre which is saturated with agents (51 sales agents offices according to rightmove) and your mid term business plan is to charge 2% and advertise in the paper on a weekend and OTM exclusively, I wish you the very best of luck!

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          1. AgentV

            Hi everyone,

            Why don’t we all agree we have different ways of doing things that work for each of us, but hopefully we all care about doing the best we can for the vendors that pay us. I think more should connect us than divide us.

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          2. JonnyBanana43

            Thanks so much. All the best with your future employment.

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  4. Essjaydee51

    Cathy, I believe there was a large chunk of sarcasm in AJP’s reply so yes, he and us got your point however what works here doesn’t always work there and this goes for all the portals and I do agree, is it news? Ian says how pleased they are to welcome this one or that one and they say how great it is to be part of the new game changer blah blah, I just skip to the comments so as to swerve all the BS as it’s been said “word for word” by every new joiner.

    It would be nice to see how pleased they are to have Steve’s or jonny’s or Janes SINGLE office join their family  but I guess that isn’t a crowd pleaser!

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    1. JonnyBanana43

       Well said – different things work differently for different people. oTM happens to work very well for me and I’m often post on here as I think it deserves some good press, after years of abuse on this forum. 

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  5. Property Poke In The Eye

    RM, OTM and Z are just a small part of the marketing plan.

    Each agent should work with a small number of people and give them the best service ever and make sure you charge what you are worth.

    Just stick to basics.  That’s exactly what I done from July 17′ and 2018 is going to be our best year to date with 6 figure profits.

    You can end up being busy with dealing with bogus online leads which come through and when you call them, no one wants to answer them, when you email them only 20% respond.  I always ask anyone serious to come and see me in person so I can help them with their needs.

    Other agents have pretty much given up and many will close by the end of the year.

    YES!! …and we are off RM too.

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  6. Rivero

    Some of you who have been on here for years may remember me being a rather outspoken critic of OTM, or rather Agents Mutual, not because of its aims or principles but because of what I saw as a fundamentally flawed business model.

    I believe my opinion at that time has been vindicated. I do, however, now have a very different stance on the matter. Now OTM has become a more commercially conscious entity I think it has a real chance of success (depending on how you would define its success).

    In an environment of great change and uncertainty at ZPG, and verging on extortionate price increases from RM, it would not take much of a swing from Zoopla members over to OTM members to place OTM as a strong number 2 portal…which was the initial aim I believe.

    For this to happen, members who have taken up the free listing contracts will need to have the resolve to ditch Zoopla (if they also list with them) and sign up to a paying contract with OTM. If enough do this across the UK it will happen.

    The question then, of course, is how will this benefit members longer term…but I personally now think the time is right to take the punt on it.

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  7. HIT MAN

    Before OTM we all pushed RM as the be all, Agents sold themselves to the devil and are now reaping the reward of the stranglehold the devil has on them. If agents promote OTM in the same way then the tide will change, there’s only so much OTM can do with advertising we all advertise and have limited budgets, but whilst we are paying for OTM or on a freebie make the most and promote them, it’s in your interests, RM don’t care about you if OTM didn’t exist then many agents wouldn’t exist due the the ever increasing RM and Z charges.

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