Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc. (MRIS) announced that its President and CEO David Charron has been named to the National Association of REALTORS® Dr. Almon R. (Bud) Smith, RCE, AE Leadership Society (Smith Society) – one of the real estate industry’s most coveted awards for excellence in industry and professional leadership. Charron, along with the other 2012 winners, will be awarded the honor today at the NAR Midyear Conference in Washington, D.C.

The purpose of the Smith Society is to recognize those who excel in the association management profession by demonstrating uncommon leadership, a willingness to help others, and acceptance of a responsibility to constantly improve themselves. Every year, NAR receives nominations for leaders from across the United States and recipients of the 2012 AE Leadership Society were named by the Association Executives Committee Recommendations and Recognition Subcommittee.

“All of us on the Committee felt that David was absolutely a perfect example of someone who epitomizes the meaning of the Smith Society,” said NAR’s Recommendations and Recognition Committee Chairman and CEO of the Kansas City Regional Association of REALTORS®, Diane Ruggiero. “David was an easy choice for us because of his progressive thinking and incredible contributions to the advancement of the industry and profession.”

David Charron’s induction is a significant milestone since it’s the first time since 1998 that an MLS Executive has been named to the Smith Society. With this induction, Charron joins the likes of over 100 influential real estate leaders who make up the Smith Society.

“Being inducted to the Smith Society is a true honor especially since the selection Committee is comprised of my fellow industry executives,” said Charron. “I know Bud Smith personally and he truly encompasses the leadership qualities I continue to aspire to.”

As a national expert in residential real estate, executive leadership and industry collaboration, David Charron has been recognized by Inman News for the 6th consecutive year as one of the “Most Influential People in Real Estate.” In addition, he has earned recognition as one of the “Top Ten Newsmakers” by the Swanepoel Trends Report. He serves as Chairman of the MRIS Investment Committee, was a founding member of the COVE Group, served as a Board member of the REALTORS® Federal Credit Union, and was a member of the NAR MLS Policy Committee. He was selected “Volunteer of the Year” by the National Eating Disorders Association, which provides education and awareness to individuals and families suffering from eating disorders.

In Italy, on-the-go property searches using mobile devices have increased by 200% in the last year, of these 75% are geolocated searches. Immobiliare.it, one of the world’s most dominant property portals, has launched its new version of iPhone app, which allows users to search for a home by drawing directly on the iPhone screen, and selecting the area where the buyer is looking to purchase a property.

The Immobiliare.it application was developed entirely in-house by its technical staff, and the company claims it to be the first of its kind in Europe and only the second in the entire world.

“Ever since the launch of the first version of our iPhone app, in November 2009,” said Silvio Pagliani, President of Group Immobiliare.it “we noticed that most of the searches were geolocated. People were looking for properties within a circle of interest more so than we had expected. It was obvious what users wanted, but back then the technology developed for the web was not designed for these purposes, so we decided to create it ourselves. ”

In early 2011, the company began “project map”, which was intended to allow a new revolutionary type of geographic-based property search, outside the conventional parameters.

“As often happens with technology,” continued Pagliani, “the tricky part is that which one can not see. In this case the challenge was to create a search engine that could be used simultaneously by thousands of people with unique research, and sometimes with very complex geometries while maintaining high speed response. And above all, develop a new platform which can also be used on the website.”

Immobiliare.it has expressed that they have has always believed in being able to search on smartphones, and have been committed to creating applications which the audience appreciates and enjoys using. The Immobiliarte.it app has had more than 300,000 downloads and nearly 7,000 reviews, with an average rating above 4.5 stars out of 5.

The new version of the iPhone Immobiliare.it follows the recent launch of the Android-specific, and the iPad mobile site. With this move Immobiliare.it hopes to strengthen its leadership in the real estate search via smartphones and tablets in Italy.

When one thinks of a rally to raise awareness, Realtors® aren’t the first group to pop into mind, and yet, an estimated 10,000 Realtors® converged on the grounds of the Washington Monument, in Washington D.C., to represent homeowners and aspiring homeowners from across the US, giving them a voice through the Realtor® Rally, a ‘Rally to protect the American dream.’

Realtors® from every state in the country made their presence known, and invited members of Congress to demonstrate their commitment to preserving access to homeownership and robust real estate investment.

National Association of Realtors® President Moe Veissi, broker-owner of Veissi & Associates Inc., in Miami said, “Realtors® know that homeownership is an investment in our collective futures, and we’re here today to protect the American Dream of homeownership.”

Realtors® are working to assist individuals who want to own a home or invest in real estate; during this economic hardship it is especially important that they continue to have the opportunity to do that, and with the Realtor Rally, people are being made aware of the support they have from Realtors® throughout the country.

Realtors® advocate better access to affordable financing, reform of the secondary mortgage market, improved liquidity in residential and commercial lending, and preservation of the tax benefits associated with homeownership.

Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) addressed the crowd of Realtors® at the event.

“I commend the National Association of Realtors® for keeping the issue of homeownership at the forefront when we talk about our economic recovery,” said Rep. Hoyer. “Stabilizing the housing market remains a central issue for Democrats, who understand we will not have robust economic growth without a vibrant housing market and that access to homeownership remains a critical component of the American Dream.”

The rally was part of NAR’s week-long Midyear Legislative Meetings, during which Realtors® and guests meet with members of Congress, federal regulators and industry experts to address pressing real estate issues and public policies in support of private property rights, homeownership and housing issues.

‘Smart Group Buying’ has become quite popular in India, and because of this new way of purchasing properties, RealtyGrouper.com has been launched  to better serve this market.

“We have investigated the market extensively before launching our product, and believe RealtyGrouper.com will empower the buyer, and help the developer as well,” commented Bajinder Singh Chawla, co-Founder of RealtyGrouper.com.

“RealtyGrouper stands for Real Estate Group Offers, i.e., we assist fragmented/individual real estatebuyers, connect and form an organisation and thereby giving them the power of precedence with a developers who would not otherwise offer discounts to a singular customer,” said Harpreet Singh, co-Founder of RealtyGrouper.com. “Organisation shopping helps the buyer, in terms of discounts, and the developer, since a properties sells faster.”

The company runs organisation deals which are ‘time sensitive’ in nature. “Our online product offerings consist of ‘Featured Deals’, that are Pre-Negotiated organisation deals with a developers formed on a guaranteed smallest series of buyers. The second set is ‘Suggested Deals’ that are properties that we might now not have a pre-negotiated deal. This underline is designed to concede particular buyers to ‘suggest a deal’ they are meddlesome in and entice other like-minded buyers to ‘Vote’ on. When a suggested understanding has reached a vicious series of buyers afterwards we will actively negotiate with a developer to get a best discounts,” explained Harpreet.

Property portal VivaReal celebrates three years of its operations in Brazil with the launch of the mobile version of its website. The new feature makes the search of over 400 thousand available properties, easier than ever.

The portal receives visitors from all over Brazil and it has just achieved the impressive mark of 1.7 million visits per month.

The system uses GPS enabled functionality to identify the user’s whereabouts and delivers the closest properties available according to the user’s location. Site visitors are able to view information about the property of choice and peruse with ease, from their smart phones. The can also use filters to defined by price range, city, district, number of rooms and parking spaces, to further narrow their search. Once selected, the user can then share his/her find with friends on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or by e-mail.

“Mobile connections are growing at an alarming rate in Brazil and this is only the beginning of our future mobile offerings. We strongly believe in the future of mobile,” affirms Brian Requarth, CEO and co-founder of VivaReal.

Our growth in Brazil continues as we complete three years of operation in the country. During the first quarter we have visitors coming from over 174 countries. Brazil is growing as an international destination and investors are bullish on the growing middle class”, Requarth comments.

With the recent investments from Monashees and Kaszek funds, VivaReal is expanding with a growing presence nationally.

The new platform can be accessed from any smartphone by typing www.vivareal.com.br in the browser.

Trulia announced that Matt Dollinger has joined their team as Head of Industry Relations, and will oversee business development for Trulia’s industry team.

Dollinger brings more than eight years of experience interacting with agents and brokerages. Prior to joining Trulia, Dollinger served as V.P. of Strategic Development with @properties, an independent real estate brokerage commanding leading market-share in Chicago, IL, and ranking 30th in the Real Trends 2012 broker list. In this role, he assisted in the development of the brokerage strategy for company growth, agent retention and agent development.

“I’ve been really impressed by some of the changes Trulia has made in the last year to improve their data quality and provide a higher level of service to brokers,” says Dollinger. “I’m excited to work with the team to expand what’s already been built and provide an unparalleled level of service, understanding and support to Trulia’s industry partners.”

“Trulia is committed to the success of our industry partners,” said Pete Flint, CEO and co-founder of Trulia. “We’ve introduced some exciting changes in the last year, and I expect Matt’s knowledge of the real estate industry will immediately help us better understand and meet the needs of our customers.”

Over the last year, Trulia has brought in a team of industry veterans to strengthen industry relationships and deliver solutions to help brokers and their agents grow their businesses. Among them they hired Sr. Manager, Industry Engagement, Todd Carpenter, who came on board in April, via National Association of Realtors’ Director of Digital Engagement.

Earlier this year we took our first look at the Malaysian property portal market.  Its now time to take another more thorough look at the top 10 players in the market.

What the numbers show is that iProperty.com.my is the clear leader in the Malaysian market.  Its leadership position is similar to that of realestate.com.au in Australia and rightmove.co.uk in the UK where there is a large gap to the second place player.

While we look at the rankings of the top 10 players through a number of metrics below, total time on site is probably the single best way to determine leadership at it combinations traffic and engagement. Total time on site takes into account visits (a combination of unique visitors and frequency) as well as what they do on the site once they are there – in this case average session duration.

On this measure we see that iProperty.com.my accounts for 75% of the total mins spent looking at property across the top 10 sites.  Homeguru.com.my is in second place just slightly ahead of propwall.com.my with both having around 8% of the total mins each.  The other iProperty Group site, thinkproperty.com.my, is in 4th place with 3% of the total minutes.

All numbers in this document are prepared using Google Ad Planner’s April 2012 numbers.

Traffic

iProperty.com.my clearly leads when looking at unique users visiting the sites.  iProperty.com.my is nearly three times the site of the second placed homeguru.com.my and  over five times the size of third placed prop wall.my.  In fact iProperty.com.my is has more unique users than the next six sites combined.

When looking at visits to the top 10 sites, iProperty.com.my clearly the leader attracting 62% of the visits to the top 10 Malaysian property portals.  With over 5x the visits of second place homeguru.com.my, it is clear to see why iProperty.com.my ranked 3rd in on the world’s most dominant portals list.

Interestingly, if we look at the comparison between February and April this year, traffic is coalescing around iproperty.com.my and to a lesser extent homeguru.com.my.  Traffic to these two sites increased over the two month period with the market leader growing faster than the number 2 player.

When looking at frequency of visits to the sites there are some interesting change.  iProperty.com.my continues to lead with a healthy 4.3 visits per user per month.  However, homeguru.com.my drops to 5th place with half the frequency suggesting that visitors to the site are not as engaged as with other sites.  Also it is interesting to note that propwall.my, a combination of listings and editorial content, jumps to second place.  Third place goes to iProperty.com.my’s sister site, thinkproperty.com.my.

Engagement

The second measure of success is the level of engagement a site has with its users.  This is best viewed through page impression, average page impressions per visit and average session duration.

Once again we see that iProperty.com.my accounts for 70% of all page impressions consumed by visitors to the top 10 sites.  In fact this is more than the next 9 combined.  iProperty.com.my had 6.5x the number of page impressions when compared to the second placed site – propwall.com.my.

When looking at trends, we can see that both iproperty.com.my and homeguru.com.my increased page impressions by a similar percentage over the period February through April this year while propwall.com.my suffered a 8% drop.

When looking at the page impressions per visit, propwall.com.my narrowly pipped iproperty.com.my with the other iProperty Group site, thinkproperty.com.my, taking third place.  The two Property Guru Group sites, homeguru.com.my and fullhouse.com.my took 4th and 5th place.  Clearly, in propwall.com.my’s case the high level of editorial content has lead to visitors of the site viewing a high number of pages.

Finally, when looking at the average time on site we can see that due to the high volume of listings content on the iproperty.com.my site, visitors are spending 50% longer on the site during each visit than the second placed site propwall.com.au and thinkproperty.com.my.

Nestoria Australia has tripled traffic over the last 6 months.  Between September 2011 and March 2012, visits* to the site increased from 39,000 per month to just under 120,000.   This strong growth has been driven by good search engine optimisation of the site and stronger brand recognition.

Nestoria Australia is a joint venture between Lokku in the UK and Classified Ad Ventures in Australia.  The site provides portals and franchise groups with traffic on a cost per click basis where the cost per click is significantly less than Google.

Simon Baker, the Chairman of Classified Ad Ventures commented: “we are very pleased with the growth of Nestoria Australia. We have been able to provide our customers with high quality traffic at low cost. With a CPC rate from as little as 15c per click, we are providing our portal and franchise group partners with a high value, low cost way of driving quality traffic to their sites.”

Ed Freyfogle, the founder of Lokku (Nestoria) will be presenting at the Property Portal Watch Workshop in San Francisco on the 31st July. Click here for more information on the workshop.

* Source: Google Analytics

Disclosure: Classified Ad Ventures is the publisher of Property Portal Watch

One of the key strategic priorities for any property portal is generating strong traffic to the site.  Of course there are many ways of doing that however CPC is one that is favoured by many.  Traditionally portals have spent on Google to capture clicks.  More and more they are adding Facebook to the advertising mix.  However, while Facebook is the poster boy for the social media movement, does it actually deliver results to the advertiser?

A global survey undertaken by leading independent digital marketing agency, Greenlight, reveals 30% of people ‘strongly distrust’ Facebook with their personal data whilst 44% say they would ‘never’ click on Facebook sponsored ads, all of which indicates Facebook’s advertising programme has an upward struggle.

Greenlight’s global “Search & Social Survey (2011-2012)” asked 500 people – from students, law enforcement professionals, medical staff, accountants, lawyers to the unemployed, how they engage with online advertising, search engines, and social networks, in order to glean insight into how consumers engage with marketers today, and to formulate views on what the future might hold.

Facebook the third most popular website after Google and YouTube

As expected, 50% of respondents to Greenlight’s survey said they use Facebook for social engagement, sharing photos, and catching up with friends and family.

Facebook ranked as the third most popular website (after Google and YouTube) when asked ‘How regularly do you use the following websites/services?’. It ranked second when asked ‘Which of the following do you use on your mobile phone?’, with roughly 30% of those surveyed saying they use Facebook on their mobiles and tablets.

“Facebook’s popularity doesn’t come as a surprise. However, with over 30% of respondents saying they ‘strongly distrust’ Facebook with their personal data, Facebook’s advertising programme has an upward struggle,” says Hannah Kimuyu, director of paid media at Greenlight.  “Facebook’s advertising programme allows brands to connect with more than 800 million potential customers, through targeting their age, gender, location and interests, in other words – personal data.”

How much do you trust the following companies/brands with your personal data?

Source: Greenlight

Should brands bother with Facebook advertising?

Asked ‘Do you click on advertisements or sponsored listings in Facebook’, just 3% of respondents answered with regularly and 10% often. The alarming response was the 44% that answered never.

Yet, does this reflect an advertiser’s point of view?

“For Greenlight and many other agencies and brands, advertising on Facebook has become part of the ‘usual mix’, says Kimuyu. We specifically saw our Facebook investment (client media spend) overtake both Yahoo and Bing collectively at the start of 2011, hinting the channel has constant growth and is delivering a strong enough return to invest more.”

Do you click on advertisements or sponsored listings in Facebook?

Source: Greenlight

A Global Facebook Advertising Report compiled by TBG Digital in Q2 2011, examined 200 billion impressions across hundreds of advertisers in 21 markets. The study revealed that retail delivered the highest click through rate (CTR) when compared to other sectors.  Furthermore, retail saw the largest increase in growth, going from being non-existent in Q3 2010 to showing steady growth by Q2 of 2011 (a 36% increase).

“Pulling this study back to Greenlight’s client base, we have seen similar performance levels, especially with retail getting more from Facebook.  On average a CTR of 0.5% – 0.8% is considered positive, however retail brands typically achieve 0.8% – 1.0%.”

Kimuyu points out that similarly to Google’s Display Network (GDN), Facebook has spent the last 12 months developing its advertising programme, slowly moving from offering just branded advertising (Fan Acquisitions) to becoming a serious direct acquisition channel.  “Many of the developments are appealing to retail brands, especially with retail being the most active in the space.  Most recently we have seen one high street retailer achieve a 15% higher average basket value and a 20% increase in conversion rates on Facebook, when compared to its Search activity.”

So when is Facebook most effective?

The most popular and effective ad format is the Sponsored Story. The format delivers, on average, a 32% decrease in cost per acquisitions (sales) and an increase in CTR (engagement).

“When running both the traditional ad format alongside a sponsored story format, we tend to see at least a 30% increase in conversion rates, again with retail leading across the sectors,” says Kimuyu.

Kimuyu concludes:

“Although 44% say they would ‘never’ click on advertisements or sponsored listings in Facebook, it is interesting to see that those who do find the targeting effective and engaging.  Moreover, given the positive growth figures, we at Greenlight predict that more of us will be advertising and hopefully ‘clicking’ on an advertisement or a sponsored listing on Facebook this year.

So who is Greenlight?

Greenlight is a leading independent digital marketing agency, providing Search and Social Media services. With over 100 blue-chip clients including Santander, New Look, Sky and ghd, Greenlight is a leader in the digital marketing space, and is recognized worldwide for its commitment to delivering record ROI for its clients and investing in the future.

Greenlight is considered the premier thought leader in the sector, publishing widely read industry reports, original research, speaking at trade events, and delivering a highly respected digital marketing training programme via the Greenlight Academy. Founded in 2001, Greenlight is headquartered in London, with offices in New York. www.greenlightdigital.com

iProperty Group, ASX (IPP), has launched its new commercial property website, CommercialAsia.com, to assist Australian property owners and agents connect with the growing number of Asian investors keen to enter the Australian property.

Investors from Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and China are turning to the Australian commercial property market to combat lower local interest rate returns and the threat of continued global economic instability, says new property portal, CommercialAsia.com.

“Australia’s steady economy and commercial property sector, particularly in those areas connected with the resources boom, offers Asian investors attractive yields and a ‘safe haven’ to preserve and grow their wealth,” says Corey Weekes, CommercialAsia.com’s National Sales Manager for Australia and New Zealand.

“Region-wide cooling measures for property investment by Asian governments are also driving many Asian investors to explore offshore options like Australia,” says Mr Weekes.

Offshore-based institutions and private investors accounted for 37 per cent of Australia’s commercial sale transactions in 2011^. CommercialAsia.com provides property investors across Asia-Pacific with a simple way to browse commercial and industrial properties for sale or lease.

CommercialAsia.com draws on the iProperty Group’s existing network of property portals across Asia, which attracts 3.5 million unique visitors per month and have over 25,000 property agent customers.

To date, the site has more than 50,000 commercial and industrial properties listed for sale and lease by over 7,000 agents; including 1,000 Australian commercial properties listed from agents including Knight Frank and Burgess Rawson.

“CommercialAsia.com provides foreign investors with a tool to search commercial property to buy or lease in Australia and vice-versa,” says Mr Weekes.

John Bowie Wilson, City Sales Director with Knight Frank, says the number of offshore investors interested in the Australian commercial property sector is increasing on a daily basis.

“The Asian investor market is more active than I’ve ever seen it before,” says Mr Bowie Wilson who has worked in the sector for fifteen years.

“As prices rise in Singapore and Hong Kong awaits a currency correction against the US dollar; investors are seeking ‘safe havens’ like Australia to provide them with secure compound growth investment options.

“Asian investors are typically capital-rich and have a good understanding of the requirements when investing in Australian property,” says Mr Bowie Wilson.

Mr Weekes notes that the foreign investors play a vital role in holding up Australian commercial property values.

“The recent drop in interest rates is helping local private and institutional investors to return to commercial property investments, however it is still a challenge for many domestic investors to raise capital,” says Mr Weekes.

Asia-Pacific investors can search CommercialAsia.com for office, retail, hotel and industrial properties and land by State or Territory, as well as by size and price.

The site uses unique geo-targeting to determine the most appropriate language for the user and search results are available in six different currencies.

“The introduction of CommercialAsia.com will add a real point of difference by allowing agents like us to access groups who won’t have considered Australian commercial property before and to start those initial conversations,” concludes Mr Bowie Wilson.

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The world has become smaller, thanks to the Internet. PropertyPortalWatch has reported on the latest trend of property portals around the globe catering to foreign investors. Among the many, there is Australian-based TheHomePage.com.au offering a Chinese-language listing category on its website.

The US property portal, Real-Buzz, which has expanded to over 70 markets, offering properties in the US to foreign investors, and making it possible for users to search for properties in other parts of the world.

Another Australian site, gifang.com, which promotes houses, apartments and land in Melbourne, including the south-east suburbs, to 315 cities in China.

Greek portal GreekPropertyExchange.com, has even gone as far as launching a reality-style TV show aimed at foreign investors who are looking to buy property in Greece.