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Thursday, 9th February 2012
Home > Polish Property Blog > When the Internet says you are Dead
When the Internet says you are Dead
February 2010
"There are plenty of sites out there that have near empty offices behind them, or even no office at all" |
One of our clients mentioned to me the other day a rumour he had heard that Mamdom was on the edge of going under. There had been a comment on a forum somewhere that 'there is not much going on [on the Mamdom site]'. The irony is that the site has only seen essential updates because we have had one of our busiest years ever. 2009 stretched our resources. Places like this blog were left to gather dust so it’s a fair that when someone sees the last entry was eleven months ago the mind starts to make assumptions – is there anyone home? And they’re not baseless assumptions, there are plenty of sites out there that have near empty offices behind them, or even no office at all! Look for those who are still talking about 2006 to find the clear giveaways. Our issues were the reverse - too much work for too few people - and only factual content (such as the end of the second home permit system) was updated. It’s a reminder, and a wake up call, of how powerful the internet can be. Having a web presence is one thing but if it does not look active the rumour mill can soon start moving. So why was it that while many companies who were involved in Polish property shut their doors we were struggling to cope with our workload? I can see several reasons. The most obvious to us was that we were not reliant on selling off-plan properties. In Poland the best developers with the best developments usually refused to pay commission to referral agents. The Poles were eager enough to buy what was on offer so why give profit away? This meant those that did were often almost solely engaged in chasing foreign buyers for units that were over the market value or not in the best locations. As such our New Homes site did, and still does, promote what we felt were the best developments over a ten year stretch and the sellers details were available to our subscribers. In the short term it was probably less profitable but in the long term it has proved much more stable and I do not feel we have mislead anyone for a few bucks of commission. Our Interior Fit service also saw more clients than expected and had a record number of units to complete. This was not a total surprise as many people had bought off plan during the boom years and had to get the apartment fitted out on completion – crisis or no crisis. Going forward this client base is undeniably shrinking but as we service the Poles themselves as well (and they seem to have never stopped buying!) this change will not affect us greatly. If anything it may remove some of the more dubious fit out companies from the market who have been aiming their services solely at English speakers and, as it were, making hay while the sun shone. But there are still plenty of foreign buyers around, it is just that they are looking differently now. Those from abroad, often after a holiday or business trip, are not thinking about off plan investments. Some are leaving places such as cash-strapped Britain to relocate or retire here. Others are grabbing the commercial opportunities - restaurants, hotels, warehouse leasing - all sorts! And it's here that our Buyer Assist services also had a record year. Both Property Finder and Visit Poland programmes gave buyers an easy way to view and make offers on the sorts of properties that are not neatly wrapped up on a developers website. Transaction Assist helped many of these reach successful completion. Beyond this we have moved into pastures new. Made in Mamdom was launched as a service to make websites. Mamdom was started from scratch and what you see on the web has all been made in-house so we decided to offer this expertise of creating and running large data driven sites to the market. One of our most interesting clients has been The New Poland Express. If you have not already done so get on over to their site and sign up for their weekly pdf newspaper. It's a great read and an excellent way to keep you abreast of the country - especially if you are buying, selling or renting in Poland. Underlining all of this we have, of course, the property portal - Property 24/7. Now everyone says that interest in real estate has dropped yet our visitor numbers have increased from around 100,000 a month in late 2008 to over 200,000 a month today. More visitors have attracted more offers and so on. Again this is not just an English portal, it's Polish as well and in a country which has had no recession and where property prices have not crashed that might explain some of it. I'm not saying any of this was planned. We did not layout our business in anticipation for a global melt down of the financial systems. I wish I could say we did, but we didn't. More a mixture of good products and a sprinkling of luck. So I have a notepad full of things to Blog about and that is what I will be doing this year. Perhaps a few thoughts here will be of use to some and stop any new rumours sprouting up and taking root this Spring! |
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