A new video interview with estate agent Simon Shinerock has been released, in which he claims Rightmove has ‘failed miserably’ to show empathy for estate agents and see things from their point of view.
This statement comes on the back of reports that multiple members of the Federation of Independent Agents are considering cancelling their Rightmove subscriptions due to fee increases.
Simon Shinerock is the Chairman of Choices Estate Agents. The interview was conducted by industry commentator Christopher Watkin and focuses on Rightmove’s relationship with the estate agency industry.
‘A lack of empathy for the industry’
Shinerock states that Rightmove has failed to see estate agents’ point of view in a number of ways. The example of his own website is used in his interview with Watkin.
“I have a website, I want to promote my website, they do everything possible to stop the traffic going from Rightmove to my website,” he says.
“Why can’t they offer me an open market search on my website? Why can’t they develop my business?”
‘Market leader that has brought little creativity to property’
Shinerock also criticises the property portal for its lack of creativity. He highlights that Rightmove’s offering has not changed much at all since it launched, but now agents are charged a huge amount more for the same product.
He describes Rightmove’s proposition as ‘purely passive’.
“How come Rightmove – the so-called leader in the portal business – has done nothing on social media? You could almost say they are anti-social media,” Shinerock argues.
“As a company, they are holding the industry back to some degree because of their dominant position.”
Agents should be suspicious of Rightmove
When discussing the portal’s relationship with the estate agency industry, Shinerock tells Watkin that agents are right to be suspicious.
“Right from the beginning when Rightmove was free, I was super suspicious of them. That suspicion has carried on entirely through our relationship with Rightmove,” he says.
He also voices his worries about the portal’s plan for an instant transaction function on its commercial platform. He believes that if Rightmove puts an instant transaction function on its residential platform, it could decide to disintermediate agents.
Watkin suggests this could see Rightmove becoming the estate agents themselves, even though they have promised they’d never do that.
The full video can be viewed here.