Property Portal Watch

LoopNet Invests in AuctionPoint

Alice Allan — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:45:52 +0000

LoopNet Inc., the company behind leading US commercial real estate portal loopnet.com, has invested in online auction service AuctionPoint.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. LoopNet explains it will now endorse AuctionPoint as its preferred online auction solution for commercial properties, and provide its customers with discounts on AuctionPoint services.

AuctionPoint works by setting up customised auction websites for commercial properties. Brokers can then set a minimum bid, pre-qualify their bidders, and give qualified bidders access to due-dillegence material online. On the day of the auction, the broker signs a purchase agreement with the winning bidder.

The process costs US$395 per auction, with AuctionPoint collecting a 1.75 percent buyer’s premium from the winning bidder.

“LoopNet is committed to bringing our clients the best possible technology solutions in commercial real estate, and AuctionPoint is one of those services,” said Jason Greenman, LoopNet’s senior vice president of corporate development. “With its unique broker-friendly approach, brokers can offer their clients an accelerated disposition process, while maintaining their full commission.”

Hitwise: propertyguru.com.sg Leads

Alice Allan — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:27:01 +0000

New Hitwise figures released by Singaporean portal propertyguru.com.sg confirm its place as the market leader and give an idea of where its competitor websites are placed.

According to the figures, the top 10 Singaporean property websites by share of page impressions is as follows:

1. propertyguru.com.sg – 27.36%
2. hdb.gov.sg – 21.47% (Singaporean Government Housing & Development Board)
3. sg-house.com – 10.42%
4. iproperty.com.sg – 6.76%
5. stars.gov.sg – 5.22 % (Singapore Titles Automated Registration System)
6. realestate.com.au – 2.90%
7. agentnet.propertyguru.com.sg – 2.76%
8. singaporeexpats.com – 2.20%
9. inlis.gov.sg – 1.76% (Singapore Land Authority Integrated Land Information Service)
10. nationproperty.com.sg – 1.41%

While Hitwise figures are regularly quoted by websites to confirm their market position, not everyone is convinced by the company’s analytics methods. A recent blog post by comScore’s director of industry analysis goes into detail about the differences between the methods used by Hitwise, comScore, and Nielsen NetRatings, calling US-based data from Hitwise on Google’s market share into question.

Nevertheless, the fact that propertyguru.com.sg was named one of the fastest rising Singaporean websites in Google’s Zeitgeist report for 2009 adds weight to the argument that the portal is in fact top of its market.

propertyguru.com.sg currently states that it sees over 1.3 million property hunters on its website each month, and generates over 100,000 leads for its advertisers. The portal says these figures are based on data from Hitwise, Google Insights, and alexa.com.

zillow.com Now on Android

Alice Allan — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 04:06:12 +0000

zillow.com is following up the success of its iPhone app with the release of an Android application.

According to the US-based real estate marketplace, the free application has similar functionality to that offered by the iPhone app, and utilises Android’s voice search technology, enabling users to search for homes simply by saying an address, neighbourhood or city. The application also makes use of Google Street View to allow home hunters to see a curb-side perspective of a property.

zillow.com says the application’s data is updated in real time, and will gives users access to information on 95 million properties.

Earlier this year, zillow.com chief operating officer Spencer Rascoff made it clear he was considering an initial public offering for the website in 2011. The website is currently number two in the US according to Hitwise, and has just signed up John L. Scott Real Estate, expanding its listings by 15,000.

Funding Injection for secondporch.com

Alice Allan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:10:13 +0000

Facebook-based vacation rentals application secondporch.com has just closed a US$1 million round of Series-A investment financing, led by the Oregon Angel Fund.

secondporch.com launched in public beta last September, and allows vacation rental property owners to list their homes on Facebook for free. The website says the new funds will be used to continue the company’s expansion into the vacation home rental and home exchange markets.

“secondporch.com tackles the unsolved piece of the marketing opportunity for vacation homeowners by bringing an easy to use system to effectively and tastefully market to the best possible source of guests: people you already know and with whom you have some degree of trust”, said Brent Hieggelke, secondporch.com CEO.

Hieggelke has welcomed the recent Hitwise figures that show Facebook has just surpassed Google to become the most visited website for the week ending 13 March.

On the topic of holiday rental websites, the people behind European holiday rentals portal housetrip.com have been hard at work making improvements to their portal, which is no longer displaying the “beta” tag.

According to a housetrip.com blog post, recent upgrades to the portal include redesigns for the homepage and search results, a new look for property profile pages, and changes to the online booking process. The housetrip.com messaging system has also been upgraded again to improve communication between hosts and guests.

housetrip.com was launched in September last year, and won the Best Travel Startup award at the 2009 World Travel Market.

Glimpse of the New realestate.com.au

Alice Allan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:25:21 +0000

Load up realestate.com.au this morning and you will see nothing out of the ordinary. However, the revamped version of the market-leading Australian website is now available to a select few beta testers.

Glenn Batten of business2.com.au has outlined his first impressions, stating that the new version is more of an upgrade rather than a full redesign. Changes have been made to the way users can refine their search, including the option to cut out properties currently under offer/contract. The map and quick search options have also been given more prominence on the realestate.com.au home page.

According to Batten, the property pages have moved from a three-column to a two-column design, giving more space to listing content. Other upgrades include the ability to download open house information as an iCal file, a fix for duplicated suburb names in the same state, and a listing comparison system. Batten’s screenshot of an example property page can be seen below:

The launch of the updated realestate.com.au is reportedly scheduled for early April, at which time propertyportalwatch.com will publish a full review.

[Image: business2.com.au]

rentals.com Releases Smartphone Apps

Alice Allan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 02:33:58 +0000

rentals.com, a US-based portal for rental properties, now offers property search applications for both iPhones and Google Android mobiles.

The portal’s new smartphone applications offer all the features that have become expected of mobile property search, including the ability to view complete listing information, contact agents, search for nearby listings, and save and rank favourites.

“Mobile devices were once a luxury, but have evolved into a necessity for most consumers,” says David Quinlan, general manager of emerging technologies at rentals.com. “Leveraging mobile applications to connect consumers and advertisers is a powerful marketing tool.”

rentals.com moved up one place on the latest Hiwise list of US real estate websites to land at number 13.

The portal’s parent company, Primedia Inc., recently announced total revenue of US$257.9 million for the full year 2009, which is a $46.2 million decrease compared to 2008.

Fourth quarter revenue from rentals.com decreased by 4.6 precent compared to the fourth quarter of 2008. Primedia said this was primarily due to a decrease in paid listings through the self-provisioning feature of its websites, partially offset by an increase in the number of listings generated from property managers.

domain.com.au Looks to Video

Alice Allan — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:38:57 +0000

After a year dotted with regular releases, domain.com.au has been quiet for the first few months of 2010. Now, Australia’s number two property portal has announced a new focus on video property tours through a partnership with the conviniently-named video production company Visual Domain.

The launch of “Domain Video” means agents will now be able to add video property and agency profiles to their listings, allowing potential buyers to have what domain.com.au calls “an even more emotive connection with a property”.

“The first inspection starts online,” says Daniel Goldstein, director of Visual Domain, adding that the use of video benefits agents in that it tends to generate more qualified leads. “When they turn up at an inspection, they’re ready to buy,” he emphasises.

domain.com.au sales manager Carolyn Matthews explained that the addition of video to the portal’s listings was an effort to offer everything possible to both agents and those researching property, including interstate and overseas buyers. ”Domain Video provides businesses the opportunity to be true leaders in their field,” Matthews said.

Visual Domain’s property profiles start at AUD$495. The video they created to promote Domain Video can be viewed here.

[Image: Fletchers property profile video]

New Luxury Portal Launches

Alice Allan — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:56:53 +0000

A new property portal has just been launched at dreamhomesdot.com promising to showcase luxury real estate from the around the world.

The dreamhomesdot.com listing model offers unlimited property listings for US$49 per month. The website currently lists just under 1,000 properties from countries such as Spain, Australia, Malta, Mexico, and France.

Along with property listings, dreamhomesdot.com features properties on its blog and offers e-commerce packages which include personalised videos, customised website design, and search engine optimisation services.

An advice section is also available covering various stages of the buying and selling process, and dreamhomesdot.com is taking advantage of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube to promote its services.

rentbits.com Buys apartmentfrog.com

Alice Allan — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 02:50:53 +0000

US rentals search engine rentbits.com has just splashed out on a new acquisition: apartmentfrog.com.

apartmentfrog.com provides an apartment listing service for independent landlords across the US, and allows apartment hunters to search for properties using a wide range of criteria. Renters can also use it to post free advertisements for roommates.

rentbits.com says its distribution network will now reach 10.2 million unique visitors per month.

“This acquisition is part of our long-term strategy to continue expanding our distribution offering for our advertisers,” says Tim Moynihan, rentbits.com’s chief operations officer. “As part of the rentbits network, apartmentfrog.com offers our multi-family customers relevant distribution and qualified lead generation for their apartment communities.”

Along with the new acquisition, rentbits.com says it is rolling out a number of website enhancements. These include extending its network reach for multi-family advertisers and adding to its database of rental rate data from over 7,000,000 historical rentals nationally.

rentbits.com was one of the Hitwise “fast movers” for January, climbing 51 places to land at number 75 on a list of US real estate websites. A redesign for the website was released in February.

zillow.com Joins with John L. Scott

Alice Allan — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:19:33 +0000

US real estate marketplace zillow.com, the current US number two, has teamed up with John L. Scott Real Estate to add 15,000 of the company’s for sale listings.

zillow.com explains that the partnership will benefit its users in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. John L. Scott joins over 800 partners in zillow.com’s listings feed program.

“If you’re a John L. Scott agent, it’s time to celebrate and to thank your broker for doing you a huge favour,” says zillow.com chief operating officer Spencer Rascoff on the website’s blog. “Your listings are now on one of the largest real estate websites at no additional cost to you, complete with multiple photos and open house information.”

Each listing John L. Scott feeds to zillow.com will include a description of the property along with with photos and contact information for the listing agent. These listings will also be displayed on zillow.com’s iPhone app, which has been downloaded almost 1 million times.