To introduce myself, my name is Sean Wyld and I work for Google as the Industry Manager in their Local & Classifieds team in Australia. I’ve been reading Business2 for the past couple of months and am excited about sharing some insights into the role ‘search’ plays in the real estate industry. For my first post, as you probably gathered from the title, I thought I’d start with something seasonal.

During this time of year, most people are more focused on Christmas shopping then visiting open for inspections and with the last weekend of auctions for the year only days away, most real estate agents are preparing to put their cues back in the rack for the seasonal slow-down over the Christmas period.

However as we all know the Internet never sleeps, being available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. So with 87% of Australian home buyers/sellers now using the Internet as part of their research process (Nielsen Australian Property Report 2008), the question of how Christmas affects their usage of the Internet is something which all real estate agents should be considering.

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Dear Real Estate Portal Santa,

Here is a list of things that I AND MY READERS wish for 2007!

1. Please focus the listings on your site on property information, not your own interests from advertising. All I want is for you to appreciate what we do for you and the fiscal success we bring you, yes we know you want to make more money, but remember why you can make money, so my vendors photos, descriptions and property information should come first and load first.

2. I would also like you to stop fighting and create an industry standard measurement tool for the popularity of your sites. Sit down together and get rid of all of these different research companies that you all pay money to get your results from. These are the things that interest us.
a. Property Views from our area compared to other areas.
b. Weekly Reports from one source so we can compare the results.
c. A Salesperson that knows my area and my business.

Here are some things I do not want for Christmas and you all got me last year – and the year before and the year before.

a. Price increases – Each year I get one of these and they keep mounting up, you might be getting more popular but my enquiries are not changing that much, so where are all of your visitors going?
b. New packages – Wow I get a logo next to my business name for an extra few thousand dollars a year! I know this is just a scam that gets me in because my competitors have it, but all I need is a simple package that allow me to market my vendors listings and because I have made you successful I think you con throw in the 2 kilobyte gif logo!
Some of my friends will be adding their wishes below so I hope you keep coming back, we will leave you all some warm milk and cookies but don’t be greedy, leave some for others.

PS: If the realestate.com.au Santa has trouble getting down the chimney tell him to loosen his belt a little and stop carrying around all of his cash with him!

NEXT WEEK MY OWN SPECIAL AWARDS IN INTERNET REAL ESTATE FOR 2007!

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