Homesearch, the UK challenger portal that launched for agents yesterday, has announced that it has pulled off something of an industry coup and signed up the 36 branches of prominent estate agency Acorn Group as paying customers. Acorn Group CEO Rob Sargent has been in the news fairly regularly over the last few months due to his leadership of the SayNoToRightmove campaign which has sought to hold the UK market leader to account over its pricing and treatment of its agent customers. Commenting on his company’s new relationship with upstart portal Homesearch, Sargent said:
“We know it will take time for them to build up public traction, but I think they’ve anticipated what UK agents need to not only market their clients’ homes but also at the same time assist their member agents in stimulating new business.”
In related news, after skepticism around last weeks news that Homesearch had listings from 10,000 agents, the company has issued a statement to clarify any misinterpretation:
“We have 10,483 branches who have provided us with their details, of which 6,718 provided us with their CRM provider to set up their feeds, which are working through now.”
With many smaller agencies already signed up, Homesearch’s challenge over the coming months and years will be to persuade more of the large groups such as Acorn to see the value in listing and ultimately paying to list on a brand new portal. It may take them twice as long to sign up the 3,000 or so needed to reach 10,000 as it did to get to their current number, but in any case, Homesearch’s initial numbers with Acorn Group on board are looking good
