Category Archives: Portal & Industry News
Google Reveals Real Estate “Vision”
Since Google first began adding real estate listings to Google Maps in mid-2009, the world of online real estate has been monitoring the company’s every move. Each upgrade brought more speculation on how Google was planning to change things for property portals, real estate agents, and property hunters.
Now, we have a clearer idea of where Google is headed.
Renter Review Website Launches
A new website has been launched in the UK to give renters the ability to publish reviews on properties, landlords, estate agents, and the local area.
The propertyreview.com allows users to upload their reviews for free and provides a search option so users can find reviews by location. At the moment, there are around 30 reviews available, and while there are some with a rating of 100 percent that sound slightly like listings, many seem to be genuine impressions of properties, landlords, and agents.
New Widget from findaproperty.com
UK property portal findaproperty.com, which has just come out with an iPhone application, has also released a widget showing UK average house prices that can be added to any website.
The widget displays asking price data for both flats and houses in any UK town or county for either sales or rentals. findaproperty.com explains that it shows asking price changes for the last 90 days in both graph and tabular formats.
Ads Coming to Street View?
Google Street View has been added to so many real estate websites by now that it’s almost an expected part of the listing landscape. But there could be a change on the Street View horizon.
Google previously floated the idea of ads appearing in Street View that are tied to the listings in its Local Business Centre and Favourite Places program.
What makes it seem like more than an idea is Google’s recent filing of a patent application titled “Claiming Real Estate in Panoramic or 3D Mapping Environments for Advertising”. In other words, we could see something akin to virtual billboards appearing in a Street View image as users browse through an area.
New Mapping Product Launched
US company Digital Map Products, which lists redfin.com, zillow.com, and trulia.com amongst its clients, has released a new mapping tool that visualises how home prices change over time.
The product, dubbed SpatialStream, animates property price fluctuations as colours on a map, changing from green to red as prices fluctuate. The company says this is an easy way to show what would otherwise be thousands of separate data points on a spreadsheet.
Listing Tips from funda.nl
Leading Dutch property portal funda.nl recently commissioned market research to find out what consumers thought of it. The results are as revealing for agents as they were for the portal itself.
The research, conducted by Heliview, showed just how important video and interactive floor plans are when it comes to listings. 53 percent of respondents said they were more likely to spend time looking at a listing if a floor plan was included, while 61 percent said they were likely to prefer listings if a video was available.
A New Decade and a Brand New Property Ad Guru!
We’re excited to announce the launch of our recently redesigned website. We hope it will better inform you on all the global information, trends and products relating to successful online advertising in real estate.
If you can’t find what you are looking for, use our “Ask a Question” facility on the Home Page and the Property Ad Guru Team (with around 50 years combined experience in online advertising) will do their best to provide the answers for you.
Let us know what you think of the new site by sending your feedback to editor@propertyadguru.com as we are constantly looking to improve and ensure we are presenting the most topical information to our readers.
Regards,
The Property Ad Guru Team.
estatecreate.com Builds for Agents
We first reported on UK-based single property website creation tool estatecreate.com when it launched in February last year. At the time, it was pitched as a challenge to agents in that it offered an alternative selling tool for home owners.
After launching, estatecreate.com decided to include an agent-focused option in its subscription offerings, allowing agents to create single property websites to promote their clients properties.
Since then, it seems agents have been clamouring for an option that doesn’t involve them creating the websites on their own.
2010: What’s in Store for Agents?
With the effects of the global financial crisis still being felt in plenty of places around the world, many real estate agents will be more than happy to see 2009 come to a close. “Recovery” is the word on everyone’s lips as we start the first year of the next decade, even though no one can really predict how long it will take.
The new year’s technology trends are probably just as difficult to pinpoint, but that won’t stop us from trying. Here’s what propertyadguru.com sees in its crystal ball for 2010:
realtown.com Reaches 150,000 Users
realtown.com, a US online community that aims to cover all things real estate, has now passed the 150,000 registered users mark. Its current total is 153,858 member, which puts it slightly short of activerain.com’s total of 168,099 members.
Loading ...