Well, must say I am happy that this advisory group is not just full of franchise group chiefs. I will monitor what changes are made to the site over the next 12 months. I will also monitor what changes benefited agents and what changes benefited consumers – will be interesting to see how this group does.
Here is the release.
Top real estate industry leaders who oversee a total of more than 1,000 real estate agent offices have agreed to fill the eight positions on the just-formed realestate.com.au Industry Advisory Council. The Council’s first meeting will take place in Sydney on March 22, 2007. Topping their agenda will be a discussion of what real estate agents want to see in the next generation of realestate.com.au’s website.
With 3.7 million unique browsers in January, the site has more users than its 15 largest competitors put together, and has become the standard for agents, homebuyers and renters.
The founding members of the realestate.com.au Industry Advisory Council (REAIAC) were announced on March 22 at the Real Estate Institute of Australia 2007 National Awards for Excellence gala dinner, which was sponsored by realestate.com.au. They are:
• Tony Brasier, Chairman of REAIAC. (Sydney) He is Chairman and former Australian Chief Executive for Colliers International. Tony’s leadership activities in the commercial property market also included his role as Director of Property Look, Australia’s leading commercial property portal. Tony is the Immediate Past President of the Real Estate Institute of Australia and a Director of the Real Estate Institute of NSW . He is a Fellow of the Australian Property Institute, Director of Real Cover Insurance Ltd, and Director of Sydney’s United Way Charity.
• John Coleman. (Perth) He is CEO of the Acton Group, Perth’s premier real estate group and which is also an invited member of the Leading Agents of Australia network. He oversees nine offices in Western Australia’s wealthiest suburbs, including around the Swan River, in the Coastline suburbs and in the Margaret River wine country.
• David Crombie. (Sydney) He is CEO of EAC, the largest independent real estate organisation in Australia. He also was formerly EAC’s Technology & Development Manager, served as business manager at systems integrator Jigsaw Technology, and ran his own management and computer consultancy.
• Michael Davoren. (Maleny, Qld) He is the principal of a private consultancy company, RE Concepts International Pty. Ltd. He has held senior management and/or directorship roles with LJ Hooker, Raine & Horne and Nationwide Realty. He has been President of the Real Estate Institute of Australia (2001-2002) and of the Real Estate Institute of Queensland.
• Greg Hocking. (Melbourne) He is Managing Director of Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd. and a respected leader. He cofounded the firm in 1985. It now employs over 300 people in 32 agencies.
• Stephen Sharry. (Brisbane) Stephen Sharry is the Chief Executive Officer and former Director of Technology of the real estate master franchisor, Raine & Horne Queensland. For the group, he developed an Internet marketing plan that included a strategic partnership with Realestate.com.au, the development of rhq.com.au, an extensive Intranet, administration systems and internet training programs. He has also helped develop a strategic “Roadmap” which has grown Queensland from 85 offices to 105 offices and ancillary services added, including valuation and financial services.
• Anthony Toop. (Adelaide) He is cofounder of Toop and Toop and Past President of the Real Estate Institute of South Australia. Toop and Toop has won more than 40 awards, including the Australian Business Excellence Award and the Real Estate Institute of South Australia Website of the Year.
• Mark Williams. (Brisbane) He is the CEO of Ray White Commercial and has worked in Ray White commercial and project marketing since 1984. He has grown the network from 5 offices to more than 50 offices throughout Australia and New Zealand.In addition to what real estate agents want to see in the next generation of realestate.com.au’s website, the realestate.com.au Industry Advisory Council will also discuss:
• How can realestate.com.au better serve agents?
• How can the real estate industry use the internet to better serve its members and consumers?
• How can realestate.com.au train and educate real estate agents on internet marketing and operations?
• Is there a need for common, real estate industry standard regarding online advertising and marketing systems?Members of the Industry Advisory Council will attend at least six meetings a year to discuss these and other issues. They will represent the real estate industry to realestate.com.au and will represent the online industry to their own organizations.
The current members of the Council were selected to be representative of the entire Australian real estate industry. To further its representative nature, approximately 50% of the Council’s membership will change on an annual basis.
“We have created the Council to give the real estate industry more influence over the future shape of online advertising,” says Shaun Di Gregorio, General Manager – Australia/New Zealand for realestate.com.au. “While only a representative handful of agents can sit on our Council at a time, our goal is to serve all agents more effectively.”
22 Comments
Glenn
The Good :
REA seemed to have toned down the whole “Peak Industry Body” now its “They will represent the real estate industry to realestate.com.au”. Thats a turnaround.
The industry people invited seem to of high calibre, and seem to have a fair smattering of technical knowledge.
The Bad :
Well nothing really. They are saying that the group “will represent the online industry to their own organizations.”. Thats being a Presumptuous as REA do not represent the whole online industry.
Peter
Well I think the ‘Peak’ thing was not well received, so we will not see that again!
Paul D
Certainly a high powered group. All of them have been, or are currently involved in the industry in a major way, and are probably, by this time in their careers, free of the self interest and parochial ideas of many real estate agents. It will be interesting to see whether their recommendations are firstly made public, and secondly implemented by REA.
Glenn
3/8 from Queensland… Woohoo !!
I just knew we were a little brighter up here… but always thought that was from the extra sunshine!
Robert Simeon
Must have been the white shoes 😉
Robert Simeon
Indeed an interesting collection of professionals from our industry. Makes one ask the question are they being paid to sit on the council ?
If they are and they should be, how much freedom of speech is afforded whereby personalities don’t clash with management income streams.
I see, that yesterday was the first meeting and given the trouble REA went to with their self promotion here on Business2 – what transpired in this meeting?
I would seriously doubt, that this will be shared in an open forum so I would therefore cast dispersions that this announcement was nothing more than an advertising spruik.
Even more interesting to note is that agents who post here complain consistently about the third party advertising – yet the REA release states “Topping their agenda will be a discussion of what real estate agents want to see in the next generation of realestate.com.au
Robert Anthony
Hi Peter and others,
I think REA and Domain meet every friday for drinks since the myhome.com.au release. Am I dumb? should we be waiting for more or is that it from myhome?
P.S. Sourses say Homehound and Justlisted are goooooone. If thats the case we agents have to pay!!!! and REA wins hands down.
Dont forget to vote tomorrow however like pauline says, please explain
max
Shoot me down if you like but here is something I dont get..
some of you hate REA and Doamin because they have 3rd party ads on homepage etc. yet most Real Estate offices I drive past these days have any number of homeloan ads on the front windows, in the display cards and on the counter….
Glenn
Max, I for one dont have a problem with a reasonable level of third party advertising. I believe that when done right it can compliment the site and work well. Please note that in no way do I agree with Dave’s claim that third part ads INCREASE traffic to the portal, but all you need to do is read me posts on that matter.
Domain’s level of third party adverting I personally dont have an issue with.
Just for fun, why dont you count up every single link (many ads have multiple links) on the Realestate.com.au home page that is not pointed to a third party. Do the same on Domain and then compare the two… post it here if you want to compare with my figures (below).
Do the same with one of your properties. Count the third party links (ie. link that does not point to you or another realestate.com.au page). Then compare it with Domain. when you do this, I think the numbers will shock you.
I found at least 88 links on the realestate.com.au homepage that redirect to a thirdparty site and I am sure all of them paying for those links or that traffic. There are alse 10 links to partner sites such as other REA international sites and related sites such as news.com.au. Many of these appear to try and form part of the navigation structure.
Domain home page has just 23 links to third party sites which is a fraction of the realestate.com.au levels. They also have 22 to partner sites such as other fairfax sites which also try and form part of the navigation structure.
Tom S
Did someone mention myhome, homehound and justlisted? These sites are just a distant memory. They have been terrific for the IT industry, but in terms of providing a viable alternative to REA and Domain in the online real estate media space, they have been huge flops.
As far as REA’s advisory council, all of these guys are influential and key players in the industry. This is certainly a clever initiative by REA, to take in to account the requirements of the industry leaders, and ensure that they are adapting to the evolving online needs of the industry in the future.
Unless Domain can counter this type of partnership, they will almost certainly be relegated to the scrap heap of Aussie real estate portals with in a year. After that agents will be hoping for the likes of Google to enter into this market. But don
Glenn
Yep, they are dead..
I would like to think Myhome has some legs in it yet. They just need a reality check and maybe a history lesson…. ie.. technically better is not always better in the marketplace… just ask Sony with their Betamax (also called Betacord}.
If they pull their head in and listen to their critics they can turn it around.
Our traffic from homehound was never great but it has been going downhill.
Peter Ricci
On The MyHome front, I think we are not giving them a chance as yet, but I am sick and tired of getting calls from my clients about their listings on the site (which I am not exporting to at the moment). It seems even independents are having their listings scraped. Some of the listings are years sold and another problem is the stretching of their logos – their brand, something they spend allot of money protecting. I think they should have asked first and they could face legal action for damaging some of these agents brands.
Nick Buick
Homehound’s biggest problem IMHO is that doesn’t seem to offer any point of difference. There’s many clever synergies and strategies that smaller property sites can employ to get a foot-hold on REA / Domain (which is probably the whole purpose of the Advisory Council – to close these up) yet I can’t see homehound doing anything new here… it’s a real shame.
At least myhome is taking some experimental approaches here. Perhaps PBL’s flagship into the realestate market shouldnt be ‘an experiment’ – but at least it makes things interesting.
On a side-note – I think Sony’s methods are interesting to observe. Their slogan “SONY – LIKE NO OTHER” is a litteral summary of their ideology. Continued failures (BETA TAPE, MINIDISK, MEMORYSTICK, BLUERAY) are all the result of consumers rejecting restrictive, proprietary-based products in favour of more ‘open-source’ alternatives that empower the user with freedom of choice – even if such technologies are slightly inferieor. I see RealEstate.com.au perhaps take a similar approach: limiting who can and can’t list property – subjecting users to scroll through FEATURE properties that don’t even fall within search criteria, withholding price and location information, ordering listings according to who paid more – not what is most appropriate… All very restrictive functionality from the user’s point of view. For the time being users seem to be accepting this but I wonder for how much longer this will continue if users they are pressented with a less restrictive alternative of equal (or even slightly inferior) calibre.
Robert Simeon
Alas Tom S returns – no doubt your rehab visit will pay dividends here on business2 and your posts will not require management to further temper your commentary.
Again allow me to correct you on real industry movements which again fail to register on your misguided radar. REA announced their advisory council (love the council word as we know they lean on a shovel all day), and the recent announcement by News Limited that REA will now be their marst head in their newspapers. Why ? Because REA are actually suffering from an identity crisis.
Consumer traffic is by-passing them as Domain provides consumers a much faster journey. The impending Google launch has the REA business plan feeling rather fragile and vulnerable.
Fairfax Media – own the number one media vehicle in Saturday Domain. Which explains the REA media crisis where they require a greater presence in print. Rather funny in that they before have questioned the affordability of this medium yet, when when their own business model starts contracting they immediately turn to print in a hope to gain greater market share.
REA keep contradicting their business model. One can only assume by recent announcements that REA are more than concerned about what needs to propel their desire to remain viable and survive.
Google, Domain and REA ironically become the third party 🙂
Elizabeth
Good Afternoon,
With an announcement which appears to progress realestate, we get the usual suspects coming out of partisan corners.
“I would seriously doubt, that this will be shared in an open forum so I would therefore cast dispersions that this announcement was nothing more than an advertising spruik.”
Ladies and gentlemen, that was the one and only Robert of Mossman S.
So let us look at the synergies between Robert attacking this Realestate council, and his own employment with domain.
Are domain’s discovery committee meetings published ANYWHERE let alone on business2? NO
Was it the same Robert S who first came out and congratulated realestate on this announcement, only to post later than 1am the next day and start criticising?
Are we ready to cast dispersions on Robert and the domain discovery committee? Let’s explore further before we answer just yet.
Is it all advertising spruik? Or did Peter as owner and moderator of this blog willingly post press releases?
Perhaps Peter can answer this one.
But what I think it very interesting to note from you Robert, you were not forth coming regarding your membership on the domain discovery committee. It was only once I asked you to confirm this that you volunteered your links to domain and fairfax.
What I cannot stand, are people putting others ideas and initiatives down before they have even taken a look.
When there is an obvious bias I cast my own dispersions!
But it does appear considerably embarassing for some people when the rules by which they judge others, are applied equally to themselves.
Robert, some sole searching to do it would seem. Dispersions abound!
Congratulations on your council realestate. I and my colleagues will be watching to see how this develops.
In relation to bank advertisements bringing more people to realestate, well I do find that one hard to believe. However, I do find it interesting that domain has less bank advertisers, and also less people visiting it. (The exception of course is Mossman)
So maybe the numbers add up. But I am just not confident in that at all.
E
Nick Buick
Take no prisoners!!!
Peter
Elizabeth. I receive press releases from a number of portals and yes I do decide which is ‘post-worthy’ and which is not. I try to keep it as fair as possible and try to only post press releases that I think have an interest for agents.
Some people do forget that the only reason I started this blog in 2002 was to inform agents about all things Internet, to get them to understand just how important this will be in their own futures.
Some of the press releases are just marketing fluff and some have real interest both to myself and hopefully the readers of this blog. Over the past year or two I have met many people from the different portals and I share their enthusiasm for the Internet space, I do also understand that there I do have to be careful what I write here and I try to be as balanced as possible.
I get along well with all of the portal members even though I may strongly disagree with their views and sometimes their motives, I still try to always ask myself, what is in it for the agents.
Many of the comments on this site show a bias for one or the other portals but we are coming to a time where these portals have to continually reshape their business to be relevant in the long term.
If a portal releases something then yes I will pre-judge this decision and see what the community has to say. I will say this, I never say that I am right about anything, I just put forward my opinions.
Thanks again for yuor comments Elizabeth, look forward to hearing more from you.
snoop
All interesting commentary.
The good news is competition keeps the portals focused on customer needs.
The “industry groups”would be constructive if they did publish findings etc to the wider industry.
The Portals are just publishers who charge like any other publication for circulation….people will always advertise on the portal with the biggest reach,or the Portal that has local cred and higher quality targetted reach.
The institutes with their maverick CEOS rushing around trying to be media cos and info bureaus become increasingly irrelevant unless they get back to their core business which should be Agent/Agency support,Training,Certification ,continuous improvement etc.
Elizabeth
Thank you Peter,
I knew that you had considerable integrity in relation to the content you place on this blog.
I am holding up the dispersions magic mirror to Robert S – who may not be the fairest in the land, however just may be the Rapunsal of Mossman.
E
Paul D
Why are we all casting DISPERSIONS ???? There is no such thing.
If you want to cast anything they are called ASPERSIONS which means a disparaging remark. DISPERSIONS means absolutely nothing !!!!
And snoop, your comment on what the CEOs of the Institutes do –:
“The institutes with their maverick CEOS rushing around trying to be media cos and info bureaus become increasingly irrelevant unless they get back to their core business which should be Agent/Agency support,Training,Certification ,continuous improvement etc.”
indicates to me that you have no idea what the Institutes really do, however the comment on the Portals is spot on.
snoop
Perhaps someone can tell me what it is they actualy do then?
Elizabeth
Paul
You say TomAtoe, I say Tomato…
TomAto
Tomato
TomAto
Tomato
Let’s call the whole thing off.
Doris Day?
E