The Real Group Blog

It’s been a long time since the whole team embarked on the HomeSpace project and I’m happy to finally announce the launch of HomeSpace - beta to the public! Here’s the official press release

SINGAPORE, 28 Oct 07 – The Real Group launched HomeSpace.sg today, a powerful yet easy-to-use real estate search engine that effectively bridges buyer and seller in today’s hot property market. HomeSpace empowers sellers to easily post fuss-free listings via a simple online input in under 20 seconds. The platform, using only the home’s zip code, automatically populates the listing with the rest of the necessary information and maps it onto Google maps using its “SmartPins” technology which displays locational details for each property such as nearby schools, MRT stations and shopping malls.

While the proliferation of Internet use is notably high in Singapore, most users do not fully utilize its power in the real estate marketplace. “Sellers are usually mobile and away from their computers for most part of the day,” noted Vinod Nair, Chief Executive Officer of The Real Group. “How we’ve addressed this is to instantly deliver qualified property leads straight to them via SMS, making it remarkably convenient for them to contact buyers for their property while remaining mobile.”

“Creating a listing has never been easier. We have cut the time and effort needed to create one by over 80%,” said Timothy Kua, Director of Marketing. “All we really need are what we like to call ‘ZAP’ - Zip code, floor Area and Price - to put up a quality listing for you that is automatically furnished with road name, facilities if it’s a condo, nearby amenities like schools and malls and even the distance from these places. Gone are the days when every detail needs to be painfully filled out; now buyers can see almost everything you have to offer in just three easy steps. Of course, sellers can also add additional information such as the number of rooms and photographs just as easily on the website.”

HomeSpace strives to increase the value proposition to home-seekers looking for the best home within their budget. Vinod explained: “Buyers will appreciate the notably cleaner and uncluttered interface that is rid of irrelevant links and advertisements which are usually found engulfing other real estate websites. With our slick user-interface, wicked search technology and ‘Google-powered’ mapping system, we believe that HomeSpace will provide a user-experience so positive that buyers will repeatedly visit our website to conduct their home searches and also refer HomeSpace to their friends and family.”

As part of their launch promotion, HomeSpace is giving away 10 qualified leads for free per signup.

Visit www.homespace.sg today!

We had a very good presentation with the NUS-MDA panel for the microfunding yesterday. It was awesome. The panel was pretty blown away when we gave a live demo of our beta version (to be released on the 1st of November).

Going to be presenting to a few VC’s as well these coming weeks… Things are getting exciting… We’re a few days away from our beta launch! Woo Hoo! We’re also looking into the possiblity of hiring interns soon. So if anyone reading this is interested in developing really cool facebook apps or working on some really cool technology, lemme know!

I was recently interviewed by Gwen Tan from SGEntrepreneurs.  Actually, we did an email interview a few weeks ago, but I had to tell her to hold off on the publishing because I didn’t wanna generate too much buzz when the site was not quite ready yet.

Me and the tech team have been staying overnight at the office for the past few days to meet the requirements for the launch. Staelen looks zombified from the lack of proper sleep for the past 2 days… We’re just working really hard to bring the best damn product possible. Possibly even rivalling US sites… The Biz team and myself have been prepping for a couple of presentations we have lined up next week, which hopefully land us some funding so that we can market this

We’re definitely going to be one of the first few companies in the world to launch a full frontal assault youtube marketing campaign. I met a bunch of really cool and talented animation and film guys from NTU and we’re gonna be working with them to produce a series of hilarious viral video adn print ads. You can look forward to that sometime in November.  In the mean time, if you have any feedback or comments reply to this post and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can

Ok I’ll admit it’s abit lame… but what the hell… I hate that ad so much, I thought I’d do a voiceover, Borat style….

WTF… seriously… mocca fell flat on its face and now ST701 is doing the exact same thing…  The guys running the show have no idea how to position themselves… I was just flipping the papers today and I saw a shit load of ads for ST701.. SPH should just leverage on its extensive advertising customer base (something that Mediacorp doesn’t have) and put all the existing classified ads from their papers to ST701 for free, allowing people to search through them alot more easily. While they might be cannibalizing their business in the long run, better them then someone else…

A recent front page article on the Straits Times (Tue, Oct 2, 2007) brings cheer to many (or should I say… majority) Singaporeans. The headline “Property boom spreads to mass market” essentially talks about how “mass market” properties - suburban condominiums and HDB homes - have posted their best quarterly growth in years, bringing the overall prices of public and private housing in Singapore to the highest level in a decade. The article goes on to substantiate its claims, citing the latest statistics from research bodies and opinions from those high-and-mighty in the real estate industry.  The full story can be found on: http://www.asianewsnet.net/bnews.php?aid=12595.

Some of my mates were discussing this interesting phenomenon and how it almost resembles the likes of a typical industry bubble that gets everyone excited (and maybe rich) for a brief period of time, but also one that after growing too rapidly, busts unexpectedly, sending hopes and dreams crashing.

What goes up must come down. Everyone knows that. While skeptics may infer the article as a tool used by the governement to send kiasu Singaporeans into a euphoric-panic-selling frenzy to further boost the local property market, what matters is, how are Singaporeans going to react to this “blessing” that has just been bestowed upon them?

Perhaps it might suffice to say, “Don’t be blinded”. Selling your current HDB flat and upgrading instantly might not be the best option once you realize you have higher loans and higher tax rates to deal with, coupled with the lack of foresight as to when and whether the property market will crash. The last thing you want is to end up living in a bigger and better home but with bigger and badder problems to deal with. I don’t even want to begin talking about how f***** up your situation would be if you attempted to cash in during the wrong time (i.e. the property crash - the other phenomenon that some might say, is lurkin around the corner).

I say, get your priorities in life right. Cash in on this bonus and downgrade if you have to, while diverting your bonus to what matters more such as your childrens’ educational investments and repaying your current outstanding debts. The problem with people these days is that they let their greed build upon existing greed. Control yourselves Singaporeans! This is your rare chance to start on a clean (or cleaner) sheet.

(For those who are already on a super clean sheet, with no exisiting debts to settle with the banks, a job that you know will stick with you for the next 10 years providing that steady inflow of cash, and with kids that have all graduated from college, are earning their own income and are living on their own…well…er…sell your flat now cause you really need some crap in your life to deal with brudder…)

Meanwhile in the land of HomeSpace (and soon to come, RentSpace), this phenomenon might just be what we need…heh heh heh…