In 2013, CareerBliss announced running a real estate business is the most satisfying job. But if you want to experience that in 2021, you should have an online presence. 93 percent of homebuyers search for homes online. 67 percent of customers prefer self-service rather than speaking to customer representatives. This concludes that a website alone is not enough. You need to offer something unique and satisfactory, such as a real estate portal.
However, there are many developers and service providers available in the market offering more or less similar features. Choosing the right partner in such a situation is difficult. Pricing can also affect the design and functionalities of custom portal development. Here are a couple of pieces of advice on real estate portal development.
1. Focus on the Design
The first thing that customers notice is the look of your website/store/portal. The home page is where they land, and it should be visually appealing and fast loading. It should be designed and optimized to help retain customers. Don’t clutter your portal homepage with lots of unsorted information, offers, and design elements. Because anything more than required drives customers away from your website. It is best to stick with themes and colors that go well with your brand. This brings in uniformity and helps promote brand awareness. Also, it’s appealing to the user’s eye. Try to bring in elements that talk about your brand and build themes around it.
While undergoing real estate portal development, ensure that your customers can find information about places on the home page easily. Allow configuration features so that customers can design the layout of their website themselves. Interlinking pages is also important as it ensures that visitors will spend most of their time on the portal. Hence, provide links but don’t forget to test it before launch to avoid broken links.
2. High-Quality Photos and Videos
The reason why people prefer online realtors over traditional real estate services is that they can get an idea of what to expect in the form of images and videos. Hence, add relevant, high-quality images and videos to make it easier for customers to select their preferred property. You can enhance the quality of your images with the help of online photo editing tools, such as the ones available on Picsart. In fact, you can add features like 3D and virtual reality tours to enhance their buying experience. The benefit of such features is that customers can select and decide the property from the comfort of their homes. They don’t have to call agents and arrange meetings to visit multiple properties. It also benefits agents as they are free from manual house tours to a certain extent.
Add optimized images to attract customers without affecting quality and website speed. Go for real estate portal development, considering the fact that the young generation is equally interested in aesthetics as functionality. Hence, add photos from different angles, highlighting different areas. Uploaded photos may be rendering of work in progress, properties for sale or rent, so keep updating it whenever new sections are completed, to show customers the progress and provide a sense of assurance.
3. Add Dynamic Filter Options
Advance search capability should be an integral part of your real estate portal. It helps users find what they are looking for easily by defining specific parameters like price, location, property type, budget, furnishing, etc. Along with dynamic filters, also add geo-location-based search. This allows customers to navigate properties visually on a map. They can get an exact location and even measure the distance of schools, offices, shopping centers, and public transport right from the map. Besides, they will be able to search property based on their location.
4. Highlight Property USP
Another important aspect of real estate portal development is to add as much information as possible. This could include details like listing, floors, property size, amenities, etc. You can also add information about the neighborhood and location to make it more convenient for customers to reach the location.
5. Omni Channel Communication
Customers should have the freedom to communicate with brokers and proprietors in real-time via different channels such as live chat, contact us forms, emails, etc. Provide multi-channel communication with omnichannel experience, i.e., data should be shared across all the platforms so that your agents can interact with customers easily and from the point they left.
For multiple support options, take inspiration from brands like Samsung. They offer assistance via different channels like calls, emails, messaging, contact centers, community support, social media, etc.
6. Include Testimonials
The strategy to improve customer experience revolves around client testimonials. So, add your customers’ testimonials along with ratings and reviews, highlighting their experience, specific agent/broker service, property, and more. Ask them to rate the property along with your service. It will help other clients in finalizing a property.
Highlight client testimonials on the home page. If possible, add video testimonials to increase credibility.
7. Offer Mobile Compatibility
As smartphones have become an essential part of our lives, your real estate portal should be mobile-friendly and responsive. It should allow users to sell, purchase, or rent from any device. As for mobile compatibility, there are different ways to do that. You can start by offering a mobile responsive website. Next step is bringing in a mobile app. While developing a mobile app, go for both iOS and Android. This way, you won’t lose any of your potential customers.
8. Customize Solution
To get started with real estate portal development, always go with a flexible solution that can be customized. Customization ensures that your portal is specifically designed for your business requirements. Also, you can add features at any stage of the business lifecycle.
Choose a development partner that can help you build a customized solution.
Key Features of Real Estate Portal Development
Here’s the list of features that you should consider during real estate portal development.
Main Features
- Profile Categorization
- Property Management
- Site Management
- Document Management
- Billing Options
- Manage Members
- Photo/Video Gallery
- Mortgage Calculator
- Email Alert
- Marketing Tools
- Live Chat and Messaging
- Review and Rating Section
- Role-Based Access
For Admin
- Custom Dashboard
- Property Listing
- User Management
- Documentation Management
- Advertisement Management
- Social Sharing
- Property Publishing
For Agents/Sellers/Brokers
- Profile Management
- Media Management
- Communication Management
- Analytics and Performance Tracking
- Customer Management
- Tenant Reports
For Customers
- Geo Location
- Smart Categorization
- Wishlist Properties
- Multi-Channel Communication
- Tour Scheduling
- Mobile Friendly
All-in-all you need an experienced real estate portal development partner that can help you develop a custom solution tailored to your business needs. Hence, choose wisely.
Tips to Choose a Development Partner
- Check their area of expertise
- Know their years of experience
- Look at the case studies and client portfolio
- Check ratings, reviews, and client testimonials
- Have a F2F conversation
CRMJetty has 14+ years of experience in helping clients with customized portal solutions. We can help you develop a real estate portal tailored to your business requirements.
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