OnTheMarket now has over 12,000 branches listing, the portal said this morning – and is aggressively looking to recruit more, by way of shares incentives.
The new membership figure represents an increase of over 6,500 branches since OTM listed on the AIM market this February.
OTM said that the figure includes 60 branches largely made up of smaller firms, which are now said to have entered full-listing agreements in exchange for shares in the portal – but they must commit to listing their properties for five years.
OTM said: “These firms will receive new shares in OTM alongside the listing commitments they have made.
“The shares are subject to five-year lock-in arrangements to ensure that new shareholders’ interests are closely aligned with those of all other agent investors.
“The listing agreements result from a limited pilot which has helped to refine the offers which will be made to agents currently on free trials which expire during the course of next year.
“The growth in OnTheMarket’s agency branch base to date has been almost exclusively from offering free listings under short-term introductory trial offers, with a view to converting these to full tariff contracts when the value of its offering has been demonstrated.
“The sales team is continuing to see encouragingly high levels of agent support and conversion to signed contracts when it presents the opportunity of listing on an agent-backed portal.”
The statement also quotes CEO Ian Springett as saying: “We have significantly ramped up our marketing activity.
“In combination with our growing agent base and property stock, this has generated increasingly strong performance in terms of visitor traffic and the volume of high-quality leads we are providing to agents.
“Our progress to date and the clear support for an agent-backed portal give us confidence that we can continue to build on this strong start and develop a genuine alternative market-leading agent-backed portal.
“At Admission [to the stock market in February], over 2,000 agent firms owned around 70% of the company.
“The group intends to broaden agent ownership much further, using more equity incentivisation to encourage agents to join as shareholders in return for committing to long-term contracts.”
Don’t know why they start doing these share dish outs.
Just set a sensible figure for Monthly charges and give stability for agents costs.
OTM should set a figure of £250 p/m which will bring in about £36 million for running the business.
They should NOT lock people in. Max 12 month lock ins.
OTM need to keep prices as low as possible for another 12-18 months in order to get more leavers from Rightmove due to their price hikes.
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Message to OTM reps who read this board….sort out LIVE data feeds now and you will quieten your detractors and serve your membership properly! Capiche
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CAUTION – BUYER BEWARE! As an OTM Day 1 “Gold” Member who loaned (along with many others) Agents Mutual/OTM funds for the Original OTM V1 my company agreed to a 5 Year Lock-in …….and that was absolute good faith & trust on our part in the aims/intentions of Ian Springett’s OTM V1.
We subsequently voted “NO” to the OTM AIM Flotation ……however we lost along with other agents who also Voted No.
The “Sentence” received for that V1 Loyalty, despite wanting to exit and bid OTM farewell is this…… my Company is still forcibly shackled to OTM V2 until early 2020, despite wanting to leave. That is over £7000 that we have to pay, despite wanting to leave and still locked-in to the One Other Portal Rule.
That’s what our good faith & trust in OTM V1 delivered for my Company. Fingers financially burned? ……absolutely!
So, as much as I wish OTM well in some respects, just keep in mind the financial commitment that you may enter into. The fact that our Loan Funds were then forcibly converted into Shares and despite the £5 a share hype, we see these shares around £1.10! OTM V2 is a different Company however any commitment should have been limited to 12 Month Contracts.
Bitter?! ……No. Bitterly disappointed in how our good faith & trust was rewarded? Absolutely!
BUYER BEWARE!
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Echo that!
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That, that, that!
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It must stick in the craw to be treated like that ,.Handcuffs on whilst new members encouraged to join with freebies ,Huge mistake by Springett alienating the loyalists
Would you reconsider your position if he resigned or would that be too little-too late ?
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Hillofwad71….
There are a number of changes which would make OTM more attractive.
Ian Springett’s Head Shackled in the Stocks although appealing would resolve very little although it’s fair to say he has demonstrated a consistent disregard for estate agents.
In reality we appear to be a means to an end for him, nothing more.
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GPL,
I am also one of the original members of V1 and also voted NO to the flotation.
Despite the vote not going my way, I still review the leads generated by the portals daily to my firm. Regardless of how much it costs – it comes down to value for money. I know I am paying for leads and there are many agents out there that do not and that does upset me, but only a little. This is due in part to the fact that both Z & OTM generate me more leads that RM do and seemly are better quality, thus better value for money by a long way !
When I first joined OTM, all of the original members knew that it was a risk by this investment. I am now, for the first time, seeing members able to apply pressure on RM which was one of the reasons for me putting my original investment into OTM and I am sure that this was one of the reasons you did.
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SJEA….
The risk was that OTM V1 went pear-shaped and we lost money! I was absolutely fine with that.
However, I’m paying for something I don’t want to be part of!
Just imagine I sold a client’s home, invoiced them my fee, then received payment ……then kept charging them for another 2 and a half Years?
It’s a T*rd covered stick and I’m being forced to hold onto it and pay for it every month!
Ian Springett doesn’t have the courage nor humility to put his hands up and say he/they mistreated their V1 Members…..
Don’t get me started, it’s Christmas after all 🙂
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Shame they still won’t let willing subscribers onboard due to their ridiculously inflexible attitude towards what constitutes a “regular” estate agent! Apparently a 7 year track record and 4 staff is no matter if the building you own and operate from is not “a commercial premises”… I look forward to their next call, but i’m not holding my breath…
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Not to be trusted at all.
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Ian Springetts bank balance 1 – Everyone else 0
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Winds me up this. Not a cat in hell’s chance! I saw IS on an advert the other day as “the nasty parsnip in grandmother’s nightie”
DO NOT TRUST
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Customers who don’t pay a fee are not customers
They are along for the ride
The end
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We firmly believe the success of OTM will drive down the overall cost to UK based Estate Agents. Nevertheless, there is still some way to go. OTM currently produce circa 25% of our portal leads. The quality of these are high, and our conversion rate is consequently excellent. We have opened 5 ‘cold start’ branches since January, so we are watching very closely the strengths and weaknesses of every pound of the Acorn Group’s marketing spend. Robert Sargent CEO The Acorn Group
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Are you on a free trial Robert?
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No. A happy “gold member”. No jokes.
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Tempting, but no jokes.
The share price must be a concern. However, it will improve if they can keep their free listers long enough.
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Robert, I would also love to know what share inducement you received in order to “subscribe” to OTM
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I’m also a gold member. The inducement was in fact tens of thousands of pounds – in long term savings once RM & Hoopla lose their duopoly.
The other small story today is about us leaving something in Europe. One of the many reasons people voted to leave (quite wrongly) was they wanted to get control back. That however is a very good reason to move to OTM. Liking or disliking Ian Springett is not the issue. If he leads OTM past Hoopla and onto RM then he will be considered a success. If not, we will have lost our investment and he will be seen as …….
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NewsBoy….
Frankly, whether one likes or dislikes Ian Springett is irrelevant – I certainly don’t care either way.
OTM hasn’t demonstrated that they have any intention of replacing Rightmove. IS commented to me many moons ago that the strategy was to pressure/control Rightmove. They merely play out being an “alternative” option? So, not 1 or 2 ….. but 3 Main Portals?!!
Is that what Our Industry needs. I certainly don’t!
I want a portal that serves Our Industry ….clearly all the portals to date serve their Shareholders, including OTM V2.
The thing is ….the income stream flowing into Rightmove from paying estate agents could finance an Industry Portal.
OTM V1 promised a New Agents Portal and then self- destructed with the promise of the All New V2.
…….time will tell if it is yet another portal pipe dream serving the dreams of its masters, rather than its footsoldiers
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It will be interesting to read the article next year that headlines ‘OTM members reduced from 12,000 to 2,000 as free trial period ends’. Shafting the very people that supported them in stage 1. Classy.
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Ahhhh yes the infamous £5.00 shares that are as we speak worth £1.06 – Selling your souls cheap.
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I honestly thought my shares in OTM would come in handy one day…the price hardly ever moves and when it does its down.
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As GPL and NotAdoctor32 mention above OTM have a captive audience in a way….with all early supporters tied to them for the 5 years up to early 2020. The flotation was a last minute communications disaster with Ian Springett/OTM losing so much credibility as a result. Being strong armed into something doesnt leave a good taste in your mouth. Personally most of the goodwill evaporated at that point.
Despite that most agents desperately want them to succeed. 2019 will be massive for them and it will be interesting to see if Ian Springett gets out on his roadshows early this time.
If I was Rightmove Id be holding off any major price increases for agent this time next year in anticipation of what will happen. No point in RM doing IS motivational team talk for him….
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For all you RM & Z Re-Moaners, if OTM disappeared, it wouldn’t be long after RM and Z would increased their fees to a ridiculous amount and put many of you out of business. You really should thank the investors and gold members of OTM, because with out them where would you be now!
Merry Christmas everyone here’s wishing you all a prosperous new year. ***
HIT MAN
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In terms of leads, OTM is getting better and better. With Lettings we get more leads from OTM than RM. With Sales enquiries, RM is still ahead but OTM has closed the gap significantly in the last 6 months.
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SHARE PRICE IS DOWN TO £1.00
TIME TO BUY?
(This is a question not advice)
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don’t fall for it J1, it’s only agents using the site! everyone else uses Rightmove
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IS has always been keen in locking you into a deal, when PrimeLocation was sold, you only got the payout if you signed up for a further three years, in other words, gives in with one hand and takes it with the other. A five-year lock-in would be a disaster, it like signing up to a 25-year commercial lease. As soon as you have signed up, IS will ‘sell’ the business on the back of your guarantees. Before you can this cannot happen, I thought when this whole thing was getting off the ground it was going to be a mutual company – how long did that last?
IS needs to go back to Card Fame and get on with making his fortune elsewhere.
We have had a free trial we have had a few enquiries but if anyone is foolish enough to think this will give Zoopla or Rightmove any sleepless nights they are in cloud cuckoo land. As soon as the free period ends we are off.
PrimeLocation should never have been sold, yet the broadly the same directors are involved in OTM. Same idea nothing new, just a turgid rehash of some old outdated ideas.
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And if you ever needed more proof that OTM is just trying to be another Rightmove. The rep came to see me the other day, they are now planning premium products. This was something that Ian Springett had said they were not going to do. He said this at one of the roadshows I attended in York where all the agents pretty much unanimously Said they didn’t want premium products on OTM. I have a year left, shares are sold and then it’s goodbye OTM.
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