Comments on: Ninemsn goes with Domain

By: Sal Espro

Sal Espro — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:39:19 +0000

Paul,
I agree with you comment, “..if they really want to find a property in my area, they will”.
And that’s another reason to add to Greg and your information for agents not subscribing to more than one portal other than their own website. They can then spend their money and that of their vendors’ on value-adding particular listings and garnering more listings.

By: PaulD

PaulD — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:43:57 +0000

Let’s not get too caught up in the numbers Greg. Those 14 emails came from 8 people. Two of those 8 sent 5 emails regarding property management and the other 6 sent 9 emails on sales. So we didn’t have 14 people involved at all, only 8. We never have problems renting the few properties that become vacant. Our vacancy rate is less than 1%, so we are talking about 6 sale enquiries.

I take your point regarding the number of people that need to look at properties to generate 6 emails. In our case it has dropped to .6 of one percent in the last couple of months. Therefore there would need to be 1000 people look at the properties to generate 6 emails. Bear in mind the other 215 emails that on the same basis would need over 35,000 people viewing the properties to generate those emails. I know it’s all numbers, but if they really want to find a property in my area, they will.

By: Greg Vincent

Greg Vincent — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:02:02 +0000

Paul, that figure is actually quite scary. I know you say you have only had 14 emails from ninemsn.

What could that equate to your business in commission dollars?

That’s also 14 more people you can have in your database that you can communicate via email with for Free… BTW – I heard of a database being sold for a 12 times multiplier? That’s right 12 times.

The other stat that could also be overlooked is the small percentage of people who actually email the agent, compared to the number of visits you have to your listings.

We’ve often used the reporting function to show the number of visits to help the owners understand how many people have viewed their property online.

These stats help with getting price reductions. ( I’m not saying you can’t still use the new reduced stats.)

Let’s do the sums. If you say it’s only 6%, then if you’ve got 30 listings with an average of say 200 visits per listing then a 6% drop equates to 360 less visits to your listings.

Yet you are paying the same subscription fee. Sorry, I just don’t think that’s the right thing for any business to do to it’s loyal customers!

By: PaulD

PaulD — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:20:33 +0000

The Numbers: of the 229 emails we have received from REA in the three month period Aug- Oct. this year, 14 of them (6%) have come from ninemsn. Hardly a huge percentage. The ratios were the same for sales and property management. Now we may be higher or lower than other areas, but I bet the numbers are not that different from region to region.

By: Robert Simeon

Robert Simeon — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:48:42 +0000

Sal,

It is actually the agents decision how they intend to present themeselves and their respective businesses on the economic platforms and property portals.

We enjoy excellent success with the results that are collectively delivered to our business. There are absolutely economies of scale for a small real estate operator in the current environment. We use every available marketing method available that we believe to be of benefit collectively for our businesses, our vendors and purchasers. Not to also forget our landlords and tenants either.

By: Sal Espro

Sal Espro — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:22:44 +0000

Totally agree with you Greg.
My point was less about REA yet again cheating their client agents (and their client vendors), and more about why agents shouldn’t be supporting ‘hangers-on’ like Domain, Realestateview etc etc and why agents should use other marketing methods already available to them.

On your side,
Sal

By: snoop

snoop — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:12:31 +0000

Ninemsn gets most of its traffic from browsers and hotmail
pretty low quality traffic ,rea didnt get value for money and i guess domain are desparate to increase traffic so would have paid the big price.

By: Greg Vincent

Greg Vincent — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:34:25 +0000

Craig, The demographic of Ninemsn users would also be a very interesting stat to consider.

Due to the default home page settings, you’d imagine that Ninemsn should have a large percentage of the “new to technology – older generation” using their site.

This wouldn’t be such a critical demographic for Seek, but it’s a very important group of people for Real Estate Agents.

By: Craig Adams

Craig Adams — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 08:59:57 +0000

Interesting to note that the No 1. player in the online jobs market, Seek has also not renewed its arrangement with ninemsn either.

Appreciate everything that Greg has said but the fact is that ninemsn is no longer even close to be the big player it was a couple of years ago. They were calling the shots on price in 2006 and have come back to the big players in each of the online classified verticals this year looking for similar rates and have been sent packing.

I would say that Domain have probably got a good deal on click rates (you’d hope so but then again….) so as Greg has stated only time will tell. My money is on REA and Seek as ninemsn has dropped its act and it would seem its pants on price to get the likes of Domain onboard which would indicate some short term survival to me.

By: Greg Vincent

Greg Vincent — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 04:59:41 +0000

Sal Espro, You say “Who Cares?”… it mightn’t mean much to you but “I Care” and so should any agent that was promised a service, that has now been removed.

Agents pay REA subscription fees to get enquiries to their listings & REA raved on a few years ago about what a coup it was to be linked to Ninemsn as part of their sales pitch to agents.

If the visitor numbers to your listings drops because of this decision would you be happy to still pay them the same subscription fee?

If agents truly want to put pressure on these major corporations, they have to confront these decisions that ultimately effect agents.

I’m sick of seeing decisions get made by these big corporations without giving any thought to the impact it may have on their # 1 customers – the agents.

It’s like the stuff up that happened to REA’s email servers, did we ever hear of any agent getting a dollar in compensation for that stuff up? It was simply swept under the carpet.

Here’s a thought! Imagine if you told your vendor you were going to do a certain advertisement for them when you listed them, but you decided that you’re no longer going to provide that service to them any more…Would your vendor feel cheated & would you feel morally wrong for not living up to your promises?

I just wonder if REA have any feelings of guilt about removing this part of their service to agents…or once again don’t the agents rate in their decision making process?

If REA are no longer paying for the traffic from Ninemsn does that mean all the agents will get a discount? I doubt it…