x
By using this website, you agree to our use of cookies to enhance your experience.
STAY CONNECTED!
    
newsletter-button

Agent protests over tripling of Digital portal charges

13 August 2010
Written by rosalind renshaw

An agent in Sutton, Surrey, is protesting over huge hikes in his rates  to FindaProperty. Dozens of other agents are affected.

He has been told  that his subscription to The Digital Property Group will triple between next month and March.

The agent, who has asked not to be named, says it means the cost of advertising on Digital’s sites, which include FindaProperty and Primelocation, will double – and will cost him considerably more than Rightmove.

The agent says he received two aggressive phone calls from sales staff at TDPG, which is owned by the Daily Mail, informing him that his subscription would go up in three staggered hikes.

He says the sales staff told him that the price increases would affect almost 800 agents within the M25 – although Digital told EAT the real number is in fact closer to 70.

The added: “I think they are very arrogant in their approach when the market is still depressed, and when you ask any agency about their revenue levels, they are still way down on what they were at the peak.”

He also said he was unhappy with the makeover of the FindaProperty site back in May and the fact it now takes on third party advertising.

“In my opinion, the site looks awful. Advertising from third parties is all over the pages my properties are displayed on, as opposed to Rightmove which has none. In my opinion, this has degraded the website and TDPG are being very greedy. They have compromised the website.”

He said his firm is receiving many less inquiries than a year ago, and believes he should get a price decrease. “There are many agents like me who will not put up with ridiculous increases,” he added, saying that he had never wanted to be on Primelocation in the first place and that it was “a complete waste of time”. TDPG puts it pricing for  all its websites in one  package, even where agents have no interest in listing on, for example, FindaProperty, or Primelocation.

It is believed  that the agent in question, along with others in price negotiations,  is currently on an old rate, below rate card.

In an official statement, Digital said:  “The Digital Property Group rate card was created to provide a fair and transparent reflection of the value we deliver; it takes into account the agent's location, our market share as well as the number of properties listed and their average cost. By advertising on each of The Digital Property Group portals, agents benefit from inquiries across all levels of home buyer and renter as well as profit from the positive brand association with our portals - especially important when attracting new instructions.

“Our subscribers gain from significant investment into our portals through TV, radio, print, online and outdoor advertising across the country, not to mention the positive addition of Globrix.com into our portfolio. They also benefit from innovations such as our iPad app and the FindaProperty.com redesign which has yielded a significant number of enquiries and a record 3.8 million unique visitors in July.

“We cannot comment on specific cases but we would be very happy to speak to this customer on an individual basis and discuss our value to their business. ”

Comments

  • icon

    Richard Deckard I would be interested in hearing your thoughts. I work for Trinity Mirror Digital Property !!!

    • 16 August 2010 14:31 PM
  • icon

    @Marketeer
    My sentiments exactly.

    The model of having one marketing medium which was so successful, in any other industry, would have the opposite effect as it does in estate agency.Players would be fighting over who could get the most from it.

    • 13 August 2010 15:03 PM
  • icon

    When will you Estate Agents learn? Propertylive will not succeed unless you all pay a subscription fee to the levels of Rightmove. Otherwise the NAEA will never have the capital to promote the site and increase brand awareness of it. The fact of the matter is that you (the Agents) and the NAEA need to do it 'hand in hand' to make it succeed. Why is it that Estate Agents expect a free lunch all of the time? In my experience your advertising rates in the Regional Press are far less than for any other business sector. You have a fantastic market leading website whose cost per lead is pretty favourable. Yes they can improve their attitude but at least Rightmove does what it says on the tin. It puts your properties in front of the largest audience of homemovers in the UK and the leads follow as a result. Some of you get that much response from Rightmove that you don't even follow up all the leads! Other business sectors would give their right arm for a method of marketing that was as succesful as Rightmove. Having said that you can break them, just in the same way as you built them. You are the people who told everybody about Rightmove, who use their name in your sales pitch to potential vendors on every appointment you go on. Stop bleating and change the record. If you want more control, pull off Rightmove town by town, get behind the NAEA and Propertylive, promote it like you do Rightmove and live in the real world. Your biggest problem is that you don't understand marketing. You don't understand how to use advertising to attract people to your business. Brands don't get anywhere without spending money on promotion. How many of your punters have heard of Zoopla, Zoomf and some of the other also rans. Not many because they can't afford to build their brand. It's simple enough. A business that markets itself well builds it's brand those who don't don't!

    • 13 August 2010 14:32 PM
  • icon

    who is Richard Deckard
    reveal thyself! Art thou an expert?

    • 13 August 2010 12:17 PM
  • icon

    allow me to try and explain why im unhappy with TDPG without getting the post banned.
    In my experiance TDPG have not lived up to any of the promices the rep gave us when we signed nor have we had any leads. I regret signing with them and will be withdrawing as soon as my contract expires.

    I have no idea why EAT has removed my previous post. If TDPG does not like bad press then maybe they should work towards a better customer experiance.

    • 13 August 2010 12:10 PM
  • icon

    estate agent being ripped off! thats a turn-up for the books! plenty of sympathy there then.

    I know: 'removed by admin'.

    • 13 August 2010 12:09 PM
  • icon

    This post has been removed by site admin

    • 13 August 2010 11:36 AM
  • icon

    All the time agents feed content and pay the increases, the portals are rubbing their hands. Best web money agents can spend is on their own SEO and working together sharing main portals and resources by collaboration. Small plug. www.INEA.co.uk is free to list to independent agents. We DO NOT allow self sale and next week we are building RM. v3 feeds in, and already have many software suppliers who are happy to feed and collaborate with INEA uploads. We aim to increase our membership to 1,000 agents in the next 12-18 months. So long as agents are TPOS or RICS SOS we welcome you on board.

    • 13 August 2010 11:35 AM
  • icon

    JC:
    It is still there!
    However the PropertyLive agents seem not to advertise it much on their own sites, details or other advertising. They still give RM etc. free advertising!
    PropertyLive needs exposure in all respects - or NFoPP should forget it.

    • 13 August 2010 11:34 AM
  • icon

    I advised Trinity Digital Media on how they could compete and be the No 1 choice offering a far credible offering than RMV - alas they continue with the same worn out business model - if someone from TDM would like to offer me shares or engage me in a consultancy capacity then I'm sure they would soon be reaping the rewards of my 20 years + expertise :)

    • 13 August 2010 11:31 AM
  • icon

    PropertyLive doesn't seem to have changed, more properties on there but who really visits it? Hope i'm wrong but not worth the investment...

    • 13 August 2010 11:26 AM
  • icon

    This post has been removed by site admin

    • 13 August 2010 11:24 AM
  • icon

    I've not heard anything about Propertylive in such a long time - what's happening with it?

    • 13 August 2010 11:23 AM
  • icon

    These portals are in business to make money, the writing has been on the wall for some time. The only way forward for agents is to protect themselves by taking control of their major advertising media.
    Unfortunately agents rarely work together, even in something as important as this. PropertyLive is not yet up to the mark, but could be if the NFoPP and its members moved themselves?

    • 13 August 2010 11:20 AM
  • icon

    Findaproperty and Primelocation are begining to look like any other portal, full of nasty adverts. It's a shame TDPG are so greedy! Google here we come :)

    • 13 August 2010 10:57 AM
  • icon

    I agree, the revamped Findaproperty website definitely looks worse than the one it has replaced. I am surprised they have taken on so much 3rd party advertising and they need to remember that the website would be useless without paying Estate Agents. Therefore Findaproperty – DON’T TAKE US ESTATE AGENTS FOR GRANTED & try charging completely unjustifiable membership rates. The website is ok but nothing special and there are many other websites now to advertise on including Google who offer listings for FREE…… Bring on the competition that leads to the greedy portals including Rightmove & Findaproperty having to reduce their rates or risk loosing business from Agents including me who are tired of these unjustifiable increases!

    • 13 August 2010 10:51 AM
  • icon

    This post has been removed by site admin

    • 13 August 2010 09:46 AM
  • icon

    If your fees for TDPG are higher than those for RM, something is wrong.
    Fair enough charge more for more, but, charging more because you aspire (but ain't there yet by a long way)to be more is just bad business.
    I would not protest, I would quit.

    • 13 August 2010 08:16 AM
Breaking News
MovePal MovePal MovePal