Comments on: Google Moving In To Property Market With New Listing Service

By: Tim Sheahan

Tim Sheahan — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:14:01 +0000

Google are very much missing the point if they believe that there is no human side to the property market. There is and always be emotion involved in property sale and purchasing. This emotion is sub-contracted by Vendors to estate agents who are well trained at utilizing and exploiting this sense. For all Google’s expertise and brilliance it is unlikely that they will conquer the personal elements. Property websites will further evolve and develop, competition will ensure this.

By: Philip Boyle

Philip Boyle — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 09:07:17 +0000

The thing a lot of people have missed about this announcement is that Google rolled out this exact service in Australia and New Zealand around a year ago. What would be interesting to see is how it has affected the existing players in those markets (http://www.realestate.com.au/ and http://www.domain.com.au/). From a quick look around it doesn’t seem to have affected their traffic negatively. What it has done to their revenues I’m not so sure about.

I wouldn’t be very happy if I were in Daft.ie or RightMove.co.uk today, but I wouldn’t say it’s the end of the world either.

By: Fergal, Business Advice Forum

Fergal, Business Advice Forum — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:19:02 +0000

Very interesting move by Google and I agree that it will be a threat to the existing property listing websites.

Paul, estate agents don’t provide legal services, their role is to connect buyers and sellers and close deals – in other words their role is to promote and sell property. The legals are handled by solicitors and neither the buyer or seller need an estate agent for that.

Any business, especially one with the resources of Google, that enters the property sales and promotion market, will be a threat to estate agents. I don’t have stats, but anyone I know who was in the market for a property, did at least some searches on Google. If buyers and sellers can find each other through Google and use their respective solicitors for the legals, why do they need an estate agent? The answer, is probably related to agreeing a value for the property, but as buyers and sellers have access to more market information, they will have a greater knowledge of prevailing values and again less need for estate agents.

This move by Google will also have an impact on the revenue newspapers generate from property ads.

By: Niall Harbison

Niall Harbison — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:55:44 +0000

Paul great to get a bit of perspective from your side of the fence on this one. Good point there that you have about people still needing all the legal side of things to make the process run smoothly, thats Defo not something that Google should or will be getting involved with. What about a listing website that does nothing but list properties? Surely it is a problem for them in the long run?

By: Paul Anthony

Paul Anthony — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:47:57 +0000

Hi Niall,

We are one of the partners in Northern Ireland supplying data to Google, and don’t see it as quite the threat that you do, for a number of reasons. Firstly, without data, you’ve got nothing, so it would only take one move from Google to “upset the apple cart”. They have the resources to allow individuals to list themselves for a fee at the minute – so why approach anyone? Secondly, online estate agency is at present unproven, and the security and reassurances provided by an agent for a purchase of thousand pounds in most cases is a necessary part of the process, especially where legals are concerned. When was the last time you spent a couple of thousand online?

We’ve already seen what happened when Google stepped out of its comfort zone to try and sell phones.. and this is an involves significantly more risk, and legal wranglings. Nope – far better to stick to what they know, and monetise existing content in different ways.

Paul Anthony