You be the judge…are Lawyers Real Estate breaking the law or not?

As a licensed real estate agent within the state of NSW, if I was to open a business as Greg Vincent Lawyers or Greg Vincent Solicitors, etc without the right accreditations in place then how long do you think I could remain conducting a legal practice?

Yet, Peter Mericka of Lawyers Real Estate has either found a loop hole in the Victorian agency licensing legislation or Lawyers Real Estate has simply been placed into the too hard basket and has been allowed to continue to practice under the business name Lawyers Real Estate for the past 4 – 5 years without having undertaken any formal real estate licensing… That’s right! 4 – 5 years without a real estate license.

Either way, judging by Peter Mericka’s statement within his video on Today Tonight below and a letter from Robert Guthrie of the NSW Fair Trading Property Services Licensing posted on the Australian Real Estate Blog it would appear that Lawyers Real Estate may be looking to expand their real estate operation into other areas and possibly interstate.

Now I don’t know if it’s simply because of the name of his business that the industry bodies are too scared to take Peter Mericka on or whether there is in fact a loophole within the current Victorian legislation which entitles him to legally continue to operate in this manner as Lawyers Real Estate?

But if there is a loophole, is this business model what agents can expect to see more of into the future?

As a licensed agent I have invested a lot of time and money to achieve my licence and remain licensed.

I continue to pay annual renewal fees and have to undertake ongoing training to obtain the required CPD points required to continue to hold a real estate licence year after year. After watching the Today Tonight story about Lawyers Real Estate, I’m starting to wonder what on earth I’m paying the fees for.

I have to say that I agree with one thing that Peter says in the Today Tonight interview, “the people who matter are the real estate consumers”.

Which leads me to wondering if something did go sour with a transaction via Lawyers Real Estate would the consumer be protected by the Victorian Property Fund? Or is there a different fund that they can make a compensation claim through?

Listings appearing on realestate.com.au

And then there’s the issue about whether Lawyers Real Estate should be allowed to upload their listings onto realestate.com.au as they currently do.

Under the latest version of the General Terms and Conditions for Residential Subscriptions to www.realestate.com.au it clearly spells out who can upload onto their site…

2.1 You represent and warrant in respect of each property you list on our web site that:

(a) you are the holder of a current real estate agent’s licence in the State(s) or Territory to which your use of the Service relates;

(b) you have a signed authority to sell from the owner or vendor (such as an Agency Agreement or Authority to Sell); and

(c) you are authorised to make available the material uploaded or submitted to use the Service;

(d) you will not allow another real estate office in your real estate group to list the property using your subscription. Where a proprietor of a property authorises multiple real estate offices in your real estate group to list a property you acknowledge that:

(i) this does not entitle you to authorise any other person (including, without limitation, any associated offices in your real estate group) to make use of the one subscription; and
(ii) any such conduct is in breach of these Terms and Conditions; and

(e) you are providing the full range of agent services (as set out in our Private Listing Policy).

Whilst Lawyers Real Estate don’t appear to comply with this section of realestate.com.au’s T & C’s and their ability to continue to upload onto REA is up to the respective legal departments to sort out, one thing I noticed is that Lawyers Real Estate appears to have very little regard for wanting to comply with some of realestate.com.au’s AUP.

Under the realestate.com.au Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) – Residential, it would appear that REA don’t allow other website addresses to be promoted within the copy text of a property being advertised yet Lawyers Real Estate are currently including the URL www.SLOD.com.au within the body of the property text when uploading their listings which appears to be in breach of 4.1.6 the Misuse of fields.

Here’s a screen capture…http://screencast.com/t/YmU2ZTQwNTg

Misuse of fields
4.1.6. Placing irrelevant information in an information, description or picture field. You must only use the information, description or picture fields for inserting information that is intended for those fields. For example, inserting the name or contact details of your business or agency in the description header or property description field is not acceptable. Inserting a business or agency logo as a picture in a property listing is also not acceptable.  For copyright purposes, small watermarks are permissible on images, but only in one corner of the image. Superimposed wording or text is not permissible.

The SLOD.com.au URL provides a link to Lawyers Real Estate online service for bidding, making enquiries and booking inspections, etc. If the URL is allowed to continue to appear on Lawyers Real Estate’s listings under the legal interpretation of Clause 4.1.6 or other parts of the realestate.com.au AUP, it could then open the door for agents to feature website URL’s within the property text field.

What about Privacy Laws?

On top of that, uploading the seller’s contact phone number onto a public site like realestate.com.au is not only in breach of 4.1.24.2 in REA’s AUP but wouldn’t that also breach other Privacy Laws?

Here’s a screen capture…http://screencast.com/t/NTczN2ZiOT

Note: For privacy reasons I have covered the seller’s name & contact number.

Other inappropriate content
4.1.24. Using the Service for any unlawful, illegal, malicious or improper purpose. For example: it is not acceptable to, in your use of the Service, display material that:

4.1.24.1. may defame or discredit another person or business;

4.1.24.2. may disclose private, personal or confidential information;

4.1.24.3. might be considered obscene, offensive, menacing or abusive;

4.1.24.4. might infringe the intellectual property rights of others;

4.1.24.5. may violate any law, regulation, standard, content requirements or code promulgated by any relevant authority or industry body.

I’m sure Peter Mericka of Lawyers Real Estate will be able to shed some light on how this is legally OK?

I’d also be interested to know if clients sign an agency agreement when they list with Lawyers Real Estate and whether the lawyers have signed an inspection report and included opinions of price on the property or do they simply rely on an independent valuer to assess the price for their clients.

And if so, is the registered valuation an added cost or is it included in their flat fee?

If Lawyers Real Estate has indeed found a loophole and they are allowed to continue without the normal licensing that a real estate agent has to have then as I mentioned earlier, it could open a huge can of worms and we could see a lot more lawyers opening up real estate agencies.

If this is allowed to continue then agents should really start to question why we are paying annual licensing fees to the government departments if they won’t police and legislate the licensing of the industry more effectively.

Plus, I’d be really interested to know how Lawyers Real Estate got to be on realestate.com.au in the first place?

Finally, I don’t have an issue with the discount commission model that Lawyers Real Estate are using because discount real estate agencies have been around for years and are now a dime a dozen, but it does concern me that some consumers may feel that going to a Lawyer to sell their property is going to mean that they feel protected and that they are going to get the best deal.

For example, here is a video of what some of Lawyers Real Estate clients have said…

If you’re considering employing a lawyer (either with or without a real estate licence) to sell your property then it’s important to remember that in the end they are in business and they will expect to get paid a commission.

And just because the negotiations are done by a lawyer doesn’t guarantee that it will always turn out to be the best thing for their client. Many legal deals end up being negotiated on the steps of court rooms and it’s not always the case that a Lawyer’s client walks away 100% happy with the end result.

Consumers still need to do their due diligence because in the legal profession, as per the real estate profession, some people get good representation and others get poor representation.

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Yet Another Stuff Up!!! Where is Our Data Going?

This is the question that an agent posed to me earlier today after yet another stuff up by the big boys.

I was speaking at an event yesterday where one of the agents mentioned the CommBank Property Guide iPhone App and the significant amount of data that was now being made available via realestate.com.au and RPData.

As the discussion went on, one of the agents logged on and started searching through the Comm Bank’s app. Only by fluke, another agent suggested they take a look at one of his latest listings which is going up for Auction.

The listing agent was absolutely horrified to see that the property which was uploaded onto realestate.com.au as an auction now appeared on Comm Bank’s app with an asking price displayed.

The price that was displayed on the Comm Bank app was the same price that the agent had inserted under the search price field.

Any pricing entered within the search price field has always been a hidden price whether a property goes up for auction or whether it has an asking price. These prices have never been for public viewing, or at least until now.

I was blown away when the agent showed me the listing in question on the Commbank site. I couldn’t believe that something so fundamental and basic could be breached.

I followed up with the agent again today. To REA’s credit the pricing issue for that listing has now been rectified but in typical fashion the agent was told that it’s not their fault the issue seemed to be from CommBank’s side? So who’s fault is it really?

Agents don’t have an agreement with CommBank’s Property Guide app, they have an agreement with REA Group.

Under the circumstances, should agents have the option to not make listings, etc available to Comm Bank’s app?

Is this only an isolated case? Has it happened to others? Will it happen again? Can REA Group and Comm Bank guarantee that no such issue will ever happen again?

Can you imagine what would have happened if the vendor had seen it? Who knows whether a buyer has seen it or not? Does this mean that agents have to check every listing on every site that their data is being uploaded to?

NOTE: Out of respect for the agent and the vendor trying to sell their property I have deliberately left out the specific details of the price, property, area, agent, etc because sharing that information could have a detrimental impact on the result of the property auction.

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Realestate.com.au Announce Enhancements to Mobile Site

In their latest press release, Realestate.com.au have just announced some enhancements to their mobile site…

Henry Ruiz, General Manager Consumer Marketing for realestate.com.au indicated the new mobile website features will allow obsessed property hunters to access important property information, at the touch of a button.

“Given the heightened activity in the property market realestate.com.au’s enhanced mobile site means property seekers can now access open for inspection and auction times in chronological order while on the go, so they can maximise the time spent on the property hunt,” he said.

“The site even allows house hunters to save notes on properties to their mobile and then access that information via their myrealestate account from their computer later on,” said Henry.

Since launching the mobile website in early 2009, realestate.com.au has experienced significant growth in traffic, up by 213 per cent⁽²⁾ during a 12 month period.

“We have had a phenomenal response since launching to market last year with a high proportion (73.6 per cent) ⁽³⁾ of our users accessing the mobile website site via an iPhone handset,” said Henry.

“Our data indicates consumers using our mobile site prefer to call an agent directly from their mobile rather than sending an email. In fact 71.3 per cent⁽⁴⁾ clicked to call an agent directly, reinforcing the high level of engagement and immediacy in response wanted by property hunters,” he said.

Other benefits of the mobile site include the new find an agent feature and ability to share property information via popular social networking channels such as Facebook, MySpace, Delicious and Twitter.

It will be interesting to see how popular the enhanced REA mobile website will be with users.

Mobile visitor traffic is only going to keep increasing as more and more people become used to using their phone for browsing the web.

This upgrade also coincides with Commonwealth Bank’s announcement to provide a mobile solution via CBA Combine Realestate.com.au Data into iPhone Augmented Reality Solution as reported here on Business2 last week by Glenn Batten.

The statistics for the Press Release were based upon:-

(1)     20 per cent of people indicated the ability to view properties via a mobile can help manage the mania of inspecting properties without getting stressed. Source: Independent online survey conducted by Longergan Research of 1,028 respondents for realestate.com.au, March 2010

(2)     213 per cent growth in unique visitors during a 12 month period from April 2009 to March 2010 Source: Omniture Site Catalyst

(3)     73.6 per cent of unique visitors to the realestate.com.au mobile site came from iPhone handsets. Source: Omniture Site Catalyst

(4)     This is based on total leads sent to agents by mobile users. 71.3 per cent of unique visitors clicked to call an agent directly via the realestate.com.au mobile website, rather than those who emailed (28.7 per cent) an agent during the month of March. Source: Omniture Site Catalyst

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Yahoo!7 and Realestate.com.au ‘Shack Up’ and Form New Partnership

REA Group have just announced that they have formed a partnership with the Yahoo!7 site. Here’s a copy of this morning’s press release.

” YAHOO!7 AND REALESTATE.COM.AU ‘SHACK UP’ AND FORM NEW PARTNERSHIP

Addition of property listings means Yahoo!7 visitors can find everything ‘under the one roof’

SYDNEY, Australia, 5 May, 2010 – Australia’s largest property portal realestate.com.au and Australian online media company, Yahoo!7 have joined forces to launch the Yahoo!7 real estate channel. The content will launch on Yahoo!7 site today, in an increasingly hot property market.

Henry Ruiz, General Manager Consumer Marketing for realestate.com.au stated this new partnership with Yahoo!7 comes at an opportune time following the recent re-launch of the realestate.com.au website. The new channel will provide Yahoo!7’s 7.2 million visitors per month^[i] with access to great new tools and enhanced features to help them find the right property to buy, rent or sell.

“We are excited to be aligned with Yahoo!7, as it further extends our reach which during the month of March 2010 realestate.com.au attracted over 6.5 million unique browsers.^[ii] As a nation obsessed with property this is another channel to help consumers achieve the great Australian dream of home ownership,” said Henry Ruiz.

With this recent partnership with realestate.com.au Yahoo!7 has now strategically partnered with the top three Australian portals that provide listings for employment (SEEK), motoring (Carsales.com.au) and now property with realestate.com.au. These three partnerships with Australia’s top three listing sites are designed to deliver the best experience to Yahoo!7 users.

Emma Harrington, Director of Partnerships for Yahoo!7 said that the new partnership with realestate.com.au complemented the existing portfolio of classified offerings now available for Yahoo!7 visitors. “The partnership with realestate.com.au forms the final piece of a trifecta of listings agreements for Yahoo!7 encompassing employment and jobs, motoring and now property. Through this partnership with realestate.com.au our visitors will have access to Australia’s largest property listings portal.”

[1] Source: Nielsen NetView Panel, March 2010

[1] Source: Nielsen Market Intelligence, Australia, March 2010″

I recently commented on this site, about whether Domain.com.au had experienced an increase in traffic since taking over the ninemsn partnership back in November 2008 after the REA Group decided not to continue their previous agreement with ninemsn?

Obviously, REA’s move away from ninemsn has had a detrimental effect on traffic to their site, to subsequently bring on this partnership with Yahoo!7.

At this early stage I can only see this as a positive move from both Realestate.com.au and Yahoo!7. But I’d be interested to hear Business2 readers thoughts on this move.

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Realestate.com.au has sights set on innovation & announces ‘Premiere Property’

Yesterday, Greg Ellis, CEO/Managing Director presented an inside look of some of the features of the new site to a large group of agents at the realestate.com.au ‘Open For Inspection’ event in Sydney.

From what Greg Ellis said, part of their future plans for innovation within the new site upgrade means that we can look forward to extra “Product & Consumer Features being released approximately every 90 days”.

The new look site has been “designed to improve consumer experience” Greg said, and that they plan to “continue to be best in class for finding property”.

One of the key points emphasised to agents in attendance was that their site will help agents “Win Listings, Build a Rent Roll and Sell Property” and that REA based their design around 3 value propositions.

1. Valued by Consumers :- Find  -  Discover  -  Share ( ie share – “leverage the networks that consumers trust, their family & friends via Facebook & Twitter“).

2. Valued by Agents :- Win new listings, Build your brand, Agent profile, Sell & Rent Property and Cost Effective.

3. Valued by Vendors :- Predictable & Provable.

Greg Ellis also covered some of the recent changes made that will impact the sites use:-

For all site users there has been a New Home Page, Enhanced Search, Multiple Views (Gallery View, List View & Map View)  Compare Features (pointed out that the agents logo appears in the middle of the browsers computer screen) and MyRealEstate (an improved ability to store information on the site).

The suite of products for agents discussed were:- Suburb Profile Sponsorship, Suburb Sponsorship (IAB size ads), Exclusive Agent Showcase (No longer Guaranteed Top Spot but rather made available on every results page within that search), Feature Agent (a section of the site which has seen a 400% increase in traffic), Feature Property (appears as featured in List View, Gallery View & Map View) and eBrochure ( currently with over 800,000 people registered ).

An Insight Into The Future

Greg Ellis also announced that Realestate.com.au will shortly be releasing ‘Premiere Property’ which looks like it will appear on the top of the search results like the ‘old’ Guaranteed Top Spot but the ‘Premiere Property’ will open to a property page which features both the property & the agents details and branding exclusively (‘No Third Party Advertisers’).

Pricing was not discussed at this stage for ‘Premier Property’ but I can imagine it won’t come cheap when you consider the amount of revenue they could raise by keeping the advertising on these new pages.

Also, he mentioned that their Mobile site has already had 450,000 UB’s and they plan to have a Mobile/Social product which enables sharing via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube & RSS.

Finally, Greg Ellis felt that there was also a great opportunity existing for agents to promote their profile via the Local Voices section of their site.

Richard Freudenstein, Chairman of REA Board then came on to say that he was “pleased that so many customers were involved in the development of the new site” and congratulated the management team of REA because “the site was delivered on time and on budget”.

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