So what makes a good property listing? I think the best way to do this is to make some important points – in no specific order.
1. Clean Content
The listing page should be laid out cleanly with information grouped for relevance.
2. Quality Images
Some agents think having 20+ images makes a difference, some only include one image. My suggestion is to provide the amount of images the reflects the properties features. I also believe all images should be cropped to one size (800 x 600). A good idea is to take 3 photos of each room/feature and pick only the best. This would mean an average of 10 images per 3-4 bedroom house.
3. CAPITAL LETTERS LOOK TERRIBLE AND UNPROFESSIONAL
FOR SOME REASON SOME AGENTS THINK THAT BY PUTTING INFORMATION IN CAPITAL LETTERS IT MAKES THEM STAND OUT MORE. Get this, it makes you look like an amateur, so if you must….. restrict it to tiles and nothing else.
4. Form to Email
You should provide each listing with a form to email, instead of an email link, why? Because you can then determine what information you receive from the potential buyer (i.e. phone number) through a form to email rather than a normal email. Nothing would annoy your salespeople more than having to return emails asking which property they are referring to or asking for contact numbers. It also has a positive effect on scaling back the amount of spam your receive as spammers use software programs to scan websites for linked email addresses.
5. Email to Friend
Give users the ability to email to a friend – I use this feature to email listings to myself. You can also add a feature to your site that allows people to add listings to their favourites.
6. Print Versions
Always, always have a print version of your listings – people like to print them out and it would be pretty annoying for site users if pages are not formatted correctly.
7. Property shortcuts
I think this is very important, not only for your website but also for advertising in newspapers. Make sure each page has a shortcut url.
Example www.propertypoint.com.au/19435
8. Contact Details
Always display clearly the contact details of the salesperson and your office.
9. Meta Tags
Every property should have a unique meta tag (title, description, keywords), this will help your site immeasurably with search engines and is the single most overlooked feature of a real estate site. It should be an automated dynamic feature of your listing mechanism.
10. Files
If you have VR tours, or PDF files or any other feature with your listings, inform the user of the file size and type. It is pretty annoying when you click on a link and it starts loading a program you did not know about.
Summary
It is not hard to see an agent that does it well, when developing your site, research other agents websites across the country and see what features could work with your site.
