Speaking at the recent REIPA 5th Annual Conference, Steven Kropper, CEO, Domania.com, discussed Business to Consumer commerce and a real estate market that has 200,000 home buyers and sellers using the web every month to find information, educate themselves, and simplify the real estate transaction process before they buy or sell.
Domania.com is a free web site that provides recent sales data on homes, saving consumers a trip to the local city hall or county records office. Eight percent of the Domania web site users are having a real estate transaction within 60 days.
Half of the visitors to the Domania site are checking home prices out of curiosity and the other half are using the data for property tax appeals, to compare against their pricing on a home for sale or to gather information about home prices before buying.
Domania's mission is to inform consumers and their site provides education content to help home buyers and sellers make informed decisions. Kropper's historical look at Domania recalled the process that Domania's predecessor, InPho, used of notifying consumers of of price data via phone. They offered reports for $4.95 and based their business model on the assumption that home purchases were expensive, infrequent transactions that consumers would pay gladly pay $4.95 for to assure that they weren't overpaying for a home. Wrong!
The Internet model quickly replaced the fax line and recognition of direct marketing opportunities with mortgage lenders gave InPho a new mission: delivering borrowers to mortgage lenders. A total of 2.5% of the web site visitors ended up buying a home or placing a home equity loan.
When Domania partnered with Yahoo, they had more queries of their database in one month than the whole of the years before the partnership. Kropper noted that there is still very little e-commerce in real estate today. Web sites are far from replacing real estate agents. Agents know how to raise and lower customer anxiety. Agents have content that home buyers and sellers need.
The Domania site has a Home Workshop where consumers can request the Home Price Check, Value Check, Mortgage Rates, and use Property Tax Tools, Expert Advice and Inside Scoop information sections. Extra information is set up for first time home buyers in the format of First Time, First Steps guide.
Pat Rioux
