Rocky Mirza

[martin-s]

So, who knows anything about Rocky Mirza...?

Someone in my industry is clearly a bit confused about how long it takes to overhaul an industry incumbent (or Rocky Mirza is some sort of Bill Gates level genius).

http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/i...agents-change-is-coming-sooner-than-you-think

 

[DaveP]

Never heard of this Ricky Mirza guy but from the comments.. estate agents moaning about having to pay fees. Hahaha.

 

[BeachLife]

From the link:

the real magic will come in the way this new site will be able to generate traffic. If what I have been shown is true, it will literally be ahead of Rightmove and Zoopla within three months, no that's not a typo and almost immediately, Houser will be the must-have, go-to site for property for all of our clients.

So who believes him?

 

[martin-s]

So who believes him?

Few better informed folk will, but the trouble is that most estate agents are only minimally tech-savvy. The guy who wrote this is just an agent himself, but he writes as if he's an authority on tech.

EAT shouldn't have allowed it to be published to be honest, or not without a solid disclaimer.

 

[signature]

A lot of portal have tried to kick Rightmove off the top, none have succeed, the main issue is not rightmove, the main issue is the industry don't like to change, I know agents that won't even listen to anything else or use any other portal but Rightmove.

The agent mutual will struggle, it's not offering anything but a advert platform, Rightmove offer a lot more because they have historical data. Agent mutual is trying to lock members down so that they cant live for a year after they join.

This did affect there recruitment, if it does not make any different and agents still have to place properties on Rightmove and Zoopla and still pay agent mutuals, agents will start to live after there lock in period.

The first mistake of Houser is to start his competetion with agent mutual which at the moment is not a real alternative to Rightmove or Zoopla.

 

[martin-s]

Everyone has access to historical data, but you're right that 101 portals have tried to knock RM off the top.

We probably get 2-3 emails from new portals each month asking for data feeds and giving it the big "I am."

Our response is always "tell us about the number of enquiries you generate."

 

[bensd]

I think agent mutual has the best chance I've seen in a long time to take market share.

Whether they'll take number 1 spot (5 year goal) I'm not sure.

 

[martin-s]

A few years ago, everyone doubted Zoopla. It has taken them double digit millions of investment to get to the stage they're at now (though they'd probably have made it without merging with the Daily Mail stable anyway).

Agents Mutual might be a viable 4th place behind Primelocation (a branded version of Zoopla), but they've made so many bad decisions about their monetisation, that it's difficult to see them doing much better than that.

The equivalent NAEA portal, propertylive.co.uk never took off at all. And that had 7 figures of investment I believe.

Now agents are caught making a decision that will put their clients in a worse off position by dropping (probably) Zoopla, a site that generates similar numbers of buyer and tenant enquiries to Rightmove - in favour of one that won't generate (m)any at all.

Part of the business plan is to protect agents against online estate agency. I'm not sure that history is very kind to industries that tried to protect themselves once the horse had already bolted!

 

[bensd]

Agents Mutual might be a viable 4th place behind Primelocation (a branded version of Zoopla), but they've made so many bad decisions about their monetisation, that it's difficult to see them doing much better than that.

Now agents are caught making a decision that will put their clients in a worse off position by dropping (probably) Zoopla, a site that generates similar numbers of buyer and tenant enquiries to Rightmove - in favour of one that won't generate (m)any at all.

This is why they are already likely to get to #2...

 

[martin-s]

Most agents I speak to aren't going to join AM. They value Zoopla too highly.

Although AM claims that 5,000 agents have agreed to list with them, most of those have only signed a letter of intent.

I doubt anywhere near that number will actually dump one of the majors and actively list. And as we know with .uk, if take-up is slow, it might never happen at all

 

[bensd]

Most agents I speak to aren't going to join AM. They value Zoopla too highly.

Although AM claims that 5,000 agents have agreed to list with them, most of those have only signed a letter of intent.

I doubt anywhere near that number will actually dump one of the majors and actively list. And as we know with .uk, if take-up is slow, it might never happen at all

It will be interesting to see what happens. 4/5 agents in my town (I don't know about the 5th) are joining.