Market reacts to new property research tool

Today's The Australian tells the story of my startup www.nextforsale.com.au

The site allows home owners to gauge market interest in their property before committing to sell. Simultaneously buyers can get the scoop on what's coming up for sale in their desired area.

Here's the article:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...sell-we-list-you/story-fn9656lz-1226735721712

I came up with the idea to solve a problem that I had when I missed out on a property because I didn't know it was coming available. The aim of the site is to solve this problem for all Australians.

Hope it can be of value to you.
 
I like this idea, but cannot help but think that in the example you give about having just bought a house when your "dream house" was put up for sale wouldn't have changed unless the owners of your dream house had gone to your website.

It also mentioned onthehouse and how owners can "claim" their house. I only did this for our own PPOR a week ago. I've not done it for our IPs yet.

If the take up for your site is good this would be a good thing and could prove helpful, but I do wonder how many people will actually hear about it, and even then, how many will actually log on and express their intention to sell. Many will see it as a back door for agents to harass them or people to start hounding them.
 
Many will see it as a back door for agents to harass them or people to start hounding them.

I can see selling agents using this as a lead generation website too... But if someone is seriously considering selling their home, it probably makes sense to have agents contact them anyway.

By the way, the layout and design looks great.
 
Well done on the concept Liam.

It might be worth while to point out on the front page that it only covers a certain area- or whatever restrictions currently apply.

Without knowing anything about what was covered, I couldn't find any Canberra suburbs. Apparently Canberra doesn't exist :-(

I live in Karabar which is a suburb of Queanbeyan. I can find Queanbeyan on the list but not Karabar.

I had to read the article to find that it's limited to NSW. I don't know what other limitations there are.

(It must have been a great trip to South America. Two daughters have spent 18+ months there, I'm hoping to get there myself at some stage).
 
Thanks for the feedback guys. I will try to answer your queries below.

The site has launched in NSW only with plans to roll out to other states soon. Please register and we will notify you when we do expand.

Home owners thinking of selling should do their research, and part of that is they will want to speak to local agents (whether they decide to use one or not). The site introduces you to the best performing agents in your area to help make this process easier.

Agents should become a member to be recommended to (rather than harrass) home owners who have requested to be introduced to an agent.
 
The site has launched in NSW only with plans to roll out to other states soon. Please register and we will notify you when we do expand.
That should really be clear from the website. Somebody from another state who doesn't know that it's NSW only may be entering names of their own localities, getting zero results, and deciding that the whole website is useless.

I wouldn't be showing the counters until you have some bigger numbers.

There's a button which needs changing- "I am a property developers".

Just a couple of quick thoughts.
 
Thanks Geoffw for pointing those out. Its great to get feedback from the market.

I've implemented those changes you suggested apart from the counters. We have only been running a week so if home owners keep coming and seeing value in the service the numbers will rise quickly.

Would love to hear any feedback from others who have used the site. Other ways we can improve? What you loved about the site?
 
There is a mistake in the registering a property section under
"Real Estate Agents" it says this:

"Please choose whether you want real estate agents to contact you after seeing your property on the site. If you choose No, agents will be notified using text on your property profile. If Yes, no notification will take place."

Shouldnt it be the other way around????
 
The Fence - We notify agents that the owner has indicated they do NOT wish to be contacted by an agent. We want to try and stop home owners being contacted if they don't want to be. I've made this clearer on that page.

You may also be interested in this article published yesterday that seems to be named after you ;)

Sit on the fence first

Cjay - we aim to roll this out to other states in the next few months. Become a member and we will notify all members when this occurs.

TMNT - Glad you like the idea. Now its about getting the word out so that it becomes a valuable resource. Please share with your connections.
 
Looks like a good idea. I can however see a lot of disappointed people with the "but I waited 6 months for this house, and you decided not to sell".

I also wonder if it will mean the current owner/tenant will be canvassed unofficially when it is identified as up for sale in 6 months...people work find out where it is, then door knock...we'll give you $xxx,xxx this week



Maybe you are getting more popularity than anticipated - I had multiple timeouts just to load the main screen...followed by veeery long search times.

Assuming this is due to server load...but I'll let your team determine that :)
 
I also wonder if it will mean the current owner/tenant will be canvassed unofficially when it is identified as up for sale in 6 months...people work find out where it is, then door knock...we'll give you $xxx,xxx this week

Yes, this is what stopped me going any further with it on one IP.

Dont want the tenant getting suspicious just because we "might" be selling in the future.

Needs a rethink I reckon on that alone.

And it's never going to stop agents writing a form letter but targeting a specific property especially when it's identified on this website.
 
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Thanks for your comments guys. We have had some tremendous spikes in traffic which we now have under control.

The idea is for a home owner to test the waters to get feedback and find out the market interest in their property. There are different levels of intent to show how serious you are about selling in the future.

You can show your intent through paying for a premium listing:
- by paying you indicate to buyers you are serious
- your property appears above other free standard listings
- by paying you will also have more serious buyers showing their interest

These indicators can help relieve any disappointment as you mentioned.

As for agents, we aim to help a home owner preparing to sell get all the advise and expertise they can to gain the best value for their property, and a good way to do this is by speaking with local real estate agents. So by indicating to the market your intent, you can start receiving the help you need. (Similar to people posting on this forum for buying advice.)
 
Update:

I'd like to share with the community an update on how things are going after just 4 weeks of being live. Our site, Nextforsale.com.au has seen hundreds of home owners become members since we launched at the beginning of October. It makes me really happy after all the hard work that has been put into this idea. The number of visitors has been increasing and thousands of buyers visiting the site have already been able to get the heads up on early information about properties coming onto the market.

Below is a selection of the properties coming available. I hope we will be able to give all the property investors on here a valuable service and I'm keen to hear any feedback.

187 Matron Porter Drive, Narrawallee NSW 2539 - Next for sale within 4 months

101/2 Rider Boulevard, Rhodes NSW 2138 - Next for sale within 5 months

20 Sunset Parade, Chain Valley Bay NSW 2259 - Next for sale soon

79 Wallumatta Road, Newport NSW 2106 - Next for sale soon

Also there are new apartment developments including:

Skye by Crown, North Sydney - Next for sale: Early November

Atlas, Wentworth Point - Next for sale: Coming soon
 
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