Enough is enough – an alternative view on portal subscription fees

It’s time to draw a line in the sand and condemn our rival portals for their current charging structure. Little will change moving forward as the reductions and payment holidays pledged recently by the major portals are just temporary due to the coronavirus pandemic.

That’s why here at Residential People we have taken the step of revealing our new legally binding contract, which signifies our commitment to continue to deliver a free advertising solution in these troubling economic times, but more importantly in perpetuity.

With the spread of coronavirus bringing businesses around the world to their knees, the property sector has also suffered significantly.

Social isolation has drastically reduced high-street agents' activity as they have been forced to close branches, and the current lockdown could prove to be the final nail in the coffin for some struggling agencies.

Something must change

At Residential People, we don't believe that such a volatile market is the right time to offer token gestures such as temporary 'discounts' or ‘free for a time with 18 month contracts’.

What the property sector requires is stability, compassion and understanding of the increasing difficulties faced by agents with each passing day.

As such, we have announced an iron-clad contract, underlining our commitment to providing a free listing portal, with no registration fees or annual subscriptions.

We want to stress that this is not a limited-time offer or a special promotion, and we are a genuine estate agents cooperative.

Our agreement is a permanent and committed pledge, we will not change our business model at a later date like others have done before us, nor will we ever lose track of the most important player, the agent.

We all know when the storm passes the other portals will raise their prices to a new high as they need to recoup their losses as they have done in the past. As we are free, we have no losses to recoup.

Our estate agency past

The concept for Residential People initially began when I became frustrated with effectively being priced out of the market by the extortionate fees charged to list my agency's properties.

This frustration regarding lack of flexibility in the portal pricing structures and their lack of compassion and understanding was the key driving force behind creating Residential People.

Many of the Residential People team were previously estate agents and mortgage advisers; for us, the Covid-19 pandemic brings back painful memories of trying to operate a successful property business during the 2008 financial crash.

That challenging experience has taught us that if we are to get through these turbulent times without more agents going bust, we must provide a high-quality, reliable service to agents that is also economically viable.

And so, I ask, what better price is there than free?

Below you can see the details of the contract we are offering to agents:

Standard Terms of Business for Residential People & Commercial People Agents

Residential People & Commercial People (hereby referred to as ‘Site’) is a free to list property portal with no registration fees or annual subscriptions.

This document serves as a binding contract between the Site and you as the agent. As part of listing your property(s) with us we hereby contractually bind ourselves that we will never charge you for listing your properties on the platform and state that as a portal we will always be free to list.

This includes;

● Unlimited free listings & enquiries
● Track your listings from your personal dashboard
● Access to our global audience
● Support for both manual & automated listings
●  No hidden fees or charges

By listing with the Site, you agree to the following:

●  Submit genuine listings with up-to-date contact details.
●  Be responsible for the data, quality, accuracy and honesty of the listing(s).
●  The listing must comply with all applicable laws, regulations and code of practice in the United Kingdom, and adhere to not infringe any copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights or rights of any third party.
●  You will not provide direct link(s) or contact number(s) within the listing(s) description.
●  Not to misuse or conduct malicious behaviour on the Site. In particular, you are under no circumstances, permitted to use malicious or harmful technologies to exploit or disrupt the Site. 

Should you require any further clarification on these terms, we would be happy to help – simply email contact@commercialpeople.com with your query. 

Christopher May,
Director,
20th March 2020

*Christopher May is a director at free-to-list global property portal Residential People