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Eileen's
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Eileen Henderson
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Recent Activity
It have read that over 100 agents have returned to ZPG. Who are they and how many more are talking to you about returning?
From:
Eileen Henderson
09 September 2015 09:46 AM
A lot has been said about how legally sound the Agents Mutual contract is and whether this could lead to competition authority issues for those agents involved. What are Zoopla's thoughts on this?
From:
Eileen Henderson
09 September 2015 09:43 AM
Ian Springett is increasingly looking isolated, and detached from reality. To make any claims about progress when your traffic is 10% of Zoopla's, having spent, and continuing to spend, millions of its member's money, is a scandal. Unfortunately its members have put too much faith in a very persuasive man who is not experienced in developing an online brand in 2015. Those involved in Primelocation will remember that once Daily Mail bought Prime in 2006, Springett immediately focused on pumping up his earn out as high as possible. There was no further innovation - just increased prices for a pretty poor product. Good idea, and beyond the pre-launch sign-up campaign (which did not rely on technology at all), terrible execution. The board have a lot to answer for in that regard and I am not surprised that the guy from the North stepped away. All the time this farce continues, Rightmove just get stronger and stronger. That is not good for me, my business or the industry as a whole. I would ask those agency heads who made the decision to join - in good faith - to start planning to withdraw from this project which in almost every respect is delivering exactly the opposite of what most agents intended and wanted.
From:
Eileen Henderson
13 August 2015 06:44 AM
Good for Zoopla. I hate to say 'I told you so' and anyway its a bit early, but it really isn't looking good for Ian Springett and co. The negative PR put around about Zoopla over the past year has done nothing except serve the interests of OTM and those agents who wanted to pull others into the project to protect themselves. Only question now for me is how long it takes for the agents who have contributed to OTM to turn their backs on it.
From:
Eileen Henderson
12 August 2015 10:23 AM
Robert, my personal opinion here is that EAT and PIE have been consistent in their positions on OTM, which is fair enough. Although this is no doubt - at least in part - due to the commercial relationships that they have with OTM/ZPG, what really matters is which is providing the most value in terms of commentary. For me, given that OTM is looking increasingly like a ludicrous and ill fated attempt by agents to turn back the clock - and will have some very difficult months ahead - EAT have actually been on the right side of the argument. PIE on the other hand look pretty complicit in the shambles which is OTM, and I would suggest that the relatively low audience numbers they seem to get versus EAT is a reflection of that. I suspect that sensibly minded agents are turning away from PIE, leaving a very specific subset of agents (who are pre-disposed to keep the OTM-sponsored blindfolds on) using their website.
From:
Eileen Henderson
29 July 2015 08:18 AM
No massive surprise here, although I have just read the article this morning on PIE. What a load of nonsense!
From:
Eileen Henderson
28 July 2015 06:53 AM
Just because you ganged up with your local competitors to make the decision easier Graham, it doesn't make it the right decision. I wonder if the 17 of you together made a decision of which portal to drop? Assuming this is the case, do you even realise that by doing so you are acting as a cartel? Do you understand the potential consequences of this? You'd better hope one of them doesn't go complaining to the CMA. No doubt as such a cohesive group there is no chance of that happening ;-) No doubt you were all delighted with your collective decision. Maybe when your 20% increase from Rightmove (I assume you left Zoopla) comes in, your market share slowly bleeds to new entrants (making them stronger) and the competition authorities come knocking at your door, you might look back and wonder what the hell you were playing at! You don't really care about your customer, your scruples or the law, do you? I wonder how our industry got such a bad name...
From:
Eileen Henderson
27 July 2015 09:58 AM
It is very clear what this is. They cannot sign up agents, so instead they'll get a load to say 'maybe' and therefore be able to claim further progress.
From:
Eileen Henderson
09 July 2015 10:05 AM
Can they release a letter of intent that agents will leave as soon as their contracts expire?
From:
Eileen Henderson
09 July 2015 10:03 AM
Graham - you actually make me laugh - out loud. I am not saying that you ARE crooked, I am just saying that customers are prepared to believe that you are. Especially with docs like last night's. At some point maybe you and others will realise that the principle of OTM was great, but the execution and outcome achieve nothing except lose some agents market share, waste a load of money, and strengthen Rightmove. If someone had stated those as the objectives of OTM, would you have signed? No. Oh, and to Richard's - very sensible - point. The sooner you realise that this is simply a cover for the posh boys to get their own top end website back, the better. That is why so much money is being spent in broadsheet newspapers etc. I keep getting asked why I am being so vocal about something that I am not involved in. You lot are like the Greek public voting in Syriza. Caught up in the euphoria and stupid, unrealistic promises of the party (quote Springett "we will be number 2 by January 2016), completely ignoring the negative consequences. You are a member of the Greek public. Well done, give yourself a big pat on the back, and now get ready to get kicked out of the Euro, half of your savings wiped out, and spending the rest of your days serving lamb kebabs to ungrateful tourists who are only in your broken country because of the cheap drachma. Sorry to rant at you Graham, but you really do deserve it...
From:
Eileen Henderson
09 July 2015 10:00 AM
You have a vested interest Graham. In fact, I would say that your vested interest is far greater than any of the corporates who simply have a financial investment in Z & RM because if OTM backfires you a scr*wed. The corporates can cash out at any point and join OTM - they would be welcomed with open arms and be given the best deal available. You have staked your reputation within your business and with your customers. From what I am seeing, customers are slowly becoming aware of what this means and those of us who stuck away from it are winning as customers are far more willing to believe that a bunch of crooked agents have got together to save a few quid than they are on some righteous cause - especially when I point out it only costs about £30 to advertise their property on Z and £60 to advertise it on RM.
From:
Eileen Henderson
09 July 2015 08:44 AM
Assume you didn't Graham, and from your comment on the other article it seems that you considered an investment in OTM as a more sensible proposition. Has anyone identified OTM as a ponzi scheme yet? You've made a dumb investment and now you realise that your only chance of getting all or some of your money back is if you are able to persuade those dumb enough around you to pile in too!! That is why you are telling people you get more from OTM than 'you ever got from Zoopla' when you know it is a complete lie. If the other article today is to be believed, and they are about to drop the 'one other' rule, I think you can kiss goodbye to your investment Graham. At the very least, and assuming Pendleton did take them up on their offer, I'll be going to him for investment advice long before I come knocking on your door ;-)
From:
Eileen Henderson
09 July 2015 08:34 AM
Very funny Graham. As much as the fervent supporters of OTM want to believe that the thing will work, it won't. Anyone who is on OTM, unless they happen to be in a freak area where its got some traction, will be experiencing a vastly reduced number of leads compared with Zoopla - and even more so Rightmove. OTM is a new site and is far more reliant on paid traffic than either of the main portals. Anyone who does that sort of marketing will know that paid search is always lower quality than traffic that comes to your site because it has consciously chosen to. Unfortunately enough information is out there, and enough conversations have been had between staff members on a Friday night to know that OTM has disappointed on all fronts.
From:
Eileen Henderson
09 July 2015 08:26 AM
And they will be very busy in the years to come!!
From:
Eileen Henderson
30 June 2015 14:56 PM
I am sick and tired of the meaningless threats and insinuations that come from AM supporters. Its been like this since the AM project got underway, with them using the 'imminent demise' of the main portals as their rallying cry. Well done, the emotion and rhetoric helped sign a decent number of agents, but equally it will create divisions as it becomes clear the huge promised fall materially short of success. The problem that they ignore is that once AM is shown to be a pathetic attempt to tame Rightmove (which has backfired spectacularly, and instead set Zoopla back a year or so while strengthening Rightmove's competitive position), there will be some significant consequences. Not least, any further attempt to launch in this space will be squarely rejected by anyone burned by the AM experience. I suggest that those who have drunk the Agents Mutual Kool-Aid have a really careful think about their behaviour and start to think about how AM can be adapted to give it a better chance of success. I would start with: 1. Drop the 'one other portal rule' and remove the main blocker to wider participation and the potential threat of CMA action in the future (anyone who thinks this practice is not anti-competitive needs to take a short course in competition law) 2. Get rid of the existing management team who seem intent on pursuing personal vendettas against Daily Mail Group/Primelocation/Zoopla rather than build a credible portal brand 3. Relocate the business from Central London to the Midlands, where they can employ staff and house the business much more cost effectively. I am told that they are paying a significant premium to sales, service and tech staff which is not sustainable. Best to relocate the business and start with a clean slate. 4. re-think the commercial terms which see agents expected to pay the same for almost nothing (which is what OTM delivers) as they pay for Zoopla (which delivers a decent level of response) 5. Remove the anti-competitive barriers to virtual agents and developers. The project is trying to achieve too much by trying to block developers from reaching the wider public, stop virtual agents from getting traction AND building a successful portal. In fact, the exclusion of virtuals and developers hampers the project and ultimately will contribute to its demise The sad reality is though that too much power has been put into the hands of Ian Springet and he won't leave until the things is in tatters - he has too much to lose in terms of reputation and cash (if the rumours are true that he has a £500,000 salary, that is the biggest scandal of the project). He has built an over-payed but mediocre team who are failing to deliver and due to the structure of the board (which is made up on posh and London-centric agents, all of whom speak the same language as Springet) will continue until the money has run out. I am so glad that we stuck away from this silly project and I feel genuinely sad for the small independent agents who see the world changing, don't like it, and thought that this was the panacea. As a result they are left holding 5 year contracts for a product that doesn't work and was conceived with only the interests of the larger agents in mind. Its a disgrace.
From:
Eileen Henderson
17 June 2015 10:01 AM
One of my comps just sent me a statement from OTM, basically repeating the statements above. They have dealt with PR pretty well, but this is a shambles. Caught on the back foot with a pretty negative story. The mood is changing and I am SO glad we stuck out of it...
From:
Eileen Henderson
16 June 2015 12:42 PM
Sorry, typo. The statements from Springett and Rook are unconvincing both in the wording, and the fact that (from a quick look at Companies House) this actually happened in May. If this was a standard, run of the mill non-exec falling away, OTM would have announced as such and thanked Clive for his time and input to date. They didn't do that and are now reacting on the back foot and reinforcing the negative assumptions. Even the relatively hardened supporters of AM are starting to raise their eyebrows when I mention it to them nowadays - for me this is just another disillusioned supporter wanting to distance themselves from running of the project. The problem that Clive has is that as one of the founding board members he will not be able to distance himself. No-one will be under any illusion that the reason people join a board as non-exec is to be associated with success. Only conflicts of interest, ill health or other personal circumstances really justify removal so soon into a business's life. Given the lack of statement around why Clive has left, we can only assume he does not like what he sees at AM.
From:
Eileen Henderson
16 June 2015 11:58 AM
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From:
Eileen Henderson
16 June 2015 11:52 AM
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Eileen's Recent Activity
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