Real Estate Websites

Real Estate Websites.

Website Related features
Quick Search: Find real estate listings quickly from any page of the site

Advance Search - A search engine is no use to anyone if it is not able to deliver relevant results. You should always give user an ability to narrow the search down. Here are some ideas: price range, street address, city, bedrooms, bathrooms, on power of sale(foreclosure), featured properties only, property ID, MLS number, listing date, rental/sale/commercial, lot size/square footage, open house only, etc.

Sorting Search Results - This is another useful feature especially, if you have lots of properties. The visitor should be able to sort search results. This way for example, if the visitor is only interested in lowest priced properties, he/she can simply sort the search results by price ascending. This makes visitors life easier and you can rest assure that your cheapest property on page 59 did not go unnoticed.

Custom Design: Build a customized design to fit the needs of your site

Large Photos: Support for large photos that open in a fancybox

Social Media: Let clients share a property on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and more

Featured Listing: A rotating or thumbnail based view of your hot listings from data feed. Having these properties on homepage will get the maximum exposure they need and your chances of making a sale can increase.

Property Listings by Categories - categorizing the properties is very important. If the properties are not categorized, chances are the visitor may stumble upon two or three pages of properties that he/she is not interested in. If that happens the visitor may leave the site before viewing all the properties.

Sign Up/ Login: Signup (paid or free as per rules set by admin) for private sellers and agents

Multiple Pictures of a Property - Picture is worth 1000 words. Try to show as many pictures as possible for every property. A property with just textual description is unlikely to sell. People feel more comfortable and confident when they see the pictures.

Google Maps: Integrated maps in search results, street view, and directions on property details pages

Favorites: Add all property types to a favorites list for quick access

Quick Contact Form - Every property should have one of "Request More Info", "Request a Call Back", "Schedule a Viewing" form. This form should be short and simple. It should not ask for anything more than name, phone/e-mail and message. Having a phone number/e-mail of a person interested in your property is far more important than knowing their city, postal/zip code, etc. The idea is if a person is interested, he/she can fill out this short and simple form which is right in front of them. If the form has 20 text fields, chances are he/she may not bother with it.

Message Center: Centralized area for clients/prospects to send e-mail and SMS text messages

CMS: Create or edit pages, change rotating banner images

E-Mail to a Friend - If a visitor sees a property on your site that he/she knows his/her friend might be interested in, this tool would be a very powerful tool. If you have this form under your properties, the visitor can easily fill that form right under that page. If the visitor had to go to his/her e-mail account to send the e-mail, chances are he/she might forget or get distracted.

Feedback Form: Request support and provide comments through admin area

SEO: SEO-friendly URLs for all listings and user-created content pages

Statistics: View search statistics about your site

Share This Property - After search and e-mail social media is the third major activity on Internet. Giving users' an ability to share your property in their friends circle can double and triple your chances of making a sale. Just one click on "Facebook like" button can make the property go viral and line-up the customers.

Neighborhood Information: Getting back to what I wrote earlier, the property description is a great place to provide a concise paragraph or two about the neighborhood and location. Even better, create a separate page on your website for each neighborhood you serve, with a description and a few photos. Then, link to it every time you have a listing in that neighborhood, and also from your home page. Many buyers start by typing in the neighborhood instead of a specific house, so this is also a great way to rank higher for those terms and draw more buyers to your website.

Printer Friendly Version Of Properties Detail Page - Most visitors will print property details before they go to see a property. This way they have all the addresses and phone numbers as well as all the details of property to compare with what they saw online.

Agent related features

• Manage Agent profile
• Agents can post ads (buy/sell/rent) as per the package they are subscribed to
• Agents can edit or delete their ad listings
• Agents can also upload multiple images for the listings
• Automatic resizing of photos to reduce dimensions and size
• Purchase additional ad package on expiry

Admin Related Features
Mailing List/Newsletter - You should get your visitors to sign up for your newsletter and send them monthly/weekly newsletters. Send them the list of new properties that you have added recently. This way if they do not see the property they want on your website, chances are they might like one in your newsletter.

• Admin can view detailed info for all listings
• Add/edit/delete/activate/deactivate unlimited listings
• Simple banner management system for site banner ads
• Feedback management system when you need to edit feedback
• Html editor to edit various pages of your site directly
• Secure login/password administration area
• Ban/un-ban users by email and ip address
• Control exactly who can and cannot sell on your site - even set your site so that by default you are the only seller
• Add, delete, reorder listings with ease
• Edit member info like address, password, balance, and more
• Administrator can change their password at any time
• Turn on/off whether inclusion fees are charged
• Turn on/off whether selling fees are charged
• Member browse feature
• Automatic expiration of ads after a configurable duration
• Set the number of ads/images to be displayed per page
• Currency symbol to use
• Enable/disable featured ads and extended ads
• Configure Paypal payment settings
• Confirmation email on registration of a member

Security related features
Databases that retain the data and passwords for user accounts would do so in an encrypted format. Throughout the storefront, there would be a robust scheme to validate user input. Configuration settings for the storefront would not be assigned to every login, but only to one, top level admin