Anybody ever done Real Estate?

11 Comments

• When talking about the graphics, I would start with the traditional model of l would start with the time honored tradition of clickable thumbnails. I'm guessing you're doing it in C#. You could use the GDI classes to actually generate them on the fly (or on first click) if you wanted. Dog simple in .NET.
  
  
  
  As for layout, CSS and identified entities are your friend. I'm using a lot of CSS for layout on my site and keeping the markup pretty clean and conventional. You can do some really sweet stuff with CSS these days.
  
  
  
  I'd do a very basic and traditional model of :
  
  
  
  Here's us. -> general info
  
  Here's our staff. -> bio-type data
  
  Here are our listings. -> overview of the listings, per ZIP code, city, state, etc.
  
  
  
  Search for listings -> use an additive AND method of building up your searches, not OR. You don't want people to put in "4 bdrm" and "deck" and get every house that has a deck, regardless of number of bedrooms plus every house with 4 bedrooms, regardless of its deck. Typical stuff there.
  
  
  
  Also, use some logic to parse up the search strings and standardize them where possible. For instance "4 bedroom" should probably be parsed/converted to int.parse("4") + "bdrm", or such. That could get tricky, but a "search tips" clickable (with POPUP!) very prominently displayed will help. I don't like navigating OFF a page when asking for help on that page. that is the ONE AND ONLY viable use of Popups, IMHO.
  
  
  
  Your realestate friend should have a decent list of the industry buzzwords for you. Simple regex/text substitution should work well there for the simpler stuff.
  
  
  
  hmm... wow, thinking on it now I've got all kinds of stuff floating thru' my head. Stop making me do that! I have enough work to do :)
  
  
  
  If you're looking for some off-hours help, I could toss my hat in the ring. I'm always looking for new work.
  

• Wow. My first sentense sure doesn't do much to open up that conversation, now does it! Sheesh. Sorry.
  

• Chris, - actually, the listing search would be driven by some drop-downs on it's own page. A drop-down for # of bedrooms, price range, features, etc. That way I don't need to come up with advanced parsing logic for what the person enters.
  
  
  
  One thing I'll have to clairfy with them though, is if they simply want a search like
  
  
  
  <select>
  
  <option>2</option>
  
  <option>3</option>
  
  <option>4</option>
  
  ....etc....
  
  </select>
  
  
  
  or
  
  
  
  <select>
  
  <option>3</option>
  
  <option>3 or more</option>
  
  <option>4</option>
  
  <option>4 or more</option>
  
  ...etc....
  
  </select>
  
  
  
  And as far as graphics go, I actually already had the dynamic thumbnails in mind w/ GDI+ (something I've actually done before)...I was speaking more in terms of the type of header image and colors that appeal to people looking to buy/sell homes and what works best with pictures of homes, interiors, etc. I've seen some sites that are really nice looking that have background images of nicely landscaped yards, etc.
  

• Ah, gotcha. Sorry for the misinterpretation.
  
  
  
  I can tell you this. I just bought a place a few months ago. For many, many months prior to locking in on having this place built, we were looking... and looking... and looking.
  
  
  
  I found most websites followed the creedo of "when I don't have any valuable information, I'll inundate them with graphics".
  
  
  
  I'm a big believer (when designing business sites) in the idea that "less is more". Fewer graphics to construct the site. As I mentioned you can do as much with well-thought markup and styling as you often can with graphics. If I have to wait for a series of pictures to load, I'd MUCH rather it be on contextual content rather than page filler.
  
  
  
  Now, again speaking from *MY* perspective, I do not enjoy reading long text on screen. so, if you want to have the option of long descriptive text, provide a printable and clickable style sheet and/or alternate page. People who are driving around looking at stuff probably need all that stuff that gets chopped off.
  
  
  
  Also, figure that anyone looking for a house has got their coffee and snacks right there and will probably be at least a couple of hours at a sitting. Shy away from harsh contrasts and eye-popping colors. Try a silver or tan background. Stay away from pure white but also try to keep *some* contrast. For my site I use black text on standard html silver background and it works pretty well. I also use black text on standard html "tan" and that's pretty pleasing too. I use white text over a standard html "darkblue" for my menu bar and other *small* areas of page-level contrast. It catches the eye and separates the page nicely without being harsh.
  
  
  
  If you want verification, look at the average news paper. The paper is far closer to grey or slate than it is to white. If it was pure white, you're eyes would bleed long before you got to the movie listings :) They do actually think about that when they're pressing the paper. It's a beneficial side effect of recycling paper. In certain applications, there's no need to bleach it.
  
  
  
  Another thing I'd shy away from is popups. Page help/info is good. Zoomed images are good. All else is bad. Popups are distracting to the user experience just like harsh colors or slow loading over-used graphics.
  
  
  
  I never found the 360 degree poorly glued panoramic interior scenes any useful at all. THey give absolutely no real "feel" for how big the rooms are, so don't get caught in that trap. Houses photograph well from the outside and *things* photograph well inside. If there are special features of the house - a fire place, a lion's paw tub, a certain style of floor ing or hardwood trim - by all means feature that in pictures. But just photographing the interior just to have it there will be distracting and misleading. I'm sure if you look thru' some family photos from when you were a kid or even more recently you'll say to yourself "wait, that room was bigger than that" or something. Square rooms in the interior of a house are the hardest thing in the world to accurately photograph for size, perspective and relative "feel".
  
  
  
  Also, use cookies to "remember me" for certain information. When I want information on 10 listings, please don't ask me for my email address, phone number and name ten different times, but also don't make me use check boxes and "all at once" them, either. I'm browsing. Make it easy for me to "click" to add it to the ones I want information on.
  
  
  
  Don't over do the asking of demographic or detailed contact information. I'm using the web to look because I'm browsing with low pressure. Believe me when I say the quickest way to chase "me" off your site (and others will vary), is to force me in to giving you lots of info before i'm ready to talk. For me, I look around and get to a "ok, now I'm ready to talk to a person" point. In the info gathering, take enough info from me that someone won't be calling to ask me " ok then, what did you want to look at?", but don't get any financial, familial or over-detailed information. I'll tell you the listings I want to know about (and by all means, please do have that ready when you call!!) I'll provide you my name, email address and my relelvant phone numbers. At this point you don't really *need* my current address. If I choose to give it, fine, but don't force me.
  
  
  
  I want some biographical background (as it relates to business) of the key people in the office, but I don't want it to sound like bragging. Number of years is good, types of houses and general geography is good. I don't really care that he average price of a house that you've sold is $1.2m. All I care about is the house i'm selling and the house I'm buying. Text should be worded in such a way that I feel like you're talking to me and ready to deal with ME, not just "another guy buying a house". We all know that in the end that's all I am, but that first hook goes a long way to keeping me intrested.
  
  
  
  In short, friendly site, no overly harsh colors, light on the graphics except where they pertain to what I'm looking for and don't force me to give up too much information just yet. There's plenty of time for that later.
  
  
  
  Oh, and when I "click for more information", just give me the information, don't force me to call or be called.
  
  
  
  Tell you what, just this page is a good example of some very good things. You've got the grey border and the slate? left menu. Which is lower contrast and pleasing. But this white section could get a little harsh after an hour of browsing.
  

• Oh, and for goodness sakes, do NOT take up a 1/3 of every page with a press photo of the agent. That belongs in bio data, NOT on every page. It's annoying and intrusive.
  

• Another good place to start is .. competition :D. Check out how other real estate websites we're done, what's good, what's bad with them. That should give you plenty of ideas.
  

• I did a couple real estate sites way back in the day. What I learned: Real Estate people will eschew what you would think of as good or proper design in favor of loading the thing down with pictures. It's all about the pictures. And an image of the agent. That's always the top goal.
  
  
  
  My advice, find a way to use the good image manipulation capabilities of .net to present pictures in thumbnails for many on a page, high resolution for individuals, and work the entire site around the property image galleries.
  

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