The campaign has exceeded realestate.com.au’s expectations and reached its target in just two weeks of going live, with thousands of Australians taking part in the integrated corporate social responsibility campaign.

The campaign has been a joint partnership with Habitat for Humanity Australia, which is the world’s number one provider of housing for low income families in need.

Spokesperson for realestate.com.au Joanne Whyte indicated that support for the cause has been overwhelming, with many online users embracing the concept since the campaign went live in early October.

“Deciding to integrate Facebook into the campaign was a clever way to engage consumers who want to help make a difference in this world.  We are really pleased to see the general public get behind this cause and embrace the Fresh Start Project,” said Joanne.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to making a difference, realestate.com.au has contributed $130,000 to Habitat for Humanity Australia that will go towards building a house for a low income family, with construction commencing on 8 November 2010,” she said.

Two thousand three hundred fans have had their photos published on a ‘supporters wall’ sharing Fresh Start Project with family and friends.

Established in the United States in 1976, Habitat for Humanity is a global not-for-profit organisation with a presence in over 90 countries and has changed the lives of people all over the world building more than 400,000 houses and sheltering more than two million people in 3,500 communities including almost 100 homes in Australia.

Habitat for Humanity believes in giving people a hand up rather than a hand out by building homes in partnership with families both in Australia and overseas.  The families put in labour and a deposit, and Habitat for Humanity assists with the expertise and financing and importantly, as the no-profit loan is repaid, it goes into a revolving fund to help finance even more homes for people in need.

Habitat for Humanity’s recent projects include its work in helping rebuild homes in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and in Haiti with the support of celebrity A-listers such as Brad Pitt, Bon Jovi, Barack and Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey.

Between now and 7 November 2010, members of the public keen to follow the Fresh Start Project can keep up-to-date with the latest campaign developments via realestate.com.au’s Facebook page and the microsite as the next phase of the campaign unfolds. Consumers can continue donating social bricks via the realestate.com.au home page to help raise awareness around housing affordability for low income families.

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The Fresh Start Project campaign is the latest instalment forming part of realestate.com.au’s spring activity which helps Australians get fresh start in life.

Joanne Whyte, General Manager Marketing Communications and Insights for realestate.com.au said the company was pleased to partner with Habitat for Humanity Australia, which is the world’s number one provider of housing for low income families in need.

“realestate.com.au will donate $130,000 which will go towards building a safe and secure home for a family in need and help realise their dream of home ownership through low cost housing,” she said.

“The Fresh Start Project is a fully integrated digital campaign which leverages our social media assets using Facebook as the main channel to help spread the word and garner support from socially conscious people,” she said.

The partnership will enable realestate.com.au consumers and Facebook fans to spread the word about this worthy cause by collecting social bricks as they visit the realestate.com.au site.

The bricks will help build a supporters wall to acknowledge the contribution from realestate.com.au. Participant photos will be published via a virtual montage and people can share their involvement with family and friends.

In early November, realestate.com.au and Habitat for Humanity Australia will announce the lucky family who will be given the home. Together with volunteers and members of the community, the family will help build the home over a two-week period, with Fresh Start Project fans able to track the progress of the build via the microsite.

Habitat for Humanity Australia CEO Jo Brennan said: “We’re deeply grateful for the support of realestate.com.au and its desire to help house a family in real need in Australia.”

“We rely on individuals and corporate Australia to make homes a reality for so many low income families here and around the world, so we’re looking forward to seeing the number of bricks build up on the realestate.com.au site and of course seeing the supporters of Fresh Start Project on Facebook,” she said.

Habitat for Humanity is a global not-for-profit organisation with a presence in over 90 countries and has changed the lives of people all over the world building more than 400,000 houses and sheltering more than two million people in 3,500 communities.

Established in the United States in 1976, Habitat for Humanity’s recent projects include its work in helping rebuild homes in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and in Haiti with the support of celebrity A-listers such as Brad Pitt, Bon Jovi, Barack and Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey.

realestate.com.au has worked closely with digital agency Amnesia Razorfish to bring the campaign to life alongside media agency Starcom. The campaign follows the recent launch of realestate.com.au’s TVC and advertising campaign which went live in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane recently.”

This time around it looks like Realestate.com.au and Amnesia Razorfish have put together a good marketing campaign (alongside Starcom).

It’s a massive improvement on their House Hunter Video campaign disaster earlier in the year which ended up being labelled as “REA suffers from Amnesia”.

Plus, it”s good to see that they”ve used an introduction video from CEO Greg Ellis to add a more personalised approach to the whole initiative. (should help them win some points amongst the Facebook community and Gen Y”s).

PS: If you haven”t seen realestate.com.au’s TVC mentioned within the press release you can view it here…

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How do you propose to a girl in real estate?

In a press release issued today, realestate.com.au helps hopeless romantic pop the BIG question online

realestate.com.au has helped one lucky beau pop the BIG question on RENT section of its site.

Some guys like the face to face approach but Frankston local Clinton Hosking wanted to propose in a memorable way – something his bride-to-be Hayley Smith would not forget in a hurry.

“As Hayley works as a Property Manager for Harcourts in Frankston, she is obsessed with real estate continually checking out the competition online,” said Clinton.

“I thought what is one thing Hayley really loves and one thing stuck out, she loves real estate so I thought why not stick an advertisement on realestate.com.au for her to find – l really wanted this to be a genuine surprise,” he said.

Joanne Whyte, General Manager Marketing Communications and Insights at realestate.com.au said the company was thrilled to help Clinton seal the deal in an unusual way.

“We wish Clinton and Hayley every happiness. Less than two hours of the marriage proposal going live in the RENT section of realestate.com.au, nearly 500 people viewed the property listing come marriage proposal,” she said.

Check out the marriage proposal on realestate.com.au: Property ID: 404807547

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-vic-frankston-404807547

Note: At the time of posting this article their had already been over 3600 visits to the marriage proposal.

Congratulations to the happy couple. I wish them all the very best for the future.

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Share will be added to PriceFinder”s existing Pro Package subscription service from May 15, but it is already causing a stir. One prominent industry figure is redesigning his company’s website to take full advantage of the new application.

Share allows agents, property managers, mortgage brokers and other real estate industry professionals to provide clients with free access to property data. This represents a major move away from the traditional approach, where property data suppliers charge one-off fees to casual customers for price estimates, sales histories or suburb reports.

PriceFinder already provides property industry professionals such as real estate agents with a quick and easy reference to the estimated sale price, rental price and potential yield of a property within the current market or any time in recent history. The company also provides access to a revolutionary map-searching tool, recent sales, property photos, listings and much more. Share allows PriceFinder subscribers to give their clients free access to this valuable information with just the click of a button.

PriceFinder’s Chief Operating Officer Kent Lardner is excited and proud of this new product, which he says goes a lot further than just value-adding.

“At PriceFinder we are determined to maximise our service to clients,” Mr Lardner says.

“To do this we must be constantly developing new initiatives that give those clients a marketing edge, and I am confident that Share will exceed all expectations in that respect.

“Sometimes the simplest of ideas can bring major results and I think this will be one of those stories.”

Mr Lardner is expecting a big response from the industry, with many businesses integrating the service into lead generation campaigns.

“There are so many possibilities – real estate agents can offer access to buyers, sellers and landlords, and mortgage brokers can provide detailed information with new clients. This application is limited only by imagination.”

Among those already moving to position themselves to take advantage of Share is prominent real estate professional Kevin Turner. Mr Turner is the founder of Real Estate Talk (www.realestatetalk.com.au), which was last year named as a finalist in the ‘Most Innovative Media Site’ category of the international Inman Innovator Awards.

Mr Turner also hosts a weekly radio show by the same name, which covers real estate-related issues for buyers, sellers and investors. The show airs on 2UE Sydney every Thursday from 1.30pm to 2pm, and on 4BC Brisbane from 10am to noon every Saturday, and has an estimated audience of some one million people each week.

Mr Turner already uses PriceFinder to provide data and property information for his radio show and website. He is excited about the Share tool and is in the process of redesigning his website to take full advantage of its capabilities and marketing opportunities.

“From my point of view Share will open up a huge amount of information to buyers and sellers, and is very much in line with what the internet is doing for this industry,” he says.

“Five or six years ago agents were the gatekeepers of information, but now we are dealing with very educated buyers and sellers who want their own access to that information.”

Mr Turner is particularly impressed with the PriceFinder methodology to determine price estimates, which he says is quite unique. He says using information about property enhancements, local area, proximity to major infrastructure and other factors, as well as market trends and sales histories, gives a much more comprehensive estimate.

“Buyers are much more aware of property trends and are looking for that extra information,” he explains.

“We have been looking at the Share model consistently for the past month and we have a lot of faith in it.”

Such a show of faith is immensely gratifying for Mr Lardner and his team, but he is not surprised.

“Our company has a reputation for listening to what our clients want and this is a perfect example of that,” he says.

“This will be a great way for real estate agents to build goodwill with current clients or use the service to attract new customers. The best news is that it will come at no additional cost to the existing Pro Package subscription service.

“Many companies would see this as an opportunity to increase fees, but we see it as a chance to give our existing and prospective clients an edge in a highly competitive market, without added cost burden.

“Furthermore, Share is not just for real estate sales staff,” explains Mr Lardner. “As an example, property managers can also use it to share access with a landlord who wants to review her current property and the local market. That same landlord may also be looking to expand his property portfolio, so there are some very valuable cross-promotional opportunities here.”

How Share works

A real estate agent receives a call from a prospective buyer who has viewed a property the agency has on its books. The buyer wants more detail about property trends, sales histories, price estimates and other information, before deciding whether to lodge an offer.

The agent, who is a PriceFinder subscriber, tells the client he will send them an email providing access to this information, and asks for their email details. The agent goes to his computer, logs on, clicks the Share button and enters the client’s email address.

The Share access details are emailed immediately to the client who can then enter the PriceFinder system without the need for any password or account information.

One of the key aspects of this tool is that it only allows customers access to PriceFinder for a single session. This gives the agent the opportunity to initiate further contact and maintain an ongoing dialogue.

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• Eighty four per cent⁽¹⁾of property hunters find inspecting properties to be more stressful than visiting the Boxing Day sales.
• Fifty seven per cent⁽¹⁾ of property hunters have become so distressed by the property search that they have fought about it with their loved ones.
• New South Wales property hunters are the most stressed out in the country while South Australians are the most relaxed.⁽¹⁾

“Australia’s obsession with property hunting is stressing out the nation and impacting our relationships with loved ones, according to new research by leading Australian property portal, realestate.com.au.

The nationwide survey of over 1,000 adults⁽¹⁾ revealed 84 per cent of prospective buyers believe looking for property is more stressful than visiting the end of year Boxing Day sales. The news comes as realestate.com.au enhances their website to alleviate the pressure.

The findings reveal three-quarters (74 per cent ⁽¹⁾) of Australians find inspecting properties  stressful, with New South Wales property hunters coming in as the most stressed out state in the country.

Unsurprisingly, this added stress is having an adverse effect on wellbeing, with 57 per cent of property hunters saying they have become so distressed by the property search that they have fought about it with their loved ones.

Clinical psychologist and relationship expert Dr Timothy Sharp, also known as Dr Happy, says the findings come as no surprise to him.

“Many people underestimate the effect big decisions, such as buying or renting a property, have on our state of being and how happy we are day-to-day,” said Dr Sharp.

“The key is to reduce the stress associated with the process. In doing so, we not only make better decisions but we bring the fun back to house hunting,” he said.

Despite finding the search for their dream home stressful, it seems Aussies are addicted to the hunt. Ninety two per cent of property seekers spend over one full day per month (up to 25 hours) researching potential homes online⁽²⁾.

The research also revealed that 86 per cent⁽¹⁾ of respondents believed using online property websites like realestate.com.au could help ease the pressure felt when house hunting.

General Manager Consumer Marketing for realestate.com.au, Henry Ruiz says the site enhancements help minimise the time wasted in searching for properties, meaning house hunters can find that dream home faster.

“At realestate.com.au we know how stressful the house hunting process can be. We’ve listened to our customers and as a result we have implemented new tools on our website to streamline the search process,” said Henry.

“Some of the new tools includes enhanced search functionality, a compare feature and a myrealestate zone”, he said.

The enhanced search function enables house hunters to now search by the exact street name, suburb or address. The compare feature allows consumers to scan key attributes of each listing and eliminate the ones they don’t like, while the myrealestate zone acts like an online scrapbook allowing house hunters to save all their search activity in the one place for future reference.

KEY STATE FINDINGS⁽¹⁾:

• Seventy nine per cent of New South Wales residents claimed they get stressed when looking for property making them the most stressed out state
• Property hunters in South Australia are the least likely to get stressed with only 64 per cent claiming they have felt the pressure when looking for their dream home.
• Property hunters in Western Australia spend the most time looking for properties, spending almost nine hours a week on the search.
• Property hunters in Queensland are least likely to fight with loved ones when looking for property with only 53 per cent claiming they have come to blows.”

Even though this media release coincides with the launch of realestate.com.au’s new look site, I thought that the article could also act as a timely reminder for agents to show understanding & empathise with clients who are going through the process of buying, selling or renting because it can be an extremely stressful time for your customers.

The more you can do to relieve their level of stress the more your customers will sing your praises.

(1)    Independent online survey conducted by Longergan Research of 1,028 respondents for realestate.com.au, March 2010

(2)    Internal research conducted by realestate.com.au. Online survey of 1,200 respondents, 5-9 October 2009

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When connecting with Julie on LinkedIn, I happened to notice one of her recent presentations was available on SlideShare and thought I”d share some of Julie”s insights with GenYre = energy readers.

Whilst I appreciate that the SlideShare presentation isn”t anywhere near as effective as it would be with Julie presenting it, I believe that you can still gain a lot out of her presentation slides.

There are some great points that Julie shares about appearing different in your market place. She is also a big believer in using the internet more effectively to help build your profile and make the right first impression.

Julie has also included some very interesting stats about Social Media and a great insight into Dominant Buyer Motives,  plus lots more…

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Young agents Eddy Piddington, Jessica Thei and Adrian Wilson are all recent REINSW Awards for Excellence winners and will share what drives them to succeed.

Come along to the Young Agents’ first event for 2010!

Thursday, 15 April 2010 at The Loft in Sydney 4.00pm – 6.00pm (includes a short panel discussion)
$35 REINSW members / $55 Non-members (cost includes drinks and canapes)

To book your seat or learn more Click Here

I’m looking forward to attending this event and catching up with many of the dynamic young agents who are part of the REINSW Young Agents Chapter.

If you’re not in Sydney, there’s a great event being held for Young Agents next week (Friday 19th March) by the REIV on Creating A Successful Future.

This looks like being a great event, featuring one of the GenYre = energy contributors Braden Walters.

Here are the details of that event.

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In Part 2 of the book they discuss Fast Decisions…

“Fast thinking won’t get you very far unless you’re able to quickly process your thoughts and make a decision. Nothing slows down an organization more than paralysis by analysis – the inability to make even the smallest decisions quickly.”

And when reading this paragraph, it made me think of the road blocks that so many of the Gen Y real estate agents are facing each day due to committee meetings & old-school methods being used by lots of agents and the frustration some young agents are experiencing.

Whilst I’m not taking anything away from the wealth of knowledge that the Baby Boomers & Gen X agents can share with the Gen Y agents ( I”m a Gen X agent myself), but the slow uptake of real estate technology & Social Media that exists within our industry means that in many offices Gen Y agents are sent out into the field to do time consuming, ineffective hit & miss ”old school” prospecting to build networks.

Gen Y are the greatest networking generation ever.

As a kid growing up my friends either lived in my neighbourhood or were classmates,etc from school. Whereas, Gen Y have hundreds of friends online from all over the place. As I said before, they are the greatest networking generation ever and yet some agencies won”t even let Gen Y agents use a computer.

C”mon!! We are talking about a generation who were literally born with an email address and a mouse in their hand.

If only you could see what I”ve seen some Gen Y agents doing you would be blown away…

The leverage that some Gen Y agents are applying to real estate sales has to be seen to be believed.

They use the internet & Social Media to do a task once and then leverage marketing strategies around that task or use other marketing tools (eg. Personal Profile Video, Blogging, Facebook Fan Pages, etc).

It”s time that Baby Boomer & Gen X agents sat up and took notice of what can be done.

This year Gen Y will out-number Baby Boomers for the first time in history and for the older, more experienced agents, there will need to be a significant shift in thinking & marketing strategies to ensure that they remain relevant within their marketplace and find ways that they can deliver a more streamlined approach to help retain high performing Gen Y agents and at the same time make sure they appeal to the ever growing Gen Y customers.

When you think about it, this is the first time in history where parents have had to ask their kids how to do things. Like, how do I program my new phone, how do I do certain things on the computer, etc, etc, etc? And, this same situation is now happening within real estate agencies & other businesses throughout the world.

Bosses are recruiting to fill in the gaps for their weaknesses in technology, but in the main they aren’t seeking the knowledge required to ensure that they have a better than basic understanding of how online real estate marketing really should work.

This means that operating systems within the agency are developed around old methods which normally make things less efficient and leads to frustration from employees and customers.

I understand, for a lot of agents, learning about computers is one of the last skills sets they are interested in learning.

I’m not suggesting agents need to turn into computer geeks, but they need to get a basic understanding of why web 2.0 is important and the psychology of the internet and embrace internet marketing strategies so they can use them to leverage their time & resources more effectively.

Plus, at the same time, find ways that they can use technology to deliver a better end user experience so that customers will want to deal with that agency and/or recommend them to their friends.

It”s not enough to have your listings uploaded to the major portals, having a company website and database software. you need to understand why customers aren”t doing business with you & what you can do to build more trust over the internet and use strategies that help to convert website visitors into clients on an ongoing basis, 24/7.

I feel disappointed when I hear about good young agents leaving our industry or going out on their own simply out of frustration and a lack of vision from their leader.

I know of a number of agents who have left companies simply because they felt held back due to lack of vision from their boss and have ended up opening up an agency down the road as competitors. Which is something that is becoming easier & easier for agents to do, especially with the emergence of virtual agencies & the current National Agency Licensing regulations.If an agency wants to move forward and retain their Top Performing Gen Y agents, they really should sit down and spend time listening to some of the ideas of the Gen Y agents rather than sticking in the comfort zone of “this is how I did it when I started out in real estate so that’s the way Gen Y agents should do it too.” (Wrong)

If agents continue doing the old things they will simply frustrate the good new recruits out of the industry and end up employing a team of people who lack innovation, inspiration and will find themselves heading down the wrong track where there is only a dead end.

Gen Y’s love being part of a fast thinking business that embraces change.

Step out of your comfort zone and don’t hold your Gen Y’s back and stop killing off their enthusiasm by using those boring ‘old school’ strategies that all your competitors have all gone back to doing simply because that’s all they know.

Look for new and exciting ways. Innovate, Inspire & Embrace Change Faster.

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Recently, I”ve met with a number of progressive agencies who are using a range of Google’s free tools & applications for their office intranet.

These agents are storing documents, brochures & promotional material in Google Docs. Using Google’s calender for scheduling appointments and Google reader for keeping up to date with what’s happening within their marketplace & real estate in general.

Agents can still run an email adresses linked to the domain name of their company website, but I see a time where agents will use a @gmail.com address instead.

When you look at “Buzz” you”ll see that Google has now developed a whole new user experience with email.

I believe that the sharing, mobility, social networking capabilities and the whole end user experience of “Buzz” will start a surge of users over to gmail, which in turn will provide a greater opportunity for agents to network and build extensive, engaging databases.

When you look at what gmail has transformed into, it’s no wonder some IT consultants are suggesting agents use Google’s tools to help run a real estate agency, rather than wasting money trying to reinvent the wheel.

I”m interested to hear what the Gen Y agents think about it & whether they would switch to gmail or not? Or alternatively, whether they already have gmail & what the think about “Buzz”.

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The response to date has been very interesting & has provided a great insight into what’s happening out there in the current marketplace.

Yesterday, I had a radio interview about this issue with Kevin Turner from REUncut about some of the feedback that I have received from real estate agents thus far, here’s the interview…

Click here to listen to the interview – Future Of Agents Commission – 2010

To have your say about this important issue affecting our real estate industry, make sure you share your view by clicking the link below & completing this quick survey (easily completed in under 90 seconds).

Please Click Here to access the Future Of Agents Commission 2010 Survey

Note: The survey will close on February 19th 2010 and results will be compiled & posted out shortly afterwards.

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