Residential People Head Puts Big Three on Blast

Residential People’s head has noted the unfairness agents experience when working with property portal giants who have more sophisticated CRM systems and is rallying for change. 

Christopher May, the CEO of free-to-list portal, Residential People, has pointed out the unrest between portal and agent. Agents know their data is being used by major portals to boost the company’s own profits. 

May has pointed to Rightmove, Zoopla, and OnTheMarket as being top perpetrators of this. The systems the big three have in place means they have huge control over agents’ inventory which is used to generate multiple income streams. 

May believes agents should be the ones profiting from their data. Recently, we reported that Residential People was giving their agents more control by offering a portal that is run by agents, for agents. 

May said:

“This is important because without an agent’s inventory, a portal is not a portal. We need to learn from the mistakes of the past and remember the old saying ‘a leopard never will change his spots’.  Now is the chance, whilst we are all at home, to reflect on what world we want to come back to, to hit the reset button.”

Companies are seeing a number of issues that have arisen due to the impacts of the coronavirus. Still, many are developing new ways to continue business by working around the restrictions and lack of revenue. 

Residential People is no different. The company is developing a new MLS that mimics that of US portals. With this new system, agents can search and retrieve information about all homes for sale by all other participating agents, creating a database of listings.

“The MSL listing service will allow agents to collaborate and share fee income, whilst also benefiting vendors, who will have whole of market exposure, with every agent in an area working on finding a buyer – a much better proposition than just being on the current duopoly of portals.”

Residential People is looking to hit the big three where it hurts, pointing out an ongoing issue that could cost agents and therefore, income streams. Will pressure like this push bigger, more established portals to rethink their professional relationships with their partnered agencies? Or will they continue to rely solely on their current systems with the belief that agents who want the best tech?