In an effort to outdo their competitors real estate portals are continually upgrading their technology. Companies (like the big two) spend millions each year on R&D while others may have a 1 developer team. Does the best innovation come from those with large R&D budgets or have we witnessed impressive features released on smaller portals (or even agent websites)?
We’ve had a few requests from B2 readers asking whether we can perform a mini poll in relation to the best and worse (most useful/useless) features, readers have experienced on real estate portals. Web development is all about the experience, if a browser has not had a “unique and enjoyable experience” then the web development team has failed.
So which features have been a success and which have not been so good?
I’ll get the ball rolling and say for me the number one feature/enhancement has been the integration of Google Maps with the property details page. Although highlighting the location of a property may not always be advantageous for a vendor, it is an absolute necessity for a pleasurable experience for a property seeker.
I believe one of the worst features is when you search via suburb and the portal automatically checks “include surrounding suburbs”. This usually includes suburbs in a 20km radius and when you’re searching an Inner City suburb the results end up being hundreds of properties that are not really that relevant to the search.