Opinions On Website Advertising

[Alabex]

Hi Everyone,

As many of you would know already i am a Real Estate Agent in Sydney.

Just wondering if you could all give me your opinions on Realestate.com.au verse domain.com.au

Do you prefer one over the other?
If you were selling would you prefer an agent to be on both, or would you be happy if they were just on one?

The reason i ask is we find Domain doesn't generate a lot of enquiry for the $500 a month it costs to subscribe (and personally i find it quite annoying to upload properties onto) but we are reluctant to ditch it encase people decide not to list with us becasue we dont use it.

 

[josko]

Hi Alabex,

I only search on realestate.com. It seems to advertise more property.

Domain also does not seem as user friendly as you suggest. It would not bother me if my R/E agent did not advertise on it. Maybe a poll would be good for you?

Regards Jo

 

[evand]

If i'm looking in Sydney i will always go to Domain and RE.com. If i'm looking out of Sydney i usually just look on RE .com.

If i was selling in Sydney i would want my agent to be on both. Outside, its no big deal.

I'm surprised you don't get a lot of enquiry from domain in Sydney. Where in Sydney are you?

 

[Rob Williams]

I do all my rental listings through an agent that does them as "list only" then refers the prospects to me. To date, through 5 rental properties and many enquiries, I think I've seen only one via Domain.
As a buyer of property, I never look at Domain. All the worthwhile stuff is on RE.Com.
That's just my opinion based on my experience.
I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't do business with you because you didn't list on the "also ran" site.

 

[Alabex]

If i'm looking in Sydney i will always go to Domain and RE.com. If i'm looking out of Sydney i usually just look on RE .com.

If i was selling in Sydney i would want my agent to be on both. Outside, its no big deal.

I'm surprised you don't get a lot of enquiry from domain in Sydney. Where in Sydney are you?

Hi Evand - We are on the Northern Beaches, Manly based.

 

[josko]

Hi Alabex,

I don't mean to be difficult but I would have to vote: For both Domain and R/E.com.au

I think if you are giving the client a choice, then of course they will say both or as many as you can..

Regards Jo

 

[GoAnna!]

I am happy with re.com and their own personal site and whatever is the appropriate newspaper but only if needed to create more interest and advertise open times.

 

[Alabex]

Oh yes i should probably mention we have our own site as part of the franchise network, which automatically puts us on homehound.com but we will always have the company website no matter what.

 

[Bazza]

About 6 months ago we advertised one of our properties for rent on Domain - not one reply in three weeks. It was totally useless. Since then I don't use there services for searching or listing.

realestate.com.au is definitely best.

Cheers,

Bazza

 

[steveadl]

Alabex, I never look at Domain (unless I receive an alerts that I have set).

It's nowhere near as popular in Adelaide as I believe it is interstate. I've yet to come across a listing on Domain that hasn't been listed on REA.com as well.

 

[yorke]

Hi Everyone,
Do you prefer one over the other?
If you were selling would you prefer an agent to be on both, or would you be happy if they were just on one?

Hi Alabex
As a buyer I prefer looking on realestate.com.au but I don't use agents to sell so I use mostly owner.com.au because its free. I don't think the choice of a website is as important as the sign in the front of the property giving clear directions to the website and I definitely don't think they are worth the hundreds of $ some of them charge this days.
Earlier in the year I had a property listed with an agent & realestate.com.au for 3 months and the following 3 months on owner.com.au Based on the number of hits per week after the initial week it doesn't seem to make any difference. I said after the initial week because when first listing with owner.com it goes on the front page as well so you end up with almost 200 useless hits from "lookers"
If you already have a web site at work you could try placing a clear link to that on your sign in front of the property and see for yourself.

 

[boomtown]

I only look at domain.com to try to catch things that REA.com has missed - and I dont do it as often as I should.

In other words I barely use domain.com.

 

[LynnH]

I've yet to come across a listing on Domain that hasn't been listed on REA.com as well.

I use both sites, but agree with Steve - there are several properties in the areas in which I am currently looking that are advertised on realestate.com but are not advertised on domain.com

Cheers
LynnH

 

[depreciator]

I reckon Domain has a similar footprint to the Sydney Morning Herald. No surprises there. If I was looking in the eastern suburbs or inner west or mid west or north shore I would look there (and re.com). Outside those areas, I probably wouldn't bother with Domain.
Scott

 

[RumpledElf]

I only bother looking on RE.com.au, but our local agents are really slack and are prone to merely advertising badly spelt and poorly grammarised adverts (one house had 'java' floors and my house was 'bargin buying') in their own shop window or their own website and nowhere else. Elders is particularly bad for this.

 

[twobobsworth]

I look at both and would prefer an agent to list the property on both. That is provided they haven't been successfull in selling the property before getting to the marketing stage.

I prefer to use domain as its quick to show recent sales activity. I also like the ability to search using keywords. RE.com.au seems to have more listings though.

 

[ianvestor]

I can't speak for vendors, but as a buyer I mainly use RE, but I switch to Domain whenever I want to search by keyword.

 

[The Y-man]

The observation from the agent we sold our property throuh in the Melbourne bayside was very similar - don't use domain, the money could be better spent elsewhere. He said they rearely get queries thru Domain.

I personally find Domain has crappy photo sizes. The two to use here are re.com and realestateview.com.au (which allows keyword searches)

Cheers,

The Y-man

 

[Kenster]

I use both, not by desire but by necessity:

realestate.com has the most properties but slooooow response, especially the List on Maps feature (I have 2 mbits ADSL2 connection). Its search interface is not as good as most other sites, requiring many clicks to find.

domain.com has less properties but simpler, more intuitive interface. The List on Maps feature is quicker, rendering more properties than re.com.

 

[Jacque]

Both

realestate may be more popular Australia wide but domain also has better features and some agents advertise on it and not realestate (not too many but enough to make it worthwhile keeping on your radar).
Domain actually has the benefit of inputting a keyword into the specific search (eg tennis, pool, waterviews, golf) which narrows the list down greatly if you're after something in particular. realestate have promised this feature for years but it's yet to materialize.

Domain also take private seller and landlord listings, which realestate don't. When I advertised and sold my PPOR privately last year, it cost me $297 to advertise on Domain for a month and I got several enquiries, one of which successfully culminated in the sale.

As for private seller sites, domain gets the most traffic and would be my only choice for listing if you're wanting to sell yourself. owner.com just isn't big enough and doesn't generate anywhere near the same amount of traffic.