This year there has been one subject that has polarised the views of the estate agent community time and again. Agents' Mutual's challenger portal - OnTheMarket - launches on January 26 and looks set to cause friction and encourage debate well beyond its launch date.
Agents' Mutual says it has signed up over 4,000 offices and a selection of agents who have signed up to OTM have already announced which portal they will be dropping in the New Year. However, all year there have been plenty of agents who remain undecided on their portal future.
In January we launched a Portal Wars Survey' inviting our readership to detail their intentions and give their thoughts on the biggest story of 2014. In September we relaunched the survey to see if and how any agents had changed their viewpoint.
Starting last week, we have been publishing some of your responses as well as the raw results to the questions in the survey. Combined, both surveys have attracted almost 2,000 responses and the free comment box has attracted over 350 comments over the last 12 months.
The first part of the survey looked at which of the two main portals agents would retain in order to advertise on the new portal, OnTheMarket. The second question of the survey asked participants if they were In, Out or On the fence when it comes to the Agents' Mutual proposition. And the final question - the subject of this article - asked agents whether they were in favour of OnTheMarket's controversial one other portal rule.
The results are as follows:
Do you think OnTheMarket is better off retaining the only one other portal' restriction or do you think it would be better off dropping it
January survey (870 responses)
Retain it - 478 (55%)
Drop it - 392 (45%)
September survey (993 responses)
Retain it - 555 (56%)
Drop it - 438 (44%)
And here are ten of the best comments (in chronological order) relating to this question:
Surely the aim of Agents' Mutual is not to destroy one or other of the existing property portals but to create its own portal that exclusively shows all the properties being marketed by its members, thus creating its USP. This more than anything will drive consumer traffic to its site.
17/01/2014
The only one other portal rule is essential to the new portal being able to stand on its own two feet. Without it, it will go the way of Property Live and other failed portals.
31/01/2014
As an independent, I won't tolerate Agents' Mutual telling me how to spend my marketing monies.
06/03/2014
I do not agree that the Agents' Mutual portal should be used as a weapon to control Rightmove and Zoopla, with a threat of exclusivity being used if they don't 'behave'. As business people we all structure our companies according to how we wish to conduct our business. Whilst it is good to listen to customers' opinions, at some point, we have to make our own decisions and stand or fall by them. That's why many people chose to go into business in the first place - a belief that we could offer a good service based upon our own ideals. I do not think Rightmove or Zoopla would take kindly or even listen to veiled threats about exclusivity by Agents' Mutual as a means to make them change their business decisions or reduce their pricing structures. I can understand that the exclusivity requirement is needed to ensure that Agents' Mutual becomes what it plans to be i.e. a different kind of property portal provided by the industry, where the members have a say in how it operates and where the members are willing to promote it to their customers. For this to happen, agents must view this as a joint venture between them and Agents' Mutual not just another opportunity to advertise on the internet! I believe we already have enough of these
29/03/2014
Perhaps have a phase two plan, once Agents' Mutual becomes the 2nd portal then all agents must then drop Rightmove!
02/06/2014
Agents' Mutual could drop the one other rule by suggesting that its members automate their property feeds to OnTheMarket seven days ahead of releasing it to the other portals. This would give the new portal the marketing advantage of up to the minute data rather than old property data. It would be easy to do.
01/10/2014
I believe that in order for OnTheMarket to make a difference in regard to overcoming the duopoly, it has to stand firm on its conditions of membership.
02/10/2014
Whilst on one level I don't agree with the 'only one other portal' policy, I agree that it is the necessary approach. Otherwise OnTheMarket just becomes a third placed also ran. I commend them for the 'go for it' 'fortune favours the brave' attitude.
20/10/2014
OnTheMarket should allow every agent to join without the restriction. This would allow economy of scale a cheaper overall monthly charge, improve cash flow AND then after one year introduce the restriction.
20/10/2014
This portal will only work if properly advertised to the public to make them shift from the current big two. Also, it won't make a difference to the big two unless enough agents pull out of the big two en masse so that the new portal becomes the one to go to. But I doubt enough will have the courage to take this step.
13/11/2014
Retain it for Zoopla and Rightmove but do not restrict it for other portals as agents will lose access to other free portals hosted by local publishers.
02/12/2014
This concludes the series on the portal wars survey, thank you for taking the time to respond and giving us your opinions
Comments
I am for retaining too!
I am for retaining too.