Rightmove this morning unveiled fresh rises in both turnover and profits. The profits for last year were an astonishing £69.4m on turnover of £97m - a profit margin of around 71%.
Announcing its full-year results for 2011, it revealed underlying profits before tax were up by 23% on the previous year. Turnover, boosted by take-up of its products by agents, rose 19% from £81.6m in 2010.
The overall number of agents and developers using Rightmove also rose, by 1.3% from 18,042 in 2010 to 18,276.
The results also show growth in site traffic to hit new records. Website traffic increased by 22%, whilst Rightmove's share of pages viewed on the top four property websites increased to an apparently unassailable 84%.
According to independent traffic auditors Hitwise, Rightmove served nearly double the number of pages of property information than 1,400 UK property websites served in total and around ten times that of its nearest competitor - statistics that will hardly be music to the ears of Digital and Zoopla as they try to get their proposed merger through the OFT to mount a single, credible challenge to Rightmove's might.
Rightmove managing director Ed Williams said: "The strength of these results demonstrates that in today's marketplace, Britain moves at Rightmove.
"We put Rightmove advertisers in front of the UK's largest online audience of home-movers and are continuing to invest in new innovations which connect the British home-moving public with the properties, brands and expertise of our advertisers."
He added: "In 2012, we will continue to invest in innovation, marketing and website performance to ensure that Rightmove member advertisers have the opportunity to stand out in their local property market."
Then with something that sounds like a death knell for local media, Williams added: "With further strong growth in 2012, there is every prospect that this will be the year when the property industry's spend on advertising on the internet will exceed that on local newspapers for the first time."
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Comments
Squeal agents, I love it.
Donnie - £300 pm? Great deal. You could've used Rightmove effectively to generate a bare minimum income of £600 pm, surely? Physically profiting from it, while offering the benefit of offering maximised exposure for your vendors.
I have left RM for 6 months and see how we get on with just zoopla and dpg.zoopla is £110 per branch per month and dpg is £90 per branch per month.....Rightmove were asking for an increase from £260 per branch p/m to £300 per branch p/m.I asked if I could give up my 5 premiun listings per branch to keep the price down but they said it would go up if I dropped the prem listings.That was the final straw.
Sorry Frank, I could not work out how to post a 'tongue in cheek' smiley :)
However, your point is a valid one.
I'm confused. How the hell do RM do it????
They build up a dependance and then jack up the price
I left RM because I could not justify the cost and still can't.
However, I'm considering following their business plan and increase my prices to my clients by 10-20% per year if they want to be on RM.
In about 3 years though I doubt I would be able to find any clients prepared to pay my huge fees!
Then what? Reduce my fees to find new clients and make the current ones happy!
I'm confused. How the hell do RM do it????
ra no prob mate im all keyed up n ready! Come on u reds ull never walk alone
You will need to get a keyboard with a ' before you can start on a project that big.
Right thats it im starting up a Property Portal Rightwrongzoopmove please everyone sign up £250 per month unlimited listings everyone pays the same.
Any Takers
One of the people capable of pulling this off, offered to do the work on Propertylive, Pro bono publico.
You've got the NAEA portal - you've got Radar Homes - you've got the one owned by the Daily Mail that relaunched recently which is FREE - you've got Globrix .... why the daft ideas about someone copying the market leader - it's already been done - loads of times - but you all still pay the market leader.
It's very puzzling.
When was the last time as an agent your RIGHTMOVE rep visitid your officed? was it informative? pleasant?
The last time we had a visit was 13 months ago! very frosty and corporate, and unable to answer questions in regard to rates and structures in regard to some paying more and some paying less. I think everyone would be happier if we all paid the same.
I would not have a business if i did not look after my clients RM really do need to shapen up their customer service.....Without us agents there would be NO RIGHTMOVE.
To the same poster...
"...as soon as" whoever" gets identified and developes something that remotely worries them Rightmove can well afford to simply throw a spare £1,000,000 at an individual or spare £20,000,000 at the company to buy the threat."
The individual - I suppose you would have no control over that. The company? Well - seeing as YOU would "own" the company, comes down to how much you and your fellow co-owners are prepared to sell your a$$es for...
Back to your first post - and a very valid point you raised but I failed to pick up on. You said "...someone who knows what the hell they are doing would not produce a photocopy of Rightmove and try to compete with them. EAT is littered with the remnants of failed RM competitors who have done just that."
That's because no-one has got behind them. Bloody Hell - the NAEA have a FREE site for all Agents to post their properties on (as long as they are members, of course - which costs what - a couple of hundred a year?)... and the great majority don't even bother!
Take apostcode... any postcode. SW1. Rightmove show 905 properties. PropertyLive can just about manage 132.
PropertyLive COULD have been the new Rightmove - and for pennies. But it seems to me that the effort required wasn't expended - by anyone.
So - maybe setting about setting up the next superportal isn't such a good idea after all. It won't even get off the drawing board.
4 more hous till I can go home!
The one in the Blue jacket and the one in the Red,
A couple of agents accompanying Dorothy to see the Wizzard
Ctrl C then Crtl V this url into your browser to see what a tit muppet looks like.
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=tit+muppet&hl=en&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=OnxSoVM8qRmT-M:&imgrefurl=http://www.adpunch.org/entry/50-best-movie-quotes/&docid=gm1REjUHwPsngM&imgurl=http://www.instablogsimages.com/images/2010/05/02/muppets-wizard-of-oz-the-muppets-3552147-1024-768_cMZ23_28802.jpg&w=550&h=413&ei=sMpIT_2pAsOr0QXd0IimDg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=306&vpy=28&dur=1663&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=155&ty=134&sig=105542883402210889971&page=7&tbnh=152&tbnw=258&start=91&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:91&biw=1173&bih=522
Best bits of this thread so far.....
1, Sh!ttty analogy Police: tit muppet??? what s a tit muppet?
2, Finding out PeeBee Knows who Pete Tong is.
That wasn't a first round wage negotiation Peebee. The point was that as soon as" whoever" gets identified and developes something that remotely worries them Rightmove can well afford to simply throw a spare £1,000,000 at an individual or spare £20,000,000 at the company to buy the threat.
RM is like fuel tax. It's a cash cow and if it goes up, all you can do is pay otherwise you will grind to a halt!
Luckily I sold my business some years ago so I'm saving lots by not being on any portal. Tally-Ho!
Last poster: Your second paragraph is absolutely on the money. Yes - such an individual would be a valuable resource - but I doubt that RM or anyone else for that matter would pay what you are hinting at...
Where you went all Pete Tong is in the next two paras, however.
Like the thought process - and I don't blame you for it. This site is choc-full of individulas with hidden agendae. Sorry to disappoint - but I ain't one of them!
Even If I WAS - my knowledge of computers and programming is three percent of chuff all! I can't even remove red-eye with Photoshop, never mind industrial chimneys or electricity pylons!
Ahhh - the days of Letraset trees... ;o)
My point - the solution is in all of your hands. If you don't like the monster you have fed, then it is time for you all to stop feeding the monster and create another - but THIS TIME, do it properly!
How about someone who knows what the Hell they are doing create a RM clone. All (...or most of...) the bells and whistles - but NON PROFIT MAKING. The site must be OWNED by the Agents who advertise on it. Each a shareholder. One price paid per branch/discipline. Any profit made after operating costs is then repaid to the shareholders proportionate to their payment.
I totally agree that the time is exactly right for someone to come along and pop, as Funboy agent describes, a very over inflated balloon. The trouble is anyone smart enough to do them damage is the sort of person that should be working for Rightmove! RM could easily pay a seriously generous welcome bonus to such a character and pay a very good executive package to secure their services! A £1 million package would simply round down their profit margin to a nice neat 70%.
Perhaps this is what you are hinting at Peebee, a little bit of pro Rightmove Schmoooozing on EAT and Bob's yer uncle, order new Lino Mrs P!
But wait, someone who knows what the hell they are doing would not produce a photocopy of Rightmove and try to compete with them. EAT is littered with the remnants of failed RM competitors who have done just that.
Never mind Mrs P the floorboards look great! it must have taken a lot of effort to get them looking so nice.
Rightmove Bill: You really don't blame constraint of time for your inability to string together an argument.
We are happy to make allowances for your special needs and will take things real slowly for you in future.
@Peebrain
I don't have as much time to present a sound, logical, reasoned arguement as you, but I would like to point out that you really do need to STFU.
That's a bit mean Peebee.
If Dave just concentrated his anaolgy with Japan on central London he is not far off the mark.
The trend lines for the rest of the UK like that of Japan are a population demand push gradients which show there will not be a crash in prices while we have the population we have.
In most places prices are below the trendline indicating we are back to a traditional seasonal market.
Japan also do not have 'dave'.
Japan got the better deal, methinks.
EAT could save lots of posts if they just copied over the same rants everytime they use the RM word!
Japan do not have RM
That would make a great Bond film Peebee!
I'm seeing a variation based on property. Sarah Beeny and Kirsty Allsop as the totty. Rosalind Renshaw as the "M" character.
The last 5 minutes are brilliant! Doing for Shippy and copping off with Kirsty and one of her home made meat and potato pies
@Rightmove Abuses Agents
Are you a closet communist? Or maybe you've come out of the closet full on, who knows.
I only ask because you do realise that this country still is (just) a free market economy. That means that every company including Rightmove should be seeking to maximise their profits. As PeeBee said, if Rightmove charged too much then EAs would have no option but to leave it - it wouldn't matter whether or not there was any credible alternative or not. It is this key fact which regulates Rightmove's prices. Simple market forces (supply and demand).
Who are you to say what price Rightmove must set?
Would you be happy if Vendors were able to force you to market their properties at a price of their choosing?
All you are doing is having a moan about having to pay out money to somebody else that isn't you - I hope it makes you feel better. We all do that from time to time, lol!
"I have no probs with RM or the service. I don't even mind the idea they make good profits. But how much profit I have a problem with."
How much reduction in profit would it take for you to rename yourself 'Rightmove Abuses Agents A Bit - But That's Okay'? Or what about 'Rightmove Used To Abuse Me Left, Right And Sideways - But Now Just From The Rear'?
They either make a profit or they don't. If they don't - then whether you "have probs" with them or not, you have to look for a new site.
AND change your name. Who gets your ire next?
Do yourself a favour - go take your head for a well-overdue sh!te.
Of course we would all like to pay the least we can for all the services/products we use, but Rightmove really isn't bad value for money.
We assessed our newspaper advertising over a year ago and dropped it, the only agents in our respected towns that have done so. Our newspaper advertising was brining us in 3% of our leads. Rightmove currently brings us 45% of our leads, so i certainly don't think they are a rip off.
But if RM isn't working for you drop them.
I like Zoopla as well, but not so much DPG, but will be interested to see what they do in the coming months.
For the agents moaning on here, you wouldn't complain if you had a 71% profit margin would you, infact im sure you'd feel pretty smug that you were doing something right.
Saying all that, I do also agree with Peebee, in that Monsiuer Shipside should keep it buttoned.
Yeah! Yeah!,, Blah! Blah!
All that is required is that the hand that feeds RM stops getting bitten due to the fact the same hand smacks the arse of the animal that is biting it.
I have no probs with RM or the service. I don't even mind the idea they make good profits. But how much profit I have a problem with. Anyone subscribing should have a problem with it. Rightmove are taking huge sums of money out of the industry, even though the turnover, profits and sales of their client base are down, down, down.
Dont say "dont use them" there is no credible alternative. Rightmove are shafting all of us, a few soppy agents don't mind, the majority hate it, but feel helpless.
Thanks to the EAT tip-off last year I bought loads of shares - up 71% -- so even as a Rightmove subscriber can take a fairly pragmatic view.
Thanks Rosalind !
Rightmove Abuses Agents: Simple answer - it produces a return.
IF RM cost more than its' worth - if you got less out of it than you pay in - you and every other Agent would walk and it would shrivel and die overnight. It doesn't.
Time to face fact, I am afraid.
Look - you want to make it better - make your own!
How about someone who knows what the Hell they are doing create a RM clone. All (...or most of...) the bells and whistles - but NON PROFIT MAKING. The site must be OWNED by the Agents who advertise on it. Each a shareholder. One price paid per branch/discipline. Any profit made after operating costs is then repaid to the shareholders proportionate to their payment.
OR - donated to charity. Get some positive publicity out of it!
Only thing - DON'T allow anyone to be a site spokesman!
SaP: True.
IF, then, you feel that your 0.0005% of distilled allsorts is not giving value for money, why do you not simply cancel payment and use the money where it may bring better result?
Every penny of that profit was EA commission, earned by and EA and paid to Rightmove. £69m @ 71% profit.
How can any EA be a fan of that?
Ray: I do not agree with you in the least.
HOWEVER (there's always a 'however', isn't there... ;o) ) - the entry of another Rightmove would create TWO things:
* YET ANOTHER behemoth that would find its own value level and then increase upon increase; and
* Potentially DOUBLE (or more...) the costs to Agents - as their paying clients will expect to be on BOTH 'superportals'.
As I seem to remember you have said time and time again, Ray - Agents have had the answer at their own fingertips with PropertyLive (which costs NOTHING).
But, due to apathy from ALL angles, it has drifted aimlessly; run aground, and become a bigger joke than the cheapest of the cheap.
Shame, really...
I agree Peebee but the problem is no-one knows who or what is being poured into the top of the sales funnel. Each agent will only see 1/18276th (0.0005%) of what comes out the other end of the funnel so until he/she has dialogue with the other 18275 agents there is no way of verifying whether what is going in the top of the funnel are genuine applicants looking to buy or rent or are genuine applicants plus data manipulations such as spambots which roam the ether.
@PeeBee on 2012-02-24 15:10:25
I more or less agree with you. However in my opinion, a really good competitive portal would do wonders because I think this almost monopolistic situation is not a healthy one for residential agency.
Please see my earlier post.
Sh!tty Analogy Police: it is NOT Rightmove that are restricting the amount of current wattage here.
Remember the 'Sales Funnel' analogy that all Agents are indoctrinated into? Rightmove are the funnel. They collect the prospects, and direct tham at you. It is then up to YOU to do what you can with them.
IF there is less pouring into the funnel - you have two choices. You can reduce the size of the funnel - that way it still looks as if all is well as it is appears as full as it was before; or you enlarge the funnel as in the hope of catching more in it.
The numbers of sales are down. The numbers of instructions are, seemingly, down as well. There are less proceedable buyers than ever before, according to every news item. Have Rightmove scaled down the size of their funnel? No. They have spent money; invested in additional technology and advertising (perverse but a fact...), in order to attract more traffic that they intend to send to YOU!
I call that quality service.
Look - I have MANY bones to pick with Rightmove - mainly directed at their mouthpiece, Mr Shipside. He doesn't know when to zip it as far as I am concerned. SOMETIMES, RM forget who is the tail and who is the dog.
Apart from that - they have built one Hell of an operation and those who complain about its' financial success are, in my opinion, simply green with envy.
And I don't blame them - I AM as well! But instead of knocking it - I applaud it.
I recon they could make 5 times that much if they allowed private sellers on - like they do in Spain.
In 2007 when there were 120,000 completions per month how much were agents paying for Rightmove?
In 2012 there are 61,000 completions per month and agents are being asked to pay more than in 2007.
Using you analogy Peebee if my 100watt lightbulb starts giving out 50watts because although the reported voltage is has been doubled to a whopping ( sign up now) 480 volts the current has been quietly reduced four fold to 0.1 amps. Only a tit muppet would sit there in the gloom and happily pay more without questioning why things aren't so bright anymore.
Clicks and page views are the voltage Peebee, Buyers who complete are the current. If RM was delivering more current this debate would not be rumbling on, the fact is that the current is half watt (pun intended ) is was in 2007.
Peebee and AoS I could not agree more.
If an a cost reduction consultant was employed for an EA and managed to negotiate a lower fee from RM (and took a percentage of the saving) would FBA describe them as a parasite? :0) hmmn
Anyone actually read the results statement? Some interesting tidbits - such as:
"...according to Experian Hitwise, Rightmove served almost double the number of pages of property information than all the other fourteen hundred UK property websites served in total and around ten times that of our nearest competitor." You pays for what you gets, methinks...
"Our Agency business was the biggest contributor to the revenue growth with a year on year increase of £13.6m (2010: £16.7m)." Yes - biggest contributor - BUT - you resi and lettings boys and girls' have actually taken a DROP in contribution to the profitibility of RM!
Watch out - they might drop you if it continues... ;o)
I applaud Rightmove. They value themselves highly; they know their worth; and what's most important - they GET IT.
You seem to want more for your money. Fair enough - we can all 'want' - but the difference between 'want' and 'get' is usually disappointment - and this is proving no exception to that rule.
Gas went up by 23% last year. Did your offices get any warmer? Electricity shot up - were the lights any brighter? Did the additional cost of petrol/diesel improve your take-on rates at appraisals?
Sorry, chaps and chapesses - Rightmove are running a business.
Running it WELL!
At the end of the day Rightmove have made Estate Agents look good to the public.
You bastad!
How dare you come on here and be funnier than me.
Mr Cowell sir I think I have found the 2012 winner of Britain's got talent.
Lets see if the wizzard of Oz can help!
Lion is after courage, Scarecrow wants a brain, Tin man wants a heart, I'd like to get back to Kansass and my agent friends would like some Testicles.
A DPG/Zoopla combo will benefit no-one but Alex Chesterman and the looky likey Prince Charles bloke! If any agent thinks otherwise please swap requests with the Tin Man.
These DPG buyouts mergers will be costing them a lot of money which they will eventually have to get back through EAs and maybe advertising. Even if DPG give Rightmove a good challenge I seriously doubt that the combined money you would pay to both DPG and Rightmove would be less than if you paid Rightmove alone (that is without any DPG challenger to supposedly force down their prices).
At the end of the day Rightmove have made Estate Agents look good to the public. Rather than the used-car-salesmen image of old. People can now look through property listings without having to endure the hard sell down their earhole and they only approach the EA when they are interested in specific properties. This saves the EA effort as well.
Rightmove was the first and continues to be THE website which has empowered the public with that ability to minimise their contact with EAs and they are not going to forget that in a hurry. Regardless of what EAs think, if the public continue to show their loyalty and confidence in Rightmove then everything else is purely academic.
Moaning about Rightmove is very impotent and achieves nothing. Those plucky EAs who actually have what it takes to quit Rightmove will be faced with very grateful competitors who will mop up their leads.
Besides EAs complaining about Rightmoves profits and fees would be equivalent to Vendors complaining about EAs profits and fees. Would you like your clients to bad-mouth you because you didn't offer them an outstandingly low fee? Pots and kettles come to mind.
It all boils down to this: If you don't like doing business with Rightmove then be a gentleman about it and simply leave. No ifs, no buts, just leave - because otherwise it is just a pointless rant.
Oh and to those people who are hailing the arrival of DPG on the scene like the second coming of the Messiah, you don't even yet know what their morals or ethics or objectives are but yet you already pledge your allegiance. Nobody knows whether they would make Rightmove look like a saint. Be careful what you wish for!
Stone me,
Amongst all the cobblers, knob waving and normal stuff a Rightmove article stirs up we can have @scouser sum it up with near comical northern sense and lack of BS with his last post which I think really bought the whole thing to a swift end with the slight ruffle of a shell suit caused by him clickingn his mouse to submit his post
Good lad @scouser, an instant legend, more from you please.
Jonnie
You got ALL of that from my small post? Wow...and I thought you didn't want a "personal conversation"!!!
I thought my bit about people relying on RM to pitch - "Many rely on this, it's a (NOT SO) USP" confirmed that I don't. I was simply pointing out that the public love RM and they would NOT WANT their home pulled off the site for one or however many days because you have a vendetta against the pricing structure.
You're missing the point entirely, boss. I am not saying I use, need, don't use, rely on or revolve around Rightmove. There are so many ways to showcase a property, I wouldn't remove one of them spontaneously, at the vendors expense. You actively reducing exposure of your listings and brand at that time.
If you are coughing up the RM subscription, stick with it and maximise it's use. If you want to play games, I'd suggest pulling the plug completely, not just for one day, (no problem if YOU actively de-sell RM to vendors, right?) and re-invest that money into other marketing streams.
I think Rightmove is a very good service. The day it is not cost effective, I will cut all ties (I have come close in the past). If the RM model works for you, great. But if it doesn't offer value for money, it's pretty foolish to continue.
Have a marvellous day FBA.
PS - Looks like Homer has got your number. But let's not 'assume' or get 'personal' like your last post! ;)
FBA
Cor, you do half spout some rubbish out of your pie hole.
Your probably worried as you don't have many sales happening, which is pretty obvious as your sat on here all day.
AoS
You have consistently gone with that line, and I admire you for it.
However, it is an 'I'm all right Jack, so up yours' attitude, similar to that of Rightmove funny enough.
I do not want a personal conversation on here with you (or Happy Chappy) it smacks of ignorance, but I will reply to you on your point.
No,,, I do not sell my service on the Rightmove ticket. In fact I do the opposite, I point out that all agents are on RM and what a V needs is strategic thinking and something else.
If RM is (or can be proven to be) the 'ALL POWER' then the public, surely, would only need to instruct the cheapest Rightmove provider, i.e. the cheapest EA who uses RM? Is that you AoS? As all 'good' agents know, that simply is not the case.
When I am instructed to 'sell' a property, that is to 'generate offers' for consideration for my client. My method of doing that is a matter for me. If I fail to generate acceptable offers I will slow down and stop in business. This has not been the case for 30 years, so yes, I 'jog on'
If I wish to advertise my instructions on RM one week and not the next that is my call, similar to if I went into a newspaper one week and not the next.
If you are of a generation (and it sounds like you are) where you rely heavily on RM to the detriment of all else, I would politely suggest you may have a problem along with RM.
The RM model is like a balloon, it is inflating to a size where it will burst. If your EA business AoS has no other means of gaining instructions and applicants you may well find yourself in a pickle. If the beast implodes due to its ignorance towards its own client base your business will go with it (but mine won't)
Have a good day AoS
(poor bloke will have steam gushes from his supercilious ears, oh well)
Come on DPG get the merger done keep your fees sweet and give RM a good rogering!!! I am always appalled when I speak to our local rep of his arrogant corporate attitude! RM needs to really look after their loyal paying customers and give something back!!!
Come on DPG get the merger done keep your fees sweet and give RM a good rogering!!! I am always appalled when I speak to our local rep of his arrogant corporate attitude! RM needs to really look after their loyal paying customers and give something back!!!
Have a look at this - it looks a right tuppence ha'penny set up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu5d1ngxcjE&feature=plcp&context=C3510dc9UDOEgsToPDskIoILa8P8wmDzre1fbJSNWB
...and they use Dell FFS ! - no wonder it's so slow...and unreliable...and they make 71% op margin.
Shysters.
http://www.propertyportalwatch.com/2011/06/rea-group-facing-agent-revolt-%E2%80%93-should-they-worry/
Read this, and act
Ohh goody I can see the edge of the cliff now, it will soon be our turn to jump over the edge.
Its not agents taking up the extra products, you HAVE to take them or your membership will go up, its a total stitch, the products are crap as well, whats coming next i wonder - the premium premium listing? A complete load of sh*te.
Fun Boy - Who loses though? Your vendors.
They have instructed you already and I am sure you've told them that their property will be on Rightmove in your pitch - Many rely on this, it's a (not so) USP.
The public's attitude to a protest day where all properties disappear would be "Well, they (agents) charge all that money in fees, how dare they pull my house off of RM". Will do agents no favours amongst their buyers and sellers.
A simple case of pay up or jog on...
FROM EAT LAST YEAR
****
"Rightmove defends its latest price hikes to agents
Wednesday 14th September 2011
Rightmove has confirmed that its prices are to go up from this November, but said it can justify its price hikes".
****
It seems astonishing that an already successful brand and one which is an iconic name would jeopardise its own business operations with the prospect of generating chaos with such announcements.
It only needs a proof that this giant property site is in fact a Market Power, in order for complaints to stick as an actual breach of law.
If so then the market value of the company could fall dramatically as would the profits.
RM users should set 'protsest days' removing all property advertised for specific days, for instance, Modays in March. If this does not get a response then protest weeks, a whole week at a time property removed.
This would not break contracts with RM, you are not obliged to upload your property to be a subscriber.
RM is an empty vessel. It is merely a requirement to obtain a property listing. Nothing more.
The leads, website, customer service (?!), email alerts, IT, reporting etc are all sub-standard.
A house of cards will eventually fall.
You lot are a bunch of moany old women! Now go and do some touting you predicatable bunch of fools.
There seems to be only one "Estate Agent" (Realtor) in this country now with hundreds of Sales People (Traditional Esate Agent) and that is Rightmove?
Who is responsible for its success? You know who you are and you are still providing them with free promotion every day, verbally and in your own advertising!
There is no looking back now - they are in control. Forward is the way - and that is having a choice of good competiion with a superb USP which means massive investment. Where is it? Who knows?
Otherwise if it works for you - pay up.
I am a cash buyer with £1,500,000 to spend, I do not use Rightmove.
Where do we go from here?
"........to ensure that Rightmove member advertisers have the opportunity to stand out in their local property market."
Surely if we are all on this site no ones property stands out any more than any other... even if we pay for the extras the list is still the list that the buyer sees . do they realyy care if it is a premium listing ? really
I think we all like the rightmove plus side and I actually think that it is worth a payment for. Not sure it is real value for money though
Every year the same old comments - Righmove too expensive, paying too much...... moan moan moan
Yes it is expensive but why are we all on it? - because its the best and we cannot do without it!
Ask yourself a question, where do most your leads come from? - Internet!
Where did mos of them come from 10 years ago? - newspaper!
How many of you are still doing pages in to local rag? or glossy mag?
The cost of this is massive and with VERY little return - apart from building your local presence they do very little
cut the cost of your paper advertising and make sure your logo is on every website, build your presence by boards a drop more leaflets
In other words (sorry but this is true) dont be lazy go out find the business if you get just 1 extra sale every 2 months you cover your costs!
This week I went to see an agent owned Portal that is live, running and successful.
The only thing stopping it replacing Rightmove is the lack of conviction it gets from its member agents.
I am not talking about the embarrassing NFoPP site that doesn't even warrant a mention.
Not 1 single person in this industry has ever come up with a single performance indicator to say that RM is the effective cause of sale in X% of sales.
As performance indicators are the normal way of working out cost of sale why isn't anyone bothering to work out the nitty gritty figures that decide spend on marketing?
Hurry up Zoopla, sort out your shit search options. I dont want a house 15 miles from where i asked for.
Sort this and i will change tomorrow.
Strange but true .... I have found in my many years in business that if you P**+ your customers off they withdraw their business from you.. any one else noticed that? I wish I could use the rightmove business model
Worrying that they keep puting up prices every year by 10-15%.
Next year profits will top £80M, greedy greedy greedy.
Hats off to RM, a great result but will agents know start questioning their loyalty? Any savvy business person understands that without competition a dominant supplier of services is free to dictate terms and that a selection of suppliers allows choice provides competition and self regulates cost.
So agents in the UK have a few choices, keep the status quo and have one all dominant portal that is RM and face the inevitable cost hikes until they, cannot afford to pay or be strategic while they can afford to be and take on another provider, such as Zoopla and dilute RM’s dominant price negotiating position around membership fees. Payment of another portals fees by re-purposing non contractual spend on RM. Or come off portals and agents invest in their own sites, the issue here is that actually a good portal doing its job well is such a proven asset to an agents marketing mix.
Finally, thinking forward, today you might well be able to afford rightmove’s fees and each year these increase, you counter by steering more and more of your marketing budget into this single marketing entity, so in the end you have all your eggs in one basket, if that clever? Indeed what happens when it gets to a point you cannot afford the RM fee…..you then find that RM becomes the market regulator as without membership of the big all powerful one agents will find it very difficult to trade and who benefits from less agents RM will as the revenue per agent will be easier to extract and it’ll easier to maintain account management to a smaller customer base.
Food for thought.
Press release.
Rightmove shout 'up yours' to all their customers (the agents) as they announce just how much 'mega profit' they have squeezed the industry for this year. They are now having a board meeting to discuss rate increase for even bigger profits next year.
Shame you guys haven't got, say, a national association with a property portal the whole industry could use at a fraction of the cost.
Or alternative portals that are free and use advertising to cover the costs of hosting a few servers and paying for some bandwidth.
Still, one day eh?
Given the figures published in Estate Agent Today, Why do you need to charge me an average of £442 per month when as a business you can cover your fixed costs and normal profits by only charging me £151 per month?
Run the figures through with the your accountant, you might be horrified to find out that based on these figures and those put out by the land registry every single average agency is giving RM 33% of its gross profits.
There has been talk of Miles having his Ratner moment last week; perhaps Ed has decided to join in the Agent baiting game.
It's Friday I'm bored, we have made £692k more profit than we needed to (this week) out of the stupid thick muppets, what shall we do now? how about taking "goad the numpty game"?
Oi stupid! Look at me I am considewebly wicher than yoaw! Loadsa Money!!!!!!!
Quite frankly If I were them I would enjoy baiting an industry that have organised the piss up in the brewery but are simply so blinkered they pay someone else to take the lids off the bottles.
If you gave your negs an EXTRA £130 bonus for every place they sold would they be motivated to sell more property? Of course they would, any neg getting an extra £560/ month is going to work their backside off for you. (One thing they wouldn’t do is call you up on Friday to take the mick out of your generosity)
If your profits dropped off by 30% by not using Rightmove you would still be more profitable!
I know success breeds success, but this is now contemptible mocking! Withdraw every property you have from RM and see what happens; by now you have every applicant on your register that is going to buy a property in the next 3 months. If your business is suffering in 3 months time go back to them. Make the negotiators work the applicant register and offer them the £130 bonus as a trail.
I know damn well you won’t, so do Ed and Miles!
WE LOVE RIGHTMOVE, they are excellent value for money compared to other forms of advertising such as newspaper, radio, billboards, buses, etc. WAKE UP haters, they bring in the business. I (and you) would love that % of profit, I'll just have to be content with my 68% !!
Are we all going to make our properties invisible for a week in protest?
At the very least it will highlight the issue to a wider audience. Nick Salmon for PM.
One day the whole Rightmove house of cards will come crashing down and I for one wil LMFAO!!
Methinks I am not alone.
How can I have Findaproperty, Primelocation and Zoopla combined each mobnth for less than I pay for JUST Rightmove??!!
I have just had the annual gun to the head price increase and tore the arse out of a pleasant girl on the phone who you could tell was physically blushing, stammering and didn't know what to say next, I assured her it was nothing personal, shame their half decent staff have to take so much stick! NOT!
Rightmove is so good I dont care if they double my fees, they can do no wrong.
Rightmove please stay at the top and please increase the fees to agents every year.
I love the fact Rightmove stops any links back to the agent's own site and stops any agent promoting themselves.
Maybe you should delay putting on multi properties unless we pay an extra fee to have priority.
We will never leave you.
Hopefully the newly merged DPG will also increase their fees as well.