A new Agents Mutual portal will NOT be another PrimeLocation, says the man masterminding its future.
Ian Springett hit back at competitors who have tried to suggest that the new for-agents-by-agents venture would be an exclusive, upmarket portal aimed primarily at London and the shires.
Springett said that over 600 firms, representing between them many more branches, have now registered their interest in the launch of a new portal. Businesses are currently being sounded out about becoming investors.
The aims of the new portal would include keeping prices down for agents, ploughing its profits back into the business – and mounting a full challenge to the duopoly of Rightmove and Zoopla.
Springett, former head of PrimeLocation, said: “Our rivals would like to position this as ‘another PrimeLocation’ – in other words London and upmarket – but agents I talk to on the ground get exactly what we are about, which is a fully national portal for them all. The interest from firms all over the country bears this out.
“I did some quick analysis of the geographical split. London agents are 28%, South-East counties 23%, South-West and Wales 16%, Midlands and East Anglia 15%, North and Scotland 18%.
“This is pleasing as it broadly reflects the geographical split of all firms across the country, although the Midlands is a little under-represented so far.”
Springett said the figure of 600 does not include some of the largest agents, including national businesses, which are dealing with Agents Mutual direct.
However, he emphasised: “We want to encourage all agents to come to the website and register for information and updates.”
Agents Mutual is the name of the company, formed by six agents, to form a new portal. The name of the portal itself has not yet been decided.
Agents can register, without obligation, on the site here:
https://www.agentsmutual.co.uk/
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Comments
Dear 'Terry', many thanks for the effort you put in to completing my contact form. Why you didn't post your question on here is beyond me. You don't have to use your real name; the Viz inspired one would suffice.
If it was the spam question that defeated you the answer is 14.
As your Fwit email address is obviously a false one I will reply here.
Am I stupid? Almost definitely! But this IS a subject I understand and this IS a customer base I have been serving since 1994.
Don't I understand why the six agents who started Agent Mutual wouldn't want anything to do with the equalability [SIC] of Radar Homes? I think you are referring to all agents being equal, with an equal equity stake and equal voting rights. They have said otherwise and so that is why I posted that I think it is sensible for them to talk to Pete Henderson and Jeremy Tapp. If the Big six are just after a financial killing as you and others have suggested, the ordinary Estate Agent will soon suss that out or run a mile from it.
Have I read the Henry Pryor blog on the subject? No but I will when I find it. Now Henry’s blog isn’t on EAT I don’t go looking for it.
How come your properties are now on Radar and you aren’t a member? As a volunteer that is way -way above my pay scale, I just offer advice.
Please post on here rather than my using contact form. If you want to troll me, share it with everyone and have a good laugh at my expense. Remember any old name, 10 add 4 is 14
Paul - Spot on!
"Duel Agency" & "Commission Splits" are contributing to the demise of the independent along with low fees.
RM gives you real national exposure, and we are all on it as we need to be, i agree cost is high but to be honest you just need to factor it in to your business model, cutting fees to win instructions then moaning about your running cost always makes me shake my head!
The public are getting (or think they are!) getting wiser to the whole house selling lark! - Before too long Tesco or another internet provider will offer a real alternative to using an agent (probably some years off) so you need to start adapting now or you will all be cutting your fee to £500 inc VAT to sell a property as you have not moved with the times and set yourself apart from the opposition.
No doubt the agents that have been trading for 20 plus years in a rural village will bang on on "Why should we change" - well its that attitude that will see you or your children close your office in the future.
Hope the new portal works as will be good for all, however on previous experiance i doubt it....
I would like to congratulate Ian and Agents Mutual for the professional way they are building a momentum for their ‘portal for Agents everywhere’. Great and consistent P.R, with a fair and balanced tone and the experience to deal with knockers and attempts to discredit their efforts as it happens.
That said; this is Radar Homes with money and fresh enthusiasm untainted by the reality of trying to get individual entrepreneurial competitor companies to collaborate with a collective project. My experience of Agents collaborating together goes back to 1986 when as part of East Devon Team it was very soon apparent how 12 agent firms could work together but pull in about 16 directions [not all of the partners agreed with each other] The new Radar Homes Portal for Agents everywhere is literally only days away and it is being showcased in Salisbury and Bournemouth today. With 500 shareholder agents Radar homes is already up and running and fulfilling the ambitions of Agents mutual. With articles stipulating 1 agent 1 vote and strict limits on the numbers of shares any one agency can own, the full philosophy and stated aims of Agents Mutual are already in operation. With my experience of Team it is of no surprise to me that another group of agents are now working together to build what has already been built and will commercially commit themselves before ever acknowledging anyone else doing exactly the same thing with exactly the same goals.
My experience of software and portals for Estate Agency goes right back to the first ‘dumb terminal’ system of the mid 80’s and I have been on the money at least two years ahead of development so it is with experience that I would suggest it would be amiss to attempt to replicate what Homeflow have built for Radar Homes without a proper and unbiased assessment of what they have put together with limited resources , sheer determination and hard work.
Of one thing I am absolutely certain there will be a company , an expert or advisor who will be dismissing what Radar Homes have and what Homeflow have built as legacy, not as good at they can do, as small fry, advising that they can build something bigger and stronger. This post is not a plug for Radar Homes but a direct suggestion on behalf of the future shareholders and backers of Agents Mutual to make a full, informed and independent assessment of Radar Homes and the latest Homeflow technology that is powering it before wasting resource, time and finance, specifying, developing, beta releasing and rolling out a portal that effectively competes with itself and its aims while handing time and profit to the main target competitors; Rightmove and Zoopla.
Radar Homes already has in excess 500 Shareholder members and are already established across the country. Those that are observant will have noticed something, as yet unannounced, about the traction Radar Homes has gained in recent weeks. There is good stuff, powerful stuff and very significant developments going on at Radar right now and I think Ian Springett would be well advised to find out exactly what they are before committing too much more resource cloning what Radar already has.
Trevor Mealham said...."The only way to better it is a non traditional portal model that unites agent to support between agent trade."
I'm an independent established 8 years and one of the main reasons why my business has grown year on year is due to my policy of never doing deals with other agents or doing splits.
Put simply, if I take on a property and then need another agent to sell or rent it then why am I in business, you just end up running round all day for peanuts.
I really don't see how an portal that encourages agents to trade together will compete with Rightmove or Zoopla if so why are they not doing it!
I really wish A N Other RM/zippy clone ii was the answer but honestly its not. a new portal on the block would take all agents to be on board and 18 months SEO heavy push.
RM are the masters of their own data feed which is the UK default. The only way to better it is a non traditional portal model that unites agent to support between agent trade.
Buyers find properties on portals. Where do buyers come from. from being other agents sellers. Unite agents pre portal broadcast of listings available and you take portals out of the current loop.
Such content can then finally be usedin the interest of agents SEO. A N Other portal clone isnt the whole solution needed
Many think its a good idea. I don't. Either way I don't think we need a daily update.
Not surprising that there are attempts to strangle this venture at birth or write it off as another primelocation. The comment below that Kevin doesn't want to read any ore about it says it all!
This story is good news and makes it very clear what the intent is. The more we know about it, the more open it is and the more we finally have a chance to take control of our portal costs, the better.
Enough of this new portal already. It's not news if its posted every day.