Rightmove has announced it will be increasing efforts to stop estate agents marketing properties on its portals for branches not covered by their subscription package.
The portal discovered that an agency in West London had managed to get away with not paying for 15 years. A rival firm reported the agency for marketing properties from two branches on Rightmove without paying.
Property Industry Eye decided not to name the agency but reports that it has seen an email from Rightmove’s legal counsel, Sam Al-Ani that states Rightmove will be taking action against the estate agent and also introducing new measures to ensure similar incidents don’t occur.
In the email Al-Ani wrote: “As this is a very serious issue, I have spent a significant amount of time since receiving your email to get to the bottom of this. I reiterate, as we would never discuss your account with another customer, I will not be providing any information on the measures being taken against XX [the estate agency], however I can tell you that we have picked this up and taken action with XX [the estate agency] to rectify this issue.
“Separately, I can assure you that new steps and initiatives are and were already being implemented to severely crack down on agents not declaring all of their offices and I would remind you that these types of actions directly affect Rightmove’s revenue, so it is something that we have a zero-tolerance policy on.”
PI Eye contacted Rightmove to find out what new measures they plan to take to stop similar instances happening.
We approached Rightmove seeking clarity on what ‘new provisions’ they are planning to introduce, but they were not giving much away.
A spokesperson told PI EYE: “Agents pay per branch location or through our geographical advertising model to advertise on Rightmove. If we find branches marketing properties from a non-paying branch then we investigate and take appropriate action.
“We carry out regular detection in multiple ways to identify stock/branches in breach of our charging structure, so that all agents pay fairly for the exposure they receive.
“We’re constantly improving this process to identify any non-paying branches as early as possible.”
Rightmove tops lead generation poll
A report from Fine & Country chief executive Simon Leadbetter has named Rightmove as the best portal for driving leads in a report from his unchained.marketing consultancy. The Voice of the Agent report features views from over 500 estate agents on subjects including portal usage, marketing and fees.
Rightmove was voted best for leads by 92% of respondents, with Zoopla on 3% and OnTheMarket being selected by 5% of agents.
Agents were also asked to choose their top five sources of advertising. Social media was voted the most effective, with 88% of agents using platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to get new business.
However, agents did complain that sometimes they receive fake contact information from online leads and expressed frustration at other issues including algorithms, lack of customer support from social media sites and delays in preparing marketing materials.