Words: Ashley Rigg
Published: 2nd November 2009
Google signals attack on property portals with new US move
Google has
announced that its real estate listings will now be displayed prominently in its US version of Google Maps. Users can select property for sale or to rent from a prominent “more” button positioned centrally on the
Google maps navigation.
Although the search engine giant is not yet displaying its real estate listings in the search engine results pages, the move represents a significant threat to US property portals such as Trulia.com and Zillow.com who add value by presenting local data in a compelling way to house hunters.
Google Maps draws properties from Google Base and sources like century21.com and realestatebook.com and overlays local information, photography and, in many areas, Google Streetview to help property buyers find the perfect home.
In July this year,
Google launched a real estate offering in Australia and now has a presence in US, Australia, New Zealand and India.
Threat to overseas property portals
As Google expands its real estate ambitions to other territories, overseas property portals like the ones in our
Top 20 list are particularly at risk because of their heavy reliance on search engine traffic.
Expect casualties.
Market consolidation is well under way and the benefit for agents and developers targeting overseas buyers is that in future it will simpler and easier to generate leads as there will be less portals to choose from.
User Comments
Market consolidation is well under way and the benefit for agents and developers targeting overseas buyers is that in future it will simpler and easier to generate leads as there will be less portals to choose from.
Loftyvistas.com provides best, cheap real estate services in Egypt, Turkey,Thailand, Dubai, Malta and international, and also helps in selling and buying villas, homes and properties and free property listings
Overseas Property For Sale,
http://www.loftyvistas.com/
well done google - about time why pay when you can list for free ,ever thought of who invested $100M's invested in making php code accesible and google maps street view sat view. all property portals need to look carefully why some many new portals pop up literally every day.many portals now free generating other revenue streams - tech innovation has become cheaper php. If your charging to list your being greedy think out side the box
ex uk property portal employee
Tom P,
tom petty plc
Thanks Sal,
Good comment. I think that SEO is the best way to generate leads. I include video, blogging etc in that. Also, some portals have resold leads lots of time and devalued the whole cost-per-lead model.
Google’s launch is certainly a good thing for agents….that is until they start ranking your competitors properties above your own in the search results for the terms that you currently rank for.
On the whole I think agents should benefit and it should simplify portal marketing.
Ashley Rigg,
Global edge
After over 2 years of working with European property portals I have to admit a bitter reality, at least for me - it's not worth the money and effort.
If you sign up for commission sharing plan you get very few leads even if you upload hundreds of properties. Great deals in US sell fast these days and there is no way to get a foreign national to visit US as quickly as it is needed.
If you sign up to buy leads - thousands of dollars will fly away before you can get a meaningful possibility. The reason is very simple - most property portals sell their new leads to a great number of real estate agents at the same time even if they claim that the lead is brand new. Thus creating s very stiff competition among agents and utterly grumpy property buyers because of multiple ohone calls and e-mails within a short period of time. Also most of the pay per lead sources do not really match your location most of the time.
Most of the portals are very bulky with hundreds of thousands of properties listed complicating search and desire to stay on the website for a result. I find personal search engine optimization, blogging, video and press realeses more effective and quick.
So Google coming in intertantionally is not a bad idea.
Sal Antsipenka
International Marketing Specialist
http://www.naplesrealestateseller.com
Sal Antsipenka,
Independent Brokers Realty