By CHRIS DANIELS
A one-stop internet portal for all New Zealand real estate agents should be operating within a few months, says Real Estate Institute president Graeme Woodley.
The institute, through its RealENZ site, is about to start directing all traffic through one site, putting an end to the fragmentation and
inconsistency of all the sites now run by competing real estate companies.
"We are now negotiating and have a heads of agreement with the major franchise organisations of Australia and New Zealand for them to direct all their traffic through RealENZ," said Woodley.
"We will have a totally industry-owned and dominated website. That's something Australia are very envious about.
"All licensed real estate agents will be using that one site - they'll be silly not to."
Melbourne internet-based property business realestate.com.au sold its 26 per cent stake in RealENZ (www.realenz.co.nz) to the institute several months ago. The Australians had bought the shareholding two years ago for A$1.27 million ($1.45 million), but the institute paid just $400,000 to buy it back.
Using the internet to sell real estate has had an interesting history, with not all agents originally convinced that it would work.
In 1999, Barfoot & Thompson managing director Mark Thompson told the Herald of his suspicions about using the internet to sell property.
Professional experience showed that the average buyer did not know what what he or she wanted in a house, he said.
"Time and again [people] who say they want a three-bedroom villa in Mt Eden end up buying a four-bedroom brick-and-tile with a swimming pool in Mt Albert."
The key factor, said Thompson, was the professional skills of the real estate agent in matching the buyer with a property that met his or her needs.
When the RealENZ site was first launched, some considered it inappropriate for the institute and feared it could give buyers too much power by providing the in-depth market knowledge that had traditionally been part of an agent's marketing arsenal.
