The property industry and its inescapable marketing future on the internet.

I recently read “Real Estate Marketers And Their Dollars Shifting To The Internet“, and wanted to learn a little more about what motivates people to use online means to look for and advertise real estate. So, having not done so before (not having dabbled much in the property game, on or off-line), I briefly explored one of the most successful online exploits in this area, Zillow. I simply wanted to find out what it is, what it does for the property owner and/or buyer alike.

Zillow is a website that connects Property buyers to property sellers online. But their striking functionality is more than skin deep.

They allow you to post your property for free, with the platform being divided into Owner and Agent. Once your land is listed, you can keep an eye on its value. You can place a “make me move” offer on the property, so buyers can muse over your price and weigh up their options. Sellers can add photos and descriptions to their listing page, to provide more information to the buyer. Sellers will compare their price to others in the same area or zip code, using the “Zindex”.

There is a feature called the “Zestimate”, that is an estimation of the value of your property based on various collected data. This value is not a proper appraisal. Zillow encourages their user to gather all the pertaining information they can, such as getting an appraisal, and a comparative market analysis from an estate agent. The “Zestimate” appears to be a collection of overall area data and the property itself, with the intention of generating accurate estimates on area market values, and deriving more precise valuations on individual properties.

A feature that impressed me especially was the “Real Estate Search Results”, which is a very “Google Maps” like facility, is that your listed property will show up on an aerial map of the area. As far as I`ve seen, the map covers the whole of the United States. I was afraid to zoom in, as I could be scrolling my mouse wheel forever, so I made use of their search prompt. You can enter in your desired street name, or an area name that you are interested in. I typed in a suburb name, and was taken directly to a section of suburbia. I was amazed to see countless properties scattered across in every direction. I could point at a property, and a bubble containing valuable information, including the “make me move” price, would pop up. I found all this exciting. If I was genuinely seeking a house, this is the way I would want to browse the options. The service is fast, even on my South African 4 megabyte connection. The map loaded up successfully as I moved around, and didn’t spit out error messages left right and centre. Also, you can click “comparables” on a given property, and a list will drop down displaying all the similarly priced properties in the immediate area. Wow, I thought, this is a powerful tool.

So is it even a question that advertisers should move their marketing budgets to various online promotional means? No, I`d say, websites like Zillow (there are two other major ones I didn`t have time to research), are making it unavoidable that the information delivery power of web technology will bring more and more attention online.