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The era of business digitization has dawned. Companies of all kinds are going online because their CEOs see it as the only way to survive and thrive in a highly competitive environment. The pandemic also influenced this trend by forcing us to look for ways to remain effective without leaving houses and apartments.
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Of course, the real estate market is no exception to the rule. According to a 2020 study, less than 30% of people bought the property with a traditional realtor, and less than 10% used newspaper ads. The rest resorted to real estate websites and apps.
And no wonder, in the end, online tools make the process of buying or selling property much faster, more transparent, and convenient. They allow realtors to work more efficiently and make their services quite affordable. As to ordinary customers, they’re given the opportunity to manage deals from the comfort of their homes.
We’ve compiled a list of the best real estate websites considered top resources in the modern US market. You can read about them in our article and draw your own conclusions. Maybe you’ll get inspired too, why not?
In other words, let’s discuss the main things to bear in mind when starting a real estate business online.
Today we cannot imagine life without technological advances and the benefits they give us. But that wasn’t always the case…
Before the advent of digital technologies and, accordingly, real estate websites and applications, people had a hard time buying or selling a property. And by people, we mean both ordinary homeowners and professional realtors.
Of course, even today, real estate deals aren’t exactly cheap, and sometimes they’re rather labor-intensive, but IT innovations have greatly simplified the whole thing, that’s for sure.
In the old days, a certain John Smith, who, say, wanted to sell his house, had to make an appointment with a realtor and discuss all the details of the future deal with him during the meeting (which is much longer and more hassling than arranging everything at home with a couple of clicks). And the realtor, before proceeding with the sale of the property itself, had to conduct a market analysis in order to offer the client the best terms (and the best price).
Today, such a realtor usually resorts to great real estate websites like Zillow, which provide him with the necessary market information and give him a place (a listing platform) to promote the property in sale. And in the past, he had to look for a potential buyer on his own (‘manually’, so to say) or enlist the help of specialized companies and share a part of the profit with them. As a result, the property sale process became longer and more complicated, and the total price grew. All the parties involved lost.
Now you understand what caused the growth in popularity of various sites and, later, applications. But anyway, here are the main benefits each participant in the real estate deal gets (in case if the reasons are still unobvious):
A website is good, but you can’t do without a real estate app. We tell you how to create one in the article at the link.
Okay, let’s say you’d like to build your own real estate website. But what kind of features to include in it? And what IT trends should you follow to get the most out of it?
We cover these and other related questions with great pleasure.
Above, we indicated (and even illustrated) which features are in special demand today (according to surveys and research). However, they’re clearly not enough to make your real estate website work properly. So you should implement the following:
Where can you get real estate data? These useful APIs will help you obtain the information you require!
If your development budget allows you to get creative, try implementing some of the high-demanded features (see infographics above). They’re more expensive to build (except, perhaps, notifications via email, which needs to be included in the basic functionality anyway), but they’re worth the money and effort spent (if approached properly).
When starting a real estate business, be prepared to compete. And don’t forget, your opponents have been on the market for years and know how to attract and retain customers. How can you overcome their experience? Only by proving your perseverance and commitment to excellence! Among other things, we advise you to pay attention to the latest digital industry trends, such as:
There are now 3 main players in the modern US real estate market: Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor. These are your competitors, and they’re also your sources of inspiration.
Let’s analyze each of them… who knows, maybe you’ll like some of their ideas (which might come in handy if you’re serious about starting a real estate business in the digital space).
Without any exaggeration, Zillow is the main leader in the modern real estate market (at least, in the US). It has managed to force the competition out of business and become indispensable when it comes to buying, renting, and selling property in the United States.
Zillow boasts nearly 30 million unique visitors every month, from ordinary people and real estate agents to mortgage companies and property developers. Still further, Zillow covers all areas, one way or another related to real estate. So now it is a true entry point to the market in question.
Surely, today Zillow belongs to great real estate websites… but when and where did it get started? How did its owners achieve such howling success?
Zillow came into being a long time ago (in 2004). Its creators were Rich Barton and Loyd Frink. Both had achieved considerable success in the IT industry by that time (for example, Mr. Frink was once the head of divisions at Microsoft).
The guys didn’t really think about starting a real estate business… they just wanted to create a simple listing service and get a source of steady income. And they got it… and soon found out that their product was in high demand. However, users (mostly US residents) weren’t 100% satisfied, they needed more. So, it was time to improve the resource to fully meet their expectations.
The goal was set, and the guys began to bring it to reality. They developed a special algorithm, which allowed Zillow to collect and process information about US properties from a huge variety of official sources. The data obtained were being converted into user-friendly schemes and offered to customers in a grouped form, something like this:
And so, step by step and year after year, Zillow has become what it is today: a top resource and powerful market leader, the first among the best real estate websites.
Surely Zillow wouldn’t have achieved its incredible success had it not managed big data so skillfully and efficiently. You have something to learn from its experience!
Let’s imagine the huge number of houses and other properties existing in the United States. In fact, there are more than 100 million of them, and Zillow has detailed information on each. And as we’ve written above, this information is diverse and detailed and includes even the history of the building’s renovation! Cool, isn’t it?
However, collecting data is half the battle. It’s also important to handle it properly, and Zillow knows how to do it (or rather, it learned to do it). That’s why its real estate services are so wanted.
But we’re a bit distracted from the issue at hand. So Zillow is collecting a lot of useful data. And, more importantly, it’s skillfully managing the information received. Here is a simple example: if there is a Starbucks within half a mile of a property object, Zillow increases its value by 20-30%. And if there is a popular health food supermarket like Whole Foods, the price can be increased by 50% (and sometimes even 60-70%).
The algorithm is clever enough and rarely wrong (almost never). It even has a name, which is Zestimate.
Figuratively speaking, Zestimate is a patented pricing formula and a real-life trademark. And over the last years, this trademark (a special calculation algorithm) has been actively influencing the pricing of real estate in the United States.
Wanna know more about Zillow? Follow the link and read our article about it.
Yes, Zillow has created a unique algorithm, and, in general, its business is booming right now. But none of this would have been possible without Big Data. And if you’re eager to join the ranks of the best real estate websites like Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor as well (we’ll talk about the latter two in due course), you’ll have to work with a huge array of information too, there is no way to avoid it.
Now let’s see how Zillow became one of the best real estate agent websites, and what steps its owners took to conquer the market. Maybe you can adopt some of these practices too, who knows?
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