Brendon Skipper Interview

Brendon Skipper is the CEO of www.realestate.co.nz.

He joined realestate.co.nz about 6 months ago from its arch rival Trade Me Property where he was Head of Property.  

We had the chance recently to ask Brendon how to get the best out of the www.realestate.co.nz website.  He had some really interesting advice.

200SQ: Hi Brendon, thanks for your time today and it’s great to chat.  How is the new role going?

Brendon: It’s been an interesting and exciting 6 months. I’ve got a great team, a committed Board and a supportive industry behind me. We are working on some awesome new stuff. All in all just great.

200SQ: www.realestate.co.nz has a unique position in the NZ market, being exclusive to licensed real estate agents. How do you look at your role in the market?

Brendon:  Our customers are real estate agents, our users are consumers looking at houses.  From an agents perspective - www.realestate.co.nz is a listing tool. We want to show a level of information useful enough that buyers will make an inquiry or move onto the next property. Our job is to getting an informed buyer contacting the agent.

200SQ: What do consumers tell you they want when looking at the site?

Brendon: Users are looking for properties and information that best fits their needs and desires.  Our job is to present information about a property in a way that consumers can make an informed decisions.  Visual information is first, pictures go a long way.  

200SQ: Can you give us any statistics to support the importance of quality pictures?

Brendon: What I can tell you is there is a reason they are called professional photos.  They really make a difference. Much of it is in getting perspective into the shot - that is so important.  Most people/agents do not have the right skills or equipment to take professional quality pictures.

200SQ: What pictures?

Brendon: Street appeal is the most important.  Buyers want to understand the style and era of the home. That comes first. Then the main family rooms, the living room, lounge, kitchen etc.  Bathrooms are tricky as you know.  Hero shots are fine, but in context.

Consumers want plenty of pictures.  Pictures are KEY.

200SQ: Ok, pictures are number one. What’s next?

Brendon: The description is second.  Basic information needs to be there of course.  The description needs to list benefits, but it needs emotion. It needs to be interesting without being a book.  In general I think copywriting needs to improve. Agents have a long history in writing for print advertising, but online is different.  Print has a short amount of space in which to pack information and some habits are still there.  Really it is about a balance between the two.

Address is important.  With online sites like us and others using geolocation tools an accurate address is important.  You cannot hide behind not putting an address on a listing.  It doesn’t do the client any favours.  If there isn’t an address people are not interested in looking further.

Property is an emotional buy - even with investors to a certain level. They need a property to be attractive to tenants. That is what a listing needs to tap into - buyer emotion.

200SQ: How do consumers search for property in the site?

Brendon: Location is most important search criteria.  It is rare to get a broad search - consumers just don’t search “Auckland” for a property.  People will drill down to suburb, but they will include the adjacent suburb criteria. People know where they want to live.  Many people will not move more than 2 suburbs from where they are now today.  

While minimum bedroom and maximum price search criteria are used the suburb will generally drive that.  The other interesting thing is that number of bedrooms almost sets the bottom line price.

If there are a large number of properties for sale in the area buyers will add other parameters, but location/bed/price are the main ones.

200SQ: How do you get attention for your property listing?

Brendon: The top of the search will always get looked at. That means you should be looking at premium advertising products.

Online buyers look at the top listings in a competitive market, or short time frame sale. The default criteria is “most recent” listings.  That is when things like our refresh product really works.

In terms of search volume there is a two week initial window, after that it degrades quickly. That’s when you need to promote it really to get the new buyers.

The most important thing is to have a structure to your advertising plan.  Hit the market and then re-hit again using premium products - similar to print in many respects - the initial big advertisement, a couple weeks of smaller ones, then the big one again just before the auction or offer deadline.

In a strong market I would use a full campaign.  Our $600 package is really cost effective and in many respects does the thinking for you.  It is much more cost effective than print.

200SQ: What other search tips can you suggest?

Brendon: We are a real estate website. People search for property, it is not a general search engine.  Use keywords in the description.  People do use keyword searches on the site - pool, spa pool - think about the key attributes of the property and make sure they are mentioned.

Online advertising is dynamic, so don’t be afraid to change the description or the whole advert. Don’t whack it on and just leave it. Thinking about who is going to the Open Home, is the target audience right? Monitoring inquiry and change the advertising.

The initial search on www.realestate.co.nz is advanced in global terms - it’s pretty slick actually - and we have the content that makes that useful.  

200SQ: Some final words of advice?

Brendon: What I find is that people are either over thinking it, or a bit lazy. The ones that do it well keep it simple but focused, with quality pictures.  The days of agents driving around in cars with buyers locked in are long gone.  Buyers want to know about a property before they engage the agent.  Buyers have never been more informed, sellers are never more informed. They will look at the other listings an agent has to review the quality of their advertising and promotion.  It is much more visible these days.

The great thing is that www.realestate.co.nz has real buyers genuinely interested in property.  The average pageview on our site is 40 seconds, on our key competitor it is 10 seconds - we have a high level of engagement.

I was at an international real estate conference recently and I have to tell you we are the envy of many, many people. The quality of the website and the industry support we have makes other people’s eyes water to be honest.  As you know, I don’t like being second, so I am excited about really setting us up as New Zealand’s leading online property portal.