As reported in the weekend Financial Review it seems MyHome will be closing its doors at the end of the month. This might be no surprise to those close to MyHome but to me it really goes down as the Chicken Heart Award of the year.

PBL don’t launch too many products that fail so dismally, but MyHome is another we can add to Mr Packers list of failed new ventures, and his scorecard reads dismally since he took over/pets projects.
Microsoft were also armed length involved, although insiders tell me they have never seen a Microsoft representative grace their floors.

So now we are down to Realestate.com.au, Domain.com.au and the fabulous little engine that could Homehound.com.

Myhome failed because, well it just truly stunk as a model/platform and is a lesson in how not to build a real estate portal.

I am sorry for the people that put their heart and soul into the venture, the sales people, the developers and anyone else that now has to look for a new place of work. As for the executives that started off this bomb, well they are probably well placed as CEO’s of some other ‘exciting’ new venture in another industry.

Time for someone to actually do something brave, that has the right model for agents across Australia. Did I mention all agents? Well yes, the next venture should steer clear of doing deals with large franchises and look at the industry as a whole.

Rest in Embarrassment MyHome! (CVC and CMH). Sometimes we don’t like what we hear, but truly great businesses/people understand how to take criticisms on board and adapt, then there is MyHome.

Ouch!

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”.

The REA today released a massive increase in revenue (50%) and 68% EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation) for the 6 months ending 31st December 2007.

Today REA operates in 12 countries and controls 18 real estate websites, 8 print publications and a variety of other software tools. Here is a snapshot of their Australian results. (more…)

Microsoft got out the the moneybox this week with a bold AUD 50 billion bid for advertising giant Yahoo. What this means for the Australian market is anyone’s guess but as Wired Magazines report “Do Two Losers Make a Winner?” is probably bang on in relation to search and advertising. Yahoo are aligned with Channel 7 and Domain whilst Microsoft are aligned with Nine and MyHome.

This will basically leave two companies slugging it out for search advertising, but for me the race has ended for now and it will take someone new and something innovative to topple Google.

Every year since 2004 I have been adding my own dumb and dumber awards. Usually is it a hard slog getting so many out the door, but why was 2007 different? Anyway sit back and have a giggle at some of the dumbest moments in real estate and technology for 2007.

PBL & MICROSOFT
1. It was without doubt the most anticipated launch of 2007 and is without doubt the worst major real estate website in Australasian history. I still cringe when looking at it. How could two major companies, Ninemsn and Microsoft get something so drastically wrong? Agents found themselves subscribed to a site they had never subscribed to, with listings sold years earlier. Agents also found that agents who no longer worked at their agency were listed alongside listings no longer under their agencies control.

2. MyHome struck a cord with only themselves and thus will fade further into oblivion in 2008 unless someone steps in and makes some radical changes. MyHome incorrectly perceived themselves as pretty cool. The standout memory for me was Senior Management in the Applesque (Steve Jobs) photo pose splashed in newspapers across the land. Soon, after all senior management had gone, the site tried in vain to claw back some respectability.

3. What do you do when you have a website with only 30% of your competitors’ listings and exactly the same data within that small percentage? What do you do when statistical data tells you that people stay on your website for less time than it takes to boil a kettle? It seems MyHome’s idea was to spend millions of dollars just telling everyone about it. When will it run out? Well, as soon as the people paying the bills ask one very simple question “What are we getting in return for our money?”

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