Back to Basics: Location – Location – Location in an Online World

RISMEDIA, May 10, 2007-It’s a little strange how a wise industry adage like “Location is the essence of value” can become so popularized that it can lose its meaning and soon become a cliché…”Location, location, location.”

At least in the online vernacular, the importance of “location” appears to be coming full-circle and regaining its deserved reverence. Thanks in part to some excellent online innovations, like Neighborhood Scout, HomePages, and most recently FindaHome.com consumers are now able to visualize the spatial proximities and whereabouts of properties in their neighborhood settings.

Some of the more advanced technologies integrate neighborhood demographics with the location of everything from airports to zoos. These sites rely heavily on the value of “sticky content” to hold user-interest longer to help transition more lookers into leads. The value of location-based information appears to be doing exactly that for many companies who have deployed these innovative strategies. www.FindaHome.com is so confident in that value that it plans to base its new international search portal on that very concept, according to the company.

However, leveraging “location value” doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as letting a consumer point and click on a map. By simply geo-coding listings so that they can appear as a point on a map, consumers can get a better visual impression of the location than they otherwise could with zip codes or township names alone. The proximities to major roadways or landmarks help home buyers quickly expand the predetermined and limited scope that most tend to place on their home search criteria.

Adjoining townships with unusual boundary lines can often offer equal convenience with improved buying power, lower taxes or improved schools. Maps can help to broaden that narrow preconception so that consumers have more information with which to make their decisions.

These systems are not expensive…in fact they are quite affordable and pervasive. Over a weekend the average broker could probably create this add-on technology to showcase all of their listings by simply establishing an online handshake with Google. But there’s really no need to innovate. Property Pursuit, eNavigator, Reliance Network, MapMuse, MapTracks, ListingWare, RealBird, Realtor.com WheretoLive, and others each offer affordable turn-key solutions. Some start at under $100 per month and range upwards of $300/mth. Virtually any broker could afford this technology. So, why is it that some brokers still don’t see the advantage of location-based technology offerings?

For online home buyers, does location still matter? According to industry reports, here are some interesting statistics that may shed some light. Over 90% of the top 100 companies have at least some of their agents utilizing this technique on various Web sites. More than 1 out of 2 of these brokers incorporates this technique on their own company Web sites.

Now, contrast that success with brokers who are in the lower third of those top companies. Believe or not, as little as 12% of them provide this sort of online search capability to their potential customers. Keep in mind that since this technology is so readily available and affordable money is not the barrier here. As you might suppose, these companies generally tend to rate the contribution and value of online business lower than their more successful counterparts.

Take a look around at Trulia, Realtor.com, Zillow, Homes.com, HomePages, FindAHome.com and PropSmart. They are all bringing this location-based consumer option front and center for a reason. According to Joe Connor, a licensed broker in Delaware speaking about FindaHome.com, “Once you hear a consumer actually rave about their experience on a real estate Web site for the first time it makes an impression. As real estate agents, I think we tend to forget what it’s like for home buyers who don’t know what they don’t know…and how much easier it is to bring that information together for them…with these sort of location-based techniques.”

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