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Frequently Asked Questions

What is Rightmove’s role in the Best Estate Agent Guide and EA Masters?                    

The Best Estate Agent Guide and EA Masters are owned and managed by the Property Academy.

Rightmove is principal partner of the EA Masters. Rightmove has also analysed data on all agents that advertise on Rightmove to support the compilation of the Best Estate Agent Guide and Best Estate Agent Guide Awards. The results of this analysis are added to the results from the Property Academy’s mystery shopping exercise to determine an agent’s overall score.

Rightmove makes no money from the EA Masters or Best Estate Agent Guide.

Why are Rightmove supporting the Best Estate Agent Guide?

Rightmove supports the Property Academy’s objective of improving standards in the industry. With more inventory and more agents than any other property website, Rightmove has unrivalled insight into the performance of agents. We have analysed all of an agent’s property listings to devise a unique, robust and fair scoring system. Combined with the Property Academy’s mystery shopping exercise, this method of assessment creates a unique whole of market views of agents.

Data analytics and training are at the heart of the support Rightmove provides agents day to day through its Account Managers, tools and reports. This assessment will help agents understand what being a great agent looks like, and identify any areas for improvement.

How does this initiative improve standards?

Based on last year’s results, we’ve heard numerous examples of agents who have put in place process improvements to deal with leads better following disappointing mystery shop results, or have consciously improved the quality of their property presentation.

For example, last year two of the metrics that went into the assessment were the number of photos on a listing and whether it had a floorplan. Consumer research tells us that home movers expect an online property listing to have at least 5 photos, and a floorplan.

Since last year, the number of Rightmove sales listings with at least 5 photos has increased from 90% to 95% and the number of Rightmove sales listings with a floorplan has increased from 74% to 80%. In a competitive market, agents need to be focussing on exceptional property presentation to encourage applicants and, more importantly, attract their next instruction.

What data is shared between Rightmove and the Property Academy?

Rightmove has not shared any detailed data on an agent’s performance with the Property Academy or any other third party. Only the overall score that an agent receives – based on numerous different criteria – is shared with the Property Academy to allow them to facilitate the awards and Best Estate Agent Guide. No property data has been shared or sold to the Property Academy as a result of this analysis.

The Property Academy are responsible for the mystery shopping side of the Best Estate Agent Guide. Detailed mystery shop results have not been shared with Rightmove and to understand their detailed mystery shopping performance, an agent will need to speak to the Property Academy. Likewise, to understand their detailed performance based on Rightmove’s data, an agent will need to speak to their Rightmove Account Manager (from October 12^th, when the results will be made available).

Why is Rightmove’s data more accurate than other ways of measuring?

Unlike other awards that rely on agent self-submissions and paying an entry fee, using Rightmove data means that virtually the whole of the market can be assessed independently, without charge to the agent. Rightmove’s data combined with the Property Academy’s biggest ever mystery shopping exercise means this is the biggest, most robust independent assessment of the industry that there has ever been.

Is Rightmove making any money from these awards?

Rightmove does not make any money from the EA Masters or the Best Estate Agent Guide.  Our involvement is purely in support of the shared objective to help raise standards in the industry.

How are agents assessed?

The awards focus on the most important things a potential vendor or landlord looks for when searching for an agent; how well they market their properties, how well they handle enquiries and whether they ultimately get the property sold or let, and how quickly.

Various metrics underpin each of these things and agents who do well will do all of the above to a high standard. More than twenty pieces of data are used to assess an agent and branches who score solidly on most of the metrics will be listed within the Best Estate Agent Guide. Agent who perform the best in their area and size category will win awards.

On most measures agents are compared and scored relative to other agents who operate in their same area, in order to iron out any regional differences in the property market. So, agents who do well relative to their local peers will score highly, regardless of their location.

What, specifically, is measured?

The assessment focuses on the most important things that vendors or landlords look for when choosing an agent and more than a dozen metrics are taken into account. While we won’t reveal the exact methodology used in the scoring to ensure fairness, it broadly covers the essential parts of estate agency, as outlined below.

Well-presented properties attract more interest, which should result in a quicker sale or let. We measure the amount of leads generated and property detail views an agent gets on average compared to other agents in an area. We also take into account whether the property has a minimum of five photos and a floorplan – elements of an online property listing that buyers and tenants say are essential.

Ultimately, a vendor or landlord instructs an agent to sell or let their property and to do it quickly. So, we look at the amount of properties an agent takes on that they manage to sell, the average time it takes them to sell or let a property and the amount of deals that fall through – all compared to other agents in their area.

Finally, vendors and landlords put value in whether the agent is a trusted brand and has proven credibility at dealing with properties similar to theirs. So, an agent’s market share is also considered.

Alongside this, the Property Academy will mystery shop every branch in the country over the phone and via email. Vendors and landlords expect an agent to maximise every interaction with a potential buyer or seller to get more viewings and offers.

The data used for the assessment is from the period 1st October 2017 to 31st March 2018.

What changes have been made versus last year?

Based on agent feedback from last year, we have made some improvements to the process and scoring system. The changes include:

• In 2017 only the top 40% of branches from Rightmove’s analysis went on to be mystery shopped by the Property Academy. This year, all branches are being mystery shopped to make the analysis fairer.
• An agent’s market share is taken into account as part of the scoring. This rewards agents who can demonstrate their ability to market lots of properties that are similar to a prospective client’s property – which is one of the criteria a vendor or landlord looks for in an agent.
• We’re increasing the threshold for minimum size of an agency to be included in the guide.

How do you measure market share?

The vast majority of Rightmove agents have created their “patch” in Rightmove’s reports and this is used as the basis for calculating market share and for most measures that compare an agent’s performance to their local competitors.

Where an agent hasn’t created a patch, or if the patch they used is not representative of their stock, for the purposes of the assessment Rightmove will use a patch for an agents that is representative of where their stock was located over the assessment period.

An agent’s market share and competitive ranking for new listings, sales agreed and available stock is freely available to all Rightmove members within their Rightmove reports.

How can an agent see their results?

The winners of the EA Masters awards were announced at the awards ceremony on 12^th October, with the full Best Estate Agent Guide released the same day.

An agent can request to see their results from their Rightmove Account Manager. They will provide the overall score an agent received in the various categories that formed part of the assessment.

As the Property Academy carried out the mystery shopping exercise, an agent will need to speak to the Property Academy for their detailed mystery shop results. Rightmove do not receive an agent’s detailed mystery shopping scores and likewise, won’t share any detail other than an overall score with the Property Academy.

If you have any questions, please speak to your Rightmove Account Manager.