Challenger portals accuse some leading CRMs of ‘obstruction’
OpenBrix and others say two of the big estate agency CRMs are hindering their portals' progress as they sign up agents and try to list their properties.
Adam Piggott, CEO of challenger portal OpenBrix, has told listeners to a webinar hosted by Kerfuffle’s founder Simon Whale that some of the leading CRM providers are deliberately hindering the progress of challenger portals like his.
Piggott said he couldn’t ‘name names’ but said that some CRMs were making it difficult and expensive for challenger portals like his to get access to agents’ feeds.
It is a criticism that has been levelled at the property CRM industry by the main anti-Rightmove campaign groups including both Acorn CEO Rob Sargent’s Say No to Rightmove and Liberty Gate Estate Agents boss David Thomas’s The Revolution of Estate Agency 2020.
Both, as well as Piggott, have been on a fact finding mission to discover which of the CRM providers are being the most ‘unhelpful’.
This is important because portal challengers like OpenBrix, OneDome and Homesearch are reliant on the CRM platforms to build their listings.
“I’ve got to be careful what I say,” Piggott (left) told the webinar. “But it seems there are two types of CRM out there – those like 10Ninety and Acquaint which have been really helpful and work with their agents to integrate with us, and then there those which are being unhelpful and even obstructive.
“But while the good guys can ‘connect the pipes’ in 15 minutes, there are one or two of the big ones who take six or seven weeks to do the same thing, charge us a lot for setting up the feeds and generally making it hard.”
Piggott’s points were echoed by several of the other challenger portals represented on the webinar including Chris May of ResidentialPeople, and Sam Hunter of Homesearch, who said the CRMS should balance their need to juggle multiple portals and “doing the right thing for their agent customers”.
I absolutely agree with Adam’s comments. My experience of 10Ninety, EasyMatch and Acquaint has been helpful and seamless, whereas some of the other CRM suppliers are as much a part of the problem as are the corporate portals. Ludicrous set up and monthly fees for not only the portal but also the agent are a barrier to competition which is why PropertyMutual includes our own instant listing and data export CRM in our nominal subscription.