We were also a real estate agent that had our properties showing on myhome.

I remember when they first approached us, my boss was all excited because he surmised that anything backed by Microsoft was sure to win! I wasn’t so sure (after I saw the site).

All our staff agreed that the site was terrible. As someone said above, the distinct impression was that it was made by developers for developers. The site focused more on the ‘cool little things’ you could do than delivering the actual content in the easiest way possible.

Their salespeople seemed incredibly desperate to get us on board, and for a company backed by PBL and Microsoft the feeling you got from their business was that they were an empty shell.

We always had problems with Myhome not showing properties correctly and also had issues where they completely botched up the prices on our listings (some were displaying as only $195.00!!!). While this was Myhome’s fault, the customer/buyer didn’t know this and it was reflecting badly on us.

We disassociated ourselves with myhome for these reasons.

1. They were late into the market (most other players have been doing this for 8 years or more – there is little substitute for hard won battle experiences)

2. They offered little that was ‘new’ or different for the clients

3. The real estate agencies did not need another real estate web site (over in WA, there are the 2 obvious national portals, and 2 other strong local ones – 4 is enough, plus your own site = 5)

4. The site (search) itself was confusing and seemed ‘technology-driven’

5. Certainly (over here), they failed to get sufficient content to provide an adequate selection of properties for home searchers. In a survey of about 160 offices in central Perth, I could see only 1 on myhome.

I commend what they tried to do in some ways, but also they seemed (how it came across anyway) to be jumping on the bandwagon a little too late?

As you say above G-base will throw an interesting hand grenade into the markeplace… interesting times no doubt.

Let us take aside the ‘industry’ argument for a moment.

Can you please tell us why the consumers did not go to the site?

Let us remember the basics. Myhome was a business. It wanted to charge agents to list on the site. Agents are interested in reaching consumers with a view to getting leads. Myhome never had enough consumers to provide decent leads.

So whilst you may blame the industry.. I think the industry should actually blame you! Yes you personally. What were you doing all those months to drive consumers to the site?

What I find most interesting is that from an ‘Industry’ side.. Harcourts, Elders, Barry Plant, and most likely Raine and Horne, Century 21… all were shareholders. So this means that these corporate entities would receive money from agencies paying for Myhome subscriptions.

Think about it. If you are an independent agent, then you are paying quassi franchise fees.

If you are already a Franchisee of those shareholders, then you would have been paying your franchisor twice.

Now what agent in their right mind would want to follow either of those two options?

The one shot Myhome had to combat everything was to drive leads. But the consumers did not come. When they did, they found listings which had been sold many years prior, on a site they could not navigate.

And you wonder why the site never got traction?

Ex Myhome employee, can you please explain to us why some agents were paying their fees, and others not? What are you going to do to pay back the money to the agents who paid their fees?

The price increase comes in the form that the Domain subscription rate won’t be reduced and the Stayz nightly booking fee equates to over 70% of the Gross commission the agent would receive on the average booking (without conisdering the admin of sorting the bookings originating from Stayz and paying them as opposed to the bookings originating from other sources). Nice once fairfax! But then again, this is quite similar to what they did when they established commercialrealestate.com.au, when they shifted subscribers onto another site and then introduced fees for that site in addition to their standard fees.

Is it possible at all that realestate.com.au is the one who bends the agent over less often? Or is it just that REA is a bit slow and hasn’t increased their costs yet? REA at least always charged extra for commercial listings but has recently split holiday listings onto another site.

Just wait until both REA and Domain split the permanent rental listings onto other sites!

Bring on Google base I say!

“I just ask that before anyone makes a fool of themselves by posting irrelevant comments, just dig a little deeper and get the real reasons, rather than the ones you have put forward to make yourself feel better
, or justify your existence.”

Initially it had a developmental business model that it could co-exist with Domain and REA as a pay to advertise property portal.

At no time before and not until many months after the launch did MyHome management decide that it was going pear shaped and they should immediately commence introducing themselves to the real estate agents.

Who would ever launch a product without first consulting the key players that would determine their very own survival. Then of course they forgot that a couple of franchisors were already under an online contract with another portal (just a small oversight).

They let themselves down – and what was actually “irrelevant” was their very own businesss model. As for digging deeper (that is true) the JV partners got sick and tired of digging deep into their respective pockets. Which is why they “boned” MyHome – RIP!!

Maybe REA brainwashed us to ignore them.. ?? Maybe domain stole all their traffic.. ?? Surely it cannot be because the site was not any good.

Lets face it, nobody wants to be associated with a dog, and you are just trying to justify all the work you have invested into the portal. The problem is you are dealing with an educated audience. We are the people who were expected to invest on a monthly basis and we didnt.

Did myhome close because they are broke… Yes and No. The backers still have plenty of money so they did not go broke… not by a long shot. But myhome itself struggled to find clients and in the end, struggled to find investors or even a buyer. It was closed down before it threw away more money. Thats business.

I am sure there were individuals in the company who did a great job…. but it was clear to most people here that there were others who were operating on another planet. Which one were you?? Who releases a website without a link back to the home page?

Maybe your future employers will believe your assurances that you didnt work on failure.. but if it looks like duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck… its a ????

Wake up!

The list of Supporters/’Partners’ at the bottom of the front page is embarrassing. If I was the CEO of one of these groups I would be asking my logo be taken off the site immediately.

Still this serves as a lesson for those independent agents thinking of joining a franchise group.

Be careful which group you join. If you want a group that has a successful online marketing component to their franchise offering, then the Myhome ‘Partners’ are obviously not for you.