The majority of consumers start their house search online. But could your website’s housing search functionality be turning off potential buyers? Matt Cohen, chief technology officer at Clareity Consulting, wrote a column at RISMedia highlighting a few common mistakes that real estate websites and apps are making, including:
Offering too many search fields. It can make the process more complicated by offering too many parameters to conduct a home search online. “It also makes it too easy for the user to end up with too few results, or no results at all,” Cohen says. “The most effective sites present users with a simple search form and then let them narrow their results on the results page.”
Displaying too much. Don’t overwhelm the buyer by showing every piece of information you have in the IDX and VOW displays. “It’s important to highlight the listing content that’s meaningful to different users,” Cohen says. “For buyers, for example, that will be price, pictures, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, size, and location.”
Asking for too much. Cohen warns about asking users to do too much before showing them the value of your site or app. For example, asking the user to accept location-sharing right away could make some users leave. “Ask for permissions as late in the process as you can,” Cohen suggests. “When possible, explain your need to request information before doing so.”
View more of Cohen’s tips for building better user-search experiences.
Source: “5 Common Real Estate-Search User Experience Mistakes to Avoid,” RISMedia (Oct. 9, 2017)
