A group of more than 30 independent agents in the north-east of England have committed themselves to supporting the new agent-owned property portal to be launched by Agents’ Mutual.
The group, described as a critical mass in the region and whose agents have between them over 100 offices, will invest in Agents’ Mutual as Gold members.
Steve Henning, of Jan Forster Estates, who has been a key figure in assembling the group, said: “It has taken several rounds of discussions between the agents involved and Agents’ Mutual but we have now reached a position where a substantial critical mass of firms in this region have committed themselves to the success of the new portal.”
Ian Springett of Agents’ Mutual said: “The list of firms involved reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of agency in the north-east.
“We are delighted to have the support of such a large and powerful group of the leading agents and we hope and expect that this will be the platform we need to build further support for our plans in the region.”
He would not be drawn on individual names of agents in the group.
It is understood that a number of agents that have decided to back Agents’ Mutual do not want to be named, as they do not wish their identities to be known at this stage by either Rightmove or Zoopla.
* Agents have only until the end of the week (December 20) to decide whether they want to invest in Agents’ Mutual as Gold members.
https://meetings.agentsmutual.co.uk/2013-11-17_gold_last_call/INFORMATION%20MEMORANDUM.pdf
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Comments
SotCEA
'Agents Mutual' is the name of the organisation putting this thing together - they have not yet released the name of the portal yet (probably tossing a coin over two equally ridiculous offerings that have some obscure fish, animal or something else equally property-related in them...) - but I for one can't wait to hear it!
The rest of your post is on the money.
I am amazed any agents at all are signing up for this. Firstly, the name itself is flawed, 'agents mutual' it sounds like an old boys club for estate agents. How is this going to draw the public in? Secondly, where's the money coming from to publicise it? Don't Rightmove and Zoopla both advertise on TV and rule the search engines? Some of my punters only use either Rightmove or Zoopla, in some cases they haven't even heard of the other one! With this in mind I surprisingly won't be bothering with agents mutual. They only time I will consider it is when I suddenly start getting vendors asking for it. In. In my view it's doomed from the start and waste of everyone's time. The portals are here to stay we have to get used to that.
AM will fail, sad but true.
Since PrimeLocation was sold, Ian Springett has done very little business wise, a check at Companies House shows he is a director of Card Fame Limited. Clearly AM is just another chance to get a salary for the next 12-18 months. Good idea but it's too late and you're backing the wrong person.
'wilko':
"Advert budget spent on telling joe public that "1000's" of exclusive new instructions to the market will ONLY be advertised on AM site for the initial 7 days of marketing(before going on ONE of the established sites in addition)"
Hmmm - let's look at that through someone else's eyes, shall we? The HOMEOWNER, that is.
At APPRAISAL, savvy Agent tells Vendor:
"The problem you face is that Agents 'X', 'Y' & 'Z' will waste the first seven days of marketing of your home promoting it ONLY on a website that 80% of the buying public have never heard of, because that way they save money.
AFTER THAT, they will stick it on ONLY ONE of the top two UK property portals.
YOU WILL LOSE OUT on the vast majority of potential buyers actually seeing your home this way, Sir/Madam.
On the other hand, with OUR Agency, you will IMMEDIATELY be listed on BOTH of the..."
I wonder where people will sign..?
What is being forgotten here is that RM and ZPG both exist purely because WE AGENTS 'gave birth' to them, fed them, and nurtured them - in order to gain more instructions from our competitors. WE created the monster.
Now... the tail is wagging the dog, and biting the hands that have fed it so diligently - and none of us like the idea.
Not to mention the green-eyed monster that is eating all of our @r$e$ over their profits...!
wilko- wotk for AM?
Why would a selling love the exclusivity of marketing to only a very small part of the target audience? Quiet the reverse, we all know how important week 1 is, and hiding it on a limited web site is not in the sellers best interests.
This will come down to 2 things:
1. Can the public be made aware enough of AM's existence to make them think of AM as well as the other 2.
and
2. Will AM have enough money to do this?
When will agents start to see that this venture will work.
At launch the member agents will probably have at least 20-30% of exclusive property.
Advert budget spent on telling joe public that "1000's" of exclusive new instructions to the market will ONLY be advertised on AM site for the initial 7 days of marketing(before going on ONE of the established sites in addition)
All public that follow property and do not want to miss out on anything will immediately add AM site to their faves and be kept up to date with new instructions.
Sellers will love the initial exclusivety of the site and not want be excluded from it.
Zoopla AND Rightmove can no longer say they have "all the properties"
Zoopla and RM WILL lose circa £15m annual subscriptions overnight....with more losses expected as AM grows.
These are facts and I will always follow a SURE THING which AM most definately is....If you don't believe me then ask the 1000's of other successful agencies that have put up the cash, naea and arla etc....or wait and join later as Silver members.
Waste of time. Vendors want RM.
Mr Springett, can you let me know why when you want me to invest £3k for my office and pay you an advertised rate card price to put my properties on you one vote one share we are all equal portal , why then Ian did it take "several discussions " with this larger group . I may be an idiot here but this smells like a negotiation , which kind of flys in the face of everything you have said. Your not getting nervous about people actually supporting your portal when you actually ask for some money so cutting deals with all and sundry are you.if you listen closely I think I hear the sound of your USP quietly sneaking out of the door .....
My issue remains that SEO and advertising is immensely expensive. A £4m fund is tiny in the grand scheme
If they make inroads on RM and ZPG, they will just up the anti - not by raising cash, but by using some of their £80m profit. They are commercial animals which is why they arent popular, but they wont just do nothing.
I pay RM £700 pcm. Last month we sold properties with a commission value of £33k from RM and ZPG leads. That's a bloody good return by anyone's standard .
So, if I switch to AM, I may lose some of this with no quantifiable gain and I may save £450 pcm for 5 years provided I cough up £3000.
And what if the big 2 just cut their prices> AM will have succeeded but committed suicide into the bargain.
Does the risk justify the return? No. I believed in Property Live - that went well. Same with Think Property, Pure Property, and all the others. Fact is - RM & Zoopla deliver consistently and their crime is they are profitable.
The have become a duopoly for one reason - everyone else has failed.
Dear 1000+ agents
Give me £3k and I will build you a new portal which will save you a couple of hundred quid each month. Ok, you may lose loads of leads, but hey, it may work. If it does, I will be quids in - if it doesn't then hey - its only (your) money.
PS- our fighting fund is nearly 5% of Rightmove's profit margin - so we should be able to crush them safe in the knowledge that will just allow us to do so.
PPS - Buyers will flood to our site because they are fed up with the free service provided by RM and ZPG which allows them to search the whole UK when in fact they would prefer just to support agents in their anti duopoly drive and instead just look at their instructions.
Wibble
Love Ian.
Have said it before and I'll say it again .... The general public don't want to sell their house once am have got up and running , they don't want to wait until their website is up and running ...they want to sell it now . This means that a lot of agents in the a north east will be rubbing their hands waiting for their competition to come off one of the major 2 , I can imagine the conversation ,
" hi , I'd like to put my house on the market "
" fantastic "
"where do you advertise"
"rightmove or Zoopla and another place you've never heard of"
"I've never heard of that "
" I know but it could save me some money in three years"
"does that mean you are cheaper than your competition now your saving some money "
"erm,no, I needed to pay a fortune to join "
"ok, can you send countrywide in on your way out"
I wonder if Springett also does clothes made out of "magical" thread ,only idiots can't see that it's fantabulous
“The list of firms involved reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of agency in the north-east.
No, it doesn't. Look at who has the big market share in the NE.
I had this chat with a well known agent and we broadly agreed
Zoopla & RM have about 96% of all properties listed.
At best, AM will have 15%. Why would buyers use them?
They will have about £4M to spend on their campaign - RM made £80m last year - so can they compete if RM & Z really go for it? How will their marketing and SEO compare?
Will Countrywide, LSL, Connells sign up? Between them they have more offices & properties that the whole of AM.
Primelocation was a success after it dropped it exclusivity requirement, bought FAP as it was too much about London and sold to the Daily Mail.
AM want cash up front - so the risk is from the members. In return for their £3k, they get £450 back over 5 years and reduced fees for a 'limited period' - then what?
If Struts, Savills, Knight Frank want to delist from ZPG or RM, so what? No one looking for a £10m house in Mayfair would use RM anyway - their PA would call Savills
Mr Springett has a great no-lose model which may work - but perhaps in a niche way and will perhaps have a significant value before shares are bought back & its sold to a big portal.... Sound familiar?
To be honest I'm on the fence, part of me is saying what a waste of time and money, but the other part is thinking, why cant they challenge? Zoopla have just dramatically reduced my rate after I said I was leaving so they must be worried? Or not....?
Agents mutual rates are on par with Zoopla. I thought the whole reason for this is because the big 2 charge so much, yet AM want to charge high fees for the unknown!!
AAAARRRRGGGHHH Bloody portals drive me crazy!!!!
Another meaningles story. Another sign of lost steam.
From what I am seeing people are disengaging and a few of the main people are beginning to distance themselves from this train crash - no one wants to be dragged down by this thing.
@ Property Pro
If Mr Springett is indeed "laughing all the way to the bank," then I would suggest that he has no need of a Business for Beginners book...
More money down the drain by my fellow agents. It is like the blind leading the blind instead of following them. The only person who is going to make any money off this flawed venture is Mr Springett. Everyone else will either lose their money or their business/vendors. The exclusivity clause is one of the craziest thiings I have ever heard - intervening in market forces to force agents to withdraw their listings from portals that help deliver them business. Someone should buy Mr Springett a Business for Beginners book for Christmas. He is laughing all the way to the bank. So are the agents not supporting this when they tell their vendors about those who are and why not to use them!