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.

With search being the number one upstream provider of traffic to real estate websites, along with being a tool used by 69% of active home buyers/sellers throughout all stages of the home buying/selling process (Nielsen Australian Property Report 2008), examining search trends over the Holiday period is a good indicator of the affect Christmas has on potential buyers’ and sellers’ browsing habits.

As you can see from the above graph, while there is definitely a lull in people searching for real estate agents in the days immediately preceding Christmas, the drop isn’t as dramatic as one might have thought, with a lot of people still researching buying or selling a house. Perhaps more interesting however is the spike in searches for real estate agents between Boxing Day and New Years.

So with real estate agents offices closed but buyers and sellers still active over Christmas and New Years, it poses the question… how can real estate agents continue to engage with existing and potential clients during this period?

The answer to this question is to remember that your website is an extension to your physical office and that just as the Internet is open for business 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, so is your website! I was surprised this morning that when I visited a number of local real estate agent websites, I couldn’t find one which had their opening hours over Christmas displayed clearly.

It’s important to remember that with your office closed but potential clients still active, that it’s more vital than ever that your website contains all the information which you would normally have given to clients in person or over the phone if your office was open. See below for some of the ways you can ensure your website is ready for the Christmas period.

• Ensure your opening hours for the Christmas period are prominently displayed on the front page of your website
• Ensure you set expectations with existing and potential clients about realistic response times for phone & email enquiries over the Christmas period. This includes ensuring that you have an out of office message activated on your email.
• Include content on your website about what people should expect from the real estate market in 2009, along with tips for buying and selling etc
• Email Christmas Greetings along with your opening hours etc to your email list.
• If you are using Google AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing etc to drive traffic to your website, try using Christmas & New Years specific ad text.

I’d love to hear from anyone who has any other tips to add to this list. Lastly, for anyone who’s interested, the above graph was generated using Google Insights for Search, a great free tool which at the risk of blatant self promotion you can try at www.google.com/insights/search

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and a happy New Year. Cheers, Sean

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!