homesales.com.au has launched a new free to list service for licensed real estate agents. The no-cost offer is ongoing and is open to real estate agents selling residential properties Australia-wide.
There are no contracts, commissions or hidden costs. Agents simply list their properties free on the website which each month leverages the carsales.com Ltd network of sites’ 15-million-plus user sessions*.
homesales.com.au, the property arm of Australia’s No.1 automotive classifieds group carsales.com Ltd, launched in 2009 as a dedicated residential real estate site. Since then the site has grown to feature Australia-wide inventory, including listings from more than 1000 agents.
The latest evolution of the site makes it quick, easy and free for licensed real estate agents. It provides premium exposure for agents looking to target property listings and marketing campaigns towards a vendor-rich and location specific market.
homesales.com.au’s revenue model does not include hefty agent advertising charges or shared commissions. The site leverages its audience and attracts revenue from sources other than real estate agents.
homesales.com.au was carsales.com Ltd’s first foray outside the automotive marketplace. A listed ASX 200 company with a market capitalisation of over $1 billion, carsales’ network of sites attracts more than 15.2 million sessions * each month.
The company also brings to the real estate marketplace more than 10 years of online experience along with cutting edge technology and development resources.
When contacted by B2 Rhett Dallwitz, homesales.com.au General Manager said:
homesales.com.au has a strong audience that are by definition in the market to buy residential properties. Our free to list service gives real estate agents the ability to target these buyers at no cost.
Agents can signup to list by calling 1300 291 914 or visiting www.homesales.com.au and clicking on ‘Agent Signup’.
About homesales.com.au
homesales.com.au launched in 2009 as a dedicated residential real estate site. Since then the site has grown to feature Australia-wide inventory, including listings from more than 1000 agents providing premium exposure to a vendor-rich and location specific market.
About carsales.com Ltd.
carsales.com Ltd listed on the ASX in 2009 and is the largest online automotive, motorcycle and marine classifieds business in Australia, attracting more Australians interested in buying or selling cars, motorcycles and boats than any other classified group of websites. carsales.com Ltd’s first revenues were reported in the financial year 1998. The company is one of only a few to have made the BRW Fast 100 for five consecutive years. carsales.com.au is Australia’s number one automotive website and in May 2011 attracted 9.2 million user sessions *. The Carsales Network of websites includes CarPoint.com.au, discountnewcars.com.au, quicksales.com.au, Redbook.com.au and motorcycle, boat, truck and machinery websites. The network boasted in excess of 15.2 million user
sessions** in May 2011.
* Source: Nielsen Online Market Intelligence, Automotive Publishers May 2011
**Source: Nielsen Online Site Census, Carsales Network Aggregate, May 2011
17 Comments
snoop
Well it was dead as a for sale by owner site.
Now do REA and Domain integrate cars?
Nick
Snoop, you are now going to be really depressed.
http://www.drive.com.au/
http://www.carsguide.com.au/
Both of them already do sell cars.
Bill
The fact agencies see an increasing number of free national portals to list on must be a good thing for them. The fact this portal can tap into an established network of visitors and expose their brand could give them some real grunt. It may only be small but it does represent a change to the landscape.
Jack
Why would agents want to add credibility to a For Sale by Owner site in addition to giving them our volume & data improving their industry standing, when you conside their minimal traffic compared to alternate sites.
James
I am with Jack, they have gone the agent free model because they were not getting any traction (revenue) with the previous model.
Before agents jump on board, think through the for sale by owner aspect and where you are taking consumers by promoting this site.
Andy
Do they release figures on what traffic homesales.com.au gets (rather than relying on the “network”)?
Of the 15 million “user sessions” (visits?) to the “carsales network”, I’m guessing that the majority goes to carsales.com.au.
According to AdPlanner, the sites in the network get a total of 13 million monthly visits; of that, carsales gets 7.1 million visits (54% of total) while homesales get 180,000 (1% of total).
So, even if you extrapolate the AdPlanner numbers to the Nielsen numbers given by homesales, there’s only 208,000 monthly visits to homesales.com.au compared to 18 million on realestate.com.au or 7.3 million for domain.com.au.
Glenn Rogers
It’s conundrum really, if you upload, it’s free, everythings rosy until it gets popular then they’ll charge, it’s a merry go round everythings free till it starts to get popular then the game changes and why does it get popular ? because you have provided it with the content it needs to get popular.
You’re better just to support your own REI site rather than create another monster.
You should only support sites that do not have an agenda of maximum price increases and who look after the agents ie the Institutes
So simple yet the message just doesn’t get through.
Deepthroat
Glenn what are you basing your comment on
“You
Vic
Deepthroat says “the reiv have lost over a million dollars” – where did you get this information from and can you provide proof?
PaulD
Andy, realestate.com.au at 18 Million monthly visits is pure fantasy. I get thousands of visits or unique browsers or whatever you want to call them and in terms of enquiry, the rate at the moment is less that 1 per thousand. When realestate.com.au were giving meaningful statistics, the enquiry rate was around 2%. They are all just smoke and mirrors at the moment, trying to disguise the fact that “engagement” with your properties for sale means that you register every time you click the mouse. In fact their enquiry rate in my experience is very poor, and Domain’s in even worse. To keep increasing the income, you have to keep increasing the perceived numbers of people looking at your listings, and if you can’t prove that these numbers are increasing, the easiest way it to change how you measure them so that no historical comparison can be done. That is exactly what has happened in this case.
Glenn Rogers
It’s always been smoke and mirrors, I was the subject of a campaign once that claimed that being on CRE meant you were invisible.
Glossy brochures sent to all my agents.
I ran a program call Web Position Gold over about 15 popular searches for commercial real estate and CRE came out way ahead, made their claim look a complete fabrication.
I headed an email Who Really is Invisible or something like that and sent it to my clients and theirs, the response was immense and immediate, everyone said EVERYONE knows where the enquiry comes from ie: CRE
Slam dunk.
PaulD
Friday humour:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7ofddkmpvg&feature=player_embedded
Glenn Rogers
Ok you’ve started something now, get ready for this –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmHv0txaNIE
Bill
Absolute classics and and nothing like a laugh to end the week.
Glenn Rogers
It’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, being an agent, it’s years old and I thought I wouldn’t be able to find it again but there’s the power of you tube for you.
Vic
It’s funny Glenn: even not being an agent.- lolwwm
Glenn Rogers
Vic there’s a bit too much truth in that, but thats how it is with all good satire 🙂