This is part 5 of the The Data Deal,a series that helps guide professionals through the process of choosing the best data vendor resource for their business by offering questions and qualities prospects should look for in their data vendor.

Home owners often monitor the value of not only their house but houses in other potential communities. A decision whether or not now is the time to sell or move can be based on the perceived value and market trends for their current home vs. their potential next community.

Real estate companies can increase traffic to their sites, and especially the amount of time spent on their sites, by offering Home Sales Trends and Transactions data to users. However, when weighing options on how to integrate this rich information as well as which home sales data provider to obtain this information from, there are a couple of key considerations to keep in mind when choosing the best home sales data resource for your business:

How often are Home Sales Transactions updated?

Home sales are constantly changing and are often the first thing that drives visitors to your site. You want to make sure you have the most up-to-date information possible. If the data you provide is inaccurate or infrequently updated, it can result in consumer and agent complaints that will undermine your company's credibility.

How often are Sales Trends updated?

Find out how often market price and volume metrics of home sales are updated and make sure they are provided at the local level including zip code, neighborhood, school attendance zone, county and city. This way you know you'll get the latest, most accurate information and your visitors will be able to find the data in a variety of ways. For example, showing users a trend line or a graph that explains how many townhomes, condos or single family homes have sold in a neighborhood and what the average prices have been will help your potential clients understand an area on a deeper level.

What does your coverage look like for Sales data?

If you are a national company, you want to make sure all of your customers get a great experience on your site. Make sure the data you receive covers your entire territory.

What types of properties are included in the data?

Make sure your home sales include all sales, specific property types, new home construction and resale properties. Having the complete sales picture and the ability to create market trend analysis makes your site more interesting and promotes engagement. If you're looking to increase the amount of time people spend on your site, you need to provide data that people care about, in ways they find relevant. For example, show people which single family new construction homes have sold in an area or show them which condos or townhomes have sold in the past few years.

Do you have a listings service?

Current, on-market listings help attract prospects to your site. With this data, you can create an Internet Data Exchange (IDX) that helps generate leads. Combining current on market properties with the most current sold information and market trends information is a great way to get a deeper understanding of how a certain community is performing in the real estate market.

There are many different ways to utilize Sales and Market Trends data as well as Home Sales Transactions data. When combined, they can help create a detailed picture of what homes in a community are worth and how they should be valued. They can help your buyer or seller begin to determine what their home is worth or what they should be looking to spend on a new purchase even before they contact an agent to begin the process of buying or selling. Ultimately, providing this type of content will help you compete from an SEO and engagement perspective to make sure your brand stays relevant on Google.

Choosing a data provider that covers all of these aspects is critical if your business wants to get the most out of home sales and market data. If you have questions about choosing the right data provider, contact me at [email protected].

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

More Articles in this Series

• The Data Deal Series
• The Data Deal Series: School Data Edition
• The Data Deal Series: Point of Interest Edition
• The Data Deal Series: Community Data Edition
• Choosing the Best Data Provider for Your Business