There are so many pieces to this puzzle. You wouldn’t think that creating an online real estate/property interactive portal would be so tricky, however, there is more than what meets the eye. Although difficult to coordinate the production of a site and also compete in a drenched market, an online property portal can prove to be a highly lucrative site… even in the current trough. If you can market your portal to a niche market, say, investor property, and avoid the industry big shots, you’re golden. There are also niche markets in industrial, commercial, holiday, retirement, and overseas/international real estate to name a few.
If it were to be a property index that will rank up in SEO, you’re going to need to gather an insane amount of data. This data could be anything to the likes of zoning areas, property dimensions, last sale prices, bedrooms, bathrooms, floors, square feet, property taxes, neighborhood averages, trends, etc. Some of this data is publicly available in the United States. However, whether or not you’d be able to readily access it and get a streaming source of endless current content is another story, especially if you plan on using the information for profit. You could link up with real estate agencies, but that would involve massive amount of business relationships. Even real estate chains are typically not managed together. Chances are you will need to link up with a property data provider who gets their data faster and from more sources than anywhere else. Unfortunately, this will most likely come at a steep price tag, unless you can come up with a clever way to create a mutually beneficial relationship with one of these providers…perhaps SEO services.
To compete with the grotesquely overpopulated online market of property websites, portals, and indices, you’d have to offer something different, stylish, exciting, etc. One idea is to offer all the ends and means to successfully buy or invest in a property. There are many things that go into a large purchase that one might not think of. Most will require the assistance of an agent, an accountant, a lender/bank, lawyer, etc. It’s time consuming and sanity taxing.
Perhaps offering current and valuable information for the site visitor. This information can be on real estate in general, or perhaps regarding the niche that the site was developed about. Either way, good information or hints/tips from professionals or experienced would be an enticing segment to the site that might drive some traffic. Of course, everyone loves a bargain. If you know users to your site are going to require certain services such as an accountant, movers, lawyers, etc., why not hook up with some of those companies and offer more business to them at a discounted rate to your site users.
There’s plenty of different ways to go about a property portal site. For it to be successful it needs the right sponsoring from companies, good interface and feel, usefulness, and relevance among many other things. Although the online space is jammed full of related sites, it is possible to build a successful one that customers appreciate and return to.
