Are Rightmove/Zoopla about to go out of business??
Discussion
Mark Benson said:
I think it's more a move by the traditional agents to recoup market share lost to the 'sell your own' online agents who are slowly showing people that selling your house is not a complicated affair and that agents get paid a lot of money for all too often very little work.
..
We sold our house nearly 5 years ago using "house network" for the grand sum of £500...
It sold within 2 weeks and was an absolute doddle.
For someone selling a normal, average priced house you've got to be mad to part with several thousand for employing a physical agent.
Out in-laws just had their very tidy 3 bed semi valued at £130,000. We are strongly suggestnig they use the same outfit we did rather than pay 3-4x as much with the local agent.
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Given that the DM and Zoopla often both show totally ridiculous values for properties they would be a better fit surely 
I was looking at a property yesterday - Zoopla says it's worth £253k, sales memo on the desk says sale agreed at £415k with original marketing price of a fiver short of £400k
Mark Benson said:
There are good agents, I know one or two personally that I think do a fantastic job. But there are far, far too many taking a relatively large amount of money for some measurements, poor photos and a few perfunctory sentences. People are realising they they could do just as good a job themselves for a couple of hundred quid.
Where I am right now I would say that without checking every file in my room right now about 20% were sold without even the particulars being prepared.Some agents also charge extra for listing on RM and for photos. A countrywide affiliated agents office has recently quoted £358 for these. This is no top of their usual fee.
Some agents are worth it, some are not. As ever the trick is to spot the ones who are good and worth it and shy away from the coat tail riders.
Rude-boy said:
Given that the DM and Zoopla often both show totally ridiculous values for properties they would be a better fit surely
I was looking at a property yesterday - Zoopla says it's worth £253k, sales memo on the desk says sale agreed at £415k with original marketing price of a fiver short of £400k
Which reminds me I wonder what happened to the flat in Chesterfield which the PHer was trying to suggest was worth £1 mill. Strangely was valued at that on Zoopla as well.I was looking at a property yesterday - Zoopla says it's worth £253k, sales memo on the desk says sale agreed at £415k with original marketing price of a fiver short of £400k
We were struggling to get interest in our place, advertised after speaking to 4 estate agents and taking an average value, at £369k.
After 4 months with little interest, thought to check the value that Zoopla were saying it was worth - which turned out to be £240k. Well, FFS I was gobsmacked.
Wrote Zoopla an email stating that it had been valued by 4 estate agents with a range of £350k to £420k. Zoopla changed their estimate to £379k on their valuation site, and the house sold shortly thereafter at an agreeable price.
Utter, utter bunch of c.....s
After 4 months with little interest, thought to check the value that Zoopla were saying it was worth - which turned out to be £240k. Well, FFS I was gobsmacked.
Wrote Zoopla an email stating that it had been valued by 4 estate agents with a range of £350k to £420k. Zoopla changed their estimate to £379k on their valuation site, and the house sold shortly thereafter at an agreeable price.
Utter, utter bunch of c.....s
Chrisgr31 said:
dave_s13 said:
Out in-laws just had their very tidy 3 bed semi valued at £130,000.
As a matter of interest who did the valuation and how much did they charge?To be fair, the shiney suited pricks would do well to factor in a proportion of house valuation tourism into their over inflated fee structure.
Personally, I would have looked on rightmove/zoopla and gauged it from there (what I did when I sold mine) but the in-laws are a bit more old school. They may yet use a physical agent as they still throw rocks at the moon on occasion.
dave_s13 said:
Personally, I would have looked on rightmove/zoopla and gauged it from there (what I did when I sold mine) but the in-laws are a bit more old school. They may yet use a physical agent as they still throw rocks at the moon on occasion.
The point I think that I would make on that would be in my posts above. The property I am talking about was bought at the height of the last boom, just before the Brownturn and global economic f
kup. It was also totally wrecked inside and required a full refit of the kitchens, bathrooms, etc. and the garden bringing back from nature... The buyers also bought it at a further discount thanks for the SDLT threshold at the time and separating sellers.Zoopla works on the price last known to be paid and then works it from there on what it thinks it should be worth now. This is fine for 3 year old 34 Wingman Way on a nice boggo development of 285 'executive 3, 4 and 5 bed houses', but if it is anything out of the norm it is as much use as my cock at valuations. The property above would have gone for £300k at the time my clients bought it if it had been in reasonable order at that time.
Rude-boy said:
The point I think that I would make on that would be in my posts above. The property I am talking about was bought at the height of the last boom, just before the Brownturn and global economic fkup. It was also totally wrecked inside and required a full refit of the kitchens, bathrooms, etc. and the garden bringing back from nature... The buyers also bought it at a further discount thanks for the SDLT threshold at the time and separating sellers.
Zoopla works on the price last known to be paid and then works it from there on what it thinks it should be worth now. This is fine for 3 year old 34 Wingman Way on a nice boggo development of 285 'executive 3, 4 and 5 bed houses', but if it is anything out of the norm it is as much use as my cock at valuations. The property above would have gone for £300k at the time my clients bought it if it had been in reasonable order at that time.
Can't disagree with that. Onthemarket doesn't give price estimates as they are close to meaningless. A property sells for what the market is prepared to pay at that very moment in time. kup. It was also totally wrecked inside and required a full refit of the kitchens, bathrooms, etc. and the garden bringing back from nature... The buyers also bought it at a further discount thanks for the SDLT threshold at the time and separating sellers.Zoopla works on the price last known to be paid and then works it from there on what it thinks it should be worth now. This is fine for 3 year old 34 Wingman Way on a nice boggo development of 285 'executive 3, 4 and 5 bed houses', but if it is anything out of the norm it is as much use as my cock at valuations. The property above would have gone for £300k at the time my clients bought it if it had been in reasonable order at that time.
Rude-boy said:
dave_s13 said:
Personally, I would have looked on rightmove/zoopla and gauged it from there (what I did when I sold mine) but the in-laws are a bit more old school. They may yet use a physical agent as they still throw rocks at the moon on occasion.
The point I think that I would make on that would be in my posts above. The property I am talking about was bought at the height of the last boom, just before the Brownturn and global economic fkup. It was also totally wrecked inside and required a full refit of the kitchens, bathrooms, etc. and the garden bringing back from nature... The buyers also bought it at a further discount thanks for the SDLT threshold at the time and separating sellers.Zoopla works on the price last known to be paid and then works it from there on what it thinks it should be worth now. This is fine for 3 year old 34 Wingman Way on a nice boggo development of 285 'executive 3, 4 and 5 bed houses', but if it is anything out of the norm it is as much use as my cock at valuations. The property above would have gone for £300k at the time my clients bought it if it had been in reasonable order at that time.
What are we arguing about again???
Had a few agents around to offer valuation with view to selling, one of the biggies went through the pitch and then when I asked the immortal question the reply was 2%. O.K so how much sole agency discount is on offer I ask, none that's our fee, came the reply.>>>>>>>>>>>>> Exit door is this way.
In our town we have over 30 estate agents touting for business, and this clown thinks 2% will seal a deal, that's not stupid it's an insult.
In our town we have over 30 estate agents touting for business, and this clown thinks 2% will seal a deal, that's not stupid it's an insult.
This, if anything, will only strengthen Rightmove and will be to the detriment of Zoopla (which only appears to do particularly well against Rightmove in the south east). This will therefore make Rightmove a complete must-have as the signed-up agents can only have one subscription to either, and will likely chose Rightmove over Zoopla actually undermining what OnTheMarket was set-up to achieve. It all boils down to fees Estate Agents Pay (who will still charge the same marketing charges to customers regardless) and high street agents trying in some way to hold back the impending online estate agent tide that will inevitably destroy the vast amount of ridiculously poor agents out there.
A few things -
1) The agents who are "on the market" do pay to be on the market. To become a founder member there was a significant financial contribution made + listing fees.
2) There is nothing that says you have to advertise on OTM for 48 hours before Rightmove/Zoopla - some agents have said they will voluntarily do this to try and make OTM the must go to portal for eager house hunters. The only contractual stipulation is you have to come off RM or Zoopla. Very few agents I know came off RM.
3) The idea originally came because the fees to list on Rightmove and Zoopla have been going up 10-20% year on year and a lot of agents feel that they are abusing their position within the market. Not just that, but a lot of agents are frustrated at the way the websites (Rightmove/Zoopla) collect data and market other services to applicants who only visit the sites because of the agents stock displayed. I think it depends who you work for but some would say it is the agents who keep RM/Z in business, not the other way round.
4) I think the concept was being discussed long before the growth of online agents accelerated. But, it does help agents that only physical offices can list homes.
FWIW I can't see OTM working. They have some heavyweights behind them but they are really going to struggle to compete against the already established brands of RM and Zoopla who spend a small fortune to stay where they are.
To answer the original question, I can see Rightmove rubbing their hands together as their position as the number one portal has never been so safe. I can see Zoopla either reducing fees substantially to tempt the OTM agents back, or diversifying and allowing private listings in addition to online agent listings.
I don't see either going out of business.
The debate about agents fees and their necessity in the market place? Well, I haven't got all day to bat that back and forth.
1) The agents who are "on the market" do pay to be on the market. To become a founder member there was a significant financial contribution made + listing fees.
2) There is nothing that says you have to advertise on OTM for 48 hours before Rightmove/Zoopla - some agents have said they will voluntarily do this to try and make OTM the must go to portal for eager house hunters. The only contractual stipulation is you have to come off RM or Zoopla. Very few agents I know came off RM.
3) The idea originally came because the fees to list on Rightmove and Zoopla have been going up 10-20% year on year and a lot of agents feel that they are abusing their position within the market. Not just that, but a lot of agents are frustrated at the way the websites (Rightmove/Zoopla) collect data and market other services to applicants who only visit the sites because of the agents stock displayed. I think it depends who you work for but some would say it is the agents who keep RM/Z in business, not the other way round.
4) I think the concept was being discussed long before the growth of online agents accelerated. But, it does help agents that only physical offices can list homes.
FWIW I can't see OTM working. They have some heavyweights behind them but they are really going to struggle to compete against the already established brands of RM and Zoopla who spend a small fortune to stay where they are.
To answer the original question, I can see Rightmove rubbing their hands together as their position as the number one portal has never been so safe. I can see Zoopla either reducing fees substantially to tempt the OTM agents back, or diversifying and allowing private listings in addition to online agent listings.
I don't see either going out of business.
The debate about agents fees and their necessity in the market place? Well, I haven't got all day to bat that back and forth.
FrankAbagnale said:
2) There is nothing that says you have to advertise on OTM for 48 hours before Rightmove/Zoopla - some agents have said they will voluntarily do this to try and make OTM the must go to portal for eager house hunters. The only contractual stipulation is you have to come off RM or Zoopla. Very few agents I know came off RM.
From the brief look I have had at OTM, I agree that the agents who have signed up to it are using that and Rightmove so the loser in this will be Zoopla unless they decide to do something radical.Edited by KTF on Tuesday 27th January 17:02
KTF said:
From the brief look I have had at OTM, I agree that the agents who have singed up to it are using that and Rightmove so the loser in this will be Zoopla unless they decide to do something radical.
Yes, an animal is most dangerous when it's wounded. I'll be interested to see how Zoopla react.I was very surprised to see agents with a strong "London connection" dropping Zoopla/Primelocation in favour of Rightmove. Damaging their London offices to protect their home county offices.
FrankAbagnale said:
I can see Zoopla either reducing fees substantially to tempt the OTM agents back, or diversifying and allowing private listings in addition to online agent listings.
I think that's where Zoopla will go if they have any sense - list your own. For all the good and bad it entails.They already have the tools (sold prices, estimates etc.) for punters to use to set a price, even if they're not accurate - I could see it like the Autotrader of the housing market.
That, more than anything would hurt the establishment.
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