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Australian real estate social networking site, Housenet.com.au, has been re-launched as a site aimed at connecting individuals living in the same local areas across Australia - and property is only part of the new operation.
Housenet CEO, Darren Moffatt, says the site is no longer aimed solely as those in the real estate and broking industry and he hopes it will help people connect with others living in their respective suburbs. Users can post questions ranging from where to find a good babysitter, to community notices regarding a lost pet.
“You come to the site, you punch in your name and postcode and suburb and that connects you with others in your suburb and subscribes you to your official community page. Crime alerts, lost and found, real estate – with Facebook you can’t really do that, but with Housenet, you can.”
For brokers, Moffatt says, the benefits of the re-launched site are obvious, particularly from a marketing perspective.
“If they’re on the site in a suburb, the more people they get to join the site, the more connections they will get which is good for their business…We’ve got hundreds of brokers on there already. The real appeal now is this is a way of tapping into their local market. For people who do a lot of local area marketing, if they’re having trouble cutting though with that, this is really going to help them.
The re-launch is 12 months in the making and comes as a result of constant monitoring and development.
“What we found is brokers love it and use it regularly, but it was too focused on real estate, so consumers weren’t really coming back a lot. It was too much about property. So we basically expanded the conversation…it’s about where you live, local level stuff, but you can still connect with people outside your suburb,” says Moffatt.
“We’ve already had feedback from real estate agents and brokers saying ‘this is awesome’. We’re keen to get them on board.”
