Rightmove is continuing to remove huge numbers of ‘ghost’ properties from its website, while Zoopla said that out-of date listings are its single biggest cause of complaints, leading to expulsion of agents in extreme cases.
Last year, Rightmove has revealed, it took down over a quarter of a million out-of date properties. A spokesman said: “On average we detect and remove 24,500 displayed properties per month.”
Rightmove uses a data quality programme which it began two years ago, to detect out-of-date sales and rental properties.
The programme uses a variety of tools, including matching properties listed for sale against Land Registry records to check if they are sold.
Properties are also removed if they have been listed as ‘Sold Subject To Contract’ for over six months.
In lettings, a similar check is in place to remove properties listed as ‘Let Agreed’ for longer than six weeks.
The data quality team also acts on listing and data quality queries sent in by agents and consumers, including information from the ‘spotted an error’ notification service when consumers query something about a listing.
The issue is to be discussed at an Essex regional meeting of NAEA and ARLA tomorrow night by members who have been told that they will have the “opportunity to grill Rightmove on their fees and the practice of ghosting which seems to be more and more prevalent, with agents putting on fictitious properties in order to move themselves up the league tables”.
Rightmove’s ‘league tables’ show agents how they are performing in their area in terms of listings, click-throughs, etc, via RightmovePlus, with the system itself not viewable by the public.
While ‘ghosting’ on Rightmove is an ongoing problem – last July, EAT reported that properties were being removed from Rightmove at the rate of 1,000 a day – Zoopla said yesterday that they are also a major worry on its sites.
A Zoopla spokesman said: “This is a continuous problem and the single biggest source of complaints about agents that we receive from house hunters using our websites.
“We are of course reliant on agents that advertise with us telling us when the status of one of their listings has changed. Some are very good and fast at doing so, others are not so good or even deliberately choose not to update the status, thinking they are somehow helping themselves.
“In fact, from the significant feedback we get, the opposite is true and those agents who list properties that are no longer available lose the trust and confidence of consumers and damage their brands.
“We spend a significant amount of resource on this matter as it is important for us to maintain as clean a catalogue as possible. We have tools on our websites for users to report any unavailable listings and we action all complaints with the relevant agent and ultimately refuse advertising from any repeat offending agents.
“We have also implemented a number of processes to weed out these listings and continue to develop more ways to date. Providing the best possible user experience is core to our business and we therefore take this issue very seriously and are keen to work with all parties in the industry that can help to improve this issue.
“If, for example, there were regulations preventing agents from advertising properties that were not available, that would certainly benefit consumers who waste a lot of time and endure a lot of frustration over this issue.”
Comments
List of Ghost properties by Estate Agents with Zoopla. The properties are non-existent or sold normally 1 year or two prior
It appears that most of the properties listed with Zoopla are either non-existent or sold normally prior to year or two of its first listing i.e. "Bethnal Green Rd, Bethnal Green, London E2. 2 bedroom flat for sale at £375,000 first listed by Woodland "407 Hoe Street, E17 9AP " on 31st July 2012 and its still according to Zoopla available for sale.
It seems to be normal practice for Zoopla to enlist non-existent or sold properties on its site to increase hits, enabling them to charge participating Estate Agents higher fees and sex-up its ranking.
Would help if zoopla removed properties when told to by the owner
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@PropertyGal
Thank you very much for that, now I understand. Looks like that system is flawed by assuming that those doing the searching will take the time or can be bothered to refine the search.
And of course the system in place assumes an industry standard whereby agents list, remove or mark as STC in exactly same way.
I can therefore see how having paid for advertising removed, or even being barred from advertising altogether for following in house procedures could cause bad will.
Thanks for educating me.
@Scott Creasey
Zoopla allows people to enter a search area (x miles from mytown) and searc for agents. It then presents the user with a list of agents which they can refine, but that list could be 100+ and you can just click to email all of them in one hit, which is what people do - they do not spend the time to refine a 100+ long list of agents. Rightmove does not make it so easy to splatter emails to all and sundry.
Regarding the quality of the data - you are correct the websites etc may not be up to date or there are scenarios where they may be at odds with with the background story. A couple of examples - Some vendors will stipulate that a property is not shown as STC until exchange even though the property is under offer. Part-ex properties may be sold now but not complete until September (we have a few of those at the moment) so they will be STC for 8+ months. Some agents go STC as soon as an offer is accepted, others when the survey is done other at some other point which they consider to be closer to the point of no return. So yes the statistics are rubbish becuase the underlying data is not consistently.
Guys I'm not an estate agent, I'm the marketing director for Finders and Sellers, so please educate me.
How are the RM and Zoopla lead systems supposed to work. How can they send an agent who works in Liverpool leads who are looking for properties in Wolverhampton.
Do they have to send you a certain number of leads a month, are you paying for that privilege?
On our site, if someone does a search and looks for property in Wolverhampton and sees one they like, they click on the contact button or the agents logo and are directed straight to that agents site to get more info. Surely that is what you class as a qualified lead, not just someone from Zoopla picking random contacts from their data base and forwarding them to agents who may be interested.
I'm struggling to get how the lead system is supposed to work.
And again educate me. If RM is fed by data feeds from the various data feed companies that agents employ and the whole database is updated with a new feed everyday, then there will only be ghost properties on the site from those agencies who don't bother to update their own webpages and data bases.
If that is a common occurrence for whatever reason, then surely RM's listings stats posted online as part of their marketing campaign are, lets say, less than accurate.
Zoopla leads are indeed of very poor quality and sap our staff of time they could be using to much greater effect. Departure on the cards.
My guess - Zoopla will mine the user base for potential leads for other services they can offer and the portal will gradually fade into obscurity leaving behind a non-portal enterprise.
Anybody noticed that Zoopla has not added a property to their listings since 8 Feb? Rightmove etc have all posted new listings within the past 24 hours but for Zoopla nothing has come up for sale or rent anywhere in the UK since last Thursday. Maybe there is a technical problem with their website. I contacted their customer care people about this several times but received no comment. It's frustrating if you are trying to buy property.
It is true that some agents keep properties online after completion (without showing as STC). However, I blame RM - again! Why they deem it necessary to produce the 'league tables' is beyond me. I don't need RM to tell me what is going on in my area! I know for a fact that the RM figures per agent are incorrect. But agents will print and use these figures on valuations to big themselves up. RM have blatantly created various areas of competition on the site to maximise how much they can screw out of us sheep. The situation in question is not the worst of RMs tactics, but my point is that it is their fault. Do they care though? Of course they don't! The master plan is to keep us all 'competing' with each other on their site so that they can fleece us and scare any of us into leaving them for the fear of being left behind. A mass exodus is needed but there is no credible alternative. I joined Zoopla a few months ago in the hope that I could drop RM, but not a chance of that, I agree about the quality of Zoopla leads being poor. Just imagine someone grabbing all of us independent companies and creating a slick portal excluding the corporates (they can stay on their cheap rates with RM!).
David, thanks for the comment. But we aren't discussing stc listings but properties which have actually exchanged. Would Tesco, in law, be actually allowed to advertise products for sale know that it had sold out of them and would not be re-stocking? I really am just curious as to the legalities of it.
spirit world - tesco announce their year end results to show how wonderful they are! Estate agents marketing properties sold is the same thing. If you removed all sold stc properties that would be unfair against the successful agents trying to attract new business.
Re comment from Zoopla about lack of regulations, surely there is something in law which stops sellers marketing something that isn't for sale? Is there really nothing at all? Can Tesco take out a full page advert in a newspaper selling something they don't stock? Of course, they would get a light slap on the wrist from the Advertising Standards Authority, but would they have actually committed an offence? Just puzzled so maybe someone can spread some light.
Also just come off Zoopla, poor leads and even worse customer service. Still waiting on a refund for the increased subscription charge they levied without our knowledge or consent. Bye!
I think Zoopla is great - it may be because of the area I work in, but we have no complaints.
I do get ticked off with other agents leaving their SOLD or LET properties on forever - I am grateful that RM & Z take them off.
It means that us poor, slightly more honest agents have a fighting chance.
;-)
Seriously I had this conversation with Zoopla last week and their response was a joke. I complained that their placing of a “LET” triangle is ambiguous to non industry members as we get 100s of calls from the public thinking it’s a house to LET. I suggested they put LET AGREED…a simple fix you’d think. To my horror, they couldn’t not even understand what my point was!, they couldn’t understand the difference. Zoopla is a joke, that solicit leads in the quest to generate the most leads for the sake of ratings. My point was that it’s the quality not quantity. 8 out of 10 leads from Zoopla go straight in the bin. What do they do? Blame the agents. There solution was “as soon as it’s let, GET RID OF IT !”…ha ha
I second the poor quality of Zoopla leads.
So bad i dropped them also.
I wish agents wouldnt go over to Zoopla. Everyone thinks they are helping create competition for RM as they are so expensive but it just seems that tnere are now 2 players that must be paid. And rest assured Zoopla will hike fees once they have a good hold of the market.
Can anyone tell me that listings have gone up since joining Zoopla? Or income? I fear not.
But what if the property is listed as "LET AGREED" and clearly shows it is not available?
Where is the problem then?
Scouser - I had the same issues with Zoopla - chronic bad quality enquiries so I dropped them 2 or 3 years ago.
As far as out-dated listings on Rightmove goes (I am in letting - not sales) I see agents in my area with properties to let advertised hundreds of days ago. Surely these should be removed.
If an apartment block with multiple units available at any one time comes into this category then it should be stated in the description of the property in my opinion.
As for Zoopla our biggestgripe is oor standard of leads ie we are in Liverpool applicant looking for property in Wolverhampton! this happens with different locations many times a month Zoopla you need to sort this out.
RM should ask agents before removing, as on 2 occasions last yuear they did this to our company. The clients were not happy. RM re listed properties. It is up to us what stays on and what comes off. Dont bite the hand that feeds RM!!!!