Rightmove and Zoopla and now.... onthemarket.com. Some of
you may have heard about the latest brainchild of Agents' Mutual - a consortium
of agents that got together with the idea of taking on the great portals - but
most of you won't, and that’s my point.
So what's happening?
In essence a few agents have been disgruntled by the annual
price hike that presents itself from the big 2 and decided to chance it on
their own. Build their own website, do a TV campaign to attract the would-be
buyers, job done, surely. Well if everyone thought like that about growing
their own vegetables (much cheaper than the likes of Tesco surely) why isn't
everyone doing it? For a start the investment required runs into the millions
of pounds. They won't see these "savings" for some years to come to
say the least. Secondly, the success of any agency big or small hangs on its
ability to shift houses. With less exposure on their properties (this new
portal cannot possibly get as many hits as Rightmove or Zoopla for years to
come) there are less buyers/tenants looking at their properties. This results
in less enquiries. Less viewings. Less offers. Less transactions. Less
customers that recommend said agent due to poor results. Less income for the
agent. Oh look I see a trend.
In the best interests
An agent should always handle their affairs in the best
interests of their clients which they represent of course. Drastically reducing
the level of exposure that their clients' properties get is arguably not.
|
|
For Sale
|
To Let
|
||
|
Area
|
SW4
|
SW2
|
SW4
|
SW2
|
|
Rightmove
|
|
|
|
|
|
Zoopla
|
|
|
|
|
|
OntheMarket
|
|
|
|
|
As is plain to see there are lots more agents that are still on Rightmove and Zoopla than OntheMarket, which is obvious of course. There are never going to be as many properties on day 1. However it will be interesting to see how this changes over time. But bear in mind that if you haven't heard of this new portal, neither will your new tenants or buyers. Even with property listed... where are the buyers looking??
Costs
Rightmove and Zoopla, as any other company, make a charge
for their services. These prices certainly increase from time to time. Why?
Well, there is inflation, a wider range of services on offer and guess what,
everything gets more expensive year on year. Remember penny sweets? Right...
Flop?
Now believe me I'm all for value for money, but to spend
millions of pounds to save a few quid is just nonsensical. What's more, it
doesn't serve the best interests of clients. So will I be joining? I will be a
few hundred pounds better off today, but tomorrow when the sales and lettings
don't materialise because tenants and buyers are looking on Rightmove and
Zoopla I will be significantly worse off with less customers and less money in
the bank. So no, in summary. Has your agent dropped a well-known, established
brand for onthemarket.com? With the figures above it is clear where other agents are, and where the buyers and tenants will be looking for their next home.
What do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment