I added a couple of companies to ”Hawaii Startups I Am Watching” panel on the right sidebar.  One of them is Hawaii Life (hawaiilife.com).  We are in a completely downer of a real estate market in Hawaii, and real estate concerns are cutting back in general.  However, I see that Hawaii Life is, yes, hiring, according to the company’s blog.  This caused me to think that a real estate-related company that is expanding in this market has to have something unique.

A few months back, I emailed one of the company’s founding members (he calls himself “Head Web Head”), Justin Britt, and asked him questions to find out what was different about Hawaii Life’s business model than the run-of-the-mill brokerage firm with a website.  First, I should note the domain name “HawaiiLife.com” is an excellent catch, and Jason really must know what he is doing based on some of the staggering numbers he threw out, such as 60,000 monthly visitors, total real estate listings in the 9-figure category.  I had no idea.  I am not sure there are any other Hawaii websites that get that kind of traffic. 

What I came to realize is that Hawaii Life’s business model is an internet business model, and real estate brokerage is just an added value-plus item because the market demands it.    Here are the notes from my email correspondence with Justin:

1. Can you tell me a bit about your business model and how it differs from, say, typical realtor sites?

A traditional real estate brokerage spends their advertising dollars on Magazine Ads, flyers, postcards, mailers and other print material. HawaiiLife.com was an early adopter of the Internet and we focus a majority of our advertising revenue on search engine marketing (you can see our presence in Google by doing such searches as: Hawaii real estate or Oahu real estate). We were able to recognize the shift in our industry early on as homebuyers began to utilize the Internet as their primary resource for finding the property they would eventually purchase. A recent study by the California Board of Realtors shows that 100% of buyers they interviewed used the Internet to do their research (which leads me to your next question…)

2. Also, you mentioned you have national aspirations and I wondered what (when?) you are projecting for that.  I have been following the rise of Redfin.com for awhile, and wondered if you might be heading into the arena of online “virtual” services along the same lines with coordination with appraisers, etc.

We are partnered with a broker in California and will be receiving the data feed from SoCal MLS (the 2nd largets MLS in the nation) this week. I’m hoping to roll out the site for this area in the next couple of months. We will be focusing on mobile devices so that a home buyer can search for property on their iPhone, and using the built in GPS, get instant directions using Google maps to the listing they would like to see. Users can build their itenerary on their home computer or laptop and then access it from their mobile device or do the search right from their phone. Next target markets would be Austin, Texas and surrounding Texas cities and Idaho. Our focus for expansion will be on younger tech minded cities like Los Angeles, Austin, and Boise where everybody is using the Internet to search for property. This is different than a Redfin model that focuses on new areas based on population.

3. Finally, given your transition from a referral model to a full brokerage service, I am wondering what effect that may have on the other realtors who have used your site in the past, and if they will still have an incentive to be listed on your site.

We will still offer any agent the ability to obtain additional exposure for their listings on our website, regardless if they are a HawaiiLife.com agent or not. However, traditional agents will most likely view this as a conflict of interest. But Internet savvy agents will see this as an opportunity.

Being a startup company, there are many ups and downs. The fact that the real estate market is tanking doesn’t help. But as an entrepenuer I see this as an opportunity to continue spending money to obtain market share at a discounted price. When the market comes back, watch out…everybody will know about Hawaii Life! 

So there you go.  I had no idea.  I hope Hawaii Life goes national (or international) and sets a new standard.  I suppose it is on its way, and if it continues to get the attention and website hits it is getting, it will also be a buyout target for media companies looking to expand.