Real Estate Added to Google Maps – What it Means for Australian Property Portals
July 7, 2009 by Simon Baker
In Australia and the US, Google has added properties for sale to its mapping site – maps.google.com. Users of Google Maps are now able to see a selection of homes for sale and rent plotted on the maps. These homes for sale seem to be sourced from Google Base – Google’s classifieds engine. It is free for anyone to upload a listing and this can be done through an online interface or through an XML data feed.
The inclusion of property listings from Google Base onto Google Maps has some parts of the Australia real estate world abuzz with thoughts of the end of market leaders’ realestate.com.au and domain.com.au.
However, while this launch is new and innovative in the Australian market, a lot has to fall in place before realestate.com.au and domain.com.au are truly affected by the “entry” of Google into the Australian real estate advertising scene.
For the market leaders realestate.com.au and domain.com.au to be truly affected, the following probably needs to happen.
- Google will need to build an comprehensive listings database
- Google will need to drive high volumes of visitors to these listings
- Google will need to get visitors to permanently switch away from realestate.com.au and domain.com.au
- Agents will need to stop subscribing to realestate.com.au and domain.com.au
Let’s look at each in turn.
The Challenge of Building a Comprehensive Database of Listings
People visit realestate.com.au, and to a lesser extent domain.com.au, because there is a comprehensive range of listings available for them to search. realestate.com.au probably has around 95% of all Australian listings on their site. People continue to visit because these sites have built, over a long period of time, a reputation of being comprehensive in almost all areas of the country.
Therefore the first hurdle that Google has to jump over is building a comprehensive set of listings in any area that someone is going to search. If they have this, then they may be able to swing a visitor from realestate.com.au or domain.com.au to the new site. Without this, they are dead in the water. To build this, they will have to source the listings.
While secondary sites such as myhome.com.au, reiwa.com.au, and homehound.com.au will eagerly send their listings to Google for inclusion in Google Base, it is doubtful that realestate.com.au or domain.com.au will do so, thereby forcing Google to source listings directly from agents and franchise groups. (Note: ~40% of agents in Australia are part of a franchise group)
The challenge for Google is how to get to the 9,000 real estate offices (brokers) around the country with a simple to use method for them to upload their listings to Google Base. At the moment this approach does not exist and both realestate.com.au and domain.com.au have existing feeds in place to source almost all properties within Australia. Yes, an agent can use the Google Base interface to upload individual listings, however agents are notoriously reluctant to manually upload listings more than once.
Therefore it will be reliant on the raft of intermediaries to put links in place to Google Base. Interestingly, two of the largest, My Desk Top and HubOnline, are owned by Domain and realestate.com.au respectively.
It will take time for Google to create comprehensive (and equal to realestate.com.au and domain.com.au) list of properties available for sale.
The Challenge of Getting Visitors En Masse to Property Listings on Google
The second challenge is actually getting people to look at the listings on Google. While Google has massive traffic, that traffic visits Google for a number of reasons – only one of which is to find property listings.
At the moment finding the new map based real estate listings is not exactly easy. If you do the normal Google search, you will continue to get the same results as you did before with realestate.com.au and domain.com.au at the top of the search and thus getting the clicks to their sites.
To find the new listings search, you actually have to click on “map” at the top of the page, enter a search term like “properties for sale in Bondi” and then you have to click on “Real Estate on Google Maps” to see the results of your search. This is not exactly user friendly and until they incorporate the map based results into the general search results, it is unlikely that this new approach will impact realestate.com.au or domain.com.au to any significant level.
We expect to see the listings search results incorporated into the general search results at some point in time. The interesting question will be what impact that may have on Google’s PPC revenues – both people wanting to advertise and the click through rates on AdWords.
The Challenge of Getting Users to Permanently Switch from realestate.com.au and domain.com.au
So assuming that they get Australian real estate searchers en masse to the Google property listings, the next challenge is switching them from realestate.com.au and domain.com.au and keeping them on the Google real estate site.
Both realestate.com.au and domain.com.au drive traffic to their sites from a number of sources including the strength of their brand, their large email alert databases (realestate.com.au’s is believed to have over 1 million entries), their ongoing online and offline marketing (with media owners) and their presence on Google (which is unlikely to change). These will be a hard segment for Google to switch.
The second part of switching is providing people with an experience that is better than the alternative. Now assuming that Google can source the same number of listings, the next question is do people prefer mapping over the traditional list approach to search results.
It is often assumed that people like mapping more than any other approach however I suspect that more people look at the listings based results on realestate.com.au and domain.com.au than the map based results. Remember that these two sites have done more to frame the Australian real estate search psyche than any other sites.
If people do like mapping, both realestate.com.au and domain.com.au already offer mapped search results. It is interesting to note that the Google Maps representation of listings is similar to realestate.com.au’s long forgotten beta site, property.com.au.
The most likely impact from this is that realestate.com.au and domain.com.au will analyse the usage of Google Maps for real estate search and incorporate these changes into their sites. Thus making the reason to switch to Google Maps less compelling.
Google will also have to learn from realestate.com.au and domain.com.au about what users want from a real estate search. This includes the ability to set up an email alert.
Will Agents Dump realestate.com.au and domain.com.au for Google (or Other Free Sites)?
The real question is will realestate.com.au and domain.com.au actually lose any advertisers on their sites? The short answer is highly unlikely.
If you are a real estate agent in Australia, you would have to be sure of two things before turning off realestate.com.au or domain – that you are not going to lose any leads and that your competitors are not going to gain more leads by you not being on these sites.
Now if you look at this rationally, a converted lead in Australia is worth somewhere between $8,000 and $12,000 in commission – definitely more in places like Mosman. Now, the standard subscription from realestate.com.au or domain.com.au is likely to set an agent back $4,000 to $6,000 per annum.
Therefore, even if an agent maintains a standard subscription with these sites and achieves just one sale, then they have more than covered the cost of the subscription. Therefore, an agent would have to be slightly crazy to forego a subscription with either of these sites and rely solely on Google (or free sites) for its leads.
Assuming agents are not crazy and they maintain their subscriptions, these sites (realestate.com.au and domain.com.au) maintain the volume of listings and therefore the customer experience that people have become used to.
So What is the Likely Outcome?
The likely outcome is that Google will co-exist with market leaders realestate.com.au and domain.com.au. Some real estate searchers will like the approach Google has taken and will use the site however we don’t believe that this will be to the significant detriment of realestate.com.au’s or domain.com.au’s traffic.
Google will probably struggle to get 100% coverage of the listings in Australia as realestate.com.au and domain.com.au will hold out sending them their listings fearing that they will create a competitor.
Agents are likely to continue to advertise on realestate.com.au and domain.com.au as these will continue to be significant drivers of leads and they will fear missing out on leads that could go to their competitors.
Agents may reduce their spend on premium advertising options however this will most likely be at the margin and will not significantly impact the revenues of realestate.com.au or domain.
And if it does have impact, then realestate.com.au and domain.com.au can always embrace Google and send their listings to Google Base in the hope of swamping the listings on the site. It will be interesting to see how Google handles the same listings from realestate.com.au, domain.com.au, homehound.com.au, myhome.com.au, the agent and the franchise group. Somehow I suspect that there may be some favouritism towards those companies that spend big on pay per click. Now I wonder who they may be.
The last thought is what impact this will have on the tier two sites such as myhome, homehound, and realestateview. They have no choice but to embrace Google as Google is probably their main source of traffic. The problem will be that they may be feeding the beast the will devour them over time as visitors no longer need to go to the site that the listings are sourced from.
As Mark Twain is reported to have said “the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”.
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Simon,
I take it that you have sold all your shares in REA? Otherwise you would have to declare that you have a significant holding otherwise known as disclosure.
I wonder what Mark Twain would say to that
Robert
I certainly do have shares in realestate.com.au (the REA Group) and i should also disclose that i used to be the CEO and Managing Director of the REA Group.
Thanks for the reminder.
On a separate point, now that Google has hit the streets, will you be cancelling your realestate.com.au and domain.com.au subscriptions? That will be the true test of the impact of Google on the market.
Simon
Simon,
Thanks for clearing that up – happy to refresh your memory.
Now to answer your second point – we have no plans to cancel either contract with REA and Domain at this stage. As you would well know that I will be closely monitoring this.
What I have done all morning is to remove our sale and rental properties from the external websites that list our properties as the default page as I want that traffic. Our own website delivers more traffic than REA or Domain so it will be interesting to see how this pans out.
I also think that REA and Domain will change to a pay per property fee structure so that they don’t lose the small operators otherwise it could become contagious.
I would also believe that Fairfax will re-package their print advertising,online advertising and Australian Property Monitor offerings under the one package – will too would come out as a pay per property model.
Having said that it all comes down to relevance which is what is challenging print at the moment (vendor choice). Google will become very relevant especially if they offer email alerts etc for subscribers. Then if there is anecdotal evidence that consumers prefer Google over REA and Domain then we would obviously not renew.
The most significant point that I see is that now REA and Domain have competition which will undoubtedly drive these individual businesses to greater customer relationships (hopefully). The ball is afterall now in their respective courts where no doubt they would be actively working their white boards with new content.
Goggles entry will simply see all the respective businesses lift their game – which is fantastic for the industry. I believe everyone would agree that REA and Domain can do better and Google just delivered the much awaited challenge. It is over to them not to us.
Simon,
Thanks for clearing that up – happy to refresh your memory.
Now to answer your second point – we have no plans to cancel either contract with REA and Domain at this stage. As you would well know that I will be closely monitoring this.
What I have done all morning is to remove our sale and rental properties from the external websites that list our properties as the default page as I want that traffic. Our own website delivers more traffic than REA or Domain so it will be interesting to see how this pans out.
I also think that REA and Domain will change to a pay per property fee structure so that they don’t lose the small operators otherwise it could become contagious.
I would also believe that Fairfax will re-package their print advertising,online advertising and Australian Property Monitor offerings under the one package – will too would come out as a pay per property model.
Having said that it all comes down to relevance which is what is challenging print at the moment (vendor choice). Google will become very relevant especially if they offer email alerts etc for subscribers. Then if there is anecdotal evidence that consumers prefer Google over REA and Domain then we would obviously not renew.
The most significant point that I see is that now REA and Domain have competition which will undoubtedly drive these individual businesses to greater customer relationships (hopefully). The ball is afterall now in their respective courts where no doubt they would be actively working their white boards with new content.
Goggles entry will simply see all the respective businesses lift their game – which is fantastic for the industry. I believe everyone would agree that REA and Domain can do better and Google just delivered the much awaited challenge. It is over to them not to us.
BTW I love your blog!
It looks like Google have added “Real Estate” to UK maps too!
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=&mrt=realestate&sll=53.473399,-2.243378&sspn=0.003538,0.009645&ie=UTF8&radius=0.2&rq=1&ll=53.474344,-2.243915&spn=0.003538,0.009645&z=17&iwloc=A
Clearly the market doesnt rate google as a threat to REA.
Shareprice is stable at a yearly high
As a wannabe first home buyer who has grown a bit cynical after shopping around for several months, I’m already a fan of Google’s new offering. The reason is simple: Google Maps seems to be more honest.
Other sites often misrepresent the suburb name, stretching the boundaries of more popular suburbs to encompass less popular areas. Or they only provide the suburb location, forcing potential buyers to ring up the agent before finding out this basic information. It does get annoying after a while.
In addition, the terrain of certain regions makes it far more practical to rely on the map location rather than a suburb name. For example: the Brisbane area has a large river, which makes it very hard to search across a broad area without getting 1000s of unwanted results. I can sympathise with the tough life of a real estate agent, but it’s like they say: give the people what they want.
It’s not just a matter of who has the most listings, equally important is the quality of the search UI. Google have an enviable reputation here. They are also good at aggregating data from other sources. You’ve got a web page with data on it? Chances are it’s been crawled by Google.
@ Simon- I would expect to get some more in-depth analysis from who was the former CEO of a certain large real estate portal. The summary of the article (which should comes as a suprise to no one) is Google overnight is not going to rule the world and that it will need to gradually parasite into realestate.com and domain’s market share (which it won’t do overnight).
1) Database of Listings
The notion (which your article seems to present) that domain and realestate.com are the owners of the listings is incorrect- the listings belongs to the Agent and the Agent will get the listing onto Google one way or another- if My Desktop and Hubonline (as REA and Domain products) won’t be re-jig their offering to accomodate Google agents will gladly change providers. I can assure you to switch a technology provider is easier (especially in this space) than crossing the street- especially with the myriad of tech providers doing the “feed” business…One point of entry and you name the number of portals.
So if My Desktop and Hubonline don’t want to jig their products they better make sure they get their lovely salespeople on the road with lovelier contracts to lock their customers in NOW..because the agents will want to feed to Google and they will want it now and guess what if My Desktop and Hub disagree…
At the time of this writing (i.e. mine) the number of so-called “secondary” companies feeding to Google (I’m not sure if you know of the exact number here)- but FYI if the listings from the feeders was aggregated- guess what Listings of all Feeders (Aggregated) > Realestate.com.au (Ooooooohhhh!!!) And something just something tells me that number of feeders is just going to grow.
2) Interface and User Friendliness – a) users are intuitive enough to find their way on a map b) the whole map layout isn’t an earth shattering approach per se in that users will find themselves completely lost c) with time Google will sharpen its interface. The operative phrase is with time (not tonight and not first thing tomorrow).
3) Likely Outcome
I wish you prefixed that with “IN THE SHORT TERM” – 1-1.5 years maybe. I like how you finish the article hey if they get too big we’ll just join them!!! And even the sharp analytic around how Google would favor those that spend money on pay-per click (no way how did you figure that out???!!!) I suppose the so-called secondary portals must be thankful to Realestate.com and Domain who they have fed and to the credit of RealEstate.com and Domain have never ever ever tried to devour any of them (I wouldn’t think in your time as CEO you would’ve tried to devour any small portal..would you??)
Simon- I would hope that the ex-CEO of REA is able to provide a more strategic and insightful critique on this and perhaps able to explain to agents how the marketplace evolves from them rather than stating the blaring a obvious and providing consolation for Greg Ellis so he can sleep peacefully at night.
Hi Simon,
good summary. One challenge I see for Google is the free to list model. It places no penalty on spam. Just as 1000’s of websites try to game their way to the top of Google’s web search results, what will prevent the same from happening on real estate search? This is the same problem that cripples free to list sites all over the world (Gumtree, Craigslist). There is useful information but there are also scams, fake listings, etc. Charging for traffic is the only way to ensure quality (see eBay’s listing fee)
(declare my interest upfront – I run a niche property portal in Perth)
I believe MyDesktop does upload to Google Base and has done for 12 months. Getting the listings (as Simon pointed out) is not the whole game, but it is an important step. I think Google RE will get the listings. And they’ll figure out how to segue the listings seamlessly into their search/offering. These Google people are clever with a capital C.
We’ve just uploaded to Google RE, and found that…
1. Google RE requires price to be added, and show prices on SOLD properties (but will not show it as sold = bad)… same for under offers. We’ve had to delete the solds and under offers. Looks like they only offer for sale or for rent as property status types?
2. We’re not loading auction properties, POA, EOI, etc, as agents here in the West don’t want prices showing on these, and there doesn’t seem to be an option to hide price? Auctions are a smaller % of the market here than in, say, Vic, but then again, you should be able to advertise an auction (or any) property without being forced to put in the price?
(Any IT geeks or others out there who know the answers to these… love to hear from you)
However the upload was easy and we’re now all over GRE like a rash in Perth. Shown it to some clients and they are impressed.
We’re going to load up from the agent sites too, so they get a guernsey, not just the portal link. 2 bites at the cherry. I like the democracy in this (in the true sense of the word, from the original meaning – ‘power to the people’).
Overall – an exciting move I think; keeps everyone on their game, and a large player coming in with the free model like this should shake things up over time. All good!
REA share price is down 40 cents – from a high of $6.20 to $5.80 (all in AUS)
The last few weeks have not exactly been the best of times for the REA Group.
A major shareholder sells out, whilst the majority shareholder (News Corp) purposefully decides to not invest further in the company.
There is a distraction in the market place with Google.maps/realestate launching.
And yesterday, the CEO Greg Ellis refuses to pledge commitment to their Dubai business.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,,25751653-1702,00.html
and
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,,25756305-15306,00.html
Interesting to read Ellis’ comments (in above links) about 10% of listings products being paid for. He is of course referring to the expensive per property upgrade features, which whilst making a listing look pretty on the site, do not sell a property faster.
Charlie, apparently if you just enter 0 for the prices in GRE it is the same as hiding the price.
A key highlight from Mike Smith – Google aggregation of data- from other sources. You’ve got a web page with data on it? Chances are it’s been crawled by Google full stop for now anyway, but hey I’m looking into my crystal ball’ the futures bright’ lots of new things will be evolving in next couple of months -make sure your following PPW.
Amul Raj Desai
International Business Development Manager
twitter – property1
@Charlie Yes! Shove those sold properties in there. The more spam the better! But why stop with sold properties? Why not just add fake properties?
AJ….do not sell property faster?
max… got stats and proof to prove me wrong?
Tell me that someone will purchase a one home over the other purely because it is a feature listing on a portal, and the one next to it, is a normal listing.
Note – using the REA Group model.
I am sure the many portal representatives that frequent these pages can provide stats but, there is simply no doubt properties displayed on early pages receive more traffic.
How many times do most browsers go past page five on anything web related?
well there’s a dilemma…
Google’s plan is to not charge for agents publishing listings but to make money from Premium listings (same as the REA approach) along with advertising of other services.
Max, there is no doubt that that properties displayed at the beginning of default search results, will have greater views (can’t believe we are talking page views)
But the point of property portals, is to help agents sell/lease properties.(also acquire vendors, branding , if you want to go in to it).
To do this, and using the realestate.com.au model, they (portals) have a myriad of search parameters, including alternatives to the default search display, which allow consumers/property seekers to get to the properties which best fit their requirements. eg: Sort by Price, Sort by location, sort by size etc…
Once the consumers/property seekers have conducted detailed property page views, then they may contact the agent. And the true measure of a portal (in an advanced market), is an email lead.
So what am I saying?
Appearing at the top of generic/default Search Results, which is what these premium listing products provide, will give them greater “your listings appeared in the search results xxx” numbers.
But with more relevant search parameters, and ‘refine search’ options – these premium placements become irrelevant.
It is the Property itself, its attributes, and the creative the agent provides which sells/generates inquiry about the property, not the Premium Placement on a website.
I would love for someone to prove me wrong, and provide stats. Seriously.
As with proof, then every portal owner can start modifying their models to drive more inquiry for their clients listings.
What is interesting about the Google model, as it stands at the moment, is that they deliver traffic to the site which provides the listing. They are changing the game, so it is a very interesting development. Time will tell if it works.
Curious George – sorry but you are not correct here.
The REA Approach is to charge agents a subscription in order to list properties. There is not one listing on an REA Group website which is not already paid for.
The 10% of paid properties which the CEO was talking about is the amount of listings which have been upgraded to a Premium Listing. So paid for twice!
(wouldn’t you think that if Premium listings drove more inquiry than standard listings, that agents would ensure that all of their properties were Premium/Platinum?)
Not sure about Google’s intent to charge for premium positions. What announcement are you referring to here? Generally the G Model sells space around search results (not WITHIN search results like REA).. and they are less evasive.
My concern with the statement by the REA CEO comes from the following:
1. Was it just a bad choice of words when he inferred that only 10% of listings on realestate.com.au were paid for?
2. Was it a purposeful choice of words he used, to infer that only 10% of listings on realestate.com.au were paid for, designed to influence the share price by stating revenue growth potential? (REA shareprice has slipped 60 to 80 AU cents in the last week)
3. He is not familiar with his own revenue models?
Which ever of the above, there are laws in Australia relating to accurate and timely information to the market. He might want to ensure that future comments in the media are less ambiguous.
Hi AJ
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/KGB-INTERROGATION-Karim-Temsamani-pd20090710-TSVZ4?OpenDocument
business spectator is not a bad read.
My reference above “(same as REA approach)” was the charging for premium listings or something similar not the subscription charge which is of course $ on rea / domain but free on google.
Thanks Curious George – that is a great article.
It is all there isn’t it… “Certainly from a real estate perspective we can see that over time there will be ability for us to sell enhanced listing; there will be availability for us to sell to companies that are interested in the real estate market as well such as banks and various other companies, insurance companies and many other people that service properties as well such as small businesses; people that may be servicing pools, plumbers, builders, etc. So, there are many other ways in which we can make money rather than only charge agents for listings.”
So over time means in the future… but G have a bit of a way to go yet.
But it would seem that G over time intend to move away from their normal model, and adopt a category portal model for the real estate sector in AU.
Thanks for the article link – great food for thought.
AJ – Thanks for the novel.
Properties at the front of the search are viewed, clicked, forwarded etc more than those at the tail. Economics of sales 101 is simple…the more people who see a property the more likelihood of higher demand which generally translates to a higher sale price….
Sure some buyers refine the net they cast but for lets say $50 a month, I’d rather make sure my house was being seen by as many people possible.
Max if that works for you great.
I would rather base my judgment on real research, and in the absence of any data from portals proving that Enhanced/Premium listings sell a property faster, I will be sticking to my hypothesis.
But your $50 a month scenario is interesting… Why pay an extra $50 per month to reach the same audience (as a standard listing), when for ‘free’ (depending on what charges agents put in place), vendors can reach a whole new audience with Google.
What is the value proposition for paying an extra $50 per month?
It seems, using the CEO of REA’s stats, that 90% of the market do not see value in the $50 per month.
Because, if you’re selling my house I don’t want to risk missing any potential buyers, not one.
I am with you in that the REA CEO’s statement is odd.
So based on the article…google = domain and realestate.com without the subscription charge.
If (when?) google gets it right they’ll be a game changer…no doubt about that.
I understand what you are saying max… I just want proof and research.
If you are selling a home, and are not wanting to miss any potential buyers, not one, then naturally you would have your property listed on all portals available.. and if you take out a premium listing on each of them.. this then starts to add up.
Perhaps this is a good thing for Simon Baker to undertake.. and lead the global property portal industry along the way.
1. Do premium/upgrade listings sell a property faster than standard listings?
2. By how much/less? What is the ROI? (time on market, time to first contract, time to final sale?)
3. What other tools can agents and vendors use to sell a home, with the money a premium/upgraded listing costs?
4. As portals, how do we communicate value for the premium listings? and also deliver on our promises?
Again I come back to the 90% stats coming out of Australia. And I am starting to remember some figures in a past REA annual report, that had 13% of listings on realestate.com.au being premium/upgraded.
Will hunt it down, as if true, it might indicate that less agents/vendors are seeing the value of premium/upgraded listings.
If you can remember it, let me know.
[...] week we published our initial thoughts on what the launch of Google Real Estate will mean for the existing portal sites in Australia. These thoughts are equally applicable for portal sites around the [...]
Google real estate is currently focused on residential listings. When can we expect to see commercial listings?
[...] an appearance in the UK and German markets shortly. Last week we published our initial thoughts on what the launch of Google Real Estate will mean for the existing portal sites in Australia. These thoughts are equally applicable for portal sites around the [...]
I’ve tried out the new service by google and as a renter, I think its great. Especially since we’ve been fed nonsense about low vacancy rates to justify ever rising rental prices; a few clicks and you can easily see most of Perth has vacant properties dotted around every corner. Its red dots everywhere! Better still, it shows how many times the property has been relisted, so you can guage how desperate they are getting – always a good bargaining tool. I’ll be telling everybody about this service so we can all find cheaper housing and drive down rents. Thanks Google
Hey AJ
I think you should come out and declare your interests…..smells like a REA competitor to me.
Or a disgruntled technophobe.
In no particular order, here are some thoughts:
1. The reference to only 10% of listings being paid for is because REA is subscription based. You can load as many listings as you wish for the one subscription. You only pay for a listing to upgrade the search position. A worthwhile spend when there could be 200+ listings in an area.
2. Like Max says, the vendor deserves for their property to be seen so the very small price to upgrade it to a premium position in the search will always be done by an agent keen to expose it top the market.
3. Agents do not need to pay to appear on multiple portals when REA has a viewing public of 5 million per month. Much better to spend considerably less dollars to improve the exposure.
4. AJ do you seriously believe that advertising, of itself, sells properties? Of course not! Agents simply advertise where they know the listing will be seen and where from experience they know they will receive enquiries….then they do their job.
5. How you provide value as a portal is the same as any other advertising medium…….it is based on how many buyers see the listing and how many genuine enquiries it attracts. You can spend money to advertise in your local footy club magazine…….it will give you the warm and fuzzies. It may even make you a local legend. I bet you that you won’t sell many houses.
And won’t your vendor thank you for spending their marketing dollars so wisely, Right!
6. More than 80% of buyers say that there first sight/contact with the property purchased was on the internet. Most buyers will sort by suburb and price range and will not initially use more sophisticated search criteria unless they are being “picky”. Most prefer to view the property.
7. At last a point of agreement….the most important result for an agent is an email lead (or any personal contact). Many agents are receiving 400+ email enquiries specific to their listingsevery month. So, until Google has this all sorted out it is unlikely agents will feel inclined to abandon that source of activity.
Agents are professionals and have quickly worked out the value of paying a subscription. Even a small business operating on three sales a month quickly works out his outlay may only be around $100/listing.
For this he has a mature advertising platform that provides a huge viewing audience and proven results.
I tend to agree with Simon…..Google has a long way to go and from the interview with Gottliebsen it seems they will try to raise their revenue from third party sources.
It will be interesting…..
So endeth the Epistle
[...] predicts that the recent addition of real estate agent listings to Google Maps will lead to greater real estate agent website usage [...]
[...] predicts that the recent addition of real estate agent listings to Google Maps will lead to greater real estate agent website usage [...]
[...] added property listings to Google Maps in July this year and now includes them in the US, Australia, New [...]
I just add 300 real estate listings to Montenegro (Crna Gora) to google maps RE. to test impressions and clicks … I think it’s great exposure globally for local owners and agents ..
GOOD Mylos I have added over 130 properties in France all for free magnifique Google it’s great exposure and ALL FREE Pierre
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