The new FindaProperty.com app is a simple, straight forward app providing a convenient search tool for those looking to buy, rent, let, sell or simply browse homes on the move.

It is a very intuitive app which must be any app designers priority when designing for the mass market. Map view is the default and you can also view your search results in a list.

With access to full property information including asking prices, number of bedrooms, screen photos and pinch-enabled floor plans, the app also allows users to save and forward details of favourite properties and contact estate agents directly.

We’re glad they haven’t added too many whistles and bells to the app, meaning that it simply ticks the boxes and makes for an easy user experience. All in all it is a good, solid app which does what it says on the tin.

The app is live and is available to public for download via the iTunes store.

In response to this, American real estate agent Coldwell Banker have produced a fantastic television advert about the real value of a home and I hope you will not only enjoy watching it and maybe think of ways that your agency can translate this message to those buying and selling in your area.

They have also created some shorter videos that talk about some of the things that make a house a home (Kids, Backyards andPets) and a smart infographic.

You can’t help but smile and admire the style and delivery but I think just as important and relevant is the clever and well thought out message that we can all take something from.

Google have introduced a new Search, plus your World which aims to understand not only content but people and relationships and many content providers are working on ways to connect your social world to your other online activity.

It all makes sense, since surely if we want to understand something in more detail and particularly when making a buying decision, hearing a recommendation, or not, from a trusted source is bound to impact on our experience.

The former COO of Zoopla, Doug Monro, has founded a new business with one of his former colleagues from Gumtree and inevitably he is moving it into the property space, with a clever tool that links to your social sphere.

Adzuna.co.uk is a search engine for classified ads which makes it easier for you to find the right job locally – and now the right property too. It searches thousands of sites and brings together millions of ads so you can find them all in one place, and organize them.

They launched their property section publicly yesterday and it starts out with over half a million of the latest property for sale and to rent listings from the top property portals in one place.  It also adds fast, filtered search and some useful house price statistics.

But the really interesting part is a feature called Friend Map.  This unique tool, based on the Facebook API, lets users see a map of where their friends live and check-in, and ask them questions about the area.  Once the user has chosen an area, Adzuna’s tool, the first to do so, plot friends’ whereabouts as part of the house hunting process.

Adzuna aims to become the world’s leading search engine for classifieds, by bringing together all the ads and connecting users with them in new ways and this interesting development of linking social to property search has the potential to be a real hit, particularly in major cities where knowing where your firneds are and the places they visit could have an impact on where you choose to live.

Adzuna is supporting the launch with a competition where users can win two nights for themselves and their friends in a fabulous luxury property courtesy of onefinestay.  Full details at Facebook.com/Adzuna

We are praising a variety of innovative sites that distance themselves from the standard agency template sites we see so often and show a little bit of style in their efforts to appeal to buyers, renters, sellers and landlords.

Today we complete the countdown with numbers 5 to 1

Sneaking into the Top 5 and the only web site in the Top 20 to break our rule that says you shouldn’t have to click beyond the home page to begin your property search, is the unique property company. Some experts don’t agree with having a flash intro to a web site, saying that it can put visitors off when they first arrive and that it has a negative impact on SEO. However I like the fact that they have taken a key moment, the initial visit of a client to their web site, and used the opportunity to make a big statement that reflects their brand and their specialism. Further in to the site you will find great styling and design that makes the site pretty unique.

The Finders Keepers web site is simply an exceptional site that has had another lift recently with their 40th Anniversary re-brand. The home page has a very clever and intuitive property search tool along with an additional search by school or school type and a property reference search.

Beyond the home page there are so many layers to this site, but one that stands out is their school catchment tools. Finders Keepers identified that 85% of their properties over £1,750 are let to families and these are their most valuable/profitable lets. So they have developed a tool to attract and keep these visitors on their site for longer. This development has been hugely successful – in one month the school buttons had 6,304 clicks with a 12 min average user time and a bounce rate drop from 34% to between 2-3%.

A firm with a strong pedigree in property innovation, Foxtons are a fitting Top 5 finisher with one of the cleverest property sites in the UK. No less than 4 search options on the home page lead you through to individual property pages with more functionality than you can shake a stick at and multiple bright yellow call to action boxes.

If one day people will buy property without having ever set foot inside, it will be down to the level of detail provided by sites like this. Their recently added ‘journey time heatmaps’ add a new twist of innovation which no doubt will be copied by other sites in the same way that their marketing has been for many years.

Haus are the baby of the bunch in our Top 20 having only launched in late 2011. The home page is very well set out and feels stylish and crisp, using great images to convey their ‘sell – pack – move’ service. The words they use throughout the site and the clever use of video, both for individual properties but also to explain their unique service offering, is well executed and keeps visitors on the site for longer. The whole feel of the site simply puts you at ease and puts across the dynamic yet homely feel of this agency that are attempting to be a little different.

So sitting at the top of the tree in our Top 20 Estate and Letting Agency web sites is Domus Nova, the estate agent specialising in exceptional West London properties. If you are going to break a few rules then you have to do it in style and Domus Nova do not hold back.

Domus Nova have for many years used full page images on their web site and their recent site change has continued down this theme, both for their properties and their Explore Locally pages. They don’t sell property, but rather they sell lifestyles and the web site conveys this incredibly well.

Attention to detail comes acros in the words they use through out their site, such as their consistently correct use of the terms Rent/Let and the way in which they communicate their passion for the local area. Each time we visit the site we discover another superb features, such as the clever side bar to the right of the page which changes it’s focus depending on where you are in the site.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the run down of what we consider to be the Top 20 Estate and Letting Agency web sites in the UK and whilst you may have your own favourites not included here, we hope they will have provided some food for thought and maybe inspiration for your own projects. Please feel free to share any other sites you like in the comments section below.

View numbers:

20 – 16

15 – 11

10 – 6

We are praising a variety of innovative sites that distance themselves from the standard agency template sites we see so often and show a little bit of style in their efforts to appeal to buyers, renters, sellers and landlords.

Today we continue the countdown with numbers 10 to 6

The design of this Phillips and Stubbs site simply oozes style out of every pore. House sellers tell us that a strong influence when choosing agents to value their property is if they are experienced in selling similar local properties to theirs. The images on this homepage leave you in no doubt as to the the type of property and location in which Phillips and Stubbs specialise.

 You’ll know already that maps are something we like and Faron Sutaria give a great visualisation of the area covered by their offices in relation to the simple squiggle of the Thames. They have a very simple search function above the fold and as you would expect from any business in the Countrywide group, there is a fairly prominent “How much is my property worth” box. 

Last week we introduced Pinterest and gave an overview of how quickly it is gaining traction as a very credible social media site. But as with all social media, rather than just jumping on the bandwagon it is right for agents to consider how/why they would use it to enhance the marketing and development of their business, so here are a few tips and ideas on how Pinterest might help your lettings or estate agency business

SEO

As we wrote last week, Pinterest has a huge amount of daily page impressions and as a result is ranked right up there as a credible traffic source. Therefore it will be indexed constantly by search engines. The more items people post on their boards that link to your website, the more your site will benefit not only from traffic but possibly from rank quality scores too.

Stand out

Part of your brand includes the things you stand for as a business, and this is a very subtle way in which you can define these often lighthearted sides to your business. It maybe that you have a board for each member of staffs hobbies, or maybe the charities you support. By building a picture of what you stand for you will allow other in to your circle and it gives them a chance to connect with your brand.

Specialise

According to the 2011Property Academy Home Moving Trends survey, the joint top reason why a vendor asks an estate agent to value their home is that the agent sell similar properties to the one they are selling. So whilst you can’t always have an ongoing display of sold properties on your web site, you may well have a board or two on Pinterest that show typical properties you sell – they don’t even have to be properties you have sold, just the typical style people should associate your business and brand to.

Analytics

Assuming you use website analytics reports, you will see the websites and pages that referred traffic to you. Facebook referrals do not give you any insight into the actual content that sent people to your site because they go through a script page (like ‘l.php’) so the referral path shows you nothing. With Pinterest, however, Analytics will tell you which item of content earned the referral click and allow you to click through and see that item on Pinterest. This allows you to interact with (thank, for example) people who promote your content and build some valuable connections.

Be different

I never think it should be the only reason you use new tools, but there has to be something to be said for being first to do something. As there is very little risk in using a free web site to experiment with building connections and web traffic, being first to do this and looking to the outside world as a company that discovers where trends are heading can’t be a bad thing.

Link it up

As with many social media sites, they have made it easy to share the same information across multiple platforms. Signing into Pinterest with Facebook will link your Facebook timeline to your Pinterest posts. This means your Facebook friends will be able to see your Pinning activity and click through to see your Pins, which hopefully will have some connection with your business, your brand and the type of ‘stuff’ you want to be associated with. You can also very easily tweet your pins once you have pinned them.

Make it easy

Pinterest offers two widget buttons. One is a Pin It button, which you embed into your web content. This allows your website visitors to click the button and Pin your content to one of their Boards. The other button is a ‘Follow me on Pinterest’ button, which lets you send people to your collection of boards.  

We are local

Many agents are flying this flag and Pinterest gives you a great chance to build on this by posting images and content that is connected to your local area. For a good example of an agent that is already doing this, take a look at the Young London Pinterest page.

Ideas for boards you could create:

• Tell the story of your town or city
• Home Styles & Architecture
• Historic Locations
• Top Things to Do in Your Area
• Ways to Prepare Your Home For Sale
• Curb Appeal
• Staging ideas
• Guide to your city
• Pet friendly locations
• Gardening tips
• Moving day tips
• Things to do for free in your area

A word of warning – Please don’t fall in to the trap of posting all of your listings on Pinterest, or promoting your no sale no fee and free valuation offers. It still baffles me the number of agents that do this on Twitter and I urge you not to follow suit. 

We are praising a variety of innovative sites that distance themselves from the standard agency template sites we see so often and show a little bit of style in their efforts to appeal to buyers, renters, sellers and landlords.

Today we continue the countdown with numbers 15 to 11

We really love the fresh design of this site by Castles which has a real feel good factor to it and focusses visitors straight to their property search. They also have some nice functionality within the individual property pages where for example Google street view is embedded on each page.

Falling leaves is enough for this web site from Keats to cruise into the Top 20. They tick plenty of other boxes too, but we just love the falling leaves!

This individually design web site from Mr Green estate agents has a very friendly feelt to it, from the inviting images on it’s home page through to the personable meet the team section which reflects thier genuine passion. If a web site can help you to build trust in a business then Mr Green have certainly achieved that.

A very simple and effective design to this site from Cridland & C0.The four scrolling images reflect their principles and draw you into wanting to find out more about their business.

Romans estate agents are known within the industry as a high performing business and their web site certainly doesn’t let them down. It’s one of the busiest home pages in our Top 20 but it is extremely well planned with the most important aspect, the property search, taking centre stage. The ‘enter location’ property search box sits in almost the exact same spot as the Google home page search box, meaning visitors eye are immediately drawn to it. In addition they have a very well written blog which is regularly updated with fresh content from their various directors.

That’s the first half of our Top 20 Estate and Letting Agency web sites completed, tomorrow we move in to the Top 10

View numbers 20 – 16

The international property market is surprisingly strong and so now is the time to look for a property in Europe, according to Winkworth, who say that vendors in France, Italy and Portugal, are far more flexible on asking prices as a result of the economic downturn and strength of the Euro.

The site is multi-lingual (English, Italian, Dutch, French, Portuguese, German), multi-currency (Euro, Pound Sterling, Swiss Franc and the US dollar) and provides information for both the buyer and potential vendors.  It showcases a range of properties in France, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy and Hong Kong, plus the occasional international development.

Its a simple site that is easy to follow and makes a good use of maps on the pages for each country. Once you define your property type or location the search results are clear and well sized with icons for each property feature and images only to encourage click throughs.

We will praise a variety of innovative sites that distance themselves from the standard agency template sites we see so often and show a little bit of style in their efforts to appeal to buyers, renters, sellers and landlords.

Today we begin the countdown with numbers 20 to 16

We begin with a really simple site from Currell Residential with the property search taking priority at the top of the page and a clear and well structured landing page. The featured showreel highlights some of their specialisms along with positive client feedback and as you scroll down the page there are some good reasons for a potential vendor to pick up the phone.

Hamilton Brooks have resisted the urge to put anything below the fold on this homepage and makes for a very effective full screen view which captures what they stand for with great use of images. The property search is immediately available and a very simple, yet often forgotten, call to action in the form of their contact telephone number sits at the top of the page.

When you sell the types of properties that Chesterton Humberts do, then having an appealing looking home page should not be too difficult. What we like is the execution of displaying properties across a number of countries which many of their competitors seem to struggle with. Add to that the links through to the wonderful House Historian Melanie Backe-Hansen and they are very deserving of a place in our Top 20

It’s official – Estate Agents and house hunters love maps. Which makes the use of an extremely simple map interface on the home page of Keatons site a winner in our eyes, particularly when it is coupled with a simple set of sliders to initiate our property search the moment we arrive. Throw the ‘request a valuation’ call to action form and everyone is happy.

This site from Manning Stainton is packed full of information and ticks some really important design boxes, but the reason we like it most is their My Property Tracker facility. Powered by software company Reapit, the functionality enables their vendor clients to log in and see viewing information, details sent, the number of web views and a range of other live information about their property including sales progression once it is sold.

So that is our number 20-16. The next installment will count down from numbers 15-11

Pinterest is a relatively new virtual pinboard site where users post and organise images and video content. You simply find something you like and “Pin it” to one of your boards for others to see. Most users have a selection of boards on different topics and interests which they have collected inspiration from on their travels around the web. To upload content there is a “pin it” button which you can add to your browser toolbar and use when you see something you like along with an iPhone app and mobile site.

Pinterest is gaining traction in the US and their 11 million monthly visitors per week has moved them into the top 10 social networks according to Hitwise data. It is the fastest site in history to break through the 10 million unique visitors mark and businesses are quickly tuning in to it’s value, largely due to the fact that in December 2011 it drove more traffic to retailers than LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+

It’s been running in closed beta for the majority of its life and you need to register on the site to receive an invite to join (or drop me an email and I will invite you).  The US demographic has been largely female as you will see from the info graphic below, but surprisingly in the UK, whilst still only on around 200,000 members, the split of male and female is much more balanced. If the split were to move more in the direction of the US this would not be a bad thing, as we all know the majority of decision makers in the home buying and selling process (and in general…) are female.

The site has numerous potential uses for Estate and Letting Agents, providing the temptation to post property listings is avoided, which I will go into in future posts. For now, I suggest the best way to understand it is to have a look at the site and try some pinning.