New plans for a second low-cost agent owned portal have been announced.
Nethouseprices would be in head-to-head competition with Agents Mutual, which announced its own plans just weeks ago.
However, Nethouseprices suggests that its plans are much more advanced, and that a new portal – which, like Agents Mutual, is designed to take on Rightmove and Zoopla – could go live within a matter of weeks.
Industry leader Nick Salmon is endorsing the Nethouseprices portal.
He said: “I fully support it. It gives agents everything they want, at affordable prices, and the fact that it would be in a position to launch quickly is a huge advantage.”
Catherine Lamond, managing director of Nethouseprices, said: “We have been planning to launch an agent owned portal for over 12 months now, after lengthy consultations with our agents who wanted to draw a line in the sand over ever-increasing property portal charges.
“The new portal will be 100% agent owned and controlled via a company limited by guarantee.”
Members would gain ownership via a one-off £250 membership fee per company. On top of that would be a £150 per month, per branch subscription fee. The first 2,000 agents would be offered a lifelong 10% discount.
Lamond said that 400 agents have already registered their interest, and that 1,000 are needed to make the whole project financially viable.
She said: “In light of obvious comparisons with Agents Mutual, we appear to have both come up with a similar model.
“However, Nethouseprices has been running a free-to-list portal for several years, and any other new portal, with a lack of a ready-made technology platform and website, will need significant time and funding to launch.
“Our portal will be live in a matter of weeks.
“We won’t be waiting a year to build the technology platform and website and to set up the feeds with over 30 software companies.
“In a point of significant difference from Agents Mutual, agents subscribing to the Nethouseprices portal will not be required to remove themselves from any other portal.”
Nethouseprices was launched in 2004 and has had a free-to-list portal almost since the start. It currently lists around 360,000 properties from around 5,000 agency offices.
Lamond said the free portal would disappear to be incorporated into the new low-cost, agent-owned site.
The Agents Mutual portal does not yet have a name. Lamond suggested that the Nethouseprices portal has been named, but that it is a closely guarded secret.
Lamond also said that the new portal will compete with Rightmove and Zoopla in terms of management expertise and media budget. She said that a top-level CEO is to be recruited to drive the new agent owned portal project forward.
Expressions of interest from agents can be registered using the link below:
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Comments
Catch 22 situation. without the agencies the portals are useless, without the portals the agencies are useless......
The problem is the current main portals beg steal and borrow to get initial loyal membership and then they milk it dry and hold you to ransom once they have killed off the competition.
We need a new entrant with serious financial backing that will charge realistically and compete against the current RM and Zoopla situation, I will happily ditch them if I could save even 20% of the current subscriptions. Personally as a small agency I would be happy to pay a high pay-per-listing fee rather than a monthly charge.
"The first 2,000 agents would be offered a lifelong 10% discount."
So... that's thirty grand of 'lost revenue' that the others all need to contribute to in order to balance the books, then...!
From NHP website: "Nethouseprices.com will not be the name of the portal, as the new name is still top secret."
Hmmm - wonder if Mr Mealham has identified it in his post below... ;o)
" The aim is to achieve at least 90% of the market's properties in time so that the content and listings are comparable to Rightmove and Zoopla."
Erm... according to their own stated projections, at end Year 6 they will only have 7361 member offices - or 49% of the total. As RM currently have "... well over 20,000 agents & developers...", methinks their quoted claim is an bit, well, ambitious to say the least.
Or is it a LOOOOOOOONG term aim?
Or a technology platform that is so far advanced, there's no need for them to spend money, so therefore won't be forcing the agents to absorb that cost.
Get with it you lot. It's time there was another, reputable shark in the water and this is it. Lamond has got her head firmly screwed on this has the potential to take the agents out of the bind they are currently in by paying RM and Zoopla every time they breathe.
Agents Mutual: not even comparable.
At last somebody has finally got it!
Unless an "Agent Owned" mutual or whatever you want to dress it up as, Has the money for a sustained advertising campaign to take on the big boys forget it!
Otherwise it will just mean a few webdevelopers, middle men will profit out of it and then will just be a website a perspective purchaser stumbles across such as Globrix!
inea.co.uk - what a horrid looking website, and by the looks for agents that have given up on trying to forge a proper business plan
1. Agents need instructions.
2. Sellers choose agents who they believe will market their home effectively.
3. At present; sellers believe the major portals are THE places to have their homes effectively advertised.
4. The vast majority of sellers only choose agents who use those portals.
5. Agents who don't use those portals lose instructions.
The portal debate is not about leads, it's about seller perceptions. Sellers wanted their property to be in the local press. Then it was an agents own website, currently it is the major portals. The majority of sellers couldn't give a stuff about a new minor portal or system they've never heard of no matter how good it may actually be
We have just signed with a new website and its actually fantastic, and they charge 20 quid a month. Its not about leads its about running your day to day agency, but the owner has told me its going to add property search as well, it really will be everything you need, and more!
'Jon Middleton'
"You moan about RM & Zoopla fees dispite them being extreamly good value yet when a creditable competative option is presented you still moan."
Firstly, do you know what "creditable" means? Allow me:
'Deserving acknowledgment and praise but not necessarily successful'
Next time - try "credible". Even then you would be incorrect - but not SO incorrect.
Secondly - "With sellers taking their own viewing no wonder the seller I speak to are saying what am I paying and agent to do?"
Taking the above two comments into account, and your previous offerings, your command of basic language skills demote your opinions even further into the minor league than the actual content sinks on its' own.
And DON'T blame a smartphone - it is YOU that inputs the data.
Try reading your MDT before you press 'Submit' in future.
Who knows - you might even realise how ridiculous it is and not bother in the first place...
I have been reading comments in hear for a few months now and guys really amaze me. You moan about RM & Zoopla fees dispite them being extreamly good value yet when a creditable competative option is presented you still moan. What I see is you want one national portal with all properties on it that has the power and credibility of RM yet don't want to pay for it. Then you want to charge a seller your 2% so in my area averaging around £5,000. With sellers taking their own viewing no wonder the seller I speak to are saying what am I paying and agent to do?
Quickbrit - I hear there are more portals to follow.
there's one called Band Wagon
another called Wrong Move that has an interesting slant as it tells buyers where not to buy so it narrows down where they might buy
I hear Volvo might even have a sturdier model to bring more buyers in the winter months
and I predict were see another 52 free to list models that will sort out the whole mess as every body will be buying via twitter and facebook
lastly, I hear Woolworths might be doing an online only model where every agent can place their listings in the bargain bucket featured property section.
hey and MLS wasnt mentioned once (well almost).
Are you all mad?
We had one well run portal (RM) who charge for a service that (mostly) everyone is happy with.
Because of costs, we decide to back Zoopla and pay them a further subscription.
We now want to promote a third (or fourth) provider and further dilute our profits on another paid scheme.
This is laughably silly.
I love it. New start portals - which one should agents put their hard earned funds into, or which main portals to fund to be there and rise their subscriptions Nov/Jan :-)
If some agents are so foolish to not see that the agent up the road can bring you your buyers direct and you and the other agent both make a share then it leaves more money and more properties to access for those agents who do work together.
To get leads from all portals will rise in cost as no doubt a 3rd-4th and 5th portal comes along. I hear Kellogs are soon to bring out a better looking more slim line model with less carbs and calories.
But working together you dont need to pay all portals huge amounts. Working together agents can choose what they do and use what they have to increase coverage and save collectively £huge amounts.
Last agent with the biggest wallet on every now and future portal please turn the lights out :-)
Team agents have owned their portal teamprop.co.uk from the start. It automatically uploads data within minutes of adding it. Why take on yet another portal? Chair - Team Association
@Property Man
Your conclusion feels a little bit sweeping - given your views are obviously thoughtful for the most part... for example...
We totally agree that Rightmove et al represent good value. They are a relatively small proportion of agents total cost lines, compared to other operational costs. And given the proportion of incoming enquiries they now represent they deliver good value for money. The bigger concern is the power they have to continue rising their prices very quickly for the next few years. Businesses with a very strong competitive position always end up extracting a disproportionate economic rent. So be careful what you wish for, the value you note may not always stay the case (and you may not have the choice to walk away, so the trite answer of, "when it doesn't represent value I'll just stop", that's the whole point of that economic condundrum).
It's also true that a cursory glance at Comscore etc. will show that Radar (and a host of other sites) are much smaller. However, you need to factor in that Radar is, for now, incredibly regionally focused in its traffic (Devon, Cornwall the edge of Somerset, Bristol, and Coventry area represent the vast majority of our traffic, even though we now have expanded listings).
If you are operating in Newquay, then the only important metric is the proportion of traffic for searches in Newquay. And here the picture begins to change. (Or even more specifically the relevant comparison is the proportion of leads - as different portals have very different conversion rates and lead qualities - we don't do any multi registration for example).
Then finally, a thinking man, will also have to then draw the comparison to cost. Rightmove deliver a lot more leads, but then they cost 10-15x as much as well. You note the price points of the new Agent Owned portals that are planned. But what isn't drawn out is the fact that the EXISTING Agent Owned portal is already live (about to relaunch platform as we keep saying, and we're very proud of the next generation site that we've built, watch this space). And we're out there trading at a £45 / branch price point.
The right thinking is: What's the cost per lead I get - is it equivalent to what I happily pay on Rightmove? And if so, why would I not want more of it, if I hold your view (which we agree with). Especially when you factor in the next two arguments...
(1) Rightmove is also essentially a tax on doing business. You HAVE to be on Rightmove, as vendors will ask you as an instruction requirement. Whereas not all agents are on the smaller portals, and certainly potential vendors are nowhere near as aware of the relative traffic volumes as you are. So, a site like Radar gives you an instructional advantage if you use it properly. "Yes, madam, we'll advertise you on Rightmove, every agent does, but the interesting thing about our agency is that we will also promote you on some of the more specialist portals like Radar, which not everyone does".
(2) A large part of our value is NOTHING to do with the basic enquiries we sent out. We now offer a range of tools like Mobile websites, SEO links, Social media advice and promotion, all included in our various packages. The value in Radar (which is essentially an online marketing club) is MUCH wider than you are perhaps aware.
I wanted to respond to your direct points. But why not give us a call with an open mind, and we can have the chat in private? You may well be pleasantly surprised I think.
Pete@radarhomes.co.uk
Do you think that Agents have not worked out what Rightmove are up to and Agents Mutual is a reaction to that?
The All stars program , sponsored by Rightmove to train agency go-fors doing the bits that can't be done remotelty was an obvious give away.
Please post some more and let on what else is on the cards. We know most of it and just need you to shout the rest good and loud.
Press the caps lock key and show us you know when to use capital letters.
I very much you are! By mentioning Comscore and Nielsen data and advising Agents to look at them you are almost without doubt working for a worried Rightmove, but more likely Zoopla.
Zoopla are the fragile first target in this battle, the ones with most to lose.
Ed Mead pointed out earlier in the week how genuine enquiries are drying up. As @Peter Rollings pointed out this is an insurance scheme. One hopes one never crashes the car but it is there just in case. No Agent owned portal needs to be as good as the main two for now, it is there as an up and running option so that no Agent feels obliged to pay an increased subscription as lead numbers fall.
I was waiting for a post just like yours, your amateur attempts to discredit those that challenge the Duopoly were expected, and your post shows how threatened you are. I do think agents should look at Radar and see if they can spot something that won’t yet be showing on the historic Nielsen and Comscore stats you are directing them to. I actually agree Agents ought to know what the scores are right now; the expected hockey stick increase in stats will be that much more impressive to watch.
I am sure if you are a property man you were the Agent advocating sticking with newspaper advertising while your competitors took full advantage of the internet.
Shane P
So we should just do as we are told and pay whatever RM or Zoopla tell us too or all of our businesses will be affected?
Sounds like gun to the head diplomacy to me!
I AM REMINDED READING THIS OF THE OLD SAYING - 'BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR''. THE BIG PORTALS DELIVER A GOOD CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE BY HAVING ALL PROPERTIES IN ONE PLACE AND THEY GET VERY LARGE NUMBERS OF CUSTOMERS WHICH DELIVER LOTS OF ENQUIRIES TO US AGENTS. THOSE WHO TRY TO BREAK THIS WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR 2 THINGS:
1) MAKING EXPERIENCE WORSE FOR USERS HAVING TO GO TO MULTIPLE PLACES TO SEARCH FOR PROPERTY AND RESULTING IN LESS BUSINESS
2) DRIVING RM TO LOOK AT ANOTHER TYPE OF BUSINESS MODEL THAT IS DIRECT TO CUSTOMER AND ELIMINATES AGENTS
WORD OF WARNING TO AGENTS MUTUAL AND THE BIG 6 LEADING THIS. IF RM AND OTHERS DECIDE THAT AGENTS ARE SO ANTI THEM THAT THEY NEED TO GO AROUND AGENTS IT WILL BE ON YOUR HEAD THAT THE DEMISE OF THE EXISTING AGENCY MODEL HAPPENS. BE WARNED - YOU ARE GOING TO DRIVE RM AND OTHERS TO REALLY HURT YOUR OWN BUSINESS IT NOT KILL IT ENTIRELY. IS IT REALLY WORTH IT. THINK CAREFULLY!
I don't know about RM and Zoopla/Primelocation having a laugh over this but I certainly am. This must be either a joke or one of the worst thought through business ideas of all time. Like there aren't enough portals that deliver virtually no return already?? Needaproperty, Mouseprice, Radar, etc. It's fine whilst they are free but the second they ask for any money I start laughing. They deliver no value at all. RM and Zoopla charge and they deliver. Anyone who thinks their fees are astronomical should change their line of work - they cost me 5% of my revenues combined and huge value. Time to get over the ridiculous emotional nonsense spouted on here and get on with selling and renting house thanks to the big portals. Why would I pay £300 per month to Agents Mutual or £150 per month to this new portal when they are guaranteeing me nothing in return and history would show that they are unlikely to. I will save my money thanks. Business 101 - if investing in something, I want to know what the return is going to be so why would I invest in either of these? I will stick with what works thanks. Take a look at comscore or nielsen stats on radar or needaproperty (perhaps estateagenttoday could publish these?) to see that they are a total waste of time.
With respect, Propertylive can come off your list of Agents' Portals, that one is a private members site and not available to all.
Without wishing to appear rude I bet you were the last kid in the gang to run away when there was trouble. I really am surprised that you have not recognised that a lot and I mean a lot of momentum is now gathering for non duopoly portals.
Agents are recognising the value of THEIR data, recognising that without property no-one will visit Rightmove or Zoopla, deserted by applicants the advertisers will disappear too. Agents are finally realising that they rather than the portals call the shots.
To continue the aviation analogies; the Zeppelin was a fine and mighty airship but like a Portal filled with volatile agents data it only took one spark to reduce all that was grand into a smouldering heap on the floor. “oooooh the humanity!”
Why not take the MLS posts and be off topic on a different story?
The Scam story doesn't have any posts, go and be fair to Trevor down there.
Trevor is a great bloke, works hard etc but more than a few of us are getting fed up having INEA and MLS rammed down our necks at every tenuous opportunity.
Right now these measles spot postings have my mouse poised over the unsubscribe link for the INEA newsletter. For Trevor’s sake (and you own Trevor) be a bit more discriminate with the tangent postings.
Nethouseprices, RadarHomes, Agents Mutual, PropertyPropertyProperty, PropertyLive, PropertyPlace and Needaproperty! :/
This seems a recipe for disaster.
I bet Zoopla and Rightmove are loving this!
Just a note of encouragement. I am sure all agents must identify with the potential of a MLS model.
With the astronomical cost of the two major traditional portals helping to kill off small independent agents, this model with required funding is what is really needed to promote the tremendous benefits inherent with MLS.
We have no trouble in working with other agents
In fairness to Trevor I recently joined INEA as a member in Medway, within days of becoming a member I have agreed a full asking price offer from a client introduced via another INEA member to whom I had sub instructed my clients property.
In these very competitive times it is vital to offer clients something extra so as to gain the instruction, MLS is just that.
Being able to offer multi listing gives the vendor confidence that their property will be fully marketed without over exposure. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, I sold the property within 3 days of instruction at full asking price and I have a very satisfied seller
Good marketing is as much about when to be quiet as it is about when to shout.
This isn't the story to be pumping MLS.
Trevor and his mate needn't worry, whichever Agent portal forms and suceeds is bound to contain a whole spectrum of Agencies, Independant, Corporate, Team, Guild and INEA the whole lot will be there.
I am sure you have valid opinions but today it would be good to see Ian Springetts replay to the Lamond challenge and which of them has Pete Henderson's obvious desire to talk.
Yes you are missing something. Just like having insurance (at minimal extra cost) on the car that gets you from A to B provides you with a option for repair or replacement in the event of an unforeseen event. Agents owning their own portal gives Agents an insurance against continued and unstoppable price rises and likely erosion of their core business.
It won't be any good agents failing to invest in whichever Agents’ portal triumphs at the end of all this positioning and posturing. Missing the boat again will replicate missing the Rightmove boat 10 years ago.
In regards to this story noble and essential as it is, this story is the last hurrah, the “what about me? “ tale of a project that will probably the hatched fledgling that gets bumped out of the nest.
Far from Rightmove and Zoopla having a chuckle they will be concerned about what could be achieved if the cash and the support of the big six does team up with Radar.
I feel sorry for Catherine. This could probably be a very good site but i doubt in any way it will have the same credibility as Agent Mutual because of the names involved.
She needs to get out there and get some of the big boys to get involved and quick before people pledge their allegiance elsewhere.
Agents Mutual, Nethouse Prices, great ideas in principal 'generating interest'
'gaining momentum'
'committed support'
'investors lined up'
'due to launch soon'
We have 500 agent offices listing on Radarhomes. Members all have a minimum of one share per office. And agents have majority ownership of Radarhomes.
WE ARE OUT THERE NOW - LIVE FUNCTIONING AND SENDING LEADS OUT TO OUR MEMBERS.
If the movers and shakers at Agent Mutual group want to talk to us, let's talk!
If Nick Salmon and the team at Nethouseprices want to talk to us, let's talk!
Our Light membership package is £45 per month per office - sales and lettings!
We have a site re-design in testing which will go live later this month.
I don't like posting a blatant sales pitch to this forum but for this article I feel it is relevant.
So re the last post about rolls royce engin in American Mustangs and being better.
We become members of INEA and in the last 2 weeks we have done 3 lets with other agents and 1 sale.
INEA is great for us weve gone from under 10 listings to over 300 properties in our property search that we can earn from.
Putting an American style MLS search in our website is making more revenue for us than what we get from portals. In fact weve dumped a main portal and pleased weve joined INEA.
Were now working with other agents and its great :-)
Trevor, turn it in will ya!
Its getting boring
Technically this would be a third Agents' portal not a second and at much higher cost than the one that already has over 500 shareholders members, is already live and already taking data from the software houses.
By drawing a line in the sand and therefore staking a claim, making a direct challenge to Agents Mutual and ignoring the existence, technology and membership of Radar Homes hasn't Catherine Lamond inadvertently directed a coalition or Joint venture between Agents mutual and Radar homes to be formed?
In an attempt to win favour for Nethouseprices Catherine Lamond has highlighted all the perceived objections to Agents Mutual, all of which can instantly and immediately be overcome if Agents Mutual team up with Radarhomes and Homeflow.
No-one can deny the superior quality of the latest Homeflow engine that is powering Radar Homes. As the Americans discovered when they put the Rolls Royce Merlin in the P51 Mustang airframe, a superior long range fighter plane was born, one that could go deeper and longer than any other fighter. Catherine Lamond should be fearful that Agents Mutual and Radar Homes don’t form an Alliance against her on her somewhat misguided and, I am sure, unintentional advice.
AGENTS 100% OWNED MINI LOCAL PORTALS
In many areas RM and zippy dont have all agents content. Imagine local agents having more local properties on their website than big portals via collaboration.
Greater content in agents sites would destroy portals stronghold and rogue agents could be excluded or blocked.
Agents would then become the next breed of portal outlet and simply pay each other lead fees for intros. Afterall other agents sellers often lead to being another agents buyer. Why have middle portals when agents could cut portals out.
The technology is here in the UK. Our feed structure is next generation as it takes data up as any portal but also returns property data from other agents tbat can populate your website with mass more listings.
We'd even let 10% of INEA go into agent ownership
tmealham@inea.co.uk
Rightmove and Zoopla must be having a right chuckle this morning. We need one agent owned portal not 3 or 4.
£150 will not generate enough advertising spend to compete and nor will the initial £250 investment.
The only viable option on the table appears to be agents mutual for me, the rest are just pi88ing in the wind!
The situation is laughable. Portals run on the rightmove data feed structure which in design has flaws restraining what can be done with the property data.
Change the data feed structure and the way data is thrown about can be put to agents better advantage.
We bring in data from around 50+ SOFTWARES. 30 isnt enough.
A 1000 agents at £150 would be more than adequate and seems steep from charging nothing. We at INEA charge agents £50-£100 pcm and can offer a different solution. There is a better way. Portals only take data. In the last two weeks we have created a platform where agents can turn their own website into a mni portal containing other agents data that tbey can earn intro fees from
So agents we can help turn your website into your own portalwith extra property content. Who wants 2000 listings to start with.
WHY HAVE A AGENT OWNED PORTAL WHEN AGENTS CAN 100% OWN THEIR OWN PORTAL
So many new portals! Does anybody ever consider what the consumers want? One place to search for properties ie One portal! It's already getting busy with Zoopla entering the race!
I must be missing something here. This is just an EXTRA cost as surely no agent will come off RM or Zoopla for this??
so already the judean people's front have some compeition. RM and Z must be having a light giggle this morning.
will agents really commit to paying a portal that currently has insignificant web traffic to make this work?
1000 agents at £150 per month is still not enough...not even close i'm afraid. £150 000 per month gets you a couple of ads on london tele...
that said, good luck..
now this one could be interesting but £150 a bit steep at first with no real track record, the pencil needs to be sharpened.