Thread by @YorksPropPortal

Stamp Duty Holidays finally over ✅

Many sales brought forward & completed ✅

Shortage of stock / listing crisis emerging? ✅

Inflation up / higher chance of interest rate rises ✅

Cost of living soaring ✅

Record house prices ✅

More people (FTBs) being priced out ✅

Inflation-busting price increases from the No.1 portal, a large expense faced by most independent agents ✅

Independent agents & builders continuing to hugely subsidise corporate agency subscriptions ✅

Perfect storm to elicit strong action from independent estate agency? ✅

There's plenty that independent agents can disagree on; who gives the best service, who offers the best photography, who achieves the best results, who's got the best shop window, etc, BUT the one thing they all agree on - they hate paying Rightmove's truly exorbitant fees.

Divide & conquer, setting one firm against another, no transparency in pricing between subscribers have always been tactics that help perpetuate high portal costs. Agents have brought this on themselves, only they can rectify the situation.

It's not right that you could have 2 agents in adjoining buildings, one, a corporate agent with a 150 property portfolio paying, say, £300 a month and the neighbour, with a fraction of that number of houses for sale, paying 5-8 times that amount. Scale of economies is irrelevant.

If all high-paying independent agents left, Rightmove would be screwed as would the remaining corporate supporters who would likely face eye-watering increases since the competitors that subsidise their subscription fees have abandoned ship.

We first started promoting the concept of #hyperlocal property search platforms (PSPs) around 18 months ago in the early days of the pandemic when Rightmove offered an insulting & derisory help package to members (later much improved after considerable pressure).

We announced that we could utilise the cutting-edge technology of @rummage4_prop to produce a #hyperlocal property search platform for any single town/city/region in Yorkshire (and beyond) with agent ownership as a primary benefit. We still can!

Based on the first 2 tweets of this thread, it's clear estate agency is heading into very uncertain conditions.

The time for action is now!

It's time for indys to put rivalries over who lists where online aside & to work towards a viable goal; an agent-owned property portal.

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