Since 2005 a small real estate company in Australia has set itself the onerous task of attempting to compete against some of the absolute heavyweights of online real estate sales in Australia. A cheeky but vigorous and innovative company operating on the skinniest of shoestring budgets has some- how managed to mix it with the big boys of online property sales in oz.
In 2012 the PropertyNow website seems to now be rapidly capitalising on 6 years of focused and careful growth and is enjoying a growing reputation courtesy of over 700 property sales which have resulted in literally millions of dollars in commission savings for eager users of the PropertyNow website and it’s system of agent assisted real estate sales.
The 6 year old overnight success has come at a price. Just about every single property portal in Australia has attacked the progressive real estate agency at some point. The PropertyNow agency is both a real estate agent in its own right, as well as a property portal of ever growing stature. The problem lies in the fact that the PropertyNow business model is loved by people selling their own home but loathed by the corporate giants who seek to control online real estate and in so doing prevent the spread of healthy competition. It’s this competition which directly in massive cost- savings and efficiencies while selling a home.
One of the keys to the PropertyNow success story is that it affords the public impressive and powerful marketing synergies which are normally not otherwise available to people outside of the real estate agent industry.
The stage is now set for the ultimate showdown in 2012 because the PropertyNow website and its associated systems have again been attacked by one of the largest real estate sites in the world and the second biggest in Australian real estate. Fresh from a confrontation in 2011 when PropertyNow stared down the might of realestate.com.au, the small and proudly independent property portal has again had its client’s access threatened from the Domain real estate industry portal.
In this incredibly lop sided battle the Domain website has sought to increase the PropertyNow subscription costs by such an astonishing degree that the small business will be left with no choice but to leave its clients off the Domain site. Being aware that it cannot hope to fight the unjust imposition that is designed to reduce competition, the PropertyNow business has once again turned to the Industry Regulator in Australia known as the ACCC. In 2011 it appeared as though it was only the direct pressure from the Governmental body upon realestate.com.au that prevented the untimely demise of the small real estate website. Whether the same effect will be visited upon the Fairfax owned Domain group remains to be seen. Certainly at least some real estate and legal analysts are anticipating that the move by Domain is likely to be deemed illegal and against some of the highest laws in the land. If this turns out to be correct and given the back down by the number one Australian real estate website in 2011, it could be a very disturbing outcome for the number two portal Domain.
The constant interference by hugely powerful vested interests towards the PropertyNow model of sales, has shown the business the need to diversify its income streams so that it might eventually become less reliant on the Portals who constantly damage it. To that end the business began offering home loan information and lending resources from within the pages of its real estate portal in an effort to drive new traffic and sales beyond the agent assisted offering which remains its core business.
Author – Timothy Samuelson. Real estate Commentator and Analyst.
Research for this article conducted by Meredith Simms.
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