The Value of Real Estate Website Features

In the 2014 Profile of Homebuyers and Sellers, the National Association of Realtors surveyed over 6,500 recent home buyers on their 2014 home shopping experiences and identified which website features were most valued by today's home shoppers.

Results from the National Association of Realtors' 2014 Profile of Homebuyers and Sellers

Overall, it seems like the more people can get a sense of the home, the area, and the neighborhood online, the more pleased they are with the process.

For example, 83% of the survey's respondents indicated that property photos were very useful. Without high-quality, detailed pictures of a property, it's difficult to get a sense of the property. Words are great, but pictures are more impactful.

That being said, descriptions of the property are also important. 79% of respondents said detailed property information was very useful. They want to know information beyond the standard details like square footage and number of bedrooms. They want a description of the property and to understand things like if it has a garage, a view, or a basement.

Another 79% said that neighborhood information was either very or somewhat useful. It's not just the home you're buying, it's the neighborhood as well. If you have visitors to your site that aren't familiar with a particular neighborhood offering insights like school zones, public transportation, or even lifestyle data can paint a better picture and allows your site to work harder in the sales process.

One other thing to consider when building your site is that events are also important to home-buyers. So things like upcoming open houses, recently sold properties, Pending statuses, and how to reach a property's real estate agent are important features to connect to any property. That way, if a visitor is monitoring a specific piece of property, they can see when the status is updated.

In the end, there are a plenty of ways to appeal to today's homebuyer, and with surveys like these, we can gain better insight into what your client values most. You can increase demand and traffic to your site by making sure you have these features. If you're interested in pulling this valuable information from one centralized access point, consider our Listings API.

If you want to see the technology behind the API, check out the demo hosted by Developer Evangelist Ira Mongo. If you would like to learn more about what the Listings API can do for your business, contact us today.

To view the original article, visit the Onboard Informatics blog.