Global Edge released a TOP 100 of the world’s most powerful property people. Surprisingly, I am there, but with Sir Les Flatulence in brackets. He has written 2 articles and I more than 400. How does he worm his way into it?
Anyway, probably every one of these blogs will link to the article making Global Edge more powerful also. Anyway here is the link, some of the sites I read regularly.
Enjoy!
I would personally like to thank the financial markets of the world. I think it is great when our banks and financiers make mistakes and then calculate their losses and jump up fees to cover these losses to consumers.
I do note today that the US Government has decided that it will not be an open cheque book to all of these doyens of society with their bailout package. Of course the finance markets were not impressed and sent the markets and US dollar down. Oh, it is not all gloom, the price of oil sky-rocketed.
I think it is fair that the executives of these companies should retain their multi million dollar salaries after the bailout, after all they are really important people and have become accustomed to a lifestyle that cannot be compromised.
I think Kevin Rudd should commission a detailed financial market report to come out sometime next year (or the year after) before making any decisions. Of course Malcolm Turnbull would welcome the timing of this report and should be given time to work our where to put all of his hard earned money. I think what’s required is a bi-partisan approach from both Kevin and Malcolm as they will certainly need to sort out their portfolios (and their wives portfolios).
The Banks should also be given a little time to get their media releases in order to make sure their message is one of compassion and candour. I mean they have to protect their shareholders as well. Don’t you just love competition!
As for all all my financial market media friends, I suggest you write some articles on how you all saw this coming and back date it about a year and pretend that we were all in with Warren Buffet in warning us about the impending collapse of the US financial markets and how you told us it would be so! (it’s easy to do with blogs, just click on right hand side menu and back date published date)
All of us that have friends in financial markets who we all look up to with their fancy degrees and intimate knowledge of the finance sector. Please let us all spend a moment to feel for them and let’s hope that the governments of the world can preserve their salaries and lifestyles so we can all get back to paying off our mortgages, filling our cars up with petrol and having those credit cards left over for paying the bills and schooling/feeding the kids.
Over the last few months it has become increasingly aware to me that Australia’s largest real estate portals are toying with the idea of playing with their fee structures charged to agents for advertising their vendors listings.
Currently realestate.com.au charges a flat fee and domain.com.au charges fees dependant on your area (city or country) and their so called ‘popularity’ in these areas.
So why would they be doing this? Because they want to make it fairer? Guess again muchumbo, this is all about making more money for their companies/shareholders. You can argue that this is fair enough, as this is what they exist to do. Howeve, they have this opportunity only becuase agents support them and without these agents, they would not attract visitors and therefore 3rd party advertisers like banks and those pathetic what price my house websites.There are some valid arguments for maybe one of these models, but they have to tread very carefully.
So lets look at some current models and possible models or fees.
In another post I was asked to comment about my thoughts on the recent article in the Australian Real Estate Bulletin on home.com.au”>myhome titled “Under Renovation”. Since that question was off topic I thought it worthwhile to give the response its own post.
If you have not seen the article you can read the online version (whilst Issue 2 is still on display) at www.areb.com.au/emag.php.
I think myhome has huge potential but it just has a couple of big hairy monkeys on its back that it has to shake off. home-under-renovation/#more-562″>(more…)
home+Under+Renovation%21&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.business2.com.au%2F2008%2F09%2F15%2Fmyhome-under-renovation%2F”>ShareThis
Rumours of a Google Browser have been around as long as a Google Phone and a Google Operating System.Recently the Google Phone rumours got some substance with the announcement of Android which is a mobile phone operating system that will part of a new generation of phones.
Now overnight Google Chrome was launched which is Google’s new web browser to take on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera.Chrome is a very fast, very simple and very powerful web browser. It is very powerful in the new technology under the skin.
With no legacy code to hold it back the designers could write it for today’s applications for instance, its processing of JavaScript is lightening fast and JavaScript is the foundation of Ajax….. more commonly known as Web 2.In typical google style the browser is simple and functional to use and the features it does have it does very very well.
Firstly I would like to congratulate you on your appointment as CEO of the REA Group. It will come as no surprise to you that you have some big shoes to fill.
I know that many of us think that you will simply be a puppet for News Limited and that tricky dicky Freudenstein will have you on his lap performing his ventriloquist number on you from this day forth. However I want to point out a few things that can make your stewardship successful.
Firstly, we love you. I know this is a shock, but trust me, we the agents love that you send us enquiries, we also love that most Australians use your website. We love it even more when you send these enquiries within say - the first month it was originally sent.
We also love that you place our vendors properties in the centre of the page. We understand that it must be tempting to place all other 35 or so 3rd party advertising in the centre of the page and place the property listing, well you know, somewhere obscure, like in the side area. This would make it easier for people to mouse over unsuspecting ads and have them pop all over their screens.
We also love the fact that you send us periodic emails telling us how great you are and how much better you are than the opposition and of course the 38 million unique Australians that use your website each month reminds us all just what a lucky country we live in.
If you get a chance to meet with Rupert, tell him thank you from all of us, we know his is getting a little mellow in his old age, but we still love the old codger and we understand he still loves donning his station master hat with his Hornby train set - oh and of course money, he will always love money.
I am no mathematician, but I had a glance over your figures last year and they look pretty good, however I reckon there is room for improvement. I have an idea, why don’t you try and make a few of these international websites a little more competitive, I know its a stretch, but how about setting a goal to make one or two of these profitable. Then you could then set aside a few dollars and spend it on upgrading the www.realestate.com.au website to something that resembles a real estate portal and not a home loan centre/home price guide website.
Ooooh, open up the draw to your left there is a truckload of cash in there set aside for the Peak Industry Body, its just sitting there, Simon forget all about it. It might be just below the mirror and make up case.
Hang on a sec, geez that local pub country curry didn’t go down well. What was I saying? Ah yes, profitability, I was chewing the fat with a few local agents yesterday and we reckon we need you so bad, that you could easily lift our fees by another 30%! Why not convene a meeting? Have a laugh about how much we need you and try on a 40% hike in fees, you could just say the same things as what banks tell us, something about how money costs more than money did a while back and that money is really tight and money doesn’t grow on trees. Seriously we need you guys so much we would pay anything. It is not as if times are tough for us, I sold a farm about 4 months ago and those Fortescue idiots paid me 300k for it, something about a mine.
One more thing before I go, better go check that draw, yep top right, the one that ticks. I am off to the outdoor loo for some recuperation, better go grab that Fairfax paper for a good hard hitting read, geez its only 2 pages thick, strike, well I never!
Note: Raised by his siblings (who happened to be related) Sir Les was born in 1954 in Anytown NSW, in 1972 he started his own real estate firm with his brother (Flatulence & Flatulence) and expanded his business to actually sell properties in 1979. He thinks he may have 3 kids of his own and lives with his parents.
The Chairman of the REA Group, Richard Freudenstein, today announced the appointment of Greg Ellis as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. Ellis is currently Marketing Director Asia Online Services for Microsoft. He will take on the new role on Monday, 8 September.
Richard Freudenstein:
The Board is delighted that Greg has agreed to lead the REA Group through the next, crucial, stage of its development. We are confident he will fully realise the strategic vision we have for the company.
The REA Group has transformed itself into the second largest online real estate advertising company in the world, largely on the strength of its Australian operations.
Greg has the online and international experience necessary to grow the business from where it is today to an even larger and more successful future. This is excellent news for the real estate agents whom we help succeed and to the consumers who rely on our websites.
Greg Ellis
There is an excellent team in place at the REA Group and they have achieved great things. I am looking forward to joining them so that we can accomplish even more together.
My Comments: Firstly I would like to welcome Greg. Coming into a role in a company that already has complete market share will be nothing new to Greg, however it will be the expectations under which he is employed by the board that we will follow with interest.
I will be interested to see what changes he brings to the CEO role and how REA are perceived by agents, this is one of REA”s weak points and they need to improve relationships with agents especially after the email fiasco, which basically drove home the point and about REA being results driven rather than core customer focussed.
I wish him well and I am sure we all will judge him on his long term vision and results.
The new REA CEO looks likely to be announced this week. I have had a number of people send me emails as to who they think it is going to be.
Can they keep the growth going at the same clip? Will they simply be a News Ltd puppet? Will it be a woman? Tell me who you think it could be and why!
On Thursday evening I had a phone hookup with Simon Baker, former Managing Director of Realestate.com.au. We spoke about a range of issues and I will place some excerpts from the interview here. Simon recently departed from Realestate.com.au in the typical pathetic fashion that large organisations feel necessary and from his blog My CEO Life Simon explained his departure.
“I was summonded to a hotel room in town, asked for my access pass and told not to go back to the office and that my desk would be packed up and couriered to me - 7.5 years over in a flash. I was not to say goodbye to the team.”
Since that date Simon has been inundated with offers and judging by the response was very popular amongst his team. Simon is still a large shareholder of realestate.com.au so I am sure he will want to see continued growth from this company. You have got to give credit where it is due, the company now has a market capitalisation of over 500 million and employs some 750 people.
Realestate.com.au has a number of challenges ahead of them, not only trying to keep growth running along nicely, but also making its international businesses profitable (nearly all the profit comes from Australia).
There was no malice in this interview towards REA and he answered all questions openly.
So here is the interview. (more…)
Back in November the Google Vans were seen running around some of our capital cities photographing the streets to provide a 360 degree panoramic view right down at the street level. Today Google Street View goes live in Australia but what everyone assumed at the time was that like the US, we would only have the large capital cities on Street View. Newspapers are reporting that Google’s goal is to map virtually all streets in Australia including smaller and possibly even major highways.
For the next week we will be no doubt be bombarded with comments in the media about privacy concerns the same as when Google Maps was initially released but it will not take long to die down.
Personally I have found that up till now mapping has not been as a bigger impact with real estate online as thought it was going to be but Street View has the potential to become huge. Street View will allow buyers to really narrow down the field when looking for homes when used on top of the substantial number of internal photos already on most listings.
What a fantastic tool for our industry and there are dozens of way an agent can use this. The race will be on between portals and networks to integrate this feature into their websites.
Editor Note: Domain had this up and running yesterday