OnTheMarket agents slash marketing times to below industry average

| Rosalind Renshaw

OnTheMarket agents are beating their competitors in terms of marketing times, it has been claimed.

Search engine Home says that OTM members “have recorded dramatic reductions in the time their client’s properties are advertised for sale”.

It said that on January 1, before the new site launched, OTM agents were taking 224 days to market properties, 4% longer than their peers who were at that point taking around 216 days.

However, from February 1, OTM members have consistently recorded average marketing times lower than those not using the portal.

By March 19, Home says the difference was pronounced: the time on the market of OTM agents’ properties had fallen to 195 days, compared with the non-members’ average time of 202 days,.

The performance of OTM agents has, says Home, brought down the overall industry average to 196 days – and OTM agents are scoring marketing times of a day less than this. a

Home identified OTM member agents by looking at properties advertised on Rightmove, Zoopla and OTM on March 19, and tracking these firms back to the start of the year.

Home says its latest research suggests that the move made by the “vast majority of OTM members” who are using Rightmove as their ‘one other portal’ is working to their advantage.

Home’s statistics say that Rightmove agents take 74 days less to market a property than non-Rightmove agents. While Rightmove covers about 84% of agents in the UK, Home says there are 2,352 non-Rightmove agents – a “sufficiently significant sample size”.

Home director Doug Shephard said: “Our data analysis indicates that OTM agents made the right choice for their respective businesses.

“OTM agents are looking like the UK’s ‘go-getters’ in the estate agency arena and their drive and ambition is paying off.

“In terms of marketing times, vendors should not be concerned about using an agent that has switched to OTM. In fact, they are now slightly better than the rest on this basis.”

Last night, OTM chief executive Ian Springett said: “Our detractors have been bombarding the market with suggestions that joining OnTheMarket.com would be damaging to the commercial health of its member agents.

“This report would seem to suggest that, on the contrary, it has positively boosted business for agents who joined OnTheMarket.com and dropped whichever other portal had been less effective for them.”

Home’s figures contrast with Rightmove’s latest data which put the “average time to sell” at 79 days per estate agency branch in February. However, Home points out that marketing time is not the same as selling time, with many properties still listed as under offer or sold subject to contract after a sale has been agreed.

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19 Comments

  1. Paul H
    March 31, 2015 at 07:41

    As an OTM agent you can now say on a val that by advertising with an agent OTM agent you have statistically a better chance of a better/quicker outcome.

    Could it be said that your now doing the client a dis service and dis advantaging them by not being OTM.

    Time to amend those mailers I think.

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  2. ukpropmaster
    March 31, 2015 at 07:47

    While I don’t doubt the veracity of the data, this isn’t exactly groundbreaking, and can easily be summed up to CORRELATION not CAUSATION.  I.e. Savills and Knight Frank sell houses faster than Countrywide–a claim I doubt many here would be very surprised by.  The fact they happen to be on OTM isn’t the REASON they sell homes quicker…as without the data before they went to OTM there is no way to know if the difference in selling times is now wider or perhaps narrower than before.

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    1. RealAgent
      March 31, 2015 at 07:53

      Savills and Knight Frank sell a £10m house faster than Countrywide sell a 3 bed semi? – interesting viewpoint.

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      1. Disillusioned
        March 31, 2015 at 08:28

        If you cast your mind back to January, Savills and Knight Frank issued statements that left me in no doubt, that they were first and foremost Rightmove Agents.

        Not just OTM, but Z and no doubt R to come, are spouting that much tosh at the moment and some actually believe it all. The bottom line is a good agent will sell a property in a shorter time and at a greater value than a poor agent, irrelevant of whatever combination of  OTM, Z or R they are,

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  3. Jonnie
    March 31, 2015 at 07:55

    Now, don’t get me wrong I like this bit of news as it suits me a lot but  I’ve been quite vocal on here about agents (and the budget monkeys) that use the portals as a primary reason why customers should choose them being snivelling cretins with no real offering of their own so I can’t really get my lot here pitching the above stats to our customers………..but we probably will if the portal issue comes up, be good to see if / how the Zoopla chaps try to p133 on OTMs fireworks with this one – Jonnie

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    1. RealAgent
      March 31, 2015 at 08:25

      I tend to agree with you but it’s nice to have a report supporting  OTM for a change.

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  4. jmeapps01
    March 31, 2015 at 08:39

    I wonder if its because the site is only a nanosecond old and therefore it hasn’t had time to build up data. No it must be because OTM is just so much better and is getting many more buyers than RM and ZPL!!!!

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  5. Mark Reynolds
    March 31, 2015 at 08:48

    “The performance of OTM agents has, says Home, brought down the overall industry average to 196 days – and OTM agents are scoring marketing times of a day less than this”

    Am I reading this right? According to PIE OTM launched on the 26th January this year so how can it be achieving 195 days? 🙂

    Maybe I need more tea to wake me up 🙂

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  6. El Burro
    March 31, 2015 at 09:18

    I think it tells us what we already know, independents are better than corporates. It was difficult to establish that before when Rightmove and Zoopla had everyone but now there’s a portal in OTM that is so independent led it shows.

    I suspect that figure will continue to improve as more independents move over to OTM when their existing portal deals expire.

    Nobody trying to outdo everyone else with premium listings, featured agent and other pay through the nose costs . . . come on in, the water’s lovely!

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    1. PeeBee
      March 31, 2015 at 10:36

      “I think it tells us what we already know, independents are better than corporates.”

      The “WE” in this case being ‘independent’ Agents like yourself, El Burro!

      I speak as I find.  In my opinion you have omitted a word from your statement – not once, but twice.  Allow me to correct –

      “SOME independents are better than SOME corporates.”

      I have found over the years that SOME independents are run more like a corporate than SOME of their ‘real’ corporate counterparts.

      There are good, not so good, and downright awful, people working in ALL sectors of our industry, El Burro – you have to admit that.

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      1. Woodentop
        March 31, 2015 at 11:20

        I agree PeeBee I’ve seen some pretty ugly independents in my time, however I have seem it more common in corporates (from the inside). Where this story seem to be leading is that those that have jumped onto OTM are those that are positive and know how run a business, me thinks.

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  7. wilko
    March 31, 2015 at 10:01

    Hang on a minute……..I thought that putting a sellers property on OTM wasn’t in their interest?

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  8. Robert May
    March 31, 2015 at 10:13

    If you are sharing a platform with agents that are paid more the longer a property sits on the market with no real motivation to get it shifted and who have no mechanics to sell property other than “it is on the internet what more do you need?” isn’t it obvious the  time on market will be longer for non OTM agents?  Passive intermediaries, bedroom billy agents  and salaried FS  assisted  agents are going to take longer to sell property (if at all) than Agents who don’t eat if they don’t sell?

    The gap would probably be wider if the  AM  Agents didn’t form a  crossover section  venn diagram; the duplication of their improved performance must also be improving the stats for the  second chosen platform.

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  9. 1stTimeBuyer
    March 31, 2015 at 12:53

    What a load of rubbish.  So, please tell us all.  How this data is made up, details please?

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    1. Jonnie
      March 31, 2015 at 15:18

      Okay, ill have a pop at helping on this 1stTimeBuyer, have you ever had a look at http://www.home.co.uk ? – if not have a gander and you will see they do some IT thing that would send me to sleep if anyone tried to explain it that has a good old look at listings on the main portals and tells anyone that can fagged to look (clearly excluding you on this) what agents are doing in terms of stock and time on the market, you are a clever bod, im sure that you will suss  how its done / get the details you’ve asked for and we will then let you un-say the ‘load of rubbish thing’ – Jonnie

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      1. Robert May
        March 31, 2015 at 16:07

        You’ll be lucky Jonnie;  there is a whole generation of entitled souls who care little  for please and thank you and even less for sorry! As for being wrong you are more likely to find it is your fault for failing to ensure they had a decent education.

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  10. Paul H
    March 31, 2015 at 17:04

    This week’s flying by it’s hitwise Wednesday tomorrow already!

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  11. jmeapps01
    April 1, 2015 at 19:10

    Surely this should have been reported today not yesterday!!!

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  12. livingproperty
    April 4, 2015 at 11:18

    LOL! Seriously? Surely this is because the properties on OTM are seen as “new” on that portal, yet on RM or Z they’ve probably been sitting there for 4 months waiting for something to happen. Until OTM has been running for a good year, and people aren’t throwing on property that has ALREADY been marketed on another portal (and potentially has already had unconfirmed offers before being put on OTM) then I’m not listening.

    Oh, and has anyone been noticing the “refreshed” properties on all the portals? Things are selling, so agents are pulling them off and putting them on a fresh listings. Of course listing time is going to go down if that happens. BUT, as an agent, you can see on the back-end which agents do it – it’s quite an eye opener!

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