PropertyLive, the NFoPP property portal, has been given a three-month stay of execution.
In that time, it is to be hosted by an unnamed external party, and will continue to function as a property portal. Anyone interested in taking it over will be able to submit their proposals, which will be assessed by an independent expert – also unnamed.
If the property portal is taken over by a third party, the brand will not go with it. The name ‘PropertyLive’ will stay with NFoPP, again for unspecified reasons.
We asked NAEA managing director Mark Hayward if there was any more detail regarding who will be hosting the site in the immediate future, who the industry expert is, and why NFoPP will retain the PropertyLive brand.
He replied, saying only that the industry expert will remain anonymous for impartiality reasons.
News of PropertyLive’s stay of execution came after a period of silence, which was broken to members by email on Friday.
Not all agents – who had discontinued their feeds after being told the site would close at the end of January and had heard nothing since – were impressed.
Essex-based agent Michael Saville replied to NFoPP, saying: “The problem caused by your poor handling of this issue, is that following your instruction that PropertyLive was to cease, we have removed the PropertyLive logos from our windows and presentation folders that we had to reprint and have requested that our website company remove them from our website too.
“I have been on the site since its inception and have supported and promoted it with your leaflets in our landlord packs, in our window displays, etc. I am not going to reverse all this, having gone to the effort of taking it all down.
“I’m sure many other agents have done the same and stopped their property feeds too, so why would anyone take it on with it falling apart?!
“The words ‘piss-up’ and ‘brewery’ come to mind!”
The full email from Mark Hayward to members, which was also released as a press statement, said:
"Given the strength of feeling from a small, but significant group of people both inside and outside the Federation membership, we have arranged for the PropertyLive site to be hosted and maintained by an external party for a period of three months so that it can, temporarily, continue to function as a property portal.
"During that time, we invite any interested parties that have either already expressed a wish, or who may wish to do so, to submit a formal business proposal for the site going forward.
Those proposals, once considered, will be assessed by an independent portal industry expert and, if suitable, a preferred candidate selected to take matters forward.
"Irrespective of outcome, the three-month extension is fixed and final, and the PropertyLive brand will not form part of any arrangement to transfer management of the site.
The Federation absolutely stands by the decision to close the site and to cease its current operation, but hopes this extension will provide an opportunity for an alternative viable proposal to emerge."
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Comments
This needs time, brains and it needs money, message me if your willing to give all the above. I am looking for regional partners to move this thing along. No time for words who wants to help get it started.
Message anthony@kerrigans.org
Somebody else asked (on this site) 'where is Nick Salmon now?' A few weeks ago he was all for saving PL - or starting something similar. So what is his thinking now?
???? what are you talking about? stop RM getting their hands on Propertylive or access to the Agents.
Do think about it before posting,
I'm talking about Propertylive and I do think before post, I have done nothing but read these posts over the last few months and think about what you are all saying. You will find much of what you all say quoted and reprinted in the Finders and Sellers blog, our readers love it and I have receive dozens of emails about it from not only agents but members of the public to.
Like I say I am not an agent I work in marketing so when I say stop RM getting their hands on it I am looking at it from that perspective.
Now of course I don’t know for sure that the anonymous entity who has given Propertylive a three month stay of execution is Zoopla but if it is then that would suggest the NFoPP have accepted charity from one of the companies which, if I understand correctly, Propertylive was set up as an alternative to, now that would be ironic. But here’s the thing (as someone who loves a good marketing angle), every time either RM or Zoopla absorb or pay off a company that they feel could be a threat or an asset, depending on your perspective, it always hits the headlines, so in the race between Zoopla and RM, it just depends who hits the headlines first.
In this scenario I see two possible headlines:
‘Zoopla admits it injected a cash sum into ailing NFoPP run property portal PropertyLive in a last ditched attempt to stop it going under. A spokesman said, “We tried our best to help out the agents who rely on us but unfortunately we were too late”. Zoopla has agreed to absorb the failed site into their own organisation for an undisclosed sum.
or
‘Property giants RM have agreed to save yet another Property Portal this time the ailing NFoPP run property portal PropertyLive. A spokesman for RM said “There have been a number of complaints from agents about our need to increase our prices during the present economic crisis, but the fact is those agents who financed Propertylive in conjunction with the National Federation of Property Professionals, now realise just what it takes to keep a property portal working efficiently”. RM has agreed to absorb the failed site into their own organisation for an undisclosed sum'.
I think we'll contact the NFoPP, NAEA and ARLA to see what we can do for them.
And I think I'll add this to my blog, so that our followers can read it.
Ray Evans says; 'In my view, unless something changes, they are only a year or two away from, in one way or another, from controlling the whole of residential agency'. I can't disagree with this but what is different with today's scenario (portal control) than the one that ruled pre-internet (newspaper control)?
Is it really not time for agents to have full control over their industry rather than corporate portals (or newspaper publishers as used to be the case)?
???? what are you talking about? stop RM getting their hands on Propertylive or access to the Agents.
Do think about it before posting, Propertylive is available to NFOPP members, about 20% of all the Agents out there, it isn't to get their hands on data or agents,which they already have.
I think the biggest job NFoPP face is to find someone who is independant, knowledgeable and uncorruptable who has Estae Agents interests at heart rather than their own. That is going to be a very short list!
The knowledge and uncorruptable bit is fairly easy to find but independant, that is the hard bit. Property live must be put out of its misery to force the small proportion of NFOPP members who want it kept alive to seek an alternative to the duopoly of RM and Zoopla. they will look around until they find an independant who tells them a deal with XZY commercial co is the best thing to do. The only thing to do with a terminally sick beast is to put it down, grieve a bit and then move on.
An agent owned and controlled portal can not be available to just 20% of Agents (10,000 out of 55,000)
I had respect for those who bravely decided to dispatch Propertylive, that was the most informed decision to come out of NFoPP (ever) but here we have a flip flop victory (temporary) for the conservative ludites
Hi Scott,
Let me put it this way then, the agents should be hounding NFOPP, NAEA and ARLA to get their finger out! They are honestly as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike
Joe
Londonjoe,
Another agent used a phrase in a different comment about a another news item which has stuck in my head since I read it and since we have been talking with agents across the UK.
He said getting agents to work together is and I quote,
'like herding cats'.
It always surprises me when I read about the seminars and training get together's that multiple agencies attend, where developments in the industry are discussed and the monopoly that RM and Zoopla have created is complained about, only to see that united spirit disappear as everyone get's in their cars to go home.
Ray Evans, finally someone who realises what has been clear to us from day one.
Rightmove is a corporate giant, they don't have your best interests at heart, they are here for one thing and one thing only. To make as much money for themselves and their shareholders as they possibly can.
That's business.
It seems fairly obvious to those in the marketing industry that I talk to, that RM are watching marketing trends very carefully, can see that the people they rely on (that's you by the way) are not happy with their pricing or service and therefore have decided to take as much as they possibly can before the mass exodus that the 'herd of cats' keeps threatening, actually happens.
Until that day, the comments and complaints on EAT will continue.
And guess what I read this post out to the other staff in our office and to a man everyone of them said, I bet it is Zoopla who has agreed to run Property Live just so that RM don't get their hands on it.
It is time the industry stopped looking at Rightmove as if it is just an advertising medium. They are a corporate company looking after themselves and their shareholders. In my view, unless something changes, they are only a year or two away from, in one way or another, from controlling the whole of residential agency.
The NFoPP seem to be unaware of this?
Where is Nick Salmon now?
The whole situation is a farce and a farce led by NFLOPP.
This is a prime opportunity now for agents to come together and take this on. I was warned at a recent seminar that rightmove are slowly destroying the estate and letting agent industry and they are getting paid handsomely to do it. Along with that we are providing them with all the information they need to do it.
The US and Australian and many other countries prove that it can be done, so why cant agents in the uk just do it.
NFLOPP have let agents down badly!
The very suggestion that this can be impartial is laughable and the very suggestion that it can is a clear indication why the people charged with looking after this fiasco are unfit person to preside over the fate of Propertylive.
I am simply staggered at how niave the industry is towards the value of its most valuable asset. It is like describing the 3100 carat Cullinan diamond as merely Carbon.
Wake up boys and girls.
If this person is a 'portal industry expert' how impartial and independent can they be expected to be? Is the board not capable of making its own mind up?
How can this be an 'impartial' process if the rumour about Zoopla is true?
The unnamed external party is rumoured to be Zoopla
The unnamed external party is rumoured to be Zoopla
Making your mind up............