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In close association with rummage4property
PRINT ADVERTISING STILL WORKS!
Agents are finally taking back control of their portal expenditure!
The general public love using the property portals and can spend hours browsing properties they would love to be able to afford or just having a nosy inside houses on the market around where they already live - where else can they see the inside of these homes? The best part for these people is that the portals are free to visit and use them as much as they like. If they’re using their smartphone, all it costs them is battery life! But what about the estate agents and developers who provide all of the content for these websites? What level of costs do they face to provide the service to their vendors? More than you probably would estimate - well over £100 per property per month in some cases where a number of agents choose the top package available with Rightmove. This expensive source of marketing for your property is now facing a backlash.
We don’t yet know how long the social distancing rules will apply for during the pandemic. While ever they are in place, however, the market will sit in a deep freeze-like state. Some good will come of this, however, as agencies are forced to examine every single bit of their regular expenditure. They will identify items they never regarded before as waste. It’s great that some supplier companies have come forward with timely, helpful discounts, some voluntarily – we got ahead of many with our free advertising to all digital editions – sadly, some had to be given a massive nudge. The behaviour of some suppliers during the onset of this crisis will not easily be forgotten.
We truly hope that the available Government assistance will enable many High Street Estate Agencies to remain in situ and retain as many of their staff as possible. Cutting the cost base right now is absolutely essential in order to facilitate this process.
One beneficial consequence of this crisis has been the breaking up of the established portal duopoly (Rightmove & Zoopla). The portal market is finally opening up and a free market can now ensue. There’s an ever-increasing number of potential service providers emerging, good for them we say. If the three big portals believe there will be a return to charging pre-pandemic fees once this is all over, we’ve got a bridge to sell them.
Many agents are showing their anger at portal costs by joining anti-Rightmove campaigns (website, Facebook groups). Those agencies that have are getting a real feel for the depth of loathing of this company felt by large swathes of the industry. They’ll witness, first hand, just how many agencies have left, intend to leave or are waiting out notice periods. The trickle is turning in to a flood. Rightmove's dominant position and USP (displaying nearly all available property) are gone.
So what will replace the two main portals?
Since the days of silly money subscriptions for estate agents and developers are well and truly over, agencies will be able to pick and choose their future supplier(s) and, should they wish, take up multiple options. Competition will keep prices down and innovation at the forefront.
A key point expressed by some agents we’re noting is a preference to support an agent- owned portal or, failing that, one that is not-for-profit. A portal with agent-focused, dependable, trustworthy and sensible management can overcome any concern that elicits such remarks. No-one wants to see a repeat of the On The Market debacle!
Our favoured candidate, rummage4property (R4P), has now revealed its subscription
plan. Their package is called the ‘G5 portal transition plan’. What does G5 mean?Well, data processing has come a long way in the past 40 years.We’ve gone from manual systems (G1) to MS-DOS (G2), then the quantum leap 10 years later to Windows 3.1 (G3 - final upgrade XP), to cloud-based computing (G4) to the present G5 position which covers ProgressiveWeb Applications (PWAs) and Blockchain technology. The current major portals plus some of the emerging challengers still operate on G3 legacy systems!
If there are other G5 portals available right now, other than rummage4property, we’re yet to hear about them. G5 enables huge interactivity and allows R4P to direct all web traffic straight to you and your website.
rummage4property has an ownership with voting rights plan available to local estate agents; the
, the average monthly subscription to Rightmove.
An agent choosing this option can pay in full with a one-off payment and they will receive
FREE listings until 31st December 2020 and the Data Integration Fee - a cost
outside the control of R4P - of £300 will be waived. Agents need to submit a Bespoke pin (featuring their logo, essential for the Map View option) or make a £10 charity donation to Julian O’Dell’s CatFest charity in lieu of payment for its preparation.
Membership can be paid for over 12 months by Direct Debit at £83.33 + VAT per
month. With this option, the Data Integration Fee of £300 plus vat will be payable unless the agent is a new or existing client of Estate Apps. Subscription charges, however, will be waived until 31st December 2020.
A Subscriber option is available at £100 +VAT per month; the fee will be reviewed in line
with transaction volumes, probably some time in the summer. The monthly fee is, uniquely, also linked to the HPI Index meaning fees can go down as well as up.
Robert May, founder of R4P, has been incredibly active over the past ten years in the portal arena, mainly behind the scenes and with little fanfare. Many people may already be aware of his work involving:
• Land Registry data (the correction of a significant numbers of error) • Portal juggling or rather his involvement in putting a stop to it
• Purplebricks; analysing data that suggested their completion rate was closer to 50% than much higher figures stated by the company on television
• The recent break up the duopoly of Rightmove & Zoopla
In Robert, the industry has a person that will stand up for agencies where others have let them down.We strongly recommend Yorkshire estate agents look closely at the rummage4property option right now, don’t wait until the first signs of life appear in the market post-pandemic. Remember; with R4P, your data stays with you and no-one else, you are in complete control at all times.
Please call us on 01924 493300 and we’ll put you in touch with the team at R4P.
Declaration: Yorkshire Property Services are completely independent of rummage4property. There is no financial or legal association between us. We are not paid, nor do we seek to be paid, for any promotional activities we carry out that feature rummage4property.
rummage4property.co.uk Membership option which costs just £1000 plus VAT less than the cost of
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