How are Online Businesses impacting the Real Estate Market?

  • February 05, 2018
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How many times have you been frustrated in trying to find agents or customers to do a real estate transaction? Besides, unless someone refers you to an individual how would you know anything about their background? It’s all like shooting darts in the dark, right? The idea is not to surpass real estate agents during a transaction due to ignorance about their ability to deliver. In fact, licensed agents prove to be most helpful in unknown markets with their in depth knowledge of the local buyer-seller relationship, legal issues, mortgage rates, property purchasing process and realistic listing prices.

Finding any random agent on the internet is not hugely beneficial. As markets become more organized, customers are on to segregated information and follow published material from journals, newspapers, and television. Armed with the know-how on the way the industry works, customers become more diligent in talking to property owners and real estate agents. However, a good agent holds on to customers at the first opportunity by listening to them and does not try to hard-sell about their service. But how does one find who a good agent is? As with the e-commerce products, agents too are rated by their customers on the website they are listed on. Star ratings with reviews are commonly practiced in the service industry.

Property websites are useful not just in finding agents. They provide a huge set of benefits to the users. Some of them are listed below per type of user:

User type: End customer (Buyer/Seller/Owner/Renter)

  • Able to list properties or able to view property details in a cost-effective way
  • Easy access to information – with any device having internet/Wifi connection and hence time saving compared to manual search through telephonic directory or referrals
  • Links to social media handles gives you broader audience to share information regarding property. Ordinarily you would share such information with known people like colleagues, friends and family. Now, you can go beyond.
  • Ability to showcase the property with photos, description and neighborhood makes it easier to convey the selling features to buyers or renters better.
  • Convenience to communicate online or phone with buyer/owner/agent until all your questions are answered before making the decision to inspect the property first-hand.
  • Sorting through various filters such as pricing, size of the property, neighborhoods and various keywords reduces the time to search for a desired property suiting your budget and location.

User type: Real Estate Agents

  • Listing of multiple properties on a single platform for a wider audience which is significantly lower than advertising in mainstream media (non-internet based).
  • Opportunity to build brand image of the agency / agent through various rating systems provided by the online platform.
  • Ability to track the profile of website visitors through analytical tools and site traffic statistics.
  • Able to showcase value added services of the agency such as legal documentation review, registration process and interior design tips
  • Strive to perform and achieve good credibility rating that gives the market the much needed, healthy competition among agents.

Although the selling and buying process is somewhat longer and tedious compared to rental agreements, online platforms are fast becoming the go-to place for real estate shopping. For rentals, without doubt, the internet property market is a quick and easy solution to close transactions in a stipulated time-frame. Indeed, internet is changing the way we sell, buy or rent properties around the world. That’s why you have websites like www.myvilla.com that specifically showcases property categories such as villas, townhouses and bungalows available in Dubai to buy or rent.