Friday, November 20, 2009

How not to build a real estate website

There's a house that's up for sale near me and I wanted to find out when they're holding an open house.

First I went to find the house on Trulia, and struck out.

So I found it on RMLS, then went to the Realtor's website for more details.

The realtor's site immediately asked me to register, without even offering up the same basic information I can get from RMLS.

There is enough competition and information out there that the LAST thing you want to do is make it harder for me, a potential buyer, to find information on your listings. I'll pass on this one.

Bad idea.

"For sellers we market Retail and Short Sale property in a fashion that does one thing....bring more attention to the home. Our online web representation and constant syndication of each listing combined with our unique web 2.0 style marketing is what gets homes sold."

Huh. Not found on Trulia, no photo when I finally did find it. And making me register? Web 2.0? Nope.

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6 comments:

Emma Irvin said...

completely agree. Jim the Realtor always has interesting and blunt opinions those not on the online bandwagon. I think there is a huge divide, old school vs the new reality. What I can't understand is how so many sellers don't realize the value of a strong online presence.

Home Refinance Loans said...

Jim me also agree with your opinion. Do you have any alternate of this problem. If you have than plz share with us. It should be more beneficial for us.

Anonymous said...

As soon as our home in another city sells we will be buying one in Portland. As we wait I have been using the JLScott website to identify homes to consider. To save searches you need to enter an e-mail address and password but they don't contact you unless you say OK. I created a throw-away address on Yahoo for that purpose just in case.

The Scott website is missing a couple data points on NWMLS but between that resource and PortlandMaps much can be learned.

Honolulu real estate said...

I truly like to reading your post. Thank you so much for taking the time to share such a nice information. I'll definitely add this great post in my article section.

Marg Properties said...

Just thin as buyer, like what the info they will look for if they landed on your page. Something like where the properties are exist, complete details, images, videos and contact details.

Tiago said...

Sell is not as easy as it looks. top real estate agents knows the market and the convenient techniques to make the transaction faster and better than someone who is not a professional in this. So we all should trust real state agents while selling a house