The world today is more focused on ease and convenience. That is one of the reasons why comfort and clarity remain one of the highlighted objectives to build a real estate app. It is easier to make and follow the rules with technological development while finding the factors to contribute to the success of your business.
Today many people continuously search for new property or some professional help to sell their current properties. And that is the problem that needs to be solved and it can be done so if you build a real estate app. This is also the main step for creating a business. With the business idea and a business app, you will be able to save time and effort for potential customers and they will be able to get proper services. It will also help to make your business worthwhile.
Why Real Estate Mobile App Development Is One Of The Leading Trends Of The Industry?
Fun fact: 1 in every 4 users use an app of real estate to find, buy, and sell the properties. While real estate has been in the business industry for a long time and has been profitable, now it is time to evolve it and put it on smartphones to make it more prominent. The online property search trend has been getting more hype which is fueling the competition fire between businesses in the real estate industry.
According to the reports, almost 95% of the real estate market now own websites for property listing. Although, website development is still a little step when there is huge competition waiting in the industry. Along with the website, your business will need a customized mobile app so that your business can stay up to date with the trends and one step ahead of the competitors.
The technology in the real estate market is on another level. Customers don’t have to go from one seller to another to buy a property, they can now just open a real estate app on their phones, scroll through all the suitable properties, and select the best option.
- According to the stats:
More than 44% looked for properties on online platforms in the year 2018 and the number will be higher by the end of 2022. - An estimated 81% of older, 80% of younger millennials along with 78% of X generation used online apps in 2018 to buy properties for themselves.
- Virtual tours of houses are believed to be a crucial feature of an application for real estate business by 90% of baby boomers.
Tips To Build a Real Estate App
It is important to keep in mind that the audience you need to deal with changes and the emerging generations will buy houses and will eventually become your client, so the business presence on the mobiles will become one of the most important factors for your business success. Here are some tips that will help you to build a successful real estate app for your business.
Tip 1. Learn From Competitors
We all know that competition is an important factor and an undeniable part of the business market and one of the main aspects that every business should consider. Learning more about your competitors can help you to step up your game. You can know about their weaknesses and strengths, and their business proposals to outperform them.
We have found the best businesses among the real estate applications and all those applications are amazing in the terms of their user retention, traffic, marketing, and profit. We have listed down the characteristics that were common in all those applications.
- These real estate apps not only focused on listing the real estate properties but acted as the touchpoint for all parties that were involved. The apps provided people with the options to search, sell, buy, and advertise the properties. It helped with customer engagement and more user traffic.
- The apps allow the people to perform all the necessary functions and act as a one-stop-shop providing them the facility from rental to purchasing of the property. They even allow the users to find all the processes and information on the app so they won’t get frustrated.
- They are advanced marketing tools with better searching options that provide solutions for listing the properties for everyone. Every one of them uses different MLS or multi-listing tools which are created by real estate professionals that can help the clients to buy and sell their properties.
The two main focuses of the application model should be the agency and the third-party application. The agency app will be used as the tool by the specific agency while the third party app is a marketplace for the properties that links the clients, buyers, sellers, tenants, and other people with the same interests under one platform.
Tip 2. Make End-Users Your Priority
We know that one of the basic rules of business success is satisfying the needs of the customer in the most efficient way possible. To be successful, you will have to list down the user needs, your app features, and how it will resolve the issues that the users are facing. By focusing on the user traffic on the real estate app, you can easily list down your potential users into three main categories;
- Buyers and tenants
- Real estate agencies or realtors
- Sellers and landlords
Once you are done with categorizing your audience, you can focus on the needs and issues of each category. For instance, the goal of the buyer or tenant is to get a property that is worth buying or renting in a certain area, while being able to access all the information about the property like the map location, description, cost, etc, and being able to access all that without leaving the app.
Almost every user faces similar problems when operating an application for real estate. The challenges are the lack of time and information which is required to make a decision. We have listed the features in a real estate app that people care about:
- User-friendly UI/UX
- All Details and information
- Better navigation
- Consulting and communicating facility
- Analytics to compare the prices
Focusing on the specific needs and challenges of the user can help you build a real estate application that can make your business successful.
Tip 3. Prepare a Strong Real Estate Database
A proper database will be the first brick that will support your app development and business success. But it is also the first hurdle that most people face while planning to build a real estate app. If you don’t have the database, you can get it in many ways.
Some of them are as follows:
- Multiple Listing Service Connection:
The database which is created and maintained by several brokers and realtors that are members of local associations of realtors is known as multiple listing service (MLS). The listing includes information about the address, measurements, photos, building plans, etc.
The MLS allows real estate dealers to use the real estate database for listing their properties. While the con of using MLSs is that it can be regional and hard to get access to, for creating the MLS listing and getting MLS access for your app, you will need either good negotiation for the agreement of data sharing or to become a brokerage. Although, the second one includes some legal blockage for a business.
- Partnership with Syndication Platforms
If you try to operate over different countries, the negotiation is hard to get an agreement with every MLS. But there are easier ways too. You can get into a contract with real estate companies at the national level. ListHub is a well-reputed listing syndication platform among many others.
- Gather Data from FSBO listings and similar apps
You can gather information from other real estate applications like Zillow, Trulia, etc. But you need to read and stick to their business policies else it can harm your business. There have been times when real estate companies have been sued for violating the policy and data theft.
The For Sale By Owner is easier; you can sell the home without an agent and keep the commission money. This way the owners can post their proposals into the platform.
Tip 4. Strategy for Effective Monetization
Many real estate platforms work on the same rule of setting up the database for property listing, traffic increase and monetizing it at the end. The first and second steps are easy and hard relatively while the third one is automated if you have succeeded in the first two. Some popular monetization options are as follows:
- Advertising: One of the most tried and tested ways to monetize your app is through advertisement. The advertisement should be real and relevant when it comes to the real estate app just like the ads for interior designing, loans, insurance, etc.
Zillow took advertising to the next level when the company got to know that the rental markets are larger in opportunities than the homeowner market. To keep the property owners in need of advertising, they kept moving and finding rentals on a frequent basis. Zillow released Zillow Rental Network to charge the management companies for property for advertising their listings.
- Different Packages: Offering different types of packages for real estate apps is yet another way of generating revenue. Let’s take an example, you can make a different package and charge your sellers based on the types of properties they want to list on your app. Another package can be made for sellers who want to list only one category of real estate properties. An extra fee can be charged for sellers who want to boost the reach of their listing and profile.
- Various Memberships: It is always a good idea to offer different membership and subscription plans. You can offer additional premium features at a different cost. The examples of these features include detailed demographics of a focused area, reports for behavior patterns of the target customers, and some tools for market analysis.
- Offering Commissions: In case you are inclined towards including financial transactions in your app, we would encourage you to charge a certain amount of transactions done from your app as a commission.
Truth be told, there are hundreds of other ways to generate money from your real estate app. You can go as creative as you want with your ideas and use them as a foundation for your app’s monetization strategy.
Tip 5. Prepare a Strong Set Of Features
Like any other app, the real estate app includes two basic types of features that are necessary to create the skeleton of the app and the added features which help in the future possibilities of app expansion and enrichment. While preparing the real estate app feature list for the app, you should keep in mind tip 2 where we mentioned the needs of the user. The basic app features are based mainly on the needs of the users and are as follows:
- Advanced Search for Property: One of the most useful features in real estate apps is the filter by search feature. To increase the user experience it is necessary for the app to be structured and display all the data. Search option is the most important feature for the real estate app as the home buyers need filters like location, property type, budget, and so on. It also gives the user a chance to add more search options like availability for parking, laundry, etc.
- Profile of Properties: The heart of a successful real estate app is the good-looking property profile. The profile will have a huge amount of data related to the property such as the photos, description, pricing, and so on.
Almost 89% of home buyers that search for properties online say that good photos are one of the useful features of a real estate mobile application.
- Shortlisting and Favorite: Provide your audience with the option to save and shortlist the properties they find interesting. It will help them in the decision-making process and your in-app sales will increase too. While it will be useful for the target audience, it will help the realtors to filter between the interested audience and their preferences.
- Searches based on Geolocation and Maps: Imagining a real estate app without geolocation or maps feature is impossible. Maps can provide the user with full data about the neighborhood.
- Users, Sellers, and Agents Profile: If you want to build an app that can allow them to log in and create their property ads, then they will need the feature to create their profiles and have a dashboard to do various tasks. The profile will be based on the tasks that you want the users to do in the app.
- Communication Feature: The basis of a successful real estate business is based on good communication as we know. Your users will need the opportunity to contact the sellers and ask about additional information without switching between various apps or tools. It can be a built-in chat in the app, letter, voice calls, or video call feature.
Tip 6. Get An App Development Company to Start Small
While the article described a lot of the major factors but you should also pay attention to the ability of the company along with the capabilities it could cover with the developmental needs. Do you need to check if the company could go through all the development phases from UI?UX to coding, release, and so on. It is important because it can help you to know whether your company can have certain features in the field or not and if it could help you to get the targeted attention and traffic.
We know checking all that on your own won’t be easy so we have a solution for that too. Origami Studio provides you with expert consultants, developers, and business strategists that can provide you with the information you need to start the app development process and to help you build a real estate app. So, you can contact us today for stepping up your real estate game to a whole new level.
Conclusion
Developing a real estate app is a necessity for the growth of the real estate business in today’s world. The traditional real estate businesses are transforming and stepping into the digital world. While it sounds pleasing, it is not easy even with all the information and ideas. A team of professionals can help you to make the whole outline of your business goals and objectives and help you understand the financial and marketing aspects of the application. You need to do a lot of digging and research to list down the app features you want and then a professional team can make you successful with the app.
Origami Studios has professional teams that are experts in their work. They can sit down with you and brainstorm to gather all the information and ideas for developing the app and then once the brainstorming is complete, the next step is to start developing the app, time all the coding, UI/UX, and other features will be added in the app and your app will have all you will need with much more. But for all that to happen, all you have to do is contact Origami Studios and we will be more than happy to build a real estate app for you.