Creating a Community on Your Real Estate Website

Technology has obviously affected the real estate industry on many levels making information easy to find and at a much faster pace.  Home buyers and consumers can now search for new homes on websites like www.newcondosonline.com, Move.com, Realtor.com, etc. as well as find relevant data pertaining to the local market as on sites like Zillow.com.  The Internet has taken on a new meaning with websites like MySpace.com and YouTube.com.  These sites have a community feel which creates more of a lifestyle than just a website for people to see.  

We can all learn from this strategy and apply it to more traditional real estate portals.  Real estate listing sites can now benefit from new technologies like video, virtual tours, and real estate web TV.  One of the first key factors in any successful website is to create a community where people can gather and share information.  The second is to create a desire for those users to always want to come back because they know each time there will be something new and exciting.  

There are many real estate websites out there today.  To stand out, sites must set themselves apart by user experience, design, etc.  Another great way to get people coming back is with that “community” experience I am talking about.  I was speaking with Zillow.com today and we were discussing there various strategies for the year.  Without divulging too much, we discussed how they want to have a “MySpace” type feel for real estate.   They seek to be the place where people go for “everything real estate”.  One of the ways to do this is provide unique technology and tools for the user such as the home valuations, and market data.  Another way is to have chat rooms and blogs so home buyers can actually comment on listings, information, etc.  This way the seller can actually communicate and answer questions from home buyers.  Zillow.com’s unique strategy has been to provide the tools, information, and community atmosphere first…then start talking about agent listings and home builder listings.  I think this combined with a multi-million dollar budget is a winning combination!! 

New  Condos Online has been seeking to establish more of a community atmosphere with new features such as the NCO Blog.  We will be integrating the blog into actual listings on the site, clients will have their own blogs, etc.  Another great tool is to allow clients to upload streaming video which we will be offering with NewCondosOnline.com 2007.  Of course, not all listings will have videos and virtual tours, but all will have the capability.  This also provides the clients with more options to promote their new condos and townhomes in a variety of ways.

Basically what I am saying is that having plenty of listings is great, but people these days need more.  This is not to say that a real estate lead generation portal like www.newcondosonline.com should detract from the primary goal, which is channeling sales leads to the client.  However, in the long run, the longer you keep people on the site and the more reasons you give them to keep coming back, the better off everyone will be!