Rightmove is offering some of its agents a deferred payment option.
An announcement this morning says:
"While sales agreed pipelines have strengthened following a busy start to the year, cash flow issues may become a challenge for agents until sales recover again and they work their way through to completion. Rightmove will be offering all qualifying independent estate and letting agents the option to sign up to a deferred payment scheme for their existing membership package. The scheme will be regularly reviewed to assess its suitability over the coming months.
"The scheme will give qualifying agents the option to defer the payment of £275 per branch of their monthly invoiced costs each month for six months starting from 1st May. The amounts deferred would be paid back evenly over the same term after six months of the first deferral period.
"Agents also have the alternative option to defer payment of £500 per branch of their monthly invoiced costs each month for three months paid back evenly over the same term after three months of the first deferral period.
"The month that an agent can start the scheme is flexible and can be taken up any month from 1st May onwards while the scheme is in place.
"For agents on a lettings only membership package the scheme allows deferrals of £150 each month for six months or £250 each month for three months.
"Rightmove will check a number of things when agents apply for the scheme. Some of the criteria will include:
- Have fewer than 25 branches on Rightmove
- Have been a continuous Rightmove customer for at least 12 months
- Pay by direct debit and have paid their Rightmove invoices on time for the past two years (or for the length of time they have been a customer if they have been on Rightmove less than two years)
- Provide evidence of sales or let agreed pipeline (either through SSTC or other proof of funds)
"Larger agents may also be able to access a similar scheme based on the same qualification criteria, but this will also be dependent on their existing agreement."
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Defer for 3 months? when your pipeline is more decimated? Clearly they don't know that what goes in to the pipe today, comes out in about 3 months and if zero goes in, zero comes out in 3 months... do they really think this will be over by then? dear oh dear.
Meanwhile even the fee increase stands.
This idea is as hastily thought out as their statement - its Off* not Of
Ignoring the basic error. This move is clearly not enough Rightmove. It doesn’t matter if they are deferred, business won’t be able to pay!
Either help your clients and risk them going bankrupt. Or help them a little and keep most of the client base you can cling onto.
This is not good enough. It has gone quiet on Rightmove leads already so we are paying out thousands of pounds for nothing and deferring for 3 or 6 months is only moving the problem to a later date. They will only do it for agents who can afford it which is much like the banks. If you don't need the money they'll lend it to you. If you do need it they won't!
Ill-considered, clumsily-delivered and without understanding of small-to-medium business cash flow. Sigh.
Talk about a sticking plaster to cover a gaping wound. I have never seen so much disgust amongst Agents. Rightmove will go out o business unless they get a grip of this situation immediately.
Rightmove is making record profits..... Agents are going to feel the impact of this over the coming month in reduced income - rightmove are NOT discounting a penny....... instead they are just allowing their customers to build up a debt to them, tieing them in further to having to use Rightmove until the debt is reapid.... We all know Rightmove already charge the likes of LSL, Connells and Countrywide a fraction of what everyone else pays and look at the current situation of one of them ..... Rightmoves pricing for their hands of business (agents do all the hard work) continues to hurt our industry and this is just insult to injury - there is an increase in agents leaving rightmove cant imagine why ....
Hang on a sec. Last year they "banked" £290 million. Surely they have enough money behind them to say to all of their customers, have the service for free over the next three months.
Perhaps the lack of compassion or loyalty to customers will lead to a meaningful turn against the monopolising portal.
its a 75% margin business - shouldn't fees be cut by 75% ? no one should be making money in this crisis, we have to balance everything to survive
Hopefully the penny might drop with a few more of you guys
a) Help rightmove to make 75p profit in the pound.
or
b) Grow a pair and leave!
The looming disaster caused by Corona Virus will leave many agents (and business's in general) looking to save money and Rightmove is a huge saving especially when you can still advertise on Zoopla OTM etc for a fraction. If people move enmass by the time this crisis is over people will start looking wherever the properties are and agents will have saved a tidy sum.
PS we've saved £25,000 so far … food for thought!!
Rightmove have got to be one of the biggest Monopolies within any industry. Small agents are too frightened NOT to advertise with them for fear of losing business to other agents within their locality who will use the lack of their advertising on the UK's biggest property portal against them.
So, for just a deferral scheme when we are currently seeing viewings fall off a cliff and some clients already self isolating is just typical of this company! When are they actually going to look at the bigger picture and offer a scheme that actually will help their customer base.
There is a prize if you can guess how many free property portals now exist, which begs the question how much does it cost Rightmove to place your stock on their website? Second, how much new stock are you going to be listing in the next 6-months. The usual amount slightly less or considerably less, so the cost to list these fewer listings stays the same? The poll above says 95% of people reading this article feel that Rightmove are taking liberties. Do they not understand how fragile the old style property portal model is.
Rightmove may be riding high now with a 68% profit margin, but Countrywide not so long ago had a share price 100 times greater than they have today, and Purplebricks had a share price 120 times greater than their present 37p a share. Showing that things can rapidly change. Especially if those at the top carry on in a cavalier - fingers in their ear way. Many chickens are now coming home to roost, and maybe Rightmove's days of laying those golden eggs is numbered.
That’ll keep us going for at least another 40 minutes!!
Keep it classy Rightmove!
Truly showing their colours now in these unprecedented times! Enquiries dropped off a cliff and unlikely to improve for quite some time, yet still happy to charge agents an astronomically high fee, but for what?!?!
They have have their heads shoved so far up their behinds that they've forgot that without agents, Rightmove will not exist and certainly not posting operating profits of around 200 million (2019)! Happy to milk agents for every penny and don't seem fussed if they're forced to close. Talk about pulling the carpet from under your own feet.
As mentioned above, if Rightmove really cared about its members then a holiday payment would be welcomed, not just a 6 month deferred option. How does that give agents enough time to build back up a sufficient cash flow with no money coming in?! Not to mention that a pipeline isn't worth the paper its written on, if solicitors and removal firms close and lenders wont lend. You won't be able to exchange as a completion date wont be guaranteed if we go into quarantine, so a gamble to rely on that source of future income.
I am sure Rightmove will be able to ride out the storm given their yearly growth/profits they boast. Sadly, the same may not be said about agents unless they change their arrogant ways! They seem so out of touch with their very own clients!
This could be the end for Rightmove. Time for something new to emerge!
As a single office independant family run agent I sat down with my boss last month and said Rightmove needs to go. At £2100 per month, not delivering the leads for even a fraction of the cost, we pay less than a quarter to Zoopla and get far more leads and quality of leads. In our town it is a case of someone doing it first and others will follow, we already have two agents who have followed suit. Rightmove will suffer as more and more agents will just walk away from Rightmove and spend less money elsewhere. They have been greedy for far too long, they have made a rod for their own backs.
That's 11 times what the big boys pay, which they might argue is the right amount for the number of branches they have, but the disparity between that and independent agents is extraordinary, and very inconsistent at the same time. I cant remember seeing the same number quoted twice by any independent agent the last time everyone volunteered what they were paying.
We have just given them notice. I understand the initial membership costs, but the geographical advertiser membership is the one that really gets my blood boiling! Why should I have to pay another £990 a month, plus another £100 brand plus for that?! I am located in a rural area with an average stock of around 50 available properties, yet because over 40% of of that average stock is outside of a 10km radius I am forced to pay for another membership. I understand that in the city 10km might be a long way, but in rural areas 10km (6 miles) is well within a local agents catchment and classed as a neighbouring town/village. It seems the geographical advertiser rule is geared up more fairly for city agents than rural ones. The best part is in their leaflet they explain the reason they have a geographical advertising is because it ensures members are charged more consistently and fairly for the exposure they receive on Rigthmove. What a load of rubbish! They do it to simply milk out more money from agents. If they wanted to keep it more consistent and fair they should just charge agents on a per property basis, but I am told that would be too complicated and difficult for their accounts team to manage....
we pay £1950 for a single office - I've always wanted to know how this compares to what others pay?
They did an article recently where agents posted how much they were being charged. Type 'How much does your branch pay' into the search bar and the article should come up.
This is now the perfect opportunity to employ what we've all threatened and finally make a united stand against Rightmove. It's quite simple - Without us they don't exist and only in a collaborated effort can we overthrow them. I'm sick of reading press releases boasting about their outrageous profit margins when the only time we hear from them is to throw some unnecessary new reports at us to camouflage the real purpose of the call - Your rate increase.
I for one will be handing in the notice of my Agency and I really hope others follow suit. There can't be any negative to 'not being on Rightmove' if no one else is.... Only a benefit of at least £15,000 per annum in the bank. Start passing this saving onto the vendors and they will also start to see the benefits of 'not being on Rightmove.'
Who said 'yes' to this survey?
This does not nearly go far enough to help our business. We have been with Rightmove for over 14 years and paid their above-inflation price increases whenever they were imposed on us. Seeing their statement today makes me think that they do not care about us. We have seen enquires for properties dry up completely during this corona crisis. The least Rightmove could do given our long-standing loyalty to them would be to waive their fees until this crisis recedes.
For a company that profess to be at the heart of estate agency, Rightmove's latest offer to its subscribers demonstrates a worrying lack of strategy. If I were an institutional investor I'd jump ship today before the holes get too big to handle. There won't be one estate agent in the country who believes their sold stc sales stock will be higher in 6 months time compared to now. In fact some agents wont have a stc pipeline in 6 months time, having to milk lettings (yet again) or get into more debt. Therefore offering a solution to delay payments only to be paid back when your cash flow is reduced is a shallow knee jerk reaction and meaningless - not a way forward. I think Rightmove should look very carefully at its long term survival. They need to offer a total waiver of costs NOW for 4 months (to begin with) and they may find their customer base thinks about staying on rather than inevitably leaving sooner.
A section of my email to RM this morning....
“I honestly think that this proposal is laughable and hugely disappointing. A company that produces such massive profits to offer a £275 a month deferred discount! It won’t even put a dent in costs and I feel it will be a decision they regret”
I was always a big fan of RM and have had an excellent relationship with them but my parting words with my account manager today were “When all this blows over one thing we can be sure of is that we as a company will NEVER spend anything like what we have with you, if anything at all”.
I felt as though they knew this was a mistake on the portals part but couldn’t say it in as many words.
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