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https://twitter.com/jasontebb?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
wow 66 new estate agents signed up in the last week or so. Usually this is c20 a week, so new CEO is making progress.
Hopefully financials are as healthy.
Agree it's not the number of agents but more the average revenue per agent that's important. Key points I find interesting:
- 700 estate agencies currently list exclusively with OTM.
- Jan 2020 results: They had 8k branches on paying contract's. I assume 4.5k were on reduced/intro contracts given they had total 12.5k branches listed. So sizable opportunity for growth.
- They are 65% agent owned. General agent distaste for RM.
For me OTM were fighting a losing battle unless they acknowledged they need to continue to innovate on their agent and customer product offering and more importantly established strong relationship with agents to gain their trust and support for the strategy ahead. This is critically important to ensure existing agents pay a reasonable fee and those on introduction contracts convert.
Since Jason took over as CEO I've been very impressed with every move taken to date.
- Holding regular town halls with agents to listen and take onboard their feedback. After all this is their portal.
- Product development strategy based on the needs of agents.
- Acquiring Glanty/teclet to rollout in-house automated lettings platform to agent's.
- Establishing proptech partnerships to offer additional product and services to agents to improve their operations.
Ultimately I'm getting the feeling agents are willing to give OTM another chance to take meaningful market share from RM given RM are absolutely rinsing agent's and charging way too much. To me it feels like the industry in general is desperate for a portal that's on their side, charges reasonable fee and offers practical solutions they and customers need.
Boomin came to the market and raised cash at £100m valuation. They are starting from zero and have very limited brand awareness. Will take significant investment to get to where OTM is imo. For me with OTMP at £64m market cap I'm willing to back those horse given their current market position and especially after seeing the progress and agent engagement Jason has made since joining.
Let's see how over time this translates to more agents converting to full contract and how much revenue they generate from additional product and services they begin to offer to their agent community.
In 2020 RM generated £135m operating profit from £206m revenue. Their average revenue per customer is over £1100 vs ~£130 with OTMP. That's a lot of meat on that RM bone for OTMP to bite into.
They are heavily discounting to get the numbers up.
Not knocking the strategy, but as long as people are aware.
Just announced 66 agents joined last week. Very impressed with Jason's ability engaging with agents and the new direction of travel here. Looks forward to their progress, taken a position here.
is awful.... However, this can be a positive when the buyers arrive! Really liking this stock... they must be doing the best they've ever done and yet the SP is stagnant. The UK property market is going through a major boom period.