The Real Group Blog

Here’s an awesome video on what’s happening to the Real Estate industry in the US. Traditionally, Singapore is always a few years behind because technology has not caught up. We’re bridging that gap because we’ve been to the valley, we know what the people want

Why pay thousands of dollars to an agent when you can do it yourself. Previously, people had to rely on agents because they had access to a database that was unavailable to the public. Nobody really knew all the homes on the market except the agents. We’re gonna change all that by opening up all the information to the public. Agents will now have to differentiate themselves by providing top notch service or have no choice but to face extinction. HomeSpace has a revamped beta launching soon…. look out for it!

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2796105n

I came across this dilbert comic on someone’s facebook widget today.. I think it’s frickin hilarious and pretty representative of the mocca board room.. haha.

Here’s another retarded ad from mocca… seriously… it’s disgusting… it’s not even funny? 

There have been speculations about how high HDB prices will continue to rise. The current property boom thats here is set to stay for awhile. Lots of en-blocs happening and people still need to relocate. Eric Cheng from PropNex shares his views…

I spent the entire day yesterday just thinking and thinking… What will it take to change consumer behaviour in Singapore… Today, 80% of Americans do their home research online… Needless to say, Americans generally adopt internet services a whole lot faster than the rest of the world. Singaporeans however are different. There’s always resistance to the unknown and changing consumer behaviour from offline to online classifieds is going to be like forcing a kid to eat their veggies… They know it’s good for them, but they just dont wanna eat it..

It will be going against the norm… but I guess thats what entrepreneurs do… Half of us who have lived in Silicon Valley for at least a year know how online services have made everything a whole lot easier and more convenient… and we just want to spread the love Any suggestions? I’d love to hear what you think.

About a month ago Mediacorp launched mocca.com. Probably the most advertised online advertising platform in Singapore’s history…

Here’s whats been happening with mocca… Firstly, not many people are putting up video ads, which is what alot of their advertising hinges on.. Secondly, video ads are not even being embedded on the site, it’s simply a link they post which redirects them to youtube. Layout and usability is very poor. They’re not getting enough ad traction given that they’re offering ads for free during this initial launch period.

Lets talk about their property listings, coz thats what we’re concerned with… Real estate agents are unwilling to put up alot of property information on the site because it allows people to not cut the agent out of the deal and go to the buyer directly. Buyers on the other hand, are turned off because they dont see the information they want. We’re hoping to solve the concern and appease both parties… We’re going to provide options to mask information while still displaying the geographical information of the home for sale without revealing the address.

Ironically, mocca is good for something… giving us our first alpha user! LOL. Thanks!

It’s a sunday, and instead of lazing at home, 4 of us are at the office trying to finalize some little things before we present to a couple of real estate agents tomorrow. It’s finally about to be showtime, and I can’t wait. The product has been in the making since early May and it’s finally about to be released A relatively short pregnancy time but I can assure you that HomeSpace is not premature by any standards.

Only minor things left like some layout issues and some static page stuff… other than that, we’re good to go! woo hoo!

Welcome to The Real Group’s Blog! We’re launching our flagship product homespace.sg soon… If you’re a real estate agent and interested in taking it for a test drive drop us an email at contact@homespace.sg