Some interesting survey data that just became available should be of help. A video marketing company in the US surveyed 1,304 real estate agents to see how much they spent. There isn’t a lot of info here, but what there is is gold.

One thing that jumped out at me: The agents surveyed said a significant portion of their listing budget was spent on newspapers, even though only 20.4 percent said they think this medium is “effective.”

Yet, 49 percent felt that online ads were “very effective.” The reason more agents aren’t putting their money where the results are is that they feel the vendors want print advertising.

Read the press release.

Read the eMarketer story.

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These are some graphs I have created using the tool. The graphs speak for themselves but there are a couple of things worth specifically noting. Look at MyHome since the money got turned off. Shane definitely has some work ahead of him just to return it to is previous traffic levels.

Also, have a look at the domain and REA comparison. REA really lost ground very late 2007 however they bounced back. I remember commenting on this at the time but have never revisited it. In recent months, REA looks to be more effected by the slowdown in the industry although this could just be the resolution of the graph too.

I could not help put in the trading post versus ebay graph given my recent post on Sensis. How they think they can compare their numbers is crazy. Interesting to see that whitepages and yellowpages traffic is down substantially over the past year.

Anyway.. on to the graphs (please note.. if you want to have a play yourself to get the actual traffic numbers you have to have an account or else you get the trend lines only, I think)

I shrinked the graphs so they appear on the web page better but have linked them to our image host so you can view the slightly larger versions yourself or you could even visit Google Trends and run your own report at Google Trends.

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TED has now released the Top Ten Talks of all time, I am sure this will be updated in the future, but it brings together some great insights and I hope you enjoy watching these. There are hundreds of talks here but listed below are the TOP Ten as voted by readers. You will see a young guy  (Jeff Han) whose technology is now used in everything from Microsoft’s Surface Technology to the iPhone. (more…)

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“As we understand it, Google is getting data through the Google Toolbar; if they are, it may not be easy for other companies to replicate such a large install base,” says Sandeep Aggarwal, a Collins Stewart analyst.

Yahoo are also about to follow with their own platform, however they do not have the same traffic measurement as Google. (more…)

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Fiasco : Humiliating Failure - a total failure, especially a humiliating or ludicrous one

This is to form a summary of what we do know to date, and what has been reported in the comments of the original post about www.realestate.com.au email delivery failure.

Realestate.com.au had a failure to “several of the email servers” and on Thursday they freed the stuck mail queues without any advice to agents which resulted in agencies around Australia being flooded with old email enquiries.

Because the enquiry emails give very little clue as to the date the buyer actually made the enquiry agents reported following up buyers as though they were fresh enquiries. Understandably buyers reactions ranged significantly. If REA had advised of the email problems immediately much of the embarrassment, humiliation and frustration encountered by agents could have been avoided.

Other than releasing the old email enquiries, not one initiative or announcement was undertaken by REA to advise agents of what had happened and to minimise the damage to agents. (more…)

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Now in many offices it is not unusual for salespeople to be handling enquries days and even weeks later but that is not a problem we normally have. At first nobody noticed and we went about handling the enquiries as they came in. Then a couple of buyers complained that it had taken us to long to get back to them, but the problem was we had only had the enquiry turn up in some cases minutes before hand.

Checking the email and in the top left hand corner REA places the date of that enquiry and for the example of this I am going to use, the enquiry was made on  the 8th of May yet was only delivered this morning at 8:01am on the 20th of June.

When this was brought to my attention I checked the email headers (which I will paste in full at the end) which reveals  that the delay appears to be happening inside REA servers. (more…)

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MyHome now will become a free listing website, although whether this is short term or long term I am not sure. It seems that Mr Dale has done quite nicely out of this deal, pocketing a good deal of $millions from the initial transaction and then buying it back later for a fraction of the price.

I do wish Shane all of the best with this new venture, it will not be easy, but now they can concentrate on actually making this site a worthy competitor. Time will surely tell us, if this will be the case.

Below is the contents of the letter sent to agencies across Australia
“We would like to advise you that myhome portal is still functioning perfectly as before. There has been a change of ownership of myhome, Shane Dale is the new sole owner of the assets of myhome.com.au and surroundpix businesses.

Regards,
The new MyHome team. ”

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The new model released this week–a faster 3G model at about half the price of the original model–makes me even more clear that this device will transform real estate.

What has to happen for the iPhone to bring workable real estate onto a mobile device for the first time?

A smart developer just has to create the applications. KCPB is funding promising application developers, and all applications will be for sale or free in the “Ap(plication) Store” for instant download and installation.

Watch the Apple WWDC keynote video to see some examples of iPhone applications that were created in just a couple of weeks. Once you see the examples in the video–from companies like eBay, Loopt and Major League Baseball–I’m sure you’ll be blown away.

Despite Blackberry’s, Palm’s and Nokia’s best efforts, I don’t see them catching up any time soon. Just imagine a Blackberry product launch in which new features are greated not just with polite applause, but with outright surprise, laughter and joy. But, if they do catch up, all the better for the real estate industry.

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A friend just pointed me to an article about how the Realtors lawsuit empowers virtual agents on MarketWatch.

Online Real Estate Agents Get Advantage

It’s the best written description of what’s going on that I’ve seen. Here’s the essence of it. For anyone wed to the traditional business model, it’s scary stuff.

“The Justice Department reached a tentative settlement with the National Association of Realtors that essentially forced traditional real estate brokers to give Internet-based agents access to home-listing information that they had previously been denied.

“Online real estate agents often charge discounted commission fees and let buyers review listings at their own pace, but for years those Internet-based brokers in many parts of the country could not access more than 800 Multiple Listing Services nationwide affiliated with the national Realtors group. An MLS is a database of regional properties for sale.

“The traditional argument against opening the MLS system to online brokers was that it would result in a significant cut in commissions for traditional real estate agents. Indeed, that’s precisely what government officials wanted.”

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Google Apps provides email, instant messaging, spreadsheets, word processing, presentation and collaborative team websites in an online cloud solution. Since its release it has been fairly US centric however I can remember reading somewhere a little while back that over 5000 small business in Australia have signed up for Google Apps. That might be set to increase now. (more…)

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