An influential estate agency blog which has come out strongly hoping that Agents' Mutual succeeds has criticised its business plan and its decision to ban online agents.
The latest blog by Maurice Kilbride, whose firm Maurice Kilbride Estate Agents handles sales and lettings in Cheadle and South Manchester, makes it clear that he is no fan of the current Rightmove-Zoopla duopoly and his wish that Agents' Mutual succeeds in helping to reduce the power of existing portals and fees paid by agents to list.
But he is scathing of the approach by Agents' Mutual, describing the new portal's name, OnTheMarket, as I suppose easily remembered but not very original.
Of AM's stipulation that those using it, advertise also on no more than one other portal, he says perhaps its attempt to divide and conquer is a step to far for some estate agents.
I would also have not excluded online agents from advertising on the site. I would encourage everyone to list with Agents' Mutual. Once the site has total support, then is the time to come off the other portals en masse he says. As it is I can only see the current idea serving to strengthen Rightmove's position as the leading property portal as more agents are likely to ditch Zoopla than Rightmove.
Kilbride also questions whether AM's budget - which he believes to be £6m at launch and with £7m annually in subscriptions - is enough. This sum pales into insignificance by comparison with the multi millions available to both Rightmove and Zoopla for TV advertising, national press and whatever other marketing he says.
Reiterating his wish that OnTheMarket succeeds, Kilbride nevertheless says that for Agents' Mutual to have a realistic chance of establishing itself as a major player in the portal market, it needs the total support of all agents and I do not get the impression it has this.
Comments
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as someone who owns a "traditional" high street agency - let me ask the high-street guys this question - if you had to start again, would you do it the same way if most were honest the answer would be a resounding "no". it would certainly be my answer! the world has changed massively in the last 10 years, and its gonna change massively in the next 10, high-street will move online, and certain elements of online will move into the high-street, the clever agent will straddle both. doggedly sticking to "i'm high street" or "i'm online" will not serve either end of the market. portals so what. houses sold for decades before they were invented, and if RM/Z disappeared tomorrow then houses would still continue to sell. If you're honest, you know that portals bring buyers, not sellers, they are a means to an end, an aggregator of agent's stock making it easier for someone looking to buy. why would anyone chose an agent based on what they saw on a portal
I wish AM every success and the underlying ethos is right but the marketing of OTM has been poor at best. We are just months away from launch and how many Joe Public OTM ads have you seen Stop anyone in the street on 1st January and ask them what they think of OTM and they will probably say 'never heard of it!'
@Pete B. Thanks for your comments but would like to respond.
I do not think agents are idiots (your words) and in fact many of our clients have signed up to Agents Mutual. They have done it on the basis that they were spending a fortune on the big two and this gives them some way to save money. My own view is that Ian Springett has done a great sales job as I am still unsure what it offers over and above the others including cheaper ones
When you say that I clearly don't understand portals, I am not sure what you are basing this on I totally get the public's love of them because they are an invaluable resource to gather information and most importantly save time. However, unless Agent Mutual has developed some form of algorithm that does something brilliantly different, I am at a loss as to why the public would use it over established brands as they are not offering anything new The public will not care if it is cheaper for agents to advertise on and the fact that they only have 6m will mean that they won't even be able to make a dent in the marketing budgets of the big two. I am open to your thoughts and maybe you could explain what I am missing and what will be so great about it Also FYI a friend of mine has developed and patented a way to run a portal for free - but this is likely to be snapped up by the big two to protect their business.
We speak to hundreds of agents every week and very few have a grasp of best digital marketing practices. They still advertise in many media including newspapers but have no clue as to the ROI on their spend - which means they lack control in their business and therefore will be much harder to create a competitive advantage.
For the money being saved by going onto just one portal instead of two could mean they utilise it to create some stunning marketing that will get them noticed rather than be "just another agent" on yet another portal which gives no reason to use one agent above another.
I believe there are more effective ways to utilise the spend budget and in terms of my qualifications, I have built and successfully sold two agencies, consulted for a number of national brands on their marketing, spoke at conferences on digital media and mentor start ups for a charity.
I have checked my records and we do not have a Pete B who has contacted out firm and not sure what relevance my comment has to you using our service It would be good to know who you are as there is no surname or photo and very happy to have a friendly chat with you to discuss on any of our contact numbers. Thanks :) Stephen
As they say you get what you pay for - online monkey agents working in an Indian call centre... SELL WITH US FOR 50P! I expect Amazon or Ebay will soon start upping their game as well.
This publication is called 'Estate Agent Today' not 'High St Agent Today' I personally believe in the free market as best left to its own devices and only in light touch regulation where necessary. I think Agent's Mutuals proposition tries to twist and manipulate these forces, something that could be done in the early days of the Internet with Prime location but is simply not a viable strategy anymore. I think that looking further down the road the Duopoly themselves are going to have to evolve and develop to prevent being made obsolete, they face many real threats but one of them is probably not Agents mutual. How about asking your virtual personal assistant to gather data for you and curate it into something personalised and useful Its coming, believe me. Ironically the one thing AM will do is spur the Duopoly on to improve their offerings and strengthen rather than weaken their hold on the market. Real change is coming, just not from AM no matter how much noise they make.
I am signed up to Agents Mutual. My firm has never advertised on Zoopla and never will. We are here to act in our clients best interests. Zoopla is buyers site not a sellers. Do you tell all you clients the crime figures or how over priced the property you are selling is. It is those agents on Zoopla how have no idea how to run their businesses. When Zoopla was launched and their competeitors went on it everyone else followed like lemmings. Hail the rise of Agents mutual without the on line agents. Would Waitrose invite Aldi to take a franchise within one of their stores, I think not so why should we.
Another view.
RM and Z etc. rely on the input of the existing mainline agents.
If 3000 or so of those remove their product - reducing the numbers of properties in their area.
Then heavily advertise AM within their local offices and areas (local newspapers are still a good media for brand advertising) it could have a significant effect Many buyers and sellers are only interested in their current locale
RM was given the breath of life by exposure within agents offices and the free advertising.
Unwise to write it of.
@Graham couldn't agree more
@nev you have sadly a rather blinkered view of the world,the digital world would find your comments rather akin to Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corp. "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home."
interesting that zoopla has now set up an online team to take advantage of the growth in this space.
This is born of pure self interest of a handful of agents who believe "online agents" are a breed apart and not worthy to join their "club". Its illogical,lacks credibility but worse that its lacking in business common sense,why when launching a new venture against a virtual duopoly would any sane businessman decree mmm lets shut out a large potential group of members who are growing strongly,are innovating and are currently not well served currently, oh and lets insult all of them by calling them "parasites" because they have the mad idea of not having a physical shop [ although many have on the ground agents)
being new to the industry I find this thinking bemusing and frankly silly. Its like a book site not taking amazon preferring Waterstones, because they have bricks,or a travel site blocking expedia and keeping co-op travel agents. So instead of building advocates of the 150 or so online sites they have created competitors and detractors-well done agents mutual,easyProperty looks forward to working with its partners Rightmove and Zoopla to grow a substantial business in the market and giving you time to reflect on your very poor business plan.
@MKW Money-up-front online parasites 'Express Agency style' working from their bedroom pretending to offer a service where the home owner does all the work is frankly disgusting!
@Stephen Phillips an attitude like... " just shows 3000 agents completely lack an understanding of how to market their own businesses." has sadly swayed me from spending money with your firm Growth Track. Your clear misunderstanding on portals and how the public like them shows your complete ignorance. You obviously view agents as idiots.
@Nev - so online agents are parasites simply because they don't conform to your view of how an agent should operate How pathetic. I give it 5 years before your 'high street presence' is just another charity shop.
Maurice, another very well written article for which I have also commented at length.
I think the creation of yet another portal and having it backed to the tune of 6m by 3000 agents (which is a drop in the ocean compared to the big two), just shows 3000 agents completely lack an understanding of how to market their own businesses.
So big deal that Agents Mutual will be a bit cheaper So are many other portals - and in fact, there is one coming soon that will be totally free. But in this instance, you will actually have to give up one of the big two (if on both) and therefore lose a trusted source of enquiries from a business that markets itself everywhere against one that has a measly budget of 6m that will get used overnight.
It still amazes me how agents rely so heavily on portals and take little accountability of how to market their own businesses.
I set up Growth Track to provide services that exclusively ringfence clients into their own brands and away from the portals. We know that many people will visit them but when they see one house with many agents, which agent will they choose The one they are most familiar with who has built up trust and authority. The way to do this is by brand awareness.
That is why social media works and we launched our Growth Social service - as 76% of UK adults use it daily and that is why we have gained over 1000 Estate Agents as clients in the past year with our Growth Mail service - because we have driven over 10 million potential people to our clients websites and NOT the portals.
Excuse the plugs but agents need to take account and spend their money a little more wisely on promoting their own businesses. Laziness has meant that by pumping money into portals, they have built a "frankenstein" and now complain!
Hats off however, to Ian Springett. He has yet done another great marketing job! I was there at his original talk when pitching the Primelocation concept - and now look at that! He is pitching thin air with no provable metrics and is going to be way more expensive than the likes of Need A Property and still has 3000 people sign up! Is he the next David Koresh!
The sooner this site is up and running the better, ditch rm/z ban and parasite online agents. They don't need expensive marketing what marketing did ebay have a few years ago, word of mouth is free!
The decision to ban online agents just seems like cutting your nose off to spite your face. I have my reservations about the online model, especially those who say online agents will replace traditional agents in the next five years (or equally outlandish and ill-informed statements), but to completely ban them seems completely over-the-top. I'm still very unconvinced by the name, and I think their attempts to break the duopoly will just serve to strengthen either Zoopla or Rightmove.
Maurice Kilbride - who he
I agree with Maurice I personally was banned from attending an AM presentation at Savills by Ian Springett himself merely for voicing similar views months earlier. Any independent minded agent needs to think about whether Ian and Co like the cut of their Gib before signing up, they clearly don't tolerate or approve of everyone. It's a shame because the concept is good but the delivery is a regressive Cartel
Hardly 'scathing'.