Hi fellow property investors,
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I will be running a series of webinars for a limited time, titled
"How to Maximise Your Odds When Selling or Renting Any Property"
Your property will get sold or leased out, but how do you know you got the 'best' price, or if you could have rented it 'faster' or attracted a 'better' tenant.This webinar is specifically designed for every seller and property investor in this country. It will bring awareness to you, and I can guarantee you will look at marketing property differently after this webinar.
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To register for the limited time webinar go here http://www.ipostcodes.com.au/Webinars
To accommodate every single person, there are a range of times to select. I also did not want to do a recorded video, because I truly want to interact live with you all, plus have the opportunity to answer some of your burning questions then and there, if we have enough time.
Of course, we can also have conversations in this thread, whatever suits you best.
Ok then, I'm hoping to see everyone at this webinar, because this is going to be a game changer for each and every one of us. Don't miss out!
It’s an interesting tool not unlike Gumtree. I’m not sure what your point of differentiation is though. If it’s simply the ability to add one’s own description and photos then it’s just another Gumtree. Problem is that 99% of ppl are lousy marketers. Just look at Gumtree. The descriptions are pretty ordinary and the pics in many are an absolute shocker. What ppl really need is someone to help them present their property in effective marketing terms. In other words a professional marketer to hold their hand. But then again that’s what RE agents are for aren’t they?
So we’re back to square one; an owner who lacks the creative marketing skills to promote their property effectively and agents who market through a standardised industry formula.
If I was going to mark iPostcodes out of ten as a marketing tool then its scores 2/10. It offers nothing new, sophisticated, innovative or unique in terms of marketing capability.
You’ve made the classic mistake many driven entrepreneurs make and that is they assume they can motivate others to be like them.
Good luck with it anyway. Your biggest challenge will be to get sufficient listings to make it relevant.
The Freckle
PS: I would willing pay a professional ($300-500) to write my marketing material for me if I was trying to sell a property. It would be well worth the $$$.
Hi Freckle,
Thankyou for your thoughts and insight, but before making a comparision with gumtree and
rating me 2/10, I would really recommend you check out my webinar, because then and
there you will have a totally different perspective on what we are all about.A five or 10 minute checkout of the site, doesn’t do any justice to the power of http://www.iPostcodes.com.au,
or how it can help property owners.Ok so let me try to answer your concerns, as best I can here….
Freckle wrote:It’s an interesting tool not unlike Gumtree. I’m not sure what your point of differentiation is though. If it’s simply the ability to add one’s own description and photos then it’s just another Gumtree. Problem is that 99% of ppl are lousy marketers. Just look at Gumtree. The descriptions are pretty ordinary and the pics in many are an absolute shocker.In its foundation, yes its similar to Gumtree, the basic description and basic photographs, but here is where iPostcodes stands apart….
1. Gumtree is a general platform for all type of listings, being from ‘garage sales’ all the
way to ‘used cars”. iPostcodes specialises in property, its questions, its fields, its listings,
are all geared to best showcase a property listing.2. iPostcodes – unlimited description, unlimited photos — Gumtree is limited to 10, the
last time I checked3. If your using a real estate agent, there is a checkbox – ‘For sale by Owner’ or ‘using
a real estate agent’ if you click real estate agent – all enquiries automatically go directly
to your agent — Gumtree everything goes to you4. Archive folder – If your a property investor, or have multiple properties, you can store
unlimited properties here, so next time all you need to do is edit a few things and activate,
you don’t haveto upload the entire listing again. —- Gumtree no such thing5. We have the world’s first desription builder, that builds a very unique description for your property. A copywriter or an agent, can never write about your property as well as the owner can, you would agree with me with that right?, all real estate listings on the internet – look and read the same, Why? because the uniqueness is lost, because we put the owner, wo knows most about the property on the sidelines.
Plus much more……
If I say to you, Freckle, please write about your property, you may produce 1 or 2 paragraphs, or maybe you wouldn’t know where to start, but if we ask you a series of specific questions, you generally would be able to give an answer.
It’s more than the number of bedrooms, bathrooms and car parking spaces – its all the improvements done, the views, the neighborhood, the parks the shops. Remember, buyers and renters are buying the lifestyle not the structure!
I can go on for ever – the webinar and a demo that I will be hosting will go into that in more detail….
Freckle wrote:What ppl really need is someone to help them present their property in effective marketing terms. In other words a professional marketer to hold their hand. But then again that’s what RE agents are for aren’t they?The real estate agents can only do so much, they are the best in auctions, negotiations etc, but the best person that knows about their property is the owner. No question about that?
Let me give you an example, if your going to buy a brand new car that’s worth $500,000 and you had to take out a 30 year mortgage on it to pay it off. Would you be happy to get the knowledge of the car from a salesman, who had 1 or 2 hour talk with a car manufacturer, or would you care to know all the ins and outs from the manufacturer themselves. Who would be able to best answer your specific questions, or give you a detailed response?
And another thing, a car is not a home, there’s more to it than a transmission?
Freckle wrote:So we’re back to square one; an owner who lacks the creative marketing skills to promote their property effectively and agents who market through a standardised industry formulaThis is where http://www.iPostcodes.com.au is different, we take the best of both worlds the real estate agent and property owner working together as a team. Why? so you the owner can get the best results.
If I were to say to you that you can increase your chances of getting even $5,000 more for your property, or you could potentially rent your property 1 week faster, would that be worth your time, to add your inside knowledge, unrestricted, unfiltered, in your own way – spending just a few hours of your time?
More the better of course! In real estate there is infinite chance of getting thousands if not hundreds of thousands more
Freckle wrote:If I was going to mark iPostcodes out of ten as a marketing tool then its scores 2/10. It offers nothing new, sophisticated, innovative or unique in terms of marketing capability.Freckle, your a very harsh critic, without even first seeing the webinar, or taking a test drive, Wow!
Freckle wrote:You’ve made the classic mistake many driven entrepreneurs make and that is they assume they can motivate others to be like them.Are you a successful entrepreneur? Or have you ever been one?
Freckle wrote:I would willing pay a professional ($300-500) to write my marketing material for me if I was trying to sell a property. It would be well worth the $$$Yes, have the copywriter and/ore real estate write a copy for you, but I also urge the owner in addition to partake their knowledge too. I can only show you why, at this webinar, with proof.
Thankyou for your comments and questions, this is how most people would react, but let me assure you, my team and I built iPostcodes, because we needed it for ourselves, and there wasn’t anything like it. I know it will make a difference to your life, because it has ours.
All the best,
Stevep.s watch the webinar, and lets come back here and openly discuss any issues you have then. Is that fair?
Hello Steve. I always admire the motivation and enthusiasm of entrepreneurs. Been there done that so I can relate to the way you feel about your baby.
Net marketing is something I know well having pitched our (an IT colleague) first concept to supermarkets (online shopping) back in 97.
One of the major problems we as entrepreneurs face is we are inevitably too close to the project. It’s extraordinarily difficult to stay objective when assessing potential for various aspects.
I’ll respond to your list above;
1. Gumtree is a general platform for all type of listings, being from ‘garage sales’ all the
way to ‘used cars”. iPostcodes specialises in property, its questions, its fields, its listings,
are all geared to best showcase a property listing.Simple answer. Is a single shop more interesting than a mall? You rely on advertising. Foot traffic will be key to your survival. One shop will get a few punters through the door but it will never compete with the likes of GumTree
2. iPostcodes – unlimited description, unlimited photos — Gumtree is limited to 10, the
last time I checkedUnlimited description is not an advantage. Selling is about capturing interest in the first few sentences. Too much and you bore them to death. GumTree has ample capacity to describe/sell anything. Photos are a real pain. It’s not the quantity it’s the quality
3. If your using a real estate agent, there is a checkbox – ‘For sale by Owner’ or ‘using
a real estate agent’ if you click real estate agent – all enquiries automatically go directly
to your agent — Gumtree everything goes to youGumTree has the same option. Check again. Note: I can put my email or a new one and redirect traffic anywhere from it to suit interested parties.
4. Archive folder – If your a property investor, or have multiple properties, you can store
unlimited properties here, so next time all you need to do is edit a few things and activate,
you don’t haveto upload the entire listing again. —- Gumtree no such thingHandy but not a game changer. How many will actually use this feature. It is useful as an edit option if you’re not getting enquiries and want to tweak things. But again it’s not a game changer. I can do similar at GT
5. We have the world’s first desription builder, that builds a very unique description for your property. A copywriter or an agent, can never write about your property as well as the owner can, you would agree with me with that right?, all real estate listings on the internet – look and read the same, Why? because the uniqueness is lost, because we put the owner, wo knows most about the property on the sidelines.
Description builders don’t get me excited. Fancy word for “writing tips”. It’s just a list of canned phrases strung together
Steve I applaud your efforts but you haven’t sold me yet. I’ve had a play on your site and it’s still a little buggy in places.
As a possible renter (currently looking) GT leaves you for dead in terms of search capability. GT’s methodology is one of the easiest I’ve seen.
You’ve got a few owners signed up and frankly I was disappointed. 2/6 didn’t even have photo’s!!!! Only one of the 6 had reasonable pics and 2 were so wordy they lost me. Their text layout was badly developed. One para jamed with a 1000 points isn’t my idea of good layout.
A few tips. You need to understand how to present information in concise readable way.
The text boxes need layout tools. Indenting, bullet points, bold, italic etc etc. That’s what all sites lack is the ability to use creativity tools to maximise the presentation. This could be a point of difference.
The next thing you definitely need are video tutorials;
Photo/Video presentations – Do’s & Don’ts
How to write an ad – Do’s and Don’ts
and so on.
Offer premium services. I’d pay to get my ad to the front of 2000 listings!!!!
Steve you still only get a 2/10 but the site has potential. Keep building it’s tool base and also see how you could bring in and integrate 3rd party tools then I think you’ll start to get ahead in leaps and bounds.
Again Good Luck
The Freckle
PS Watch out for patent trolls. They’re out in plague proportions I believe.
Hi Freckle,
You know some of the things that your saying is right, we do have a lot of work ahead of us, some of the things that you pointed out, we are currently working on. Our team of developers and testers are constantly working this very minute, improving the search results page and layout. Being in this industry, we understand that we haveto constantly and never endlingly improve, otherwise we have no chance.
In the next month you will again see massive changes, likewise if you go back in time, you would of seen iPostcodes has come a long way….
[You mentioned being a little buggy, it would be nice of you to let us know where, because frankly, we have a team of testers that are constantly testing every aspect of the site, and I find it hard to believe it.]
However, there are other things that you mentioned, you have absolutely no idea what your talking about. And the reason is, since 2000 I have studied property, I have bought, leased and sold property, not in any one state, and to further my knowledge, I'm a fully licenced real estate agent. I have studied human psychology, I studied the way we search, and buy property, I have written a book on it.
But putting this all to the side, I know http://www.iPostcodes.com.au works, because I've used it, and others that properly used it too. I experienced amazing results, that my real estate agents, could not believe.
If it happens, one time maybe your lucky, twice you probably had a good day, but if every time, well maybe there is something here.
It looks like you made up your mind right from the beginning and that is fine, any product or service that you release will always have 2 sides of opinion, that just the way it is. You cant have a hot without a cold, and up without a down.
Especially when we are working so hard, creating a service that we think will help change peoples lives, that is so different, its reaaaaaaaally hard to please every single person, but that's not our goal here. Our goal is better as many peoples lives as possible. The more the better.
You label me as an entrepreneur, I don't consider myself totally one, and the reason is, an entrepreneur as defined, is someone who is willing to take risks in order to make a profit. Yes, profit is important, to keep going, and nice to have, but more importantly, I'm here to create a company that will stand the time to help change people lives. To make things better.
I have been working on iPostcodes.com.au, since 2010 full time, to this day, and 2 years prior to that on a part time basis. I didn't make one cent yet, and we wont be for some time, there were many days, I could've given up, its too hard, but my love for it, my passion and drive to make a difference is what keeps driving me.
This is not a quick thing for us, lets try this out, and see what happens, it's really much more to that.
Your suggestions of video tutorials etc…. I went one step further, and that was the whole purpose of my initial post in this forum (not purposely asking for people to critique our site and give a score – we know our limitations, we're working on them), but it was to create webinars for people, were I'm directly there and there, showing the product (live demo), explaining why we need to think differently and then answering specific questions live. Why? so people can become more informed, so they could then make a more informed decision, That's all!
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Thankyou Freckle,
Stevep.s. the reason there are only 6 posts by owners, is because we started "proper" marketing about a few weeks ago. Give us a little break here
Hi Steve,
I admire any person who decides to set up in business. However, I think Freckle has made a number of valid points. To me as a prospective buyer unless I had read your post I would be unaware of ipostcodes. The agents are listing on your site because it is free, but their print advertising is going to direct people to their own website, not to ipostcodes.
Your initial concept of a website for your property and advertising the link was good, but in setting up in a much more generic way you have lost your uniqueness.
Just the bugs I noticed;
Residential, Rural etc link bar on front page not working. Initially thought there were no listings until I hit search.
Description text doubles up when opening ad
Pic box defaults to top of screen – never seen this before. Became annoying after a while
Pic box resizes to pic instead of the other way around
Webinars – hate them. Tried to watch 3 in my lifetime and all were duds. Give me a video tutorial any day.
Why a tutorial.
You have control over content
you have control over quality
you have control over the message
…as a consumer
I can select exactly what i want to or need to watch in order to learn and replay it to reinforce learning.
Tutorials are specific…. webinars are generic
Steve your success is not due to iPostcodes. It’s more to do with you personally. iPostcodes is just an ad medium. You still have to close the sale face to face (in most cases) and generally after an inspection by prospective punters.
The Freckle
Freckle wrote:Just the bugs I noticed;Residential, Rural etc link bar on front page not working. Initially thought there were no listings until I hit search.
Description text doubles up when opening ad
Pic box defaults to top of screen – never seen this before. Became annoying after a while
Pic box resizes to pic instead of the other way around
Webinars – hate them. Tried to watch 3 in my lifetime and all were duds. Give me a video tutorial any day.
Why a tutorial.
You have control over content
you have control over quality
you have control over the message
…as a consumer
I can select exactly what i want to or need to watch in order to learn and replay it to reinforce learning.
Tutorials are specific…. webinars are generic
Steve your success is not due to iPostcodes. It’s more to do with you personally. iPostcodes is just an ad medium. You still have to close the sale face to face (in most cases) and generally after an inspection by prospective punters.
The Freckle
Windows 7 Pro up to date
Chrome up to date
Hi Freckle and CRJ,
Your comments taken aboard.
Thanking you very much
Steve
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