OnTheMarket agents have recorded significant reductions in the time their clients' properties are advertised for sale according to rival portal Home.co.uk.
Home claims that since February 1, OTM member agents "have consistently recorded average marketing times lower than those not using the property portal."
Home's latest reading - on March 19 - shows that the average time a property remains on the market by OTM members is six days less than the average time for non-member agents.
The Home portal figures have been based on all properties found advertised for sale on January 1, February 1, March 1 and March 19, across all agent offices with properties for sale on all four dates, and across Zoopla, Rightmove and OTM.
Home's 'Time on Market' figures are the average number of days since first listed of all properties found advertised for sale by the relevant agent offices on the date of the sample. The figures are accurate within a period of plus or minus two days.
Our data analysis indicates that OTM agents made the right choice for their respective businesses. In terms of marketing times, vendors should not be concerned about using an agent that has switched to OTM. In fact, they are now slightly better than the rest on this basis says Home.co.uk director Doug Shepherd.
When Home last commented about OnTheMarket, OTM chief executive Ian Springett told Estate Agent Today that Home's figures on OTM's traffic were "inaccurate and misleading."
Now he appears to be supportive of Home's analysis, saying: that critics of the new portal had previously bombarded the industry with claims that the new portal would be damaging to member agents. "This report would seem to suggest that, on the contrary, it has positively boosted business for agents."
Comments
I wish my agent would use OTM as I think it's a great site xx I have found some very nice homes but unable to move as mine is not sold yet x Yorkshire
Springett contradicting himself again Never. Are Home's figures 'inaccurate' and 'misleading' Or are they spot on and reliable, now they are saying something positive about OTM Which is it, Ian
Bless. Those signed up to OTM are so easily pleased.
Very interesting. OTM well, well behind on nearly every measure - but I thought they were doing so well and knocking Zoopla off second spot These stats suggest otherwise.
What a week for OTM, first 5,000 offices now this! Great to see lots of positive news about an agent-owned portal...
Interesting analysis of traffic sources and visitor volumn (OTM v Z)
http://www.similarweb.com/website/onthemarket.comcompetitors=www.zoopla.co.uk#
@Jon - and they say those of us signed up to OTM are paranoid.
Why would a rival portal sing the praises of OTM Very bizarre. Something smells a little fishy, but I wouldn't dare be that cynical. Oh no.
Totally agree. OTM can dress it up any way they want, but so far they haven't made the impact they would have liked. This story is a bit meaningless really - as others have pointed out, did Home.co.uk's research take into account properties that were already sold or under offer before OTM came into being I think not.
Exactly.
Am I missing something here - surely its a great advert for OTM that properties listed on it sell faster than those not listed on it!
Could it be that the initial upload of properties included under offer and sold properties already
We all know that was occurring so it must manipulate the numbers
What were the stats of these agents prior to OTM existing
Let me guess, exactly the same. Nobody in this area even knows OTM exists. It's just that better agents (independents mostly and non Internet based agents) have signed up. They've not become better, they were already better.