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Photo-refreshing property listings attracts big rise in traffic

Automatically changing the main marketing photo on a portal listing can attract up to 40 per cent more traffic, it has been claimed. 

It can have the effect of refreshing a property listing without an agent having to resort to the dubious practice of ‘portal juggling’ which has been effectively outlawed by industry regulators. 

PropTech company Rex makes the claim about increased traffic, citing research by Rightmove suggesting that great photos can attract up to 93 per cent more leads and by FocalAgent showing properties marketed with professional photographs selling an average of 24 days quicker and for two per cent more than rival homes on sale.

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"Refreshing listings is an important part of the marketing process. Changing images and updating descriptions can have a big impact without reducing the price. When the market is competitive with lots of new properties hitting the portals every week, older listings can easily get lost and the longer they are online, they less interest they will attract” explains Rex chief executive Anton Babkov.

Rex says its platform - which allows users to turn on automatic Image Cycling for a single listing or all listings - can put a range of different selling points in front of prospective buyers each time they check the portals.

This avoids any temptation to engage in so-called portal juggling, identified some years ago by trade bodies and subsequently criticised by portals, The Property Ombudsman, National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team, and Propertymark.

Rightmove introduced a rule stipulating that properties cannot be relisted as 'new' within 14 weeks of being taken off the portal. Meanwhile, TPO revised its Codes of Practice to acknowledge the practice of agents relisting properties to appear as new and NTSELAT described it as a ‘scam’ which consumers should look out for.

"Action on portal juggling has been well-received by the industry and has hopefully had a big effect on reducing its prevalence. Re-listing properties deceives buyers and has a negative impact on the public perception of estate agents, something which is vital to a consumer-facing service industry” Babkov adds.

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    "identified some years ago by trade bodies and subsequently criticised by portals" Portaljuggling was spotted by an agent -Ben Cade, investigated, evidenced and 95% stopped by rummage4 against the will and assistance of NTSELAT, the trade associations, redress schemes and the portals themselves who it turned out reportedly had staff showing agents how to do it.

    There were 15 methods of common portaljuggling identified ,most of which breached CPR regulations but some were confirmed breaches of BPR, especially those used to falsify an agent's performance statistics

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