Online Real Estate Technology

I’ve just completed a technology presentation on Hayman Island to members of the north Qld zone of L J Hooker and what a great bunch of people they all are. I had a lot of fun with them yesterday and during the follow up conversations with the team, the question of what constitutes a good listing on the net was asked of me.

I decided to revisit some research conducted by Yahoo some months ago about the changing nature of on line real estate search habits. An interesting point raised by Yahoo is that the consumer is now searching through the search engines and mainstream portals to delete properties from the search, not include them. In the early days, consumers would search the web to find properties, now it appears the pattern has changed.

So what can you do to make sure that you and your properties are not deleted from the search. First thing, is to make sure all your listings on the net are complete and that you include full and relevant descriptions. Include as many photos, virtual tours and better still video on your listing and change them regularly. Remember,frequently updated information is King. Heres the list of the 7 Sins of Listing Management below for you.

1. No Indication of Price – 92% of on line property searchers recently surveyed said they would not look at a property without a price.

2. No Photos or insufficient number – 72% want more than 5 photos, include as many as possible including virtual tours and video and floor plans.

3. No Street Address – 74% of property searchers indicated an address was extremely important and said they drove past the property before contacting the agent.

4. Tacky Headlines – Real Estate based headlines such as “ Will sell fast so you must hurry”, or “Be Quick” etc do not work, and remember the older the listing the more irrelevant the headline becomes.

5. Short Descriptions with Useless Information – Create a consistent approach within your office to providing the essential content that property seekers want. Make sure all relevant information including all features and benefits as well as your call to action and suburb information is included. Remember, you are the suburb expert.

6. Layout of your Listing – Using bullets points to highlight features and benefits makes your listing more reader friendly and make sure you don’t use long sentences, break them up into smaller paragraphs to make your listing easier to read.

7. Out of Date Information – Make sure your listing is up to date, remember consumers do not like seeing old or outdated information, make sure you have the latest available information on the property. It is you and your brand that will suffer if you don’t provide the best information possible.

If you find this helpful, I’ll add some copywriting for the web tips in a later post, so as always, let me know if you find this post helpful. Remember, always check your spelling before uploading!!!!

Good Luck

Mike