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Antony Davis

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One year ago OTM was a new start up venture that some agents, myself included, invested in. I felt it was worth a punt at the time but have been very disappointed with this investment so far. The promise was a new business that would be better than the competition, attract a wide audience of people searching for a new home and deliver better results than the existing portals. Not overnight...but over time. A decent investment case...or so I thought. One year on and the reality is quite different. Here is the investment pitch as it stands today: 1) Our product is not as good as the competition, we know it but we have no intention of doing anything about it as innovation is not what we are about. 2) Our cost to get people to visit our website is far higher than the competition, we know it but there is not much we can do about it because of 1) above. 3) We plan to continue to spend money next year in same way we did this year, not because it works but because our investors keep giving us money every month so why not spend it. 4) We think we will win, not because we are better or have any plan to be but because we are going to try to kill the competition with our 'one portal' rule. 5) Oh and because of 4) above if you invest you need to accept that you might be liable for some hefty fines and penalites at some point if the authorities act. NOT A VERY COMPELLING INVESTMENT CASE AS IT STANDS TODAY. This has proven to be anything but a 'mutual'. Investors/customers have no say and no information. I recently discovered that OTM is offering far lower rates and better deals (basically almost free) to try to attract new agents. In effect, letting new investors in at far lower rates than original investors. Clearly an act of desperation to survive. Whilst this is very aggravating, my biggest problem remains the 'one portal' rule and I won't go down with this ship whilst that rule is in place. OTM should immediately drop the 'one portal' rule. I will be cancelling my OTM contract next month if the rule remains in place. Mr Springett may well shrug off losing me as a customer but he is also losing an investor and businesses like his can't afford to lose investors. You cannot win if you don't aspire to be better and you certainly cannot win if your only strategy is to be a bully. I know when an investment has gone wrong and don't plan to let Mr Springett throw away more of my good money after bad.

From: Antony Davis 27 November 2015 19:45 PM

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