Agents' Mutual's new portal launching in January will carry no irritating and distracting third party adverts according to chief executive Ian Springett.
Details have begun to emerge of what will appear - and not appear - on the portal which launches on January 26.
In a swipe at Zoopla, which carries online property valuations for different parts of the country which are used extensively by some property professionals and national newspapers, Springett also says the new portal - OnTheMarket - will carry no potentially misleading valuations based purely on historical statistics.
This is because when it comes to accurate valuations, there is no substitute for an estate or letting agent's detailed knowledge of a property, the local area, the current market conditions and the vendor's/landlord's personal circumstances he says.
There will also be no "spam email" according to Springett.
A statement from the portal yesterday refers to the parent operation, Agents' Mutual, having over 4,000 member offices - this is the same figure it announced on October 4.
The latest statement went on to accuse Rightmove and Zoopla of making super-profits at the expense of thousands of small businesses which are out of all proportion to the value they are contributing to the property industry.
The Agents' Mutual board now consists of agents Savills, Knight Frank, Strutt & Parker, Chestertons, Douglas & Gordon, Glentree Estates, Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, Spicerhaart and Rook Matthews Sayer.
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Comments
Agree with Joe and Richard say. We do need to know what exactly the deal is with Springgett. If he's doing it for money, then we need to know upfront how this is going to work. If he's doing it for some sort of revenge (breaking the system like the Luddites did!) then we definitely need to know because this could lead to all sorts of things. At least if its for money then you can predict.
Graham, sorry it's taken so long to respond, it must have been frustrating for you. It's been a busy day, so I just read your post. Where to begin, well article aside, I think the debate goes well beyond the article. What you need to get your head around is that hubris and machismo is not the same as reasoning or logic. I agree that some of the companies on the list are notable indeed and I would not compare my achievements to these companies. However my track record speaks for itself but more so my ability to think and reason. Translated into a response to the above it means that the Lord God of estate agency could say something but if it's wrong it's wrong, try and think for yourself and if you listen to others try to follow their reasoning, not them, only groupies and lemmings do that. OTM looks more like a train wreck about to happen every day, the vast majority in the industry see this because to all but those who are committed it has become self evident. I'm working on a final (I hope) article on this subject so I won't say much more now, you will just have to wait. What I will say is that history will prove me right or wrong and I think that you may look back somewhat ruefully on some of your comments, it's all going to end in tears my friend but don't worry I will be kind.
Amen Richard DC! I hear you brother. Finally someone who agrees that AM is self-serving corporate bulls**t.
The idea was flawed from the beginning, with no proper marketing or advertising plan. It hasn't bothered to consider how it will benefit the people who will actually use the portal - the property searchers who will determine its success. Its purely orientated around benefiting agents.
The people who use the portal couldn't give a hoot about inflated fees agents have to pay to use Rightmove and Zoopla. To them, these are the popular portals where they can find property due to years of brand building and millions of pounds of investment.
Springett is the Machiavelli of the property industry, nothing more than a corporate politician/weasel whos reeled in agents with false promises that simply wont work.
Whilst I can see the value in OTM my firm are definitely not using it as we cannot see what extra value it will give us over Rightmove and Zoopla. I accept that Rightmove and Zoopla are price bandits BUT you get what you pay for. OTM will NEVER have the number of unique visitors to their site or the marketing budget to compete. I for one cannot wait to see who locally is using OTM so we can attract their clients to us - OTM does not cater for vendors only the agents involved who will not be dealt with in a mutual fashion - it begs the question why Surely this could be a business killer for small to medium business who cannot afford to compensate for the business they will undoubtedly loose.
This is hilarious - I remember writing a letter of complaint to Ian Springett when he was ruining the Primelocation site with third party advertising and 'tooth whitening' emails.
You wait - once this thing is up and running - he will do whatever he needs to to make a profit. Oh, and what constraints on his salary are written into the constitution If it gets a year down the line and things are going ok, he will put a gun to the board's head and demand 'proper' reward.
What's the back up plan to protect AM from this and what control do agents really have when no one member firm owns more than a 1/10,000 share
This is going to end badly for everyone involved and I will be laughing my socks off when it implodes. I will have been quite happily building my business while backward agents are distracting themselves with the wrong things.
Stick to your knitting.
I am sure OnTheMarket will be a great site but I fail to see anything mutual about them. Seems like what was originally a good idea has been twisted and corrupted into a corporate body. This is not the solution agents are after its just the beginning of another Rightmove. The future of estate agency is a mix of online, offline or hybrid models and trying to create a business/website that fights against this is futile and will lead to failure.
I am a supporter of OTM.
However, it will ONLY have a chance of success if it hits the ground running in January. That means MASSIVE exposure, visible exposure in EVERY participating agents windows and all other advertising in addition to OTMs general advertising from the start. I mean 'shock & Awe' type advertising to give it that CHANCE. Remember too all you 'knockers', it is FREE to OTM.
Maybe you're looking too hard for bias that isn't actually there. I don't think this is a particularly anti-Agents' Mutual article. Sometimes the supporters of AM and OTM do seem a little precious and defensive. I wonder why.
The thing that most grinds my gears on this subject is the emails I get from portals with sponsored advertisements. I signed up for property alerts not c-r-a-p.
Come on what is this article actually about!
It was announced over a year ago that there would be no third party advertising.
What's a .com with no stock worth
I hope rightmove double your fee annually JOE THOMAS cos you must feel it's worth it! You sheep!
So here we are again, EA running a fairly bland article on Agents Mutual and still trying to turn it into a negative; "A statement from the portal yesterday refers to the parent operation, Agents' Mutual, having over 4,000 member offices - this is the same figure it announced on October 4" Seemingly trying to imply that the sign up impetus has peaked, and then as Paul identifies above, implying that AM taking a "Swipe" at Zoopla is a bad thing (It is the best thing in my opinion).
The real News behind this story is that AM feel they can make this portal work for them and their agents without inundating the users of the site with advertising which of course simply adds to the profits of Zoopla and RM Etc. in addition to the charges they make to branches.
If AM can make it work on 4,000 members, carry no advertising to subsidise the profits, then it adds more to the accusations that the other main portals are simply charging far more than they need to and if they want to compete with (or even lock out) AM then a reduction in the fees they charge would be a good place to start.
I have absolutely no doubts that a well known member will soon be on posting about how my view is in error, but then there is another nugget in the story:
"The Agents Mutual board now consists of agents Savills, Knight Frank, Strutt & Parker, Chestertons, Douglas & Gordon, Glentree Estates, Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, Spicerhaart and Rook Matthews Sayer"
The question being, whose opinions would you consider more accurate, Simon Shrinerock or the Directors of these companies who are perhaps a little more established and experienced
....WHAT A DICKHEAD IAN SPRINGETT IS....
He states that Zoopla online valuations are misleading!!!
Me thinks POT......KETTLE.......BLACK!!!
He says there is no substitute for agents "local market knowledge" when it comes to valuing a property!!!
What he meant to say was.......there is no substitute for agents who log on to rightmove plus and do the desktop valuation and then add on another 10% to please a vendors ego".
Whilst I also think Alex Chesterman is a knob at Zoopla........Ian Springett and his crownies really need to wake up!!!
On the market will get some traction but given righmove is the ROLLS ROYCE TRENT Engine that Powers the UK PROPERTY SEARCH MARKET, an engine that at full thrust could spend over 100m per year (it's full year profits effectively) on TV and other marketing......effectively rendering in the market void and indifferent!
Righmove can blow away ANY competitor and even borrow money from the City if they needed to, secured by their near 3bn market cap valuation.
Righmove also has ALL the content. They might lose some come January but when a competitor agent pitches against an on the market agent and tells the prospective vendor that the OTM agent will not be using Rightmovecto market their property the agent using Rightmove will win the instruction hands down!!
SPRINGETT is a total clown. I can't believe the other deluded clown shareholders at OTM have agreed for SPRINGETT to draw a 500,000 per annum BASIC SALARY!!! Idiots!!
The Zoopla valuation took is dangerous, any estate agent knows this.