The Rightmove or The Wrong Move

One of my pet hates, and a massive popular misconception, is that seeing as all estate agents are on Rightmove, they are all now on an even keel. It’s fair to say that a high percentage of homeowners think that if most potential buyers start looking on the Internet and the leading property website is Rightmove, then providing they pick an agent listing with them, it shouldn’t make much difference who they use. I can see the logic, as Internet advertising is a vital part of marketing a property, but here’s a statistic that may surprise you.
 
Imagine have 229 applicants registered in the last month, still ‘live’ and looking. Of those, 34 are directly attributable to Rightmove. A few more may have come off the back of phone calls direct from them as well. Even If I’m generous on this number though I can be sure Rightmove counts for no more than 20% of our applicants. Yes, 20%.
 
That’s not to undermine the importance of the property websites or the quality of the Rightmove site. 20% is still a significant proportion and more than from any other property website we market our properties on. However it does highlight that 80% of our potential buyers come to us from other sources of marketing. Put that another way; if you select your agent purely on the basis of Rightmove, you are ignoring 80% of an agent’s potential. That’s before you even consider how well those applicants are dealt with and the quality of the staff registering them, which I can assure you varies to a staggering degree from agent to agent.
 

Here are some of the reasons that your potential buyers are coming to us;

We’re the only local agent with double-page spreads in both local papers.

We’re the only local agents registering properties with the next five leading property websites after Rightmove.

We have the best two office locations in Watford & Bushey.

We’ve been Independently assessed as having the leading board presence in Watford on Sales and Lettings (http://www.imagine-group.co.uk/saver.html).

95% of our clients say they would recommend our services (figures supplied via Independent Reference Line analysis -  http://www.imagine-group.co.uk/feedback.php).

So where does the other 80% come from? Newspaper adverts, other property websites, our own website (www.imagine-group.co.uk), walk-ins from primary office locations, advertising boards and personal recommendations.

When we invest so heavily to ensure we have all the bases covered, you can see why I get so passionate about encouraging clients to take into account more than just the Rightmove factor when selecting their agent of choice!