FrontDoor Will Compete With Zillow For Top Real Estate Portal Position
Let me make a bet.
Zillow will win this battle. A division of E.W. Scripps, Scripps Networks, is launching a new real estate portal , FrontDoor.com, to go head to head with Zillow as the destination for real estate discussion and more importantly, the advertising dollars that follow them.
But they have a huge hurdle to overcome. They are at heart an old media company that has to assuage their entrenched constituencies. So the video folks will want prominence for HGTV, and others will want to champion another segment of the business. And all the internal meetings, compromises, and battles will take their eye off the ball.
All the while Zillow will keep a laser like focus on their target, because that is all they do. And that is why old media companies fail when competing against new online companies in the online space.
But on the surface FrontDoor has a great layout with interesting content. But if I was the corporate folks, I would not aim at Google but as an extention for the HGTV brand and win that battle.
In addition to real estate listings on interactive maps, mortgage calculators and house buying and selling tips, FrontDoor includes more than 300 videos from HGTV. It also boasts an exclusive video series called Cool Houses Daily.
The site — starting with more than 1.2 million property listings from Realogy and Sotheby’s International Realty — is a direct competitor to Seattle-based Zillow.com.
Zillow has been trying to bolster its property listings in recent months by sealing deals with real estate companies, but at this time has only 404,548 properties for sale on the site. It also has been adding new neighborhood features to create an online destination in which users can gather additional information about where they live. Via Seattle PI
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Comment by Sam Chapman on 13 December 2007:
I had never heard of frontdoor before your post. There are so many new websites out there it is impossible to keep up. I’m not a fan of Zillow and wonder how successful frontdoor will be.
Comment by dean on 14 December 2007:
Tommy,
Smart Analysis! If I were Front Door I would look at media entities like Anderson Cooper. AC is now blogging with his 360 and he is hyping it on his nightly TV show.
Imagine if therealestatebloggers or deansguide had a nationally syndicated news magazine that was nightly pushing our our url to millions!
If Frontdoor has any clue at all they would brand Frontdoor all over HGTV, short mentions on every show at the beginning and the end.
In addition HGTV has TV personalities who are very popular. I would require those well viewed hosts-hostesses to blog.
The advantages traditional media has to entry into blogging is astounding! Even more astounding is the fact that many traditional media companies have NO CLUE how to leverage blogging or what it could mean to their brand.
If you want to see total stupidity check out UC Berkeley’s decision to hire a branding consultant to name their law school. They paid a consultant $25 large to change their law schools name from Boalt Hall to UC Berkeley School of Law!
I am amazed
Pingback by RentBits Rental News » Blog Archive » Frontdoor.com Powered by HGTV on 16 December 2007:
[...] originally saw this post on TheRealEstateBloggers. Frontdoor.com has launched and it looks like it is taking aim at Zillow and Trulia to be a place [...]
Comment by Uncle Jack (Jack LeVine) on 17 December 2007:
First I’ve heard of FrontDoor. Going there now to check it out.
Comment by Jennifer Johnson on 18 December 2007:
Front Door definitely looks like it’s more aligned with Trulia than with Zillow. Sites more like Zillow are http://www.cyberhomes.com, http://www.eppraisal.com, and http://www.appraiserloft.com