Globrix says 'we have overtaken Rightmove'

Hi,
Love the fact that everyone hates rightmove, so what estate agents are not on it,I have a large amount of buy to lets I am looking to sell nationwide and am looking to use agents not on right move ,

Email me at rentmyhousestoday@gmail.com , if not wanting to advertise this on here,

Many thanks
William

• 13 May 2009 11:10 AM

what a load of lemon, we have been using globrix now for about 9 months, so far todate we have not had ONE enquiry, i get more from rightmove in an hour than we have had from globrix. yes its great its free, yes rightmove is expensive, but at least it works. If they are claiming that they have over taken rightmove they are deluded

• 23 March 2009 13:15 PM

you get nothing in this life for free....

• 21 March 2009 07:28 AM

J Parry - there are three solutions, one of which is very simple, to list your properties on Globrix if the Globrix search engine is unable to spider your website. You are welcome to Twitter me to find out what the best solution is.

• 21 March 2009 02:59 AM

On my visits to Estate Agent's offices up and down the country, I am now noticing more Globrix window stickers than ever before. In many cases, Rightmove stickers have disappeared completely. Have you noticed that property features in The Times Newspapers tend to give a "Globrix" point of view? What better subliminal form of subliminal advertising. I doubt whether Globrix will eventually charge to list Agents properties. The problem with websites is that they can be easily emulated with a different name provided trademarks are not infringed.

• 21 March 2009 02:50 AM

I have tried several times to have our properties listed on Globrix and it just doesnt seem to be happening. I posted a similar comment a while back to which their tech team responded - still nothing.....

• 20 March 2009 11:44 AM

Re : MIKE's comment "Stock is the really easy bit to get. Do a deal with VEBRA, Dezres, CORE and CFP and you have the market." Sorry, I don't understand this. Are ypu talking about clients when you talk about stock? VEBRA et al supply you with clients? Can you explain?

• 12 March 2009 19:06 PM

Globrix is a waste of time. I havent noticed any difference in traffic to my site since listing with them. I know my properties are priced correctly as im gettin leads from Rightmove, Property Index and even Zoopla!!

Also, im pretty sure News International are NOT a charity, so i dont see how they will be running Globrix free of charge for ever when advertising on the site will not make nearly enough money to support the business in all areas.

• 06 March 2009 11:10 AM

Estate agents have made rightmove what it is. They have promoted it, sung in praises!!! until it has become so expensive and they have the agents exactly where they want them. All through clever marketing making the consumer believe they NEED their property on Rightmove. Globrix is going down the same route and eventually agents will be in the same position with Globrix as they are Rightmove. I agree that agents should be aiming for traffic directly to a their own websites which cost a lot of money to set up rather than sending them to third hand search engines. The problem here though is nobody is willing to take a stance and try something different,their are various forms of locally focused sites out there but not many agents want to take the risk and give them a chance. Maybe its time you did... before you end up in the same situation you are now but just with a different company.
www.email4property.co.uk is a locally focused website aimed to help agents in their own key areas.

• 23 February 2009 12:49 PM

Hi could not agree more with George Lancaster, a good website is am must to capture web leads directly. The problem being that most UK agents do not capitalise on this. I have seen (not mentioning any names) agents who’s domains redirect to Rightmove surely this is a total waste of traffic from marketing material etc. Many of the websites also use iframes to display property details and search results; this has no significance to Google who only want to crawl content. If agents got together a created like Local regional portals (like Chancer Groves mentioned) the Big Boys would not have the property to list the first place, your strength is the listings that you hold.

• 22 February 2009 16:29 PM

Globrix is not there to generate leads - its not a portal. It drives web traffic - almost 20% of ours in fact. Rightmove provides leads as it cannot drive web traffic as it doesnt provide hyperlinks to your site, therefore customers can ONLY email or call.

You cant compare these two - however both are invaluable.

• 22 February 2009 11:35 AM

Chancer groves, thinking outside the box. Please post here again, we need to hear some powerful alternatives to mainstream agenda. Like your style.

• 21 February 2009 17:27 PM

The discussion around email leads is fundamentally missing the point I think. If you have a decent website you will be able to capture email leads on your own site, otherwise ask yourself what is the point of you having a website at all! Email leads generated from your own site are targeted, the RM emails are shared. Your website can get free traffic from google, globrix and other sources now, so for the first time having one can create considerable value to our business.

• 21 February 2009 10:15 AM

A message to the techies that have posted: Agents DO understand the Globrix model & that consumers are directed to our own sites & how tracking URLs work & how to use Google analytix & beacon files etc, BUT we need email leads to get consumer data. Names, contact nos. price range, geography etc. My stock today is not the same as next week. WE need to be able to drive the outbound marketing - not rely on them to revisit Globrix (which is not always up to date due to infrequent spidering). Until Globrix start sending us email leads I'm afraid (sadly) that they will not be treated as seriously as RM. Look at the posts - if email leads are what agents want, that's what Globrix should try to provide if they want to take on RM. I hope they are successful.

• 21 February 2009 09:48 AM

To those who have concerns about Globrix switching their model, I really don't buy this. Their whole business is based around sending users to our websites and advertising revenue, and their are numerous websites all over the world in other industries that have made a success of it. It will ultimately benefit us as agents, and consumers if we embrace it, and support them by adopting their advertising model.

• 21 February 2009 00:03 AM

I still can't believe that many agents commenting here still don't understand that Globrix send people straight to your website rather than collecting leads, just like Google does. Set up Google analytics and see where your web traffic is coming from - most likely Google and Globrix - this is a totally different business model than Rightmove. They should complement each other - Rightmove collects leads and Globrix sends people to your website. A lead to your own site is worth 10 times one that is shared with every other agent in the area as long as you can get them to call you!

• 20 February 2009 22:22 PM

Our local newsagent doesn't stock either title.

• 20 February 2009 21:45 PM

The point of a portal site is to collate and present comprehensive information on a specific subject from dispersed sources. In doing so it offers end users simple access to the “whole” marketplace which would otherwise prove extremely time consuming or near impossible to do effectively. It used to be done by registering with all the agents discovered in a trawl of the high street. Too many portals with none having full coverage actually lessens the relevance of the internet as a search tool. From a users perspective it is far better to have a single reliable site with pretty much full coverage.

There are only two funding models for a national property portal; either it is funded through subscription or it is funded by advertising revenue because of its wide exposure. Rightmove has never capitalised on its huge advertising revenue potential – although it might in order to make up for diminishing subscriptions. It could also use this to subsidise agents fees or make it free to destroy any emerging portals. The more portals there are of course serves only to lower the advertising rate in conjunction with the reduced certainty of exposure for advertisers. This directly endangers the Globrix model for the future. News International will not fund it indefinitely unless there is a wider benefit to it. I would not be at all surprised to see all media groups ditch their property portals in the future. Propertylive is funded by indirect subscription and is unlikely to evolve as the long term defacto portal without specific and significant funding – ie it must become rightmove!

The ultimate point of course being that the internet and major portals may have enabled an operational business model of the future for estate agents. Most agents however have simply embraced it as an additional marketing tool. At the same time it was and is a major threat –what if rightmove through in the towel with agents and converted to a private sale network leveraging its huge brand value and consumer recognition! Or perhaps sold it to a 3rd party such as a major supermarket chain with an array of financial services to promote! There are enough major portals for each major supermarket chain to buy one each and move into the estate agency market with familiar and established brands.

So the issue is potentially much bigger than just which portal. The estate agency industry needs to look very closely at where it is going. If it wants to preserve its traditional place then the best thing of all is no portals which would force the viewers back in to direct communication with the agent at an early stage and to make use of agents individual web sites. Portals never had and never will have an impact on the volume of properties sold so they can be ditched without fear of damaging the scope of the market – they are making money out of the process by collating information – they could however become the marketplace!

There is however scope for local region portals and this is where local newspapers missed the boat initially through fear of destroying advertising revenue for their printed publications. Perversely much of this revenue has now already been lost.

This perpetual argument over individual portals is entirely diversionary and akin to Nero fiddling while Rome burned. The industry needs to wake up and respond effectively before the rug is pulled from under it. This is what the NAEA might be expected to focussing on rather than entering the portal market and pitching to become official regulator - its portal ownership interstingly enough shoud preclude it from this if there is any commercial tie in!

• 20 February 2009 19:50 PM

Beware you will be creating another rightmove. Remember SKY & BSB TV that was supposed to be free for all films and sports. Then when they got a monopoly they started charging everyone. I've seen this picture before.

• 20 February 2009 18:37 PM

Good luck to Globrix

• 20 February 2009 18:11 PM

I have to say, I find the Globrix interface and search criteria superb - particularly in mapping mode.

If anything, at least there's a company out there driving improvements.

• 20 February 2009 17:58 PM

Here here I agree rightmove uses our cash for promotion, take down your rmove window stickers and put globrix in place or propertylive or both, help the free ones beat rmove, and if a free one charges drop em! rmove could axe our fees by having adverts on the site

• 20 February 2009 17:56 PM

Please, please, please follow Dominic's plan as I would love to get more instructions by being the only agent in my area promoting the fact that I can show their property on a sites they have actually heard of. By the way what makes you think that a site owned by newspapers that have increased prices by 300% over the last 5 years will not take you to the cleaners?
These are the same owners that are currently raising prices for propertyfinder while agents are strugling to stay open.

• 20 February 2009 17:42 PM

I'm astounded by these comments.

How did Rightmove get where they are? Didn't it have something to do with 15,000 agents plastering the Righmove brand over every marketing surface known to man?

IMHO the answer is staring all you Globrix fans in the face - Stop promoting the beast.

You've made them the force they are, so stop bleating about Globrix not doing the business and start helping them get the business.

How about just 1 national Globrix week, where we all promote Globrix in all advertising - Surely this wouldn't hurt but would give them massive exposure. - Just an idea

• 20 February 2009 17:31 PM

...sorry just noticed the property search numbers as well. If on average a visitor needs to do 10 searches before they leave it means the technology doesn't work or once again people aren't looking to buy or rent.
Please can we talk about real sites like findaproperty, propertyfinder, primelocation and rightmove? Rather than wish for free miracles I'd rather know where I need to be to get real business, the kind that shops take in exchange for food and clothes.

• 20 February 2009 17:23 PM

Great numbers don't you think? If anyone is looking for real motivated tenants and buyers are you not concerned that Globrix's average visitor never revisits their site? If someones not looking atleast once a week they ain't looking!!!

• 20 February 2009 17:10 PM

We have been using the dezrez system for a while - we recieve our leads directly into the system from Globrix.

• 20 February 2009 15:35 PM

Advertising spend online is measurable. As a result, you should know who is sending you leads and who is not. Globrix sending you clicks? Why aren't you tracking if those clicks turn into email leads? If you aren't tracking that, well pretty dumb don't you think? In the same vein, if google or yahoo or any other listing website like Zoomf or Zoopla is sending you clicks, why aren't you tracking those clicks to see if they convert into calls or emails? Most agents seem to flounder in the dark when it comes to this as is evident from the comment thread. The main reason Rightmove doesn't send clicks is because most agents aren't saavy/techie enough to track the conversion from a click. Its called a walled garden website. And regarding rightmove, if you're happy with your monthly cost per lead, then why complain? If you aren't... then find an alternative that will perform better. Heaven forbid you make a decision based on the hard data. Do you ever get a conversion report from a print advertisement? I rest my case on the power of data when it comes to online advertising.

• 20 February 2009 15:24 PM

We can promote Propertylive for no extra cost by putting the logo on our details, having the logo in our windows (whilst removing RM and others)and running it on our newspaper ad pages. In time, when vendors say 'Are you on Rightmove?' the response can be 'Why would we be? It isn't the leading portal' This is how Primelocation began and they even got away with requiring agents to solely use their portal. We don't have to come off RM or other portals to get Propertylive up the rankings - but if every member firm pulled off the paid-for portals and listed solely with Propertylive the public would very quickly realise that PL is where the properties are. Job done.

• 20 February 2009 14:25 PM

chester, tha ads pay for the maintenance/traffic/hosting of the site, or did you think google runs it for them for free. Bandwidth for that level of access does not come cheap.

• 20 February 2009 13:13 PM

Well said Patricia. It's great to have a well backed site like Property Live for free, but I would be prepared to go £50 per month if that enabled a national advertising campaign to heighten awareness. It wouldn't need to be a perpetual spend either, just until the campaign was paid for.....

• 20 February 2009 12:54 PM

Stock is the really easy bit to get. Do a deal with VEBRA, Dezres, CORE and CFP and you have the market.
What about the consumer eyeballs - this is what Rightmove have and will never lose
Check out the Simon Baker review on this property portal watch website - He is someone that has run Propertyfinder and is spot on with his assessment - if you ask many of the other heads of UK property portals they will agree.
Globrix have no money and clearly idea what it takes to run a property portal - they have no traffic and no revenue stream - A credible portal - Don't think so !

• 20 February 2009 12:48 PM

Agents should now get behind Property Live and the NAEA to ensure their website is a success. Each agent could pay £50 per month to list property to finance a public awareness campaign. With everyone calling for regulation of agents, what better time than to promote the NAEA, Property Live and the value of using a regulated agent. Having just had a visit from Primelocation and being told my monthly subscription would be doubling from next month - its time we stopped moaning about RM and Primelocation and used what could be our best marketing tool, at a fraction of the cost.

• 20 February 2009 11:58 AM

Couple of points, firstly agree with Jim... How do you mount a multi million pound campaign without any revenue? Answer, promise your owners future revenue in return for immediate investment. Problem with this is that it only possibly leads in one direction which is that Globrix charge us eventually. Do we really believe that ANY of the other portals wouldn't do EXACTLY what Rightmove have done? Wake up guys... The minute someone takes the place of Rightmove as number one, they'll whack up their charges. It doesn't matter who it is, if indeed anyone manages to knock them off their perch.
Second point is a surprisinglypositive one RE Rightmove as well... Seems to me that they have got rid of a lot of their dead wood useless sales people who didn't do much other than put up our rates and try to flog us extras... Someone came to see me recently who was able to add some really good insight into the way my branches use Rightmove, and I did, amazingly, feel as though they were really trying to help me get the most from my spend with them. They highlighted that my people weren't replying to enquiries, and that they weren't using the tools. They demonstrated how the reports are designed to be presented, and I totally buy into this and will ensure that my branches get trained and use ongoing. I was being told by my staff that they knew what they were doing with Rightmove, but clearly they didn't know half of it, let alone what to do with it.
I'd certainly rather pay them less (especially for 5 branches) but I do now feel as though they are trying to help me and my business get the most from it. They have told me that they'd like to come back in 3 months to review all of the action points that we discussed... We shall see if they do, but assuming they want to, I'll certainly let them in. Maybe theres an opportunity for all agents to get some facetime with some of their better people that have remained after their cull last year.

If you feel that you have to pay to be there, at least for the time being, why not try to get as much out of them as possible?

• 20 February 2009 11:22 AM

It is particularly pointless to have more properties on your site if the great general public have never heard of you. I use Globrix and am sick of spelling the name to people who say "who" when you mention the name, Globrix should spread the word as well as Rightmove do before they blow any trumpets.

• 20 February 2009 11:18 AM

DONT YOU UNDERSTAND GLOBRIX SEND THEM TO YOUR WEBSITE NOT EMAIL LEADS, FOR CHRIST SAKE GET A BRAIN

• 20 February 2009 11:13 AM

Jim, no revenue? are the ads on the right hand side free then?? many of rmoves emails are blanket emails, you do a search for brighton then click email all 48 agents the same email. no wonder rmove are sending more emails! quantity not quality. Rmove rip us off and never send applicants to our own website.

• 20 February 2009 11:11 AM

CMRent might do better themsleves if they had a better reputation! Also there costs are sky high! Just like Rightmove!

• 20 February 2009 11:07 AM

Same here! use both RM and GB I try and promote GB but get few to no leads a month from them, whilst RM I get no fewer than 5 a day! arrgghh I too would love GB to overtake and become number 1, problem is if they do become number 1 will they still let you have the industries most powerful website as it will then become for free? no win I fear!

• 20 February 2009 11:07 AM

Mach1: We would like emails for database building & outbound marketing. At the moment RM has the edge on this. I am sure Globrix have this planned though. Their US based IT specialists are streets ahead of RM's geeks.

• 20 February 2009 11:05 AM

Same problem. Lots of leads from rightmove and none from Globrix. I want globrix to work, but where are the leads. So there is no way it can beat rightmove, despite the fact we all are anti rightmove for the way the work. Give us a lead globirx!!!!

• 20 February 2009 11:05 AM

How do you mount a multi-million pound campaign without any revenue?

• 20 February 2009 10:57 AM

If EA really wants to support the estate agency industry it should throw itself behind Globrix which hopefully could hasten the demise of Rightmove which has been bleeding us dry for years.

• 20 February 2009 10:55 AM

We are with Rightmove still and are getting leads.

Also with Property Index, but no leads still and we have ovr a 100 properties on market!

The main thing is the public only know Rightmove and Find a property, then prime location, thats about it!

• 20 February 2009 10:54 AM

I think its all a bit of wishful thinking, don't get me wrong I would love Globrix to be no.1 but personally I think they are different league at the moment.

• 20 February 2009 10:54 AM

We use rightmove & globrix and with our own IT technology we can see how many click-throughs we're getting from Globrix at any time. It's good but not as good as the number of leads from rightmove. I am not on the bandwagon of putting down rightmove and think they can both exist together. We are also on ARLA's PropertyLive but it is not running properly yet and nobody knows about it, so no leads through them at the moment. We don't rely on these as ways of generating leads and focus on getting people onto our own website too with forward thinking. Perhaps some agents shouldn't blame rightmove or other sources for their lack of success but look at themselves a bit more?

• 20 February 2009 10:53 AM

Rebel, why do you need email leads ? If Globrix is sending searchers direct to your own website they can browse evrything you have to offer anyway.

• 20 February 2009 10:47 AM

from the way everyone's talking, it sounds as though this interwebby thing might catch on

• 20 February 2009 10:47 AM

Good luck to Globrix, we have listed our properties for some time now however,we are still waiting patiently for the first lead, meanwhile, they are coming in thick and fast via rightmove. Whats an agent to do?

• 20 February 2009 10:46 AM

good, could EA perhaps focus on reporting on Globrix more as oppose to rightmove?

• 20 February 2009 10:41 AM

Good work, but we need email leads please.

• 20 February 2009 10:33 AM

We are told that Rightmove is a ripe target for a takeover. The Times media organisation has the wealth and the muscle to implement this. A combined Rightmove and Globrix operation would be an interesting concept.

• 20 February 2009 09:58 AM