OnTheMarket has signed a listing agreement with one of the UK’s largest independent property services firms operating in Scotland and the North of England, to advertise its UK residential sales and lettings properties.

Rettie is headquartered in Edinburgh and its 15-branch estate agency network primarily operates in London, Newcastle and Glasgow.

FULLY INTEGRATED

It also has specialist rural offices in St Andrews, Melrose and Berwick upon Tweed and includes fully integrated financial services, planning and surveying businesses, as well as property management and development divisions.

Shona Crawford, Rettie

Shona Crawford, Rettie Director of Marketing, says: “We are delighted to be listing our properties with OnTheMarket, following their acquisition by the CoStar Group.

“This is an exciting development within the residential property portal space, and it is great to be able to offer our customers access to a wide range of potential buyers through their platform, and to be working with the team at OnTheMarket in developing their customer offer.”

The deal with Rettie comes after Leaders Romans Group and Edward Mellor chose OnTheMarket as one of just two platforms it will be listing properties with going forward. 

AGENCY NETWORK

Jason Tebb (main picture), President of OnTheMarket, says: “We are delighted that Rettie has become the latest agency network to commit to OnTheMarket.

“The addition of such a strong regional brand continues our momentum and further strengthens our presence in the region as we continue our push for growth across the country.”

And he adds: “The business is making tremendous progress towards its goal of becoming the leading agent-friendly platform in the UK residential marketplace. We believe that we are now the fastest growing residential portal in the UK following the acquisition by CoStar Group.”

The post Big property services firm signs listing deal with OnTheMarket appeared first on The Negotiator.

Rightmove showcased an uptick in both revenue and profit as it announced its full year results to the City but hinted at a potential decline in customer numbers for the upcoming year.

The cautious outlook caused shares to slide 3.9% which opened at £5.44 during early trading on the London Stock Exchange on Friday.

The portal reported a pretax profit increase of 7.7% to £259.8 million compared to £241.3 million the previous year. Underlying operating profit also saw a rise of 8% to £264.6 million from £245.4 million, while earnings per share improved by 5% to 24.5p from 23.4p.

UPGRADING

Revenue surged by 10% to £364.3 million, attributed to estate agents upgrading packages and increasing usage of digital products.

Despite the overall positive financial performance, the company observed a 1.2% decrease in total membership, dropping to 18,785 from 19,014.

This reduction was primarily due to a 1% decline in estate agency branches and a 4% decrease in new homes developments since the beginning of the year.

Although traffic volumes to Rightmove‘s website remained resilient, the total minutes spent on the platform decreased to 15.4 billion from 16.3 billion in 2022, albeit still marking a 27% increase compared to 2019.

Subscription to Rightmove’s Optimiser Edge and 2020 packages among independent agents increased to 35%, up from 34% in December 2022.

The subscription rate for advanced packages among developers rose to 53%, compared to 42% in December 2022.

Johan Svanstrom (main picture), Chief Executive Officer, says: “In a year of economic uncertainty, consumers continued to trust Rightmove as the place to turn to help them make their move.

“Customers were able to choose from an expanded, more sophisticated product suite, to continue to drive business results in a changing market environment.

“Our financial performance in 2023 reflects the strength of our business model and our platform network effects.”

INNOVATION

And he adds: “The results are underpinned by the commitment and talent of the Rightmove team, who are focused on innovation and delivering continuous improvement for our customers and consumers.

“We reshaped our strategy during 2023, setting out a plan to further digitise the property sector, expand our business, stretch our brand and accelerate the financial performance long term. We are looking forward to 2024 with confidence and to delivering further value to all stakeholders on our platform, progressing the ambitious Rightmove strategy.”

Andrew Fisher, Rightmove

Andrew Fisher, Rightmove Chair, says: “In keeping with our policy of returning free cash to our shareholders, £201.7m (2022: £197.7m) was returned:  £130m through the share buyback programme, and £71.7m through dividend payments made in May and October.

“The Board remains confident in our ability to deliver sustainable returns to shareholders and is recommending a final dividend of 5.7p per share for 2023 (2022: 5.2p). The final dividend will be paid, subject to shareholder approval, on 24 May 2024, taking the total dividend for the year to 9.3p (2022: 8.5p).”

And he adds: “Our mission remains to continually innovate, to make property moving easier and simpler by giving everyone the best place to turn to – and return to – for access to the tools, data and expertise to successfully enable their move.

“Whilst continuing to focus on our core business of the UK domestic property market, our ambitions are to further invest into, and digitise, our existing but smaller business areas.

“These include enhanced advertising in the commercial real estate market, capturing value from our unique property data, improving the rental journey and offering a range of mortgage related products.”

The Neg revealed in November that Rightmove was expecting ARPA (Average Revenue Per Advertiser) growth for the full year to be £112-116.

ROCKY YEAR

Adrian Lunn, Director at Sheffield-based Eddisons, says: “After a rocky year for the sector, there are signs that activity levels might start to pick up in the residential market. Property prices, which have been remarkably resilient, are in the ascendance and mortgage rates are starting to fall which all points to a more positive environment.

“Now that some of the recent uncertainty is coming out of the market, Rightmove looks well placed to continue to dominate as it seeks to digitalise the property sector.

“Ultimately, every estate agent has had to come to terms with the fact that properties must be listed online and Rightmove’s ever evolving platform is the stand-out example of how this can be done effectively.”

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The wealth of available online sales data alongside ubiquitous news headlines about the property market means that it’s incredibly common for vendors to already have valuations pre-worked out in their own minds.

Of course, we all want the best sales price but there’s cause for pricing property more conservatively in order to achieve better results.

IMPRECISE SCIENCE

Valuation is an imprecise science and the old adage is certainly true – a property is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

Every property sale is truly unique and circumstances, trends and climates change so quickly that comparing similar properties doesn’t always give a true comparison.

In Scotland even Home Report valuations can fall foul of this.”

And in Scotland even Home Report valuations can fall foul of this, as they consider what similar properties in the area have sold for, when that data might be out of date or no longer relevant by the time you are ready to start the sales process.

The asking price of a property tends to be a few thousand pounds either side of its Home Report valuation, with sellers expecting to then achieve over and above the official figure.

UNREALISTIC valuations?

But Home Report valuations in themselves can set unrealistic expectations. For instance, if someone is selling a home in January, a Home Report surveyor may be looking at what houses sold for six months prior, in the peak summer season, to set the property’s value, therefore starting at an inflated and potentially unattainable figure.

It’s essential for vendors to be realistic about the amount over the value that they should then be expecting to achieve. The higher the initial value, the less likely it is that buyers will be able to bid significantly above it. The asking price is there to lure buyers in and it’s this that should be considered carefully to ensure maximum appeal in a highly competitive market.

Buyers feel no need to bid competitively to secure the property.”

Our own sales data shows  that there’s a strong correlation between the amount of time a property is on the market for versus the percentage of its Home Report valuation it achieves at sale.

There’s also data that indicates that the percentage of the valuation achieved in properties that are marketed at an appealing, appropriate price is higher, versus a property that’s perhaps been overegged and then must reduce its price to make it more competitive, or buyers feel no need to bid competitively to secure it and feel more confident in making lower offers.

In 2023, we saw a huge increase in the number of properties coming to market at a fixed price, which we can assume to be a way of maximising appeal to unconfident buyers and securing a quicker sale, rather than looking for crazy bids over and above the valuation figure.

OFFERS OVER

While this has calmed down in 2024 so far, with the ‘offers over’ marketing method applied to the vast majority of properties for sale we can see how marketing your home at a sensible ‘offers over’ price helps sellers to achieve a higher net sale price overall.

Our data shows that when properties are marketed at a fixed price, the asking price is around 99% of the Home Report valuation, with sellers understandably reluctant to market their home for less than its value. Generally, fixed price properties then sell for around 98% of their Home Report valuation, meaning that buyers offer exactly the asking price, or sometimes slightly under. 54.3% of fixed prices homes sold last year achieved a figure less than their valuations, while just 11.5% achieved a sales price higher than valuation.

‘Offers over’ properties must work harder to be more appealing.”

However, ‘offers over’ properties must work harder to be more appealing than those listed for a fixed price, as buyers come to these properties well aware of the risks of a bidding war ensuing – properties must stand up to the task. It’s far better to impress than underwhelm, and pricing competitively can certainly assist with that.

From our data, we can see that properties marketed using the ‘offers over’ model have a lower asking price compared to the valuation (averaging 96%) compared to fixed price homes, which then subsequently drives a sale price of around 108% of the property’s Home Report valuation.

INCREASED VALUE

This suggests that pricing the properties lower than the Home Report valuation drives increased value overall, compared to the fixed price system, where properties tend to break even at best. 76% of properties sold in 2023 achieved above their Home Report valuation at sale.

Asking price also affects the time the property is on the market for. Unsurprisingly, properties that sold the fastest achieved the highest percentages of Home Report valuation, with buyers keen to snap up a perceived bargain and thus submit more competitive bids. Homes that sit on the market for longer then run the risk of cheeky lowball bids, or the sellers feeling pressured to officially reduce the price.

It’s tempting to be ambitious and try to secure the highest possible price but it’s important to resist the urge to go big – if you price cleverly and conservatively at the first opportunity, the evidence shows you might just end up with a higher sales figure at the end.

Paul Hilton is Chief Executive of property portal ESPC

The post BLOG: ‘How do you deal with vendors who have valuations in mind?’ appeared first on The Negotiator.

Sequence has promised to make future property ads clearer after a complaint about the way service charges were listed.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) informally resolved a complaint with Sequence about the advert for a two-bedroom property.

Misleading

The ASA says: “We received a complaint about an online ad, on a website, for a 2 bedroom property.

“The complainant challenged whether the claim, “Annual service charge: £534” was misleading as they understood that the correct amount was likely to be over £5000.

“We approached the advertiser who confirmed that the ad had been amended to remove the incorrect figure. On that basis we considered the matter resolved and closed the case.”

Restrictions

Sequence, trading as William H Brown/Barnard Marcus, also found itself the subject of attention from the ASA in January, after a complaint about an ad.

An unnamed person said that an online Sequence ad for the auction of two parcels of land failed to make it clear they were in the Green Belt.

A potential buyer might be unaware that Article 4 restrictions on permitted development applied, when making a bid, the ASA said.

And Sequence agreed to ensure future ads made it clear what restrictions were in place.

The ASA can reach an informal resolution of a complaint about an advert with a company, or move to a formal investigation and ruling if this fails.

The post Sequence agrees to change property ad after complaint appeared first on The Negotiator.

When is a bathroom not a bathroom on Rightmove? That is the question posed by Bedfordshire agent Daniel Davie (inset, main pic).

Davie, who is a partner in Inskip & Davie based in Sandy, has challenged Rightmove to accept that a cloakroom cannot be counted as a bathroom.

He says it is misleading to list the downstairs WC as one of the bathrooms in a house description.

Amazement

Agents use a dropdown box to add the correct figure, however, there now seems to be a difference in opinion on what represents a bathroom, as the number can vary, he says.

“I have used Rightmove since its formation, and pride myself on describing property correctly at all costs, never knowingly mis-describing each.

“I have asked Rightmove to clarify the correct amount [of bathrooms], and to my amazement they too chose three [family bathroom, ensuite and cloakroom].”

Good faith

“My own belief and professional training have always shown me that when advertising a property, you should do so keeping in mind that a potential buyer could be travelling a great distance to view in good faith of the full description,” he says.

“Number of bedrooms, off road parking, garden size, etc are always crucial. At the same token, a family could place importance against the number of bathrooms a property offered.

I would feel aggrieved and somewhat misled.”

“I gave an example to Rightmove, that if I were driving and saw a service station sign with a plate, knife, and fork symbol, which motivated me to stop to eat, only to find a vending machine of chocolate, I would feel aggrieved and somewhat misled.

Davie says has left the issue with Rightmove, “reminding them that we need a level playing field”, they say they will pass it onto the relative team.

The Neg has approached Rightmove for comment.

The post Estate agent challenges Rightmove over property ‘misdescription’ appeared first on The Negotiator.

Estate agents are increasingly recognising the value of long-tail marketing strategies with email campaigns emerging as a cornerstone in their efforts.

Indeed, email marketing plays a pivotal role in the estate agency sector when it comes to nurturing leads, maintaining client relationships and delivering impressive returns on investment.

And they can be crucial in establishing touch points with potential clients over time, resulting in lasting relationships and positive outcomes.

Email marketing is not just about sending messages – it’s about building relationships.”

But email marketing is not just about sending messages – it’s about building relationships.

In the property sector, where trust and communication are paramount, email campaigns act as a bridge, allowing agents to stay top-of-mind with clients and nurture leads effectively.

When executed effectively, email marketing offers one of the highest returns on investment for estate agents. It serves as a direct and personalised communication channel, allowing agents to connect with clients in a meaningful way.

Here are a few essential tips for estate agents looking to enhance their email marketing efforts.

COMPELLING CONTENT

First and foremost is creating high-quality, engaging, and targeted content that captures the attention of potential clients. A great example of this is a newsletter that provides valuable information, showcases property highlights and offers trends or insights into the local property market.

The newsletter can also include testimonials or success stories from satisfied clients to build trust and credibility. Showcasing positive experiences can help to demonstrate your expertise and the value you provide.

SUBJECT LINE

A key element of creating compelling content is an enticing concise subject line that encourages recipients to open the email. Avoid using all caps or spammy language that might trigger spam filters. And use high-quality images and visually appealing designs to make your emails more engaging.

SEGMENT YOUR EMAIL LIST

Not all email campaigns will be relevant to everyone so divide or segment your email list based on factors like location, buyer/seller status, preferences or previous interactions. Leverage dynamic filtering and preferencing to tailor messages to the specific needs and preferences of each individual within your client database. Targeted emails are more likely to resonate with recipients and result in higher engagement.

PERSONALISE EMAILS

Use the recipient’s name in the email subject and greeting to make the message feel more personal. Again, ensure the content is relevant to them ensuring that it is tailored to match the recipient’s preferences or past interactions.

CALL-TO-ACTION (CTA)

Clearly define the next steps you want recipients to take, whether it’s scheduling a viewing, contacting you, or exploring listings on your website. Make your CTA buttons stand out with compelling copy and contrasting colours.

MOBILE OPTIMISATION

Many users check their email on their smartphones, so ensure that emails are mobile-friendly and display in the right manner. Test your emails across different devices and email clients to ensure a consistent and user-friendly experience.

UPDATE YOUR EMAIL LIST

Regularly clean and update your email list to remove inactive or bounced email addresses. Encourage subscribers to update their preferences to ensure they receive content relevant to their interests.

AUTOMATED

Implement automated email campaigns triggered by specific actions, such as website visits or form submissions. Drip campaigns can nurture leads over time, providing a series of valuable information.

REGULATION AND COMPLIANCE

Ensure that your email marketing complies with relevant data protection and privacy regulations, such as GDPR. Include an unsubscribe option and respect users’ preferences.

A/B TESTING

Experiment with different elements in your emails, such as subject lines, content, and CTAs, using A/B testing to determine what resonates best with your audience.

Long-tail digital marketing elements such as email marketing campaigns can be used strategically to nurture leads over time and guide potential clients through the decision-making process. By implementing the above tips, estate can create more effective and personalised email marketing campaigns that resonate with their target audience, ultimately leading to increased engagement and conversions.

Richard Combellack is Chief Product Officer at nurtur.group

The post BLOG: Is email marketing still relevant in the TikTok age? appeared first on The Negotiator.

OTM has signed a listing agreement with Edward Mellor, one of the UK’s largest independent property firms in the North of England, to advertise its UK residential sales and lettings properties.

The Neg reported last month how Leaders Romans Group had selected just two major platforms where it will be listing properties – the other being Rightmove – and Edward Mellor has adopted a similar strategy.

STOCKPORT

Edward Mellor is headquartered in Stockport and the 15-branch estate agency operates throughout Tameside, Stockport, Cheshire and Greater Manchester.

It offers fully integrated financial services, planning, conveyancing and surveying as well as having property management, development and auction divisions.

Jason Tebb (main picture), President of OTM, says: “I’m delighted Edward Mellor has chosen to commit to OnTheMarket as part of its two-portal strategy.

“The addition of such a strong regional brand further strengthens our presence in the North West as we continue our push for growth across the country.”

FINANCIAL FIREPOWER

And he adds: “It’s an incredibly exciting time for our agents, with the acquisition by CoStar Group accelerating our target of becoming the market leader, bringing industry-leading global expertise and significant financial firepower to help deliver even more value for all our customers.”

Colin Mellor, Edward Mellor

Colin Mellor, Chief Executive of Edward Mellor, adds: “For us it is now clear that with CoStar’s substantial financial reserves their recent acquisition creates the opportunity for a paradigm shift in the marketing of properties, both for consumers and agents alike.

“We envisage the OnTheMarket Brand now becoming a major influencer in the portal market and we look forward to seeing how our relationship develops.”

The post Portal war hots up as another agency backs OTM but omits Zoopla appeared first on The Negotiator.

TikTok is about to revolutionise the way house-hunting is done, a developer has boldly predicted.

St. Modwen Homes believes the massively popular video platform will be a game-changer that will take over as the number one property search method.

Brits can say goodbye to the old-school house-hunting routine.”

“Brits can say goodbye to the old-school house-hunting routine as we enter 2024,” the developer says.

“We understand, scrolling through endless property listings can be a bit overwhelming.

Snappy

“TikTok’s short and snappy videos will be the game-changer for those seeking their dream home (as well as selling their existing home),” it says.

St. Modwen points to recent research showing that TikTok searches relating to homes for sale are on the rise, with the hashtag #houseforsale hitting a 1.4 billion views alone on the platform, and #homesforsale reaching 333 million views.

Other popular property-related searches on the short-form video platform include:

#propertytour – 682 million views

#ukhousetour – nearly 16 million views

#londonproperties – nearly 11 million views

#homewalkthrough – 5 million views

Plus, TikTok users clearly have money to spend, with the platform recently becoming the first non-gaming mobile app to generate $10 billion in consumer spending.

Alison MacLean, Head of Marketing at St. Modwen, says: “In 2024, we’re predicting a major shift, especially among the younger generation, who are turning to TikTok over traditional property portals for a more engaging and interactive home-buying experience.

As the property market evolves, TikTok is a game-changer.”

“As the property market evolves, TikTok is a game-changer, offering an unprecedented platform for professionals and individuals alike to showcase properties,” she says.

“If you’re selling, using TikTok can boost your property’s visibility and help you sell it quicker.”

Estate agent heralds TikTok as future of property marketing

Tik Tok boom

The post TikTok to ‘revolutionise property searches and replace portals’ appeared first on The Negotiator.