One of the big complaints by real estate agents when the Google Real Estate service started up was that the 2nd and 3rd tier real estate portals were actively pushing the agents properties to Google as well. Agents where uploading property portals like Homehound, Myhome and Onthehouse who were then turning around and re-uploading the same properties to Google

When several sources upload the same property to Google they apparently use the Pagerank system to work out who is the default page to display. Whilst all options are available when you press the “more info” option the majority of the traffic would be to the default link and in most cases the default link is not back to the agent, but to one of these portals. Ideally an agent wants this traffic to come back to their own website.

Many agents found the only way to guarantee their own link was seen on Google Real Estate was to stop uploading to these free portals. This was a little bit like cutting your nose off to spite your face. The free portals might not bring you the same enquiry levels as the top 2 subscription portals but as a value proposition it’s hard not to use them. It really became an either/or situation and unfortunately for the Free portals the power of Google’s reputation won out and they were shut off by an increasing number of agents.

We currently use Portplus and it’s as easy as unticking a box to shut off a feed to one of these portals.

There has been enough agents switching them off that Homehound now offers the option not to re-upload your properties to Google if you ask them and Myhome should have the option in place by next week.

If your considering canceling the free portals to improve your own results on Google Real Estate then I would suggest you give them a call first. Now you might be able to have your cake and eat it too!

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There’s been a lot of speculation about why REA & Domain haven’t uploaded listings onto Google Maps real estate search as yet & I believe the main reason why is Money.

Reading between the lines Google, REA & Domain could stand to make a lot of money out of this deal. My theory is that a deal could be happening based around an Adsense style commission paid to REA & Domain.

Google makes most of its money through Pay Per Click advertising.

As PPC advertising became more & more popular Google ended up with more ads than ad impressions simply because people rarely searched past the first page on Google.

To solve this problem Google came up with Adsense. This enabled Google’s ads to appear on external websites by paying the website owner a percentage of the advertising revenue generated from their site.

Since launching real estate search on Google Maps, Google have been able to expand their potential online advertising space at the mind blowing rate of approx. 1 million pages.

For example, when you click on any one of the listings on Google Maps & then click the More Info link you’ll see 4 tabs – Overview, Details, Photos & Web Pages.

On each of these pages there is a vacant area to the right or at the bottom that is just screaming out for the Sponsored Links to appear.

If you look closely on the Web Pages page you’ll notice that as more sites feed their listings on, more Web Pages links like Homehound, MyHome, the agents website, etc appear down the page. This automatically expands the currently vacant area on the right hand side of this page. Just waiting for Google to turn on the Sponsored Links switch.

At first I couldn’t understand why Google would display numerous feeds for the one listing but now I get it.

The whole thing is a brilliantly devised concept by Google to expand their PPC advertising space. They’ve even designed it in such a way that they get 4 or 5 pages of advertising per property listing.

With Google reporting hundreds of thousands of listings being uploaded since the launch that adds up to approx. 1 million pages that they can now advertise on, with a lot more on their way as they roll this concept out globally.

And with total control over where they place their sponsored links Google will want every listing they can get. That’s why Google won’t charge agents to upload their listings & it’s also the reason why they will allow private sellers.

When you think about it REA & Domain have virtually all the online listings in Australia & getting a feed from them would be extremely lucrative to Google & will add millions of extra pages to their site, so it makes sense that Google will probably pay an Adsense style of commission to REA & Domain to have their listings feed.

So all I’m wondering now is what’s the deal? And how much more money do REA & Domain stand to make out of real estate agents’ listings?

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At 3.00pm today Google launched their new real estate search mapping tool which allows real estate agents to publish their listings for free and the public to browse listings.

The site has a number of new features. Users of the site can search for listings in a particular suburb and then refine the listings down using the various option, the map reloads and only the listings appear with your search (as little icons on the map). Users can then review property information via map pop ups and then go directly to the agents listing from there.

Currently there are a number of listings driven from Homehound, Harcourts and other groups, however Domain and Realestate.com.au have yet to send their listings through the free service from Google.

You can send feeds via the API or from a variety of Feed types and research this by clicking here. Talk to your feed provider about getting your listings on Google, its free and it should bring your business some pretty good leads as Google Maps has some pretty good research tools already built in.

Business2.com.au will write a review in next few days. Below is the press release from Google Australia.

Google today announced the addition of a real estate search feature to Google Maps in Australia. The new feature allows real estate agents, franchise groups and portals alike to upload their listings directly to Google Maps at no cost, making them more easily discoverable by the millions of Google Maps users in Australia.

Increasingly, people are starting their search for a new home online – Nielsen research shows that 87% of Australian home buyers use the internet to research properties*. Google saw more than 35% growth in real estate-related searches from Jan/Feb 2008 to Jan/Feb 2009**.

“We know that many Australian home buyers already use Google Maps to help their house-buying and renting decisions, especially driving directions and Street View, and by making real estate listings available right in Google Maps we can drive qualified buyers directly to listings,” says Andrew Foster, product manager, Google.

“It’s a simple and free way for real estate companies to make their listings even more discoverable, and have them seen on an easy-to-navigate map.”

Real estate agents can visit http://maps.google.com.au/realestate to find out more information about how to work with Google to have their listings appear on Google Maps.

The new feature lets potential home buyers enter a city or suburb and see available listings represented by markers or small circles on the map. They can then refine their search by price, type of property, bedrooms, bathrooms, and parking. The map will automatically update with relevant listings when panned or zoomed to another suburb, and when the search criteria is changed. Clicking on a marker or a small circle will provide more information about the listing, as well as the contact details of the listing agent and a link to their website.

President of the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia, Rob Druitt, said agents and property managers in WA would welcome the opportunity to have their listings searchable on Google Maps.

“The real estate profession, perhaps more than many others, has become strongly focused around IT and the use of websites over the last decade. The evolution of the internet has transformed the sector, such that buyers, sellers and renters are much better informed and have easy and quick access to images and contacts. Indeed, this is now the high expectation with property consumers.

“Agents are keen to embrace this, as they are always looking for new and different ways to increase exposure of their listings without runaway expenditure. The opportunity presented by Google can only help in this regard,” Mr Druitt said.

The original Google Maps prototype was invented by four engineers in Sydney: Lars Rasmussen, Jens Rasmussen, Noel Gordon and Stephen Ma, all of whom still work in Google’s Sydney engineering centre. All over the country, Australians use Google Maps to find addresses and local businesses, see satellite imagery, obtain driving directions, and create and share personalised maps, making it the most popular online maps site in Australia according to Nielsen NetRatings (May 2009).

Note: Google Australia will answer all reasonably related questions if you clearly include them in comments below.

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This afternoon I was lucky enough to receive a press release from Homehound highlighting the recent updates they’ve made to their website. I don’t often use Homehound (as the map search irritates me) but after seeing what they’ve done I must say I was impressed! From their press release:

Finance Centre – Where users can search for providers of credit cards, home loans, compare loans and obtain other information about borrowing. Let me say, this Finance Section brings to shame the websites and their functionality of most mortgage providers in this country.

Share Accommodation – Other major portals allow users to post free ads and Homehound has followed suit. But what’s different is, Homehound appear to have done a deal with a 3rd party company Easy Roommate to share their data in return for Homehound users entering their ads through the Easy Roommate website.

Walk Score – We all know what this is but for those who don’t, users can search the neighbourhood around a listing and receive a WalkScore regarding the properties location.

SMS Property info for FREE – Great if you don’t have internet access on your phone but want property details at a future date. Receive an sms with the property details to your phone.

Apply for Rental Properties – My favourite, rental seekers can now apply for a property through the Homehound website. Once again, Homehound have chosen to use a 3rd party company 1Form to allow users to submit rental applications. 1Form has been around for a few years but over the past 12 months has really begun to penetrate agencies and finally portals in Australia.

1Form allows rental seekers to submit an online rental application for a property which is then emailed to the property manager. If the rental seeker applies for another property (as long as 1Form is featured) the rental seeker can submit their same rental application for that property. A great idea isn’t it, no more messy paper applications for property managers and the rental seeker completes one online application for all properties.

It’s terrific to see a portal improve their interface and the experience they offer their users. It’s even better when they do this by embracing 3rd party technology supplied by market leading companies. This proves you don’t need to spend thousands on developing technology which already exists nor purchasing companies which have created it!

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Over the last few months it has become increasingly aware to me that Australia’s largest real estate portals are toying with the idea of playing with their fee structures charged to agents for advertising their vendors listings.

Currently realestate.com.au charges a flat fee and domain.com.au charges fees dependant on your area (city or country) and their so called ‘popularity’ in these areas.

So why would they be doing this? Because they want to make it fairer? Guess again muchumbo, this is all about making more money for their companies/shareholders. You can argue that this is fair enough, as this is what they exist to do. Howeve, they have this opportunity only becuase agents support them and without these agents, they would not attract visitors and therefore 3rd party advertisers like banks and those pathetic what price my house websites.There are some valid arguments for maybe one of these models, but they have to tread very carefully.

So lets look at some current models and possible models or fees.

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We are all too busy looking forward that we sometimes forget to look back.

I needed to find an old article recently in the archives recently and came across some articles that I thought would be worth a revisit. I started around 18 months ago and looked forward about a year and came up with the following little gems:-
Realestate.com.au release REA Labs
This technology sandpit as REA call it is as Peter pointed out at the time, a complete rip off Google Labs and appears to have dont nothing since the day it was launched. Not even a vista sidebar gadget. The lack of action appears to make a mockery of the original “Global Innovator” tag they put on themselves at the time. My browser tells me this page has not been updated for around 9 months or so.
Google to Launch Real Estate Beta in 2007?
2007 looked as though it was going to be Google Real Estate’s year but not only did it not arrive, but we are on the back half of 2008 and there seems no solution in sight. Will it still happen?
Private selling sites – growing up!
Zero Agents produced a private selling site with a bit of style however in hindsight the anti agent rhetoric has proven to be full of hot air, at least in our neck of the woods. I seen my first zeroagents sign the other day. Has anybody seen zeroagents make an impact in their marketplace?

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There have been a few whispers circulating that MyHome and Homehound are about to merge or are at least in talks of a merger. I don’t know how much weight I can lend to these whispers but it would be interesting on a number of issues.

I hope they do to be honest and I hope MyHome use the Homehound developers, who I must say have done a pretty nifty job of their website. Homehound is now more popular than MyHome (ouch) in terms of users, but it is their website I like the most. It really is a nice little site.

The only downside of all of this is the ownership issue. I just cannot see any portal working that is owned in full or in part by real estate agencies (franchises or not) unless everyone has a fair and equal share. If these two companies do merge, I hope (fingers crossed) they use the Homehound website and systems, as it still hurts for me to look at MyHome (although it has improved a little).

Other news:
My associate writer on business2.com.au, Dave Platter, has just welcomed a new child into his family, so congratulations to Dave and his lovely wife. Lets just hope the child and mother never hear the words “he looks just like his father”.

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It amazes me what people will do from time to time with their Google Adwords Marketing. However, this one from Homehound I doubt will endear them to the many agents who are not partners.

It seems that Homehound are targeting non partners and using their business names in Google Adword campaigns. So if you did a search for say First National Palm Beach or Ray White Sydney then a Homehound Advert appears. This much is fair play, what is not fair play is using these companies names in the actual Google Advertisement and then telling them to look at Homehound.com for listings.

Note: Tried this for LJ Hooker and no Google advertisement – a clean slate, seems Mr Hooker is strong on protection (settle E)

It is just another case of being too smart by half.

If a competitor of mine used my business name in search results to bring up their company then I would be fine with that, but if they also used my name in the advertisement I would be furious!

So, it is either an embarrassing gaffe by Homehound or another one of these silly adwords companies that promise the world and deliver litigation costs everywhere. This is not the first time this has happened and the big boys in Australia have been caught out as well in the past, but please, after all of the litigation around the world on this one, you would think companies would learn!

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Homehound.com today relaunched a new site with a real Web 2.0 feel. I actually like many features of this site and some I do not like at all. Whilst there is nothing new, it is the first portal of note to actually launch a front line offering with this technology. The site looks a little basic, but I think this is deliberate and it is clean!

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After reading the article in The Australian it may seem to be getting worse for MyHome as from what I have read it looks as though the equity deals that have been mooted have reached a major impasse with many of the franchises not able to take a stake in MyHome after inking a deal years ago with Homehound.

To me it all comes back to the inexperience of many executives in relation to the real estate industry. Here are some things that any new players have to get through their collective heads first.

1. You are not going to find any new buyers/tenants for agents, statistics shows that anyone and everyone involved in this market has already found a place to search for properties, so all you are going to do is take visitors away from other portals.

2. Deals with franchise head offices can seem like a good idea, but really the investment needed has to go deeper, they need to be able to put people on the ground and in the faces of the principals of these offices to gain any real traction

3. You should never, ever, ever start spending big money on promoting a real estate portal with less than 30% of the listings of the main portals REA and Domain. You might get them to visit once but getting them to come back is a stretch when REA and Domain already have much more content. You need to spend 18months to 2 years gaining content and do soft promotions of a site, once you reach 60+% then start your big spending.

4. Think Different. If you spent all of your interface thoughts on creating a site that places the user of the site as number one you will gain ground. MyHome failed on so many counts, yes it has some pretty nifty features but it is nothing new. The first look should be Google’s interface, clean fast and efficient and one that users are accustomed to. Remember Google are not in the pretty market, but they are clean and fast.

5. Forget 100% about 3rd advertisers on your site to begin with. If you must concentrate on branding mortgage calculators, insurance calculators and local results. Once you build popularity add some other advertising, but make 100% sure it has the benefit of the user in mind.

6. Give Equity at the Office, after all these are the people that make the final decision about where they spend their money. I doubt too many principals or directors get excited about you giving head office equity. History has shown that the actual office receives nothing from these deals except for maybe a discount.

7. Being Cheaper. Agents at the office level do not care a jot about you being $500 a month cheaper than REA if you bring in no buyers/tenants.

8. One thing amazes me about all these new entrants is this limited time free deal. You should be damn well free and you should be free until you can actually bring in business on a regular basis and if this is 1,2,3,4 or even 5 years then so be it. MyHome have no choice but to extend their free deal and this will keep being extended until they know they can actually get money out of agents.

9. Have only one package and guarantee it from the word go. If you had a guarantee to all agents that there will only ever be one price point for advertising properties then agents will not have to worry about future, silver, gold or platinum deals. Make the agents compete for the quality of what they provide, the text content, the photos, the movies, the plans – that is the difference today between the also crans and the quality agents – not whether their listings appear higher than their competitors!

10. Stop telling us how revolutionary you are and show us how revolutionary you are. The Internet gives complete control to the user, you will soon know if they like you, especially if there is competition that this market desperately needs. At the moment REA and Domain are in control and there is nothing I can see out there that is going to change this. You are not going to get any free rides from the press, if anything it will only get worse with the new media ownership laws, so you have to play this game by inches, win over the agents at office level, tell consumers about it once you get the content and have an interface worthy of a change and then start ringing the till!

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