Why 99home Charges Rightmove Fee High

0 Comments Aug. 3, 2022

Why does 99home charge an additional fee for Rightmove?

[Draft Article]

Why does 99home charge an additional fee for Rightmove?

Many of our vendors and landlords ask why 99home charges a monthly or additional fee for Rightmove advertising; on commercial, residential and overseas sales and lettings.

There are a number of reasons why this is done. 99home isn’t the only agency to do this; as other agents using Rightmove are also charging these fees. Before we explain why Rightmove is an expensive portal, let's take a deep dive into some facts and information.

What is Rightmove:

Rightmove is one of the UK’s largest portals in B2B and B2C property listing/advertising, which allows real estate agents to market their client’s property for residential/commercial sale, let, and auction. Rightmove refer to themselves as the number one portal for listing and advertising but facts may differ in some circumstances.

Rightmove prices:

Rightmove prices are much higher than other portals for single branch nationwide estate agents, especially for nationwide hybrid/online agencies. In 2021 According to TheNegotiator, “Rightmove is now pushing through 11% fee hikes on renewals, say agents”.

Below is a link to an article published by a well known property journalist, Graham Norwood.

By reading this article you can come to understand the drastic price range for Rightmove.

Maintaining Rightmove increased fee by almost 12%

In terms of market share, Rightmove has also shown to have a slight advantage when compared to other portals such as Zoopla.

The cost of Rightmove for estate agents fluctuates:

It’s common knowledge that company share prices fluctuate, but none do it more so than a Rightmove membership price, which sees a change in fluctuation quarterly every year. Most of the time it’s increasing, even with having less stock of property. It is very advantageous to have some Rightmove shares. A big reason for these price changes is that Rightmove uses a self made Geographic Advertising (GA) model where they charge their clients based on the properties according to the GA model.

Rightmove’s GA model

What is GA?

Rightmove uses a Geographic advertising (GA) model which according to Rightmove means “Geographical Advertising applies to our members who advertise a higher than average number of properties (more than 50% of their available stock) outside a 100,000 property radius around their branch location. In order to work out if you qualify as a Geographical Advertiser we look at your available stock levels in comparison to the national average”. Below is an example of the GA module where it’s shows stock comparisons of 2018 vs 2022

(Rightmove data gathered July 2022)

99home being a nationwide estate agent falls within the GA module, which means according to Rightmove we have to pay for every virtual branch. Rightmove charges us a fee with VAT included for 10 properties in lettings per month and 15 properties in sales per month.

Of course we are not allowed to give an accurate figure of the fee Rightmove charges us due to our terms and conditions, but let’s pick the lowest 4 digit figure which is £1000 (inc VAT). If you are listing a letting property for one month it will cost £100 so obviously 99home can not give you marketing for less than £100 a month and a sales listing for £66.66.

But thanks to revenue from conveyancing, insurance and financial services, we are able to offer lettings for as low as £79, sales for £100 PCM and we are able to provide a satisfying service for customers and clients,compared to other agents. Don’t just take our word for it, have a look at the 1000’s of 99home Reviews on Trustpilot.

Dominance over the market and shares:

Since the arrival of hybrid and online agents, the estate agency market has changed. According to the latest figure, more than 20% of vendors and landlords are using online/hybrid and hub agents. That leaves just over 70% of the market using high street agents.

According to Yahoo Finance, Rightmove has a market share of 83% which is slightly lower than its rival Zoopla which is around 89%.

To give a visual representation on shares in the housing market here are some figures from June 2022 compared to may 2022.

99home received the following leads (sales/lettings)

**Leads summary**
Portals/Months	Rightmove	Zoopla	OnTheMarket
May	2638	2378	1244
June	1914	2299	1326
July	1924	2082	1655

Using these results on a side by side comparison, we see how quickly shares can change. Though the numbers do drop, it doesn’t take long for improvement of performance to take place.

6. Solutions:

Using the five P’s.

Price | Presentation | Product | Promote | People

What are the five P’s?

The five P’s consist of an essential set of bullet points that are used to maximise the potential of selling/letting your property with ease.They are crucial to anyone listing a property.

Price - Setting your property at the right price is as straightforward as it sounds, pricing can make or break the sale/letting of a property as many buyers/tenants wouldn’t want to feel cheated or like they’re getting a bad deal. A way to overcome this is to thoroughly evaluate your property and pay attention to the ever revolving housing market. With a bit of thought and a close look at the market, pricing won’t be an issue.

Presentation - What really entices vendors and tenants?. The look and feel of a property. If your property doesn’t have a good presentation there is a low chance of it getting a high amount of interest. To rectify this, try using top quality photography and images, getting a good angle can make all the difference with a photo. Make sure the property is in a presentable condition, e.g, little to no mess, furniture placement and show off spacious areas of the property. Note down every key feature of the property and make sure to create an easy-to-understand property description that also encompasses all the needed important details about the property. Capitalise on any lucrative opportunities the property holds and make them known, following these steps will ensure your property presentation captures the attention and enticement of serious buyers/tenants.

Product - The most important part of any property listing, the product, be that a house, flat or piece of land. The product is the centrepiece and what the buyer/tenant is interested in. The goal is to ensure the product is in quality sale/letting condition, by using the points mentioned in the presentation you can achieve just that.

But Product doesn’t just mean the property on the listing, but the portal the listing is on. By using highly recommendable property advertisements and portals, you can ensure your property is shown on the housing market in the most professional and appealing ways.

Promote - Promoting your property is one of the biggest key features to successful sales and lettings, the greatest way to ensure the results you want from promoting your property would be to do it on the busiest days. How to know when the busiest time is? Check the housing market, look for trends in property searches, pay close attention to any new advertisements that appear in your area. Speaking of advertisements, always look around before settling on an advertiser. Never settle for subpar offers on advertising, you may find a better deal elsewhere.

People - There's no question people are an irreplaceable aspect of selling and letting property. Without people who would buy? Or let? So it comes as no surprise that people are just as important when it comes to hosting and negotiating property. Be it price, investments, even the use of the property is something that can be discussed between vendors/buyers and landlords/tenants. It’s all about finding the right people to represent your property and negotiate the price you want to achieve for that property. Similarly with lettings, only instead of money it’s the availability and use. When is the property available to rent? Would the property be able to be used as something other than what was intended for it? And furthermore will the landlord be willing to negotiate tenant preferences?. All these points are key things to keep in mind when looking for the right people to list and represent your property. A helpful way to determine if you are working with people who have your best interests is to try before you trust. Find what works for you and your property.

Should I advertise my property on Rightmove?

Why not? If you want to sell or let your property and happy to pay a monthly cost which is still a cheaper option compare to paying a heafty comission to an estate agent.

Alternatively, 99home has almost 50-80% of its properties sold/let through trusted portals such as, Zoopla, OnTheMarket (OTM), Boomin, EG and Gumtree. OnTheMarket (OTM) specifically has made massive improvements when it comes to lettings. Boomin, while still relatively new, is doing better than most expected for a portal still getting its foot in the door. Zoopla has shown itself to be a consistent all round performer in terms of both sales and lettings. 99home has partnered with EG which deals predominantly in commercial sector oldy. We recommend using Zoopla+ a hub website that allows you to visit all the previously mentioned portals from one place, an extremely handy tool for anyone trying to get their property onto the housing market.

Using the try before you trust method, monitoring the response you receive and seeing the results, you’ll know what the best portal for your property will be.

If you still think you need Rightmove marketing, you can just add the Rightmove add-on to your listing which will cost you on a monthly basis.

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