BREAKING: Boomin reveals ten ‘founder’ estate agencies including Foxtons
Portal says other agents are able to be founding firms too and will be allocated equity in the company if they sign up.
The Bruce brothers’ portal Boomin has broken weeks of silence to announce that it has signed up ten leading national and regional estate agents as its initial ‘founding firms’.
These are Foxtons, Chancellors, Andrews, Century 21, Hunters, McEwan Fraser, Dacre, Son & Hartley, Ryder & Dutton, Miller Metcalfe and Mishon Mackay.
But the platform’s promised launch date this month has slipped and will now be ‘later this year’, a delay cause in part by the decision of CEO-in-waiting Gary Barker not to take up the role.
Boomin says the ten agents revealed today are just the most high profile, with more announcements to come soon. But the inclusion of Foxtons is a surprise – the company has been, until now, one of the few estate agents in the UK to eschew outside tech and develop its own systems.
Tight lipped
Although hundreds of firms, including many within the #SayNoToRightmove groupings, have been shown its capabilities, publicly Boomin is still tight lipped about how the portal will work.
It does say agents will be able to earn revenues from their subscription and its new features “will open up the market, raising interest and engagement from a wider audience through the provision of deeper real time information and increased agent connectivity,” it says.
“Boomin will surprise, excite and engage in ways that will keep people coming back time and time again.”
The portal reveals that other founding agents, who have until January next year to sign up, will get a free equity share allocation and free use of the platform for the next four months.
“Introducing consumers to the power of our proposition in research and testing across the whole of the UK has shown without doubt that Boomin will be an instruction winner,” it says.
Nic Budden, Foxtons Chief Executive
“Foxtons has always been at the forefront of providing the very best expert service to our customers supported by the best technology.
“Boomin is an exciting step forward for the property market and we are pleased to be a founding member.”
Glynis Frew, CEO of Hunters
“Boomin is very customer focused and in Hunters’ view is different to anything else we have seen before.
“The Boomin team possess vast experience and have combined their knowledge with leading technology to deliver a platform that offers a great customer experience. At Hunters we believe technology is the accelerator and we will utilise Boomin in tandem with our CRM, SKIPA, to deliver the best customer journey for our customers.”
They couldn’t even organise a Zoom meeting where people like me who were pre booked and sent a link could enter. Hardly inspires confidence.
All i know is that lots of smaller independents including many from the Say No campaign have also signed. As far as we are concerned we are backing any contenders who will stand up to RM. As we said at the start they have had it their own way for far to long, treat agents with contempt and ignore any financial realities of running an Estate Ageny. I dont pay some of my staff as much as I pay RM (before commissions!!)
I dont even pay as much in Business Rates (when we will be paying them again)
The more contenders to the “throne” the more chance we have to bring the dragon down
Mr Stanton is tight lipped also about the capabilities of Boomin as he knows nothing about it, which given he spends 18 hours some days analysing proptech is a bit of a puzzler. The concept of equity in the proposition, again where does that sit OTM, had a lack-lustre run with that.
What is certain is that the technical and management team are world class, and funding is presently no issue, but what cake is being baked and will lots of people be eating it? That is what me and Zara would like to know.