Ideas please

[tpr2]

Hi guys

I don't know why I didn't think of this before.

I purchased www.hotproperties.co.nz a while back and was trying to figure out what sort of website it should be.

In the end I thought it would make a good listing site (as it searches really well on google for the search hot properties), make it a cheap site but keep numbers down or something,

I'm not known for my creativity so perhaps you guys might like to make some suggestions as to what would make it a good and usable site.

At the moment (because I'm not a creative genius) it allows you to list a property for $30 and I thought I might limit the number of properties could be listed to make each property more visible.

Ideas would be most welcome and I'll give away some free listings for ideas used or tweeks that are useful

looking forward to some great ideas.

[mattnz]

I think that for attracting viewers you shouldn't limit the number of properties.

I wouldn't bother going to a site with only a few properties in each region, not worth the effort.

If anyone listing their property was able to do it without any assistance, (therefore minimal overhead) you could make the site free for the first year or two to get it established. Its all about gaining market share, not profits in the first couple of years, as soon as you have an established site with a number of people regularly using it, it then has commercial value and will be able to have strong cashflow. Until you have critical mass people are less likely to pay to list.

[tpr2]

Good point mattnz.

I thought the idea of not having to wade through thousands of listings might appeal.

You are right though, you are wanting to provide lots of properties to a wide audience.

Thanks.

[tpr2]

I can't make it free to list though as the hosting costs would kill me along with the time to put all the adds up. However what do you think about a really low fee like $9 or something like that?

[BusyLizzy]

Have lots of properties - but make sure you have a good search function (including min/max land size - something I wish Trade Me would do!)

[mattnz]

The more you can automate it, the better. You shouldn't be spending time putting ads up. Just make sure you have the right software running it.

Perhaps one way to achieve your aims of property visibility and critical mass, while covering some costs in the first year or 2 would be to charge a fee for special listings that appear first (maybe $30). Make the rest free. Check out www.domain.com.au, thats what they do, special listings appear first in the list for additional cost.

I'm not an expert but I didnt think that hosting costs were that high. If you end up with thousands of properties and high hosting costs as a result, you have got the critical mass you needed and you could start charging from that point.

[tpr2]

Good point Lisa.
Basically its a work in progress just starting so It's pretty much the worlds your oyster at the moment.
Until the programmer tells me that's too hard to do....lol

[tpr2]

thanks for the link mattnz

hosting is cheap if the bandwidth is minimal but gets expensive as the volume goes up.

[outspoken]

I'll think out loud

First thing I think you should do is classify what kind of site you want it to be / whom will it be most useful to / how will it become succesful.

I.E Investors? First home buyers? Mortgagee sales? general buyers?

If Investors, maybe you could make it that to list the property the yield has to be higher than the current 5 year fixed rate?

If first home buyers the price has to be less than the National Median or less than 4x the National Median income?

If Mortgagee sales, maybe approach the banks/lenders and let them list there?

Not sure about general buyers?

Nearly all of those ideas would limit the amount of Properties listed as they are specialised areas.

Or, you could just have those as categories that someone/anyone can list their property in, thus reducing the amount of properties you have to scroll through depending on what you're looking for?

[tpr2]

that was my initial thought too outspoken.
target a niche.
as you know I'm not the creative one in the family

[mattnz]

Some of the best features I have seen or would want are:
Home and income as a selection for property type
Ability to select a word to search by from all listings (trade me does this really well)
Minimum house size
Minimum section size
For apartments would be great to have a search option for freehold / leasehold

Must also have the ability to sort by highest and lowest price

[mattnz]

You could use the niche markets that outspoken has suggested as search options, i.e. cashflow positive, mortgagee sales. Allows different niche markets to all use the same site effectively.

[outspoken]

Yep, good ideas matt
having heaps of properties listed has to be the goal, cause that's how you get traffic, market share.
It would then come down to how well you had the properties categorised and your search functions

[tpr2]

Nice......

[outspoken]

Off the wall

You said it's called hotproperty.co.nz right?

You could just let all the bro's sell their stolen stuff on it for their tinnie money? charge them $10 per listing then sell their contact details to the Police for $10?