March broke all records on traffic to aussiehome.com, the first full month of our new look site.

Thanks for your comments on the site - good, bad and indifferent - we read and replied to them all. [see 'New Site - thanks for the feeback' below.]

We are also writing a (snail mail) letter to all Principals this week regarding our expansion plans - enclosing the article published in the WA Business News (15th March) about our IPO. We wanted to be clear and upfront about what we are up to (as there had been a few rumours circling).

We trust this letter makes it as clear as possible - we are in the business of keeping the 'media moguls honest' and with your support, we will continue to do this for a good while yet! 

Please note that as of last month, the 3 main media empires (News, PBL and Fairfax) EACH have their own real estate web site, cars site and jobs site. With the new media rules being relaxed this week, and the online media space only becoming more important, aussiehome.com is out there to keep the market and prices competitive for all concerned!

May we wish you all a great Easter - and we hope you all get to enjoy the 3 four-day weeks coming up in April.

Allied to our mission of keeping the 'media moguls honest', we support the idea of providing the sales data to the Real Estate Institute of WA (REIWA). For REIWA ILS users, and those on the 6-times daily property feeds from us, you just need to flag properties as SOLD, enter the sales price and date (under the 'EDIT EXISTING PROPERTIES') and the sales data will go across to REIWA.com.

Our view is that the sales evidence is best housed at REIWA as anywhere else, for the protection of data for REIWA members. Nothing is made public; and the data is only made available to members once the sale is unconditional (property flagged SOLD in our system). Quite a few of our clients also walk away with various ILS Awards, which is a nice bonus.

After the successful re-launch of aussiehome.com last month, this month we turn our attenton to new fields for the aussiehome.com system. The following 24 new items have made the list:

'Over 55s' lifestyle category; Encumbrances; Year Built; Wall Type; Roof type; Storeys; and then tick boxes for Garden (/easy care); Split Level; Verandah; Insulation; Hot Water System (gas/electric/solar); Gas Connected; Sewer Passes; Sewer Connected; Home Theatre; Workshop; Expiry Date; and a new property type (Studio).

We are also planning for up to 3 pdfs to be uploaded, hyperlinks to other websites, adding your own podcasts on properties, vendor name and email; and the ability to enter 'Jobs Vacant' to our public site.

Most of these came from ideas you sent in, so if we have missed anything - do please let us know before April 18th when our development work will begin. Thanks.

Our new site's structure, size and features certainly created a lot of interest; with most of the negative comments relating to slowness of speed (which was then fixed) and the bemoaning of the loss of the 'regional map searching' (which we put back on the site mid-month).

2 bottles of red wine were won by Harvey Salter (of Nedlands) and Amanda George (of Booragoon) for their excellent feedback and suggestions.

Here is a small selection of the great feedback we received for our new web site design...

What a great new look for the site and a bright start to a grey Friday morning!

I always thought your old site was the best, user friendly, quick etc, but I must say this new one has just outdone the lot. It's great, thanks for making life a little easier.

Your new site is an excellent search site for properties - I find it very flexible and easy to use.

I like the new look and found it very easy to move around and find what I was looking for.

Much more easier to navigate around! The layout is more user friendly and modern. Good job!

The site is user-friendly, uncluttered and responding fast. Good maps are very important, too. Overall, great improvement, from good to better to best.

Looks pretty good although I never found anything wrong with your old site.  Your page is good all round!