Ryan O'Grady

Advice for New Real Estate Apps

by Ryan O'Grady, on 12th March, 2010 • 8 Comments

Advice for New Real Estate Apps

Recently, I had the joy of rebuilding the property exports for a new property listing system. This involved the tedious task of creating xmls for all the property data feeds to various real estate portals in Australia and across the World. With over 30 portals and some requiring a separate and unique xml specification, caused quite a headache for our developers.

There were 4 recurring issues which arose during this process and should be avoided by any new real estate application or real estate portal. These include; creating your own unique xml specification, requiring 3rd parties to sign confidentiality agreements, providing inadequate documentation and lastly, failure to provide upload confirmation reports.

  • Unique XML Specification – This has been a common mistake by new portals as they think they need to have their own unique xml feed specification. Although REA do not permit it, it is common knowledge that the REAXML is industry standard which is used/accepted by many existing portals (names withheld). Like any other developer we can set up an REAXML to a new portal in around 5 minutes. However, if a portal has their own unique XML then it could take days to write the XML and then days to test it.
  • Confidentiality Agreements – I’m bewildered why I’m required to sign a confidentiality agreement when all we are doing is sending an XML to a third party website. I can understand signing a Terms & Conditions for uploading agreement, but anything else is just a speed bump in the process to getting an XML in place.
  • Inadequate Documentation – Those portals who have their own XML specification need adequate and UP-TO-DATE documentation so developers can efficiently create the XML. Some portals do have excellent documentation while others have shocking documentation which is often out-of-date. IMPORTANT – Make sure your XML documentation is structured so it is easy to navigate and is up-to-date.
  • Upload Confirmation Reports – This is probably the most important aspect of running an efficient export/import system. These reports are sent back to the bulk loader after each XML has been parsed by the 3rd party portal. The reports highlight which properties have been added, updated or removed along with which properties had errors and what they are. Once again, REA have an excellent report system where they tell you the exact error for why a property was not added. As a further benefit, they also send a daily email to the real estate agency summing up the properties parsed for the day.

In my opinion the worst portals to export to are those controlled by the Real Estate Institutes. For some reason they believe having their own XML specification provides greater value to members. Most smaller portals accept the REAXML but only a few provide adequate upload confirmation reports which makes it hard to monitor the flow of properties.

For any new real applications it is important to reduce the barriers which allow them to receive property listings. There is no reason to “reinvent the wheel”, simply follow industry standard and use a system which is common practice.

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Ryan O'Grady

Scraping Property Listings

by Ryan O'Grady, on 10th December, 2009 • 11 Comments

Scraping Property Listings

A few months ago a client of mine received an email from a web application called myhousehunt. The site was scraping property listings from the major real estate portals and populating a portion of each listing on their website. They were then allowing property seekers to build a timetable for open inspections which could be printed or emailed to the user’s phone.

When i first looked at myhousehunt I noticed it was displaying listings from REA and Domain. I thought this was unusual as I doubt they had permission from either portal to do this. I recently visited the site and noticed they explicitly state that:

“MyHouseHunt will search for properties currently listed on Domain.com.au”

So it appears Domain have given the green light while REA in typical style, have unleashed their lawyers on the scraping site.

I’m always puzzled why REA will never share their content. What threat does a site like myhousehunt have on a real estate portal, in particular REA? Nothing, they display a few details of each listing with a link back to the original property on REA. All this will do is strengthen the REA brand and drive traffic back to their portal increasing those UB’s they’re always talking about. Thumbs up to Domain for embracing applications like this as it encourages greater innovation and the creation of cool and useful real estate applications.

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Ryan O'Grady

Domain’s RADAR

by Ryan O'Grady, on 23rd September, 2009 • 23 Comments

Domain’s RADAR

Today Domain announced the launch of their new search functionality RADAR. It is an extension of their existing search tool with additional options to allow the user to narrow their search for properties to include lifestyle features.

Additional lifestyle features property seekers can select include:

..transport, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, shopping centres, libraries, post offices, museums, high schools, primary schools, child care, golf courses, swimming pools, parks, hospitals, dentists, medical centres, police stations, airports, power stations, community centres, indoor sports facilities and more.

The tool then gives each property a rating out of 5 stars according to how well the property matches your criteria. They don’t mention how they calculate the rating but the tool is reasonably intuitive as it then tells you what features do or don’t match your criteria and also maps them in relation to the property. Read the rest of this article »

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Ryan O'Grady

Window Display Screens

by Ryan O'Grady, on 21st September, 2009 • 12 Comments

Window Display Screens

Notice anything different about the shop fronts of your competitors lately? Let’s hope not as you could be missing out on valuable leads as your competitors take advantage of interactive window displays.

Although window display screens have been around the real estate industry for a few years only recently the touch screen style display has become popular amongst agents, vendors and property seekers. The recent edition of the Australia Real Estate Bulletin has a lot on replacing traditional Window Display Cards with interactive window display screens.

There are basically two varieties you can install. The first is the window display screen which allows an agent to choose a number of properties to display and the screen rotates through this selection. The other type is an interactive display screen which allows a vendor or property seeker to browse ALL of an agency’s listings and even make an enquiry. From out the front of a real estate agency users can pretty much do what they would normally perform at their desk with their computer browsing an agent’s website.

Is this a benefit? Well, I’m never hanging around out the front of my local real estate agency so I would never use such a device. However, I can see a use for this particularly in tourist areas as people on holidays always have a tendency to look for real estate. Read the rest of this article »

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Ryan O'Grady

Single Property Websites

by Ryan O'Grady, on 16th August, 2009 • 17 Comments

Single Property Websites

Websites dedicated to an individual property listing are a common trend amongst real estate agents in the US. Many American agents use specific web based applications like vflyer, postlets and mymarketware to quickly and cheaply create a single property website. Single property websites aren’t really used by agents in Australia rather they appear to be opted by private sellers who can’t gain access to the larger Australia real estate portals.

So what is a single property website? It’s basically a website which is dedicated to a single property which is for sale or lease. Here is an example of a vflyer property website which is hosted on the vflyer website and also a postlets site. There are basically two types of single property websites, a subdomain or an individual domain website. Both vflyer and postlets offer a sub domain service which allows an agent or vendor to have a single property website as a subdomain of vflyer or postlets.

Mymarketware offers agents and vendors the option to have their single property website under a unique domain name which the agent/vendor can select. Although this option is a little more expensive because it requires more work to setup, it is a lot better for SEO if a descriptive domain name which reflects the location and type of property is selected.

What are the benefits of having a single property website for your listing(s)? A lot of the suppliers of these websites rant on about how having a single property website will improve the likelihood of a buyer finding the property on the internet. This is a little unrealistic given how competitive the online real estate segment is. Even when one of these sites is indexed by a search engine it will never rank above the real estate portals, most real estate franchises and any real estate agent in that geographic area who has a reasonable online presence. Unless you are lucky enough to secure a domain name which represents what a user will type into a search engine then i don’t see too many buyers finding the property website before they see it on a real estate portal or agent website.

But where I think single agent websites can help an agent or real estate agency is improving their online presence and SEO of their existing agency website, helping attract buyers and vendors to their agency. If you are creating an individual website for every single listing in your agency then an average agency would be creating 70 to 100 websites each year. These websites will be specific to the property type and suburb the property is located in and all will link back to the main agency website. Also, once a property has sold the status of the property will change to sold on the property website but the property website will remain on the web forever.

What does all this mean? This is great for your agency website SEO.  Over a period of time you will have a bundle of websites all with content, keywords and domain names specific to the suburbs your agency operate in. How this really helps your SEO is that you can link all of these websites back to your main agency website increasing the direct traffic it receives. Also, it’s these links from websites containing similar content to what your website contains which search engines dig and will improve your page ranking.

I’ve seen one service in Australia MyPropertyAddress who cater for this niche market but I’m not aware of any other existing services. If there are any others out there then please make yourself known!

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Ryan O'Grady

Mohbe – mobile phone real estate

by Ryan O'Grady, on 5th August, 2009 • 10 Comments

Mohbe – mobile phone real estate

Both Domain and REA have created mobile phone websites allowing users to search and view property through their mobile phone. However, I’m not aware of any agency websites which have been optimised so property seekers can view the agencies properties through a mobile device. This is all about to change due to a nifty web application called Mohbe.

mohbe_mobile_phone_real_estate

Mohbe allows real estate agencies in any country to have their own agency branded mobile phone website for all of their property listings. The mobile phone websites are viewable through any mobile phone which has an internet browser and access to the internet.

Mohbe specialise in providing real estate agents with mobile phone property listing websites without the agent having to do anything.

But this isn’t all that Mohbe offers agents and property seekers. What makes this product completely unique are the options available to a property seeker to get the property url into their mobile phone.

Each mobile phone property website has its own unique QR Code and Mohbe tiny url making it easy for property seekers to navigate to through their mobile phone.

Mohbe uses the latest in barcode technology by allocating a QR Code to each property. A property seeker will scan this QR Code using their mobile phone camera which will then automatically load the mobile property page in the phone’s browser. For those users who do not have a camera phone, they can quickly enter the Mohbe tiny property url into their browser eg Mohbe.com/3467. Agents enter their listings into Mohbe either manually through the interface or automatically via xml data feed from their real estate property listing company.

Now this is really cool as it means agents can display these QR Codes in all of their print media eg. Sign boards, newspaper ads, magazine ads, brochures, flyers and even in their window displays. Imagine taking a photo of a QR Code displayed on a property sign board and being able to view a complete virtual tour while your standing on the footpath. It also means agents can display more property listings with less property information reducing the cost of print marketing.

The only shortcoming I see with the application is that although the agent’s logo is included in the mobile property websites, the website is branded with the Mohbe blue which could conflict with some agents branding. I’d really like to see the application allow agencies to choose from a colour pallet, the background colour so it blends better with their agency brand. I also think within the interface they need some kind of summary of listings, accompanied with a way to sort property listings similar to the Domain or REA back-ends.

Putting these small issues aside, Mohbe is an innovative and useful application which should be embraced by the real estate community.

Note: Agentpoint was responsible for the design and development of Mohbe and has an equity ownership stake in it.

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Ryan O'Grady

Portal Enhancement Wars

by Ryan O'Grady, on 16th July, 2009 • 10 Comments

Portal Enhancement Wars

Following on from REA’s recent website enhancements Domain today replied by launching enhancements to their property page. From their press release:

What are the key changes to the property details pages?

  1. Clearer layout of information
  2. Increased agency branding and cross promotional opportunities
  3. Enhanced Enquiry process

How will you and your agency benefit from these changes.

  • Agents will be able to more strongly promote their listings to generate more leads.
  • Property seekers will be able to more easily identify properties of interest.
  • Enhanced agent branding and cross-promotional opportunities will offer your agents increased exposure of their listings at no extra cost.
  • The enhanced enquiry process, not offered by our competitors, aims to generate more quality leads to your business.

The property page is now a real tool and is a useful resource for property seekers. They can click to view a suburb profile, quickly access street view, view recent sales and see other properties listed by that agent. From an agents perspective it is great as their details are at the top of the page and in the “face of the user”. The enhanced enquiry process makes it easier for property seekers to submit an enquiry while the agent’s brand is highlighted through their listings at the bottom of the page.

Given the launch of Google it shouldn’t be too long until the next installment of REA enhancements.

Where do the majority of your property enquiries originate from?

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Ryan O'Grady

Domain continues innovation through iPhone application

by Ryan O'Grady, on 22nd June, 2009 • 7 Comments

Domain continues innovation through iPhone application

On the back of Domain recently announcing a partnership with 1Form, today they launched a very nifty iPhone application. I am lucky enough to own an iPhone so I eagerly downloaded the application and took it for a quick test drive.

The initial look and feel of the application is a much needed improvement on the mobile phone website which Domain currently provides property seekers (which is far inferior to that of REA’s). The layout, design, functionality and speed of the application is excellent highlighting some time and thought has been devoted to developing it.

A few features worth noting include:

  • Option not to include surrounding areas - Unlike Domain’s website, the user is provided with the option not to include surrounding suburbs in search results.
  • Results Ordered by Latest Listings - By default, search results are ordered by latest listings rather than featured properties.
  • Show More Results - Similar to how Twitter limits tweets. Search results are limited to 10 and at the bottom of the page the user has the option to select further results, reducing the time it takes for the page to load.
  • View Images - Users can view images in a slide show and can zoom in or rotate images, alternatively they can view all images in a thumb grid.
  • Add to favourites - Users can save properties they are interested in and quickly switch between favourites and search results.
  • Distinct Call to Action Options - The user has a number of options available to contact the agent. These include email, call their mobile and through their land line, making it extremely easy for the user to make that next step.

Any improvements needed? The application could pinpoint the users location through the phone’s GPS so the initial search can more quickly be performed. They could also include the property location on a map, an option to email a property to a friend and some way to email your favourites to yourself or another person.

There are a few teething issues. On a few searches it returned zero results, whereas I searched the same fields on my PC and I received 23 results. From my preliminary investigations this seems to be because of a property type issue as they are grouping types. This needs to be sorted out ASAP.

I really like how Domain have focused on the user’s experience rather than whats best for generating advertising revenue, resulting in an application which is a pleasure for the consumer to use. Lets hope they transfer some of this technology over to their mobile phone website!

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Ryan O'Grady

A Small But Timely Revamp For Realestate.com.au

by Ryan O'Grady, on 18th June, 2009 • 10 Comments

A Small But Timely Revamp For Realestate.com.au

Someone at REA has paid attention to the blogs around Australia and the recent improvements by Domain. As REA have just published a press release highlighting current updates to their site.

The new features include:

  • Cleaner home page and site design: The realestate.com.au site has been refreshed to give it a cleaner look and feel.
  • Improved navigation: The navigation menu has been simplified to drive more people to search your OFI and Auction times
  • New page layout for OFI and Auction Times (beta): The new page layout appears in a list format, making it even easier for potential buyers and sellers to see all the upcoming OFI’s and Auctions in their selected suburbs.
  • New ‘view results by inspection times’ (beta): The search results page can now be easily filtered by OFI time – property seekers can quickly sort the search results page to order the listings by the date and time of the next Open for Inspection.

The homepage looks a lot crisper with smaller text used for less important areas and JavaScript to control links. It appears they are trying to more easily allow the user to navigate to property pages rather than the non real estate and marketing pages. Adding OFI and Auction Times as an option in property results pages is great for property seekers as they can easily print or short list properties they are interested in viewing.

As indicated in their press release we can expect further updates over the next 12 months. It has been a long time between website updates at REA, which should make the next 12 months a very interesting time.

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Ryan O'Grady

Online Property Value Estimates

by Ryan O'Grady, on 9th June, 2009 • 3 Comments

Online Property Value Estimates

A previous article i posted looked at a web application called WalkScore. In the discussion which followed a good point was raised about the accuracy of the ranking system used to determine the Index score. This led me to think about the accuracy of other real estate related applications and whether they actually help the agent/vendor sell a property or deter property seekers from further investigation.

WalkScore bases its calculation on the distance a property is located from amenities. It has been argued it should include things such as the number of crossings, pedestrian bridges, steps and convenience for a pedestrian to walk around, not just the numerical distance from and to.

Zestimate home valuation is an estimated market value for a property computed using a priority formula belonging to Zillow. Zillow calculate this estimate through taking past sales data information for similar properties and combining it with the property information advertised by the agent or vendor.  Most agents/vendors would be a little dubious (and have every right to be) regarding the accuracy of the Zestimate property value. Zillow thinks otherwise;

“Our data shows that the majority of our Zestimate home valuations are within 10% of the selling price of the home.”

Zillow do however provide property owners with the opportunity to update their property facts which will result in a comparable vendor’s Zillow estimate.

Residex in Australia has attempted to duplicate the success of Zillow through their own property estimate portal Findmeahome. Findmeahome provides a price range for properties listed for sale in Australia and a rating for that property out of 10 compared to other properties listed in the street.

“Based on the great Australian tradition of “a fair go”, FindMeAHome.com.au provides you with the right price and gives you an ability to have your say.”

On a whole the listing price of most properties are between the property estimate but the price range of some estimates are just ridiculous. This property 2 / 119 Victoria St, East Gosford has an estimate between $384k and $1,418k which isn’t too helpful for a property seeker.

One property I looked at 3/28 Webb St, East Gosford had a price estimate of $352k to $367k and on RW it is listed at $372k the Residex rating is 8/10. Now surely, given the price is listed below the estimate it should have a rating 10/10.

I certainly look at all of these property value tools with a certain level of pessimism. I see them as gadgets to keep amused rather than an informative tool which users should rely on for factual information. It would be great to hear how agents view them and more importantly whether property seekers gain any value.

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