Ray White have sold out of REA...

[urban cowboy]

I posted this in another thread - but thought it worthwhile of its own given the amount of discussion that has gone on about Ray White supposedly controlling realestate.com.au for sometime now...

this announced on the 1 July this year

Ray White Group sells REA Group shares

​

REA Group Ltd (“REA”) has been informed by the Ray White Group that Ray White Group sold its shareholding in REA yesterday, with the sale of 13,503,584 shares. This represents 10.6% of REA's issued share capital. REA has been informed that this sale of shares was to a range of existing and new shareholders, with the greater number of the shares being sold to new shareholders.

​

Sam White, Deputy Chairman of the Ray White Group, will retain his personal shares in REA, and remains a director of REA.​

Sam White said:
“I remain committed to the REA Group as both a shareholder and as a member of the board. The sale of the shares owned by the Ray White Group will allow Ray White Group to invest back in our core family business and fund other emerging opportunities.”

​

Greg Ellis CEO of the REA Group said:
“We are excited about the expansion of the share registry across the Australian investment community. I am also pleased that Sam remains a board member and shareholder.”
​

“As a business we still see Sam White as both an important customer and a valuable member of our board, taking into consideration his knowledge and expertise in the property market.”

​

----------------------------------

makes you wonder what RW know about the market place to sell their 10% stake in REA...

one to ponder!

UC

 

[Belu]

Google impacts? looks what google did to online advertising in carving market share from news ltd and the like - can they hurt rea in the same way?

 

[investor888]

Definate due to a threat from Google. Just go to Google Maps, then select 'Show search options', then Real Estate from the dropdown menu.
Put in Frankston (a SS favorite), and watch the map light up with property locations on the market. Click 'more info', to get the full property information.
Realestate and Domain are saying they welcome competition, but no doubt behind the scenes, they are worried.

 

[urban cowboy]

yeah i reckon it has to have something to do with it...

been having a good look at the google setup tonight and RW and any other corporate can do very easy bulk uploading as often as they like...similar to REA etc., but this is also searchable in more ways than REA could imagine...

I am actually impressed!

 

[investor888]

Google has them worried. Fairfax Media and News Limited are considering pulling their Google advertising in response. No doubt Ray White have seen the potential threat, and a pulling out while the share price is still good.

Google sparks real estate listings brawl
http://business.smh.com.au/business/google-sparks-real-estate-listings-brawl-20090726-dxj1.html

 

[Jazza]

I've had a look at google RE, it's a pretty big step forward as far as how much info is available. Prices, full address etc. Most bricks'n'mortar REA's don't give up all the info on a single listing without the usual 'leave your details and we'll phone you back' unless its a dozer job.

The REA's will see this as a major threat due to the level of info disclosed in one place by google. And so they should.

 

[softmonkey]

Google ... opened up the service to allow real estate agents to list their properties free on Google Maps.

Bingo. If I was a REA I'd have a casual web developer in the back room for a couple of days putting together an automated script to upload my listings from whatever internal database.

One thing I did notice with Google's RE search - the listings can be up to several months old. Hopefully they sort this out so that they expire appropriately.

 

[urban cowboy]

got some more info on this this morning...

This was apparently raised this at the REA group national conference a couple of weeks ago...

this is chinese whispers a bit - but some the responses to it all went something like this:

They are monitoring the situation, but REA and Domain are pulling their advertising and data supply to Google to pre-empt etc. This should limit the damage from google property - REA currently has over 700,000 listings on its website - the best google can manage without REA and Domain is about 300,000 through the aggregators such as myhome and homesite etc. etc.

I certainly got the impression that whilst REA are watching google closely, they are certainly not hitting the panic button as they know without them and domain onside - not much damage will result as the agents are all expected to remain loyal. To prove the point the provide their own figures as evidence...

see http://www.reagroupmedia.com.au/rea-group-network/realestate/buy.htm

it will take a long time for another website to match those figures.

 

[investor888]

not much damage will result as the agents are all expected to remain loyal. To prove the point the provide their own figures as evidence...

Not from what I see. More and more of the google listing are not from myhome or onthehouse, but link directly to the agent websites. The agents will pay for property listing for the time being, as Google listing are not as yet as widely known. But given a year or 2, why would an agent pay for Domain, when the agents own website site listings will show up on the Google realestate maps.

 

[urban cowboy]

yeah maybe...i dunno...

I am just speculating as much as anyone else - at this point, REA are SO big that it will take some time before they get bumped.

I hope google takes off - I really do!! Will make my life easier.

The only thing I can see at the moment in REA's favour is the user interface - I would much rather look through a list of photos and prices than click icons on a map to try and locate one worth looking at.

I guess it's the old location -v- pricing/looks argument...those of us who want to live in a particular area may start at a map level search. Whilst those of us who care less about location and are looking more at the type of house first, then price, then location may stay loyal.

I dunno, but it will be a great battle to watch!!

 

[Chargin]

I agree, when more people learn about the new google feature it will take off.
I love it because we are looking for a place with some land so scanning the rural areas is fantastic. Surely this entire scenario has already played out overseas? Im a big fan of google.
I think customer demand will drive agents to get their houses on there, vendors will be saying, "hay, cant see my place on google maps, whats going on?!"
And it will give agents lower costs which will help them get listings too.

Not from what I see. More and more of the google listing are not from myhome or onthehouse, but link directly to the agent websites. The agents will pay for property listing for the time being, as Google listing are not as yet as widely known. But given a year or 2, why would an agent pay for Domain, when the agents own website site listings will show up on the Google realestate maps.

 

[WinstonWolfe]

I was checking google maps to get to an engagement party next week at a private residence, and whatdya know, the place is for sale. The guy only moved into it 6 months ago ....

 

[steveadl]

Could it be an old listing that Google's trawler found and hasn't updated yet?

 

[WinstonWolfe]

Could it be an old listing that Google's trawler found and hasn't updated yet?

actually, you could be right Steve. Will find out next Sat.