realestate.com.au today announced it has cracked the 1 million social brick mark⁽¹⁾ in the Fresh Start Project microsite, helping raise awareness around housing affordability for low income families.

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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In a press release, “realestate.com.au today announced the launch of a new microsite the freshstartproject.com.au, an interactive site which hopes to raise awareness around housing affordability for low income families.

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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There are some interesting findings within this Press Release issued today by the REA Group…

• 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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Yesterday, I attended a meeting with one of the reps from realestate.com.au & talked about their new site update which has taken place today.

The new site looks very impressive.

One of the major things I got out of the presentation was how the ‘Local Voices’ section will be adapted into the site and ways that I could possibly use it to help promote me as a local area expert more effectively.

The ‘Local Voices’ site is something launched by realestate.com.au to allow anyone registered to write and respond to reviews on streets and suburbs, which is then shown on the search pages of realestate.com.au.

They have also set the site up to be somewhat like a social networking site. It seems to me that this application which will be nested in the realestate.com.au search pages will quickly become popular with new buyers and potential sellers alike.

Once in the site when analysing suburbs the site displays the ‘top local experts’. This, from what I can see and was told is based on the amount of reviews and responses to a local suburb. My aim (and at this stage I have only registered my profile and explored the site) is to become the local expert within my target areas. I plan to do the following;

• Create a professional profile on the site with contact details.
• Create a professional suburb profile (some of you may already have these) and load it to the system.
• Create an rss feed for my local suburb and respond to any reviews by others in a constructive way.
• Add any person that appears to live within the suburb as a ‘friend’.

With time (and at this stage as its new it doesn’t appear it will be too difficult) I should become the top local expert for my target suburbs. This will hopefully generate leads as local sellers start to investigate their suburb prices and local agents, and are naturally attracted to what others have said about their suburb.

I’d love to hear if anyone has already started using ‘local voices’ and the way in which they are doing so.

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