Nethouseprices, which last week announced an agent-only portal venture, has reported “a flood” of interest.
The company has also said it will be ready to launch in the autumn – and that should it fall short in its fund-raising attempts, it will return all agents’ money to them.
Nethouseprices unveiled its plans after Agents’ Mutual, a company owned by six leading estate agents including Knight Frank and Chesterton Humberts, launched its own proposals.
Despite speculation – and concern that two similar ventures both seeking financial backing from agents at the same time will split the industry – Nethouseprices denied rumours that the subject of a deal with Agent’s Mutual has been broached.
Nethouseprices’ managing director Catherin Lamond said: “We haven’t had any conversations with Agents’ Mutual.”
She went on: “Last week’s announcement by Nethouseprices brought a flood of registrations of interest from over 600 offices including some big multiples. More are coming in each day.
“Agents tell us they appreciate that Nethouseprices has existing traffic and is well-known amongst the general public and the industry.
“They like the fact that the portal will have modest subscription costs but that the marketing budget will match that of longer established portals. And they like the fact that there is no financial risk for them because the initial payments will be held in escrow until we reach 1,000 members. If we don’t hit this critical volume, the cheques will be returned.”
Lamond added: “Inquiries are coming from all across the country, not just in London and the south. We are ready to launch in the autumn, we aren’t restrictive about which other portals agents can list with, and our pricing structure is realistic and ultra-competitive. These are compelling reasons for agents to choose our portal.
“The success of an agent-owned portal is all about strength in numbers and we would urge any agent that is interested, not only to register their interest, but also to spread the word amongst all of their agent contacts and encourage them to sign up.”
Agents’ Mutual has also said that there has been a strongly supportive reaction from the industry.
But should there be an agents-owned portal at all – anywhere?
Writing on Property Portal Watch (tinyurl link below), Alastair Helm says it’s a bad idea. And apparently it isn’t just in the UK that agents are trying to unite against the perceived might – and costs – of the big portals.
https://tinyurl.com/qj8fjpg
https://www.nethouseprices.com/agentownedportal/
https://www.agentsmutual.co.uk/
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Comments
@whoeveryouare
You said:
"nuff said? is that a joke? "
I Say:
No joke, deadly serious, I'm just amazed that there are more and more paid portals appearing online everyday, some privately owned, some agency run. As far as I can see, RM corner the market, they may be expensive but they are the market leaders. So why would any agency want to splash out more cash to another portal, in the hope that it will rival RM which to be honest even with plenty of support will take years. But if it is free, you have nothing to lose by trying.
You said:
"you list the merits of a site as having some properties, likely from a feed, and not charging agents etc as the recipe for success? is that your understated implication?"
I say:
I wouldn't say understated, I have been shouting about it for 9 months since our launch. Some properties (LOL) now that is understated, 348,204 at last count, and yes they are from feeds, you can't bulk upload without using a data-feed. If however you mean feeds we have paid for, then yes some of them are. As I have stated quite openly many times before, the public won't visit a site until they have something to look at. So as one who believes in business transparency (wrote a blog about it) I'll tell you.
Approximately 200,000 of those properties came in initially via a feed that we paid for. However nearly 150,000 are from direct-data feeds from agencies who have registered with us since we launched and who have uploaded their own listings. Large numbers of those agents who we informed about the initial feed have since registered agency accounts with us, linked to their listings. This allows them to update their profile details whenever they wish.
You said:
"I need to hear more. how is it you will suddenly attract and impress so as to gain loyalty from around 40million brits who visit property sites per year?"
I say:
There is no suddenly about it, we are fully aware that attracting the public will take a lot of money and a lot of time. This is something the people who are financing this project are fully aware of. We also have an office in Spain, and the marketing campaign started over their last month, the aim is to open up the Spanish market first to foreign buyers by exposing it to a wider audience and advertise UK properties to those Expats who wish to leave Spain (and there are millions of them). Now I know you may not see the Spanish market as a benefit to UK agents, but talking about impressing 40 million Brits, you seem to assume we are aiming nationally and not at a massive international market.
We are not trying to copy RM, the only way to compete with them, is not to try to muscle in on their market or use the same old business model (you pay to list) but to change that model and expand our horizons outside the UK
You said:
"come on its friday, lets hear it!"
I Say:
It is now Monday, didn't have time on Friday to reply, sorry.
nuff said? is that a joke?
you list the merits of a site as having some properties, likely from a feed, and not charging agents etc as the recipe for success? is that your understated implication?
i need to hear more. how is it you will suddenly attract and impress so as to gain loyalty from around 40million brits who visit property sites per year?
come on its friday, lets hear it!
come on, fess up, which portal do you work for?
I simply love you boys who do not understand any collaboration or communication between Agents helps to control costs. This year’s price hike from Rightmove was going to be £75/month. Talking to a competitor agent down the road who has a bit more clout than me, whose business was worth retaining had refused the price rise, quoting this to the rep meant I didn't pay anything extra. It cost me £49/ month to have a connection with my competitor so I saved £26/month through strength in numbers.
I spend £27/ month advertising in the parish magazine, that wins instructions too but by your logic I should only advertise on Rightmove, Zoopla and Country Life.
If I sell one property as a result of my £49/ month portal my subscription is paid for the next 4 years+
The same house sold covers my Rightmove subs for just 3 months!
Surely this idea by nethouseprices is a joke? If not it is just a bad idea! Am I really the only one who can see this will go nowhere and not dent the main portals. I don't understand half the posts on here - on one hand posters are complaining about the cost of digital advertising and on the other hand they are prepared to throw money down the drain on something like this and agent mutual? I at least get a good return on my portal spend today so why would I waste money on an agent owned portal that will end up like Fish4 and so many others??
Could Catherin Lamond clarify precisely how the nethouseprices model would be able to have "modest subscription costs" as well as a "marketing budget that will match that of longer established portals."
This is quite an important point as nethouseprices appear to state that advertisers of their portal will benefit from comparable advertising with longer established portals which we must assume is Rightmove and Zoopla?
As of 21/06/2013
281,980 Properties in the UK
64,480 Properties in Spain
1,725 Properties in Portugal
8 Properties in Thailand
4 Properties in South Africa
3 Properties in Malaysia
3 Properties in Cyprus
1 Property in Sri Lanka
4 - 6 new agency registrations per day.
Automated UK and international data-feeds accepted, manual upload feature in place, no charge..
Types of properties listed, Residential Properties, Industrial Properties, Commercial properties, Garages, mobile homes and land. Freehold, leasehold, Sales, Rentals and Holiday lets.
Agency shareholders none, agency funding required none, agency funding requested none, agency IT system requirements none, listing restrictions none.
Webpage re-design in progress, cost to agents none.
Privately funded marketing campaign, commencing soon, cost to agents none.
Total cost to agents, nothing not one penny, no registration costs, no listing fees, no Gold, silver or bronze, packages, just one free easy to use resource.
findersandsellers.com - Nuff said.
the artcie states that:
"the portal will have modest subscription costs but that the marketing budget will match that of longer established portals"
surely not. say a whopping 10 000 agents sign up at £100 per month = £1million per month. still not enough IMO....anyone disagree ?
Yeah right, just trying to get in on the action. Why this massive portal rush, we are all going to just stick with RM and Z anyway. We could have a portal costing £50 a month if we all took our stickers out the window and replaced with the new portal sticker and dropped our stock on the portals. IF we dropped our stock then buyers would be at our windows.