Home search does not have to boring. In fact, it can be amazing. Completely fulfilling. And offered right through a brokerage website.
Today, things like mapping, neighborhood boundaries, local demographics, education scores, lifestyle values, Street View, Reviews, RSS feeds from local content providers, photos, videos, valuations and more make it possible to deliver a rich experience to home buyers and sellers. There is a treasure trove of goodies form which to choose.
If the goal for the site owner is to capture a qualified lead, how about doing it by providing an unforgettable experience that helps answer this question for the user:
“What will my life be like if I live here?”
When I visit a brokerage website and am presented with a page like this one below, I weep.
You can do better.
Active.com – an online community where you can discover, learn about, share, register for and ultimately participate in activities about which you are passionate – just released an API that can help you get there.
Imagine in your search results a picture-perfect 4-bed, 3-bath home, located inside a great school district. In a neighborhood low in crime. With a good Walk Score and near businesses locals rave about.
But still, deep down, you wonder: “What is life really going to be like if live here?”
With the Active widget you can deliver lifestyle info across a category list including sports, social, health and leisure. Users can search, learn, interact and register online for things like team sports and other recreational activities. They can meet other locals with interests similar to their own (perhaps nutrition, fitness or training tips).
They can immerse themselves within the lifestyle of the place in which they’re thinking of living – before they even arrive.
How might this work? Here’s a quick (and rough) sketch I did:
- Davison
Twitter: 1000wattmarc
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Nice Balsamiq mockup!
The more and more APIs I see out there lead me to believe that there’s a market for someone who builds a customizable mashup of all of these widgets (walkscore, outside.in, everyblock, active, zillow home price, trulia area overview, yelp, and education.com)
Imagine the real estate site need only pass an address. The module could fit into a sidebar or the main content area and present all of this info in a clean way.
[...] April 25, 2009 Active.com’s answer to a burning real estate search question | 1000Watt Consulting [...]
[...] Active.com’s answer to a burning real estate search question by Marc Davison at 1000Watt Consulting [...]
Well i heard mid price homes are selling still but at every level price people need extra income coming what ever they don’t tell knowingly or unknowingly or too silly to tell and so many other unknown bills still cost people later which can cost half of your mortgage or more every once in a while. its very good idea to have extra sources ready once home is bought before running out of money.
Well i heard mid price homes are selling still but at every level price people need extra income coming what ever they don't tell knowingly or unknowingly or too silly to tell and so many other unknown bills still cost people later which can cost half of your mortgage or more every once in a while. its very good idea to have extra sources ready once home is bought before running out of money.