The latest reincarnation of Homehound is uncannily like the Realestate.com.au beta site property.com.au and shades of Zillow. Both are modelled on Google mapping and I really do like the spatial representation rather than just a thumbnail list, this will be very appealing to users and is so logical. The home page list of recent searches is helpful as well.

Unfortunately in my experience speed is very slow and photo image quality is appalling (their techs will have to fix this as many agents spend up big to get quality images only to see them destroyed unnecessarily and cop heaps from the vendor who is paying). Obviously only properties that include their address will show on the map thereby giving those agents an immediate advantage. I do not like the fact that office logos do not show on the thumbnail strip.

It is hoped that Homehound finally get their reporting act together and actually measure and report on all aspects of site usage iuncluding property views and emails.

I agree with Peter, the site will never be a major player in internet real estate marketing and lead generation in Australia unless they can attract more Agents and spend a great deal on advertising.

At least they haven’t got a stoopid “beta” label on there! Every website is (or should be) in a perpetual state of evolution and improvement.
At least it shows they are doing something about building a better customer experience.
I have to say the way the homepage reflects my activity is fantastic! The site is about me, my searching and what I want to look at (and have looked at or saved) rather than what *they* want me to look at. I think that is a very interesting approach to it.
I like it. I have to agree they need a few more listings, but it’s more pleasant experience that the noise on REA, the constantly (and slowly) re-loading domain and the overly tricky myhome.

Dear Sam,

with the franchisors involved with both myhome and homehound, I giggle when I read your last post.

Perhaps anything involving the franchisors uses the word HOME in its title.

Still there was a snippet in the paper earlier this week that said the franchisors are trying to dump homehound in favour of myhome. With the launch of homehound, a much cleaner and more user friendly site, you have to wonder just what they are thinking.

Perhaps they should promote homehound? it seems to have far more appeal.

Does anyone know how much money it would take to promote homehound?

E

It’s not just how much money Elizabeth, it’s know how and these people don’t have it, only REA and domain know how to get a site visible enough to work.

You can throw all the money you like at a site but it won’t work unless the operators have the required know how.

I agree snoop and you’d have to include realestateview.com.au in Victoria as it is very visible as it’sco branded with many Vic agents.
To even consider anything else is worth using is folly, My Home could have been ok if Mr Packer understood the Internet or how to source people that do, he can spend as much as he likes on that dog of a creation and I’ll give you a written guarantee that it will sink like a stone anyway.

Interesting comment Adam
RE the beta comment.
I think its a nice flag.
Not all users are web developer knowalls.
It sends a clear signal to a consumer that the site is in test mode,and having good ways to feedback user experience should be prominent.
Of course sites never stop development (except rea) …

Hello Peter,

Thank you for your review of the new homehound.com.au website.

As you have quite rightly pointed out, we made a conscious decision to provide users with a clean interface. Basic it may look, but that’s the beauty of it. Nothing to work out. Simple.

We have delivered quite a few new features in a quite understated way. Most are not shout-from-the-trees features, but things that simply make the experience less cumbersome for users. One example is the ability to scroll through images in the list view to help the user decide whether or not to view the full details. Another is the way we dedicate the home page to the user’s activity, instead of acres of advertising. In essence we wanted the site to just work for the user.

With all launches of a site of this complexity there will be teething problems. We have got a handle on most of them now and look forward to rolling out new features in fairly rapid succession over the coming months. For the record, planning began in August 2006, and technical development commenced in February/March 2007. We still have a lot of work to do with many more features to come, but we’re very proud of what we’ve achieved so far.

The proposition is still the same for Real Estate Agents – all agents are welcome to list their properties for free. So from a cost per lead basis, we’re always going to be the most cost efficient! I believe that we can also now claim to be the only viable national, free, non-media company owned property portal in the market. We provide a real alternative to paying fees to the two, err, make that, three largest companies controlling media in Australia.

I would also just like to say hello to “Sam”. Not sure of your background, Sam, but you seem fairly certain that we here at homehound.com.au have no idea what we’re doing. I tend to disagree – no surprises there! For the record, I have been involved in online real estate portals since 1998, and in fact worked on the development of the very first domain.com.au website. Some of our developers have been involved in online real estate for longer than that. Our SEO strategy draws on experience from dedicated SEO specialists with a long history of delivering for the Real Estate segment. So having said all of that, I believe we can claim to know a little bit more about the online real estate business than many.

Finally, I’d just like to correct one point you make, Peter. You have stated that homehound.com.au is owned and operated by major franchise groups. This is incorrect. You have clarified this in your first Note where you point out the partnership arrangement, however, I thought it pertinent to clarify the point. For the record, the site is run on a day-to-day basis by IPMG Interactive independently of the PPL partners, however, they are certainly partners in the overall scheme of things and are actively involved in development discussions and consulted regularly. Contrary to this being a hindrance, I would expect that input from the industry when making decisions on the direction of homehound.com.au would be of benefit to all real estate agents.

Regards to all,

Calvin.
Director of Product & Operations
homehound.com.au

Good Afternoon,

Calvin, can you clarify your position please?

” I believe that we can also now claim to be the only viable national, free, non-media company owned property portal in the market.”

Then a bit later on…

“For the record, the site is run on a day-to-day basis by IPMG Interactive independently of the PPL partners, however, they are certainly partners in the overall scheme of things and are actively involved in development discussions and consulted regularly. ”

Knowing what we do, that PPL and IPMG are partners in the site. Further that IPMG IS a media company. How can you claim that homehound.com is a “non-media company owned property portal in the market”?

Simply - Homehound is a joint venture between the formerly 3rd largest Print company in Australia, and the top 4 franchisors.

To spin it otherwise is misleading.

E