Comments on: They are at it Again! – Realestate.com.au Price Rises 01/08/2010

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 00:39:38 +0000

Hi Glenn

I note your comment: ‘After getting a fantastic result when asking for agents to send in their traffic results for their accounts I was able to compare rural, suburban and metro agents right across Australia in all states and not a single agent received higher property views from the day of the change over.’
We are currently having hassles with Real Estate Com and doing some number crunching on whether it is worth staying on board. As we are a rural agent I would really interested in knowing what you learnt about rural agencies and how their stats rated. Our stats are not great – even harder to understand now and the figures spouted at us by REC do not match ours.
This is compounded by REC wanting us to pay subscription for each office (a number within) same postcode while others have one office that spans 110′s of k’s. What’s to stop an agent having a vitual office that lists all the properties? According to REC that would be one office. A very weird way of calculating subs and for small rural agents a fast way to go broke on marketing that may or may not deliver results – and certainly REC do not make it easy to find out whether those results are actually happening.
Any info you provide would be helpful.
Thanks!

By: Mac

Mac — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:28:05 +0000

Further to a post on REA’s facebook, I know of a buyer whose REA alerts stopped after the relaunch!
Does anyone else think that from a buyer’s perspective alerts in general are very tedious? e.g. It’s not unusual for a buyer to register with a few agencies as well as the major portals? Isn’t this inefficient apart from the alerts being delivered in so many different formats…? How do you keep track of the ones you like if they’re all on different systems? etc etc

By: Sal Espro

Sal Espro — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:22:37 +0000

Bloody funny video *L* (Don’t think much of the site its advertising tho – Who is funding all of these portals? Surely it’s good money after bad!)

Ps How do you post on REA’s facebook/any facebook? There doesn’t seem to be a link e.g. Under that homepage post…?
Perhaps they have put up a ‘read-only’ barrier to too old an’ gnarly types like me!

By: Glenn Batten

Glenn Batten — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 06:31:52 +0000

Yes.. funnily enough someone posted it to the Realestate.com.au facebook page yestwhich has triggered a poll by realestate.com.au to see if users want posts by third party companies removed.. all very funny

http://www.facebook.com/realestateAus

Realestate.com.au have let it get out of control and everybody is using it to post their business on…. now even the opposition

By: Greg Vincent

Greg Vincent — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 06:27:29 +0000

Speaking of FREE, have you seen this? http://video.thehomepage.com.au/

By: Malcolm Brown

Malcolm Brown — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 03:35:45 +0000

I believe necessity is the mother of all invention / creation, based on this I expect that when the majority are fed up with the continual price increases a Free Online portal will be available.

I would not hesitate to support another company as our problem in Qld is REA has no competition at the moment

We must see change & we must see it soon !

By: Kon

Kon — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 04:36:45 +0000

Whilst realestate.com.au is the dominant player,of a duopoly,they will continue to be at it!Their pricing structure, is contrary to the world wide
trend of “free to list” RE portals.

By: Glenn Batten

Glenn Batten — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:43:33 +0000

OK.. Feature properties have now increased from $115 to $186 per month

Thats a massive 61% price increase.

What I am most surprised about is the push to get agents on the feature all option where you will be paying well over $120 per property. For our agency if we kept every listing we have as a feature property all the time it would represent about $140,000 per year.

As you can imagine the Account Managers are being battered black and blue on the front line as they educate the industry on these price rises.

By: Vic

Vic — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:12:05 +0000

All the more reason for agents to now consider their options and go for the quality “free to list” portals be they total property or niche market sites. Examples of some new entrants making a mark are My Home in the total property section and Million plus and Waterside Property Sales in the Niche Market area.
These give real cost effective choice to agents, whilst adding to the exposure and catering for more targeted markets. All agents as part of their marketing strategy should consider listing with them whilst rationalising their use of pay to list site over time.
In due course they might be surprised at the “real” value they will get from only listing with free portal sites.

By: Vic

Vic — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:10:41 +0000

All the more reason for agents to now consider their options and go for the quality “free to list” portals be they total property or niche market sites. Examples of some new entrants making a mark are My Home in the total property section and Million plus and Waterside Property Sales in the Niche Market area.
These give real cost effective choice to agents, whilst adding to the exposure and catering for a more targeted markets. All agents as part of their marketing strategy should consider listing with them whilst rationalising their use of pay to list site over time.
In due course they might be surprised at the “real” value they will get from only listing with free portal sites.