The dream of REA for a for sale by owner (FSBO)
Privatepoint is the for sale by owner ( FSBO ) and DIY real estate sales website for private real estate sale in Australia.
A for sale by owner (FSBO) who is conducting a private real estate sale has many benefits from not using a real estate agent. However, there is one huge drawback from selling privately and that is a for sale by owner can’t get their property listed on www.realestate.com.au.
An agent friend of mine passed on these statistics for REA for September 2008.
- In September 2008, realestate.com.au delivered more than 4.2 million visitors from both Australia and overseas.
- In NSW, realestate.com.au delivered a daily average of 60% MORE property seekers than domain.com.au*
Sept 2007 Sept 2008 12 month change
No. of emails leads sent to agents 383,215 634,229 +66%
TOTAL No. of Unique Browsers 3,813,031 4,236,115 +11%
No. of property searches undertaken 48.5 Million 78.9 Million +63%
No. of properties viewed in detail 52.2 Million 85.8 Million +64%
There are a few points worth noting about these statistics, in particular that realestate.com.au delivered a daily average of 60% more property seekers than Domain. What is worth noting here is that Domain strongest are is NSW (particularly around Sydney) and they are quite insignificant in all other places across Australia.
The results that REA achieve are unbelievable, over 4 million unique browsers per month and 80 million property searchers. They certainly have every right to spruik about how good their service is!
It is such a shame they do not let private sellers list on their website as this type of exposure would do wonders for any marketing campaign for a property. I guess this is card that real estate agents hold in their pockets, forcing property owners to list through them to get the greatest online exposure!
Comments
They are impressive statistics are they the market leaders in Australia?
Luke Randall
03.11.08
9:18 am
Biggest, they are one of the super powers across the world. There is no way any other website in Australia will knock http://www.realestate.com.au off as the number real estate website in Australia.
T-Bone
04.11.08
12:33 pm
REA have a rule that they do not let anyone other than licensed real estate agents list properties on their website. It is something they have had in place for years and something i can’t see changing in the future.
Rodney
04.11.08
3:35 pm
Surely, if http://www.domain.com.au charges property owners $499 to list their property for 28 days then http://www.realestate.com.au can charge their property owners $699 for the same period. It would be a great cash cow for the website they could make a killing, doesn’t make sense.
Trent Piccilo
04.11.08
7:12 pm
Trent, things are a little more complicated than that. You see Realestate.com.au want to charge private sellers a fee and let them list on their website but the problem is that real estate agents are against this.
Agents are against it because Realestate.com.au is the most effective way to market any type of property. Many property owners have no success with private selling because they don’t have their proeprty on Realestate.com.au.
So real estate agents have applied pressure on Realestate.com.au not to let private sellers list in an effort to force private sellers to use agents.
Micky
04.11.08
10:43 pm
I think you hit the nail on the head there Micky!
It is a digrace that REA are listed on the ASX yet they are controlled by real estate agents. They should grow some coconuts and do what is right for them and the community (property owners)!
T-Bone
05.11.08
9:45 am
They are doing what is right, they are looking after their shareholders. If they let proeprty owners list their properties directly then real estate agents would no longer be needed. Real estate agents would provide realestate.com.au with 80% of their income so my making them angry is only going to result in them stop listing their properties or reducing the amount of money they spend.
It is just basic business, there are winners and losers and in this situation the losers are property owners.
Drew Burkinshaw
05.11.08
9:49 am
Well, it still isn’t right!
T-Bone
10.11.08
8:12 am