The smart agent should always be looking to list stock that matches hot buyer activity. In 2009 this space was largely dominated by first time home buyers (given the well publicised FHOG), but what buyer groups are set to be hot in 2010?

A recent survey from the Bureau of Statistics and RP Data confirmed that upgraders are most likely to be the largest buyer group in 2010, along with an increase in investor activity.

The ABS Housing Mobility Survey suggests that a massive 45% of Australian home owners feel their homes are too small. The survey was conducted when interest rates were twice today’s levels, and upgrading was not as financially viable for many home owners, but with interest rates now significantly lower (despite the three recent small increases) it’s no wonder that upgraders are predicted to be very active in 2010.

So what do these buyers want? In addition to a bigger property, they also want a better quality property that is close to shops, cafes and transport and in a quieter location with better security.

Investors are also likely to also be in the marketplace in high numbers next year. The same survey also revealed the main reasons tenants are unhappy with their current homes: poor condition, lack of security, noise levels, traffic levels and not being close enough to shops and transport. In addition, 25% complained their property was too cold.

In short, tidy properties that are secure, on a quiet street (but still close to local amenities), preferably north facing (with light, bright living spaces, balconies and backyards) and within 15kms of a major CBD will be like gold dust in 2010, as smart investors should flock to them like bees around a honey pot.

Best of luck for 2010.

1 Comment »

When Telstra paid AUD $636 million for he Trading Post in 2004 many questioned yet another wasted acquisition for the Telco giant (the list is long). Today those questions have been vindicated as Telstra has now shut down the 22 print versions of the Trading Post to concentrate on the online edition. Another hit will come as many visitors to the website would have come from the print versions and the final blow maybe the poor structure of the Trading Post website – as only last year I attempted unsuccessfully to post a product (a free trial offer – that wasn’t actually free) and gave up after I could not work out how to post (it kept directing me to pay).  So I missed out on saying the phrase ‘tell him he’s dreaming’ all because a special offer I clicked on didn’t turn out out be that special after all.

As for another ‘dreamer’ Ron Walker is trying to paint his tenure at Fairfax as a savior telling ABC PM, “If we had continued to rely on the cash flows from the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and the Financial Review, the company wouldn’t have existed today, so, it’s paid off for us”. Yes Ron, paying $700 plus million for a ‘New Zealand only’ classifieds site saved Fairfax! Fairfax has some great opportunities but the window is closing very fast and buying up expensive digital assets that do not even cover the interest on the loan to buy that same asset is not the answer. I have no idea what Ron Walker has done in his time on the Fairfax board, but I can assure you he will not be remembered as a savior!

It truly dumbfounds me how large organisations such as Telstra, Fairfax, PBL or News Limited rarely ever create a unique product from scratch. They are all very good at buying assets at the height of the market and selling or getting out at the bottom of the market. These companies already have huge traffic to their major sites and massive databases in the classifieds arena, be it in cars, jobs, houses or general classifieds., so it should be relatively easy for them to create successful new products and increase shareholder value.

They need to get out of the habit of buying up websites for 100’s of millions of dollars and invest a few million each year in a ‘Black Ops’ style tech team to come up with new and exciting products from existing databases/systems they have.

This team should be able to tap into (read) any database and should be able to create new products from scratch without someone telling them ‘no you cannot do that, this will affect this or that’. The idea is that you create new products and test them in markets across your digital assets. This team should be able to go and meet with any division of the organisation and be granted access to any data. Yes, you must have some oversight, but that is at the end of the process, not at the beginning – if a product doesn’t fit – or is too risky – it gets shelved.

The alternative is to continue dying a slow death and live in denial. There does come a time when banks will abandon these companies or their money will run  out and for some of them the only way to survive will be to do what Telstra is doing and selling off or closing down assets.

This is the digital era and web/mobile based products will be everything to these companies in less than 10 years.

27 Comments »

Before Web 2.0, if you provided good service it was widely regarded that people would tell a handful of their friends about their great experience. But, if your service was poor or you did something wrong then they would tell 20 people.

Well, what used to be Word of Mouth, has now become World of Mouth, simply because it is now very easy for people to share their customer experiences with their friends over the web. Read the rest of this article »

14 Comments »

SEO Series

This article is the third in the series. The first article introduced the concept of SEO and focussed on the initial tasks and housekeeping to prepare your website to improve its SEO and monitoring that improvement. The second article concentrated on Referral Building and how to increase the authoritative value of your website. This article will concentrate on the very important task of keyword research. Read the rest of this article »

2 Comments »

A few posts in recent months have focussed on the concept of the virtual agent.  Dave Platter first commented on events in the states and how that might effect the local industry in a post titled “Victory for Virtual Agents in US Could Lead to Threat to Traditional Agents in Australia”

Dave followed up with “The Rise of the Virtual Real Estate Agent” and then again with ”Inside of the Mind of a Road Warrior a Real Estate Agent Who Replace Her Office With Technology”

During all the discussion Dave came up with a good definition of a Virtual Agency :-  ”Agency whose principal storefront is a website, that acquires and serves customers principally online, that serves either or both buyers and sellers. May also be a discount agent.”

Many agents have a great virtual presence but nobody for mind could be considered as a true Virtual Agent. Teena Andrews from Dave’s third post was really more of a remote worker to a bricks and mortar agency and Dave called her a “Road Warrior”.

The other day I had call from Dave Paddington, a friend who had left the real estate industry in July last year selling his rent roll and equipment, or so I thought. The call was over another matter but the conversation quickly turned to his new business. It turns out he had not left the industry at all but had been busy developing a Virtual Real Estate Group called Uhoo –  www.uhoo.com.au. A franchise that if Dave has his way will place a virtual agency right in the backyard of many traditional agencies.

I fired off some questions to Dave that you might find interesting. Read the rest of this article »

8 Comments »

Back in November the Google Vans were seen running around some of our capital cities photographing the streets to provide a 360 degree panoramic view right down at the street level.  Today Google Street View goes live in Australia but what everyone assumed at the time was that like the US, we would only have the large capital cities on Street View.  Newspapers are reporting that Google’s goal is to map virtually all streets in Australia including smaller and possibly even major highways.

For the next week we will be no doubt be bombarded with comments in the media about privacy concerns the same as when Google Maps was initially released but it will not take long to die down.

Personally I have found that up till now mapping has not been as a bigger impact with real estate online as thought it was going to be but Street View has the potential to become huge. Street View will allow buyers to really narrow down the field when looking for homes when used on top of the substantial number of internal photos already on most listings.

What a fantastic tool for our industry and there are dozens of way an agent can use this. The race will be on between portals and networks to integrate this feature into their websites.

Editor Note: Domain had this up and running yesterday

13 Comments »

This site seems to have been around for well over a year but I have only just discovered it and thought that there must be plenty of others who have not stumbled across it yet. The website is www.jenman.org

The site owners are also conducting an adwords campaign to spread the word against Mr Jenman.
It is a collection of articles from numerous sources about Jenman and includes the parodies of the Jenman slogan “Promoting Himself in Real Estate” and one of Jenman’s pet quotes….. “Stay Safe – Don’t Sign Anything from a Jenman Agent”.
Read the rest of this article »

41 Comments »

After my last post I was asked to look more closely at traffic trends to realestate.com.au over the holidays (thanks, Glenn and others). What really happens? Is it different by state? This post is in response to those questions.

(Note, this post is in direct response to requests for info. I’m not trying to force realestate.com.au down anyone’s throat here. Also, my apologies for the different chart sizes; I’m still getting the hang of inserting those.)

Here are the key results:

Regarding leads, I was frankly surprised. I’ve provided the numbers as well as the chart, so you can make sure I didn’t screw up the math.

Read the rest of this article »

5 Comments »

Santa Claus: He’s easy to believe in, because when you do, you get lots of gifts. There’s a clear financial benefit to closing your eyes to reality in the case of the bearded fat man.

There are other Christmas-time myths that aren’t so beneficial. Yet, some people believe in them despite the cost. For example, most people know that traffic to realestate.com.au (and our similar sites around the world) is usually a bit lower in December.

The mistake comes when they assume the same is true in January.

Read the rest of this article »

22 Comments »

Dave from the REA Group here.

My thanks to Peter for the invitation to post on his blog. I’ve been an avid follower of it and am happy to support his efforts to make business2 even better. I’ll do my best to contribute something positive.

I didn’t want my first post to be about me or the REA Group. Instead, I thought I would post on the most fascinating article I’ve read about real estate in the last several years.

Read the rest of this article »

2 Comments »