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The head of Property Portal Watch, which analyses portals around the world, is warning that Agents' Mutual's new On The Market website will struggle to be noticed when it launches early next year.

Simon Baker, the former head of leading Australian portal www.realestate.com.au and now the operator of Property Portal Watch, has told international real estate website opp-connect.com that OnTheMarket faces an uphill task.

Why would I as a consumer look at an Agents' Mutual site instead of Rightmove after, incidentally, I have had millions and millions of pounds of marketing thrown at me over the years They need something in Agents' Mutual that they don't have in Rightmove, but what is that Baker asks.

He says it is pointless for individual agents to complain about portal fees generally.

They put money on Rightmove because they get leads, but what's the price per lead How do those leads convert into sales Perhaps they could just advertise on another site for a quarter of the price and get the same outcome. They need to systematically experiment he says.

Baker claims the next big thing in the world of property portals will be international sales. There is a lot of cross-border purchasing and as that becomes more and more obvious, there will be more access to listings in different languages and with more information around it that allows you to make a better decision he says.

PPW is holding an international conference in Barcelona next month, buoyed by many of the world's largest portals - notably the REA Group in Australia, Rightmove and Zoopla in the UK, the merging Trulia and Zillow in the US and Soufun in China - now being measured in billions of dollars.

Comments

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    Thanks Simon - obviously we agree with your point about reviews.

    Is everyone up-to-date with Google My Business If not I hope [url="http://www.helphound.info/2014/09/google-my-business-no-ones-looking-for.html"]this[/url] helps.

    • 01 September 2014 13:47 PM
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    Good point, Kevin. Establishing themselves against the might of Rightmove and Zoopla is going to be Agents' Mutual's main problem. The two big players are going to be hard to shift. AM need to make themselves known to the public in the same way at RM and Zoopla currently are. If they manage that, then they could do OK.

    • 01 September 2014 08:49 AM
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    Simon (Whale), you are correct, the customer will go where the listings are. However, unless that site is publicised to the extent Rightmove and Zoopla currently are, they could have all the listings in the world, the general public will not be aware of it.

    • 01 September 2014 08:39 AM
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    I would have thought the most succinct answer would be 'listings'

    Whilst Simon's points are all valid, the most obvious one is that if the public will go to where the properties are. Especially if the exclusivity point manages to continue post launch

    • 01 September 2014 07:53 AM
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    Well observed, Agents should be more creative and adventurous about how they market. Sure advertising on a big portal is important but do agents need two I'm not at all convinced, certainly if an agent can drop one of the big two to join OTM they could just as well drop one and save the cash. Essentially it's not about attracting buyers for a lot of established agents it's just about attracting sellers and portals aren't very good at that. Review sites, Google Adwords and getting yourself known in the local community are better ideas. I see pre-views for qualified buyers and tenants as better marketing than Rightmove Instant. I think that general search will eventually be all about algorithms, maps, Streetview and video, the world is changing and OTM is in danger of being extinct before it is even launched.

    • 01 September 2014 06:17 AM
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