When developing a platform for the real estate market, it is important to understand that this sphere is characterized by the unique needs of the target audience and the specific goals and objectives of all its participants. In addition to understanding the nuances of development, mastery of design, and advanced technology, your development team will also need a clear understanding of the real estate market. This article will discuss types of real estate software and important features your CRE app or platform must have.
Key points
What is custom real estate software development and why do you need one?
You may think it is strange not to consider the possibilities of zero-code and no-code tools to develop a platform for the real estate business. If your idea is to choose a website or app builder for your business needs, you are going down the wrong path. After all, such solutions work well only in the simplest tasks (for example, for creating landings or simple online stores). For more serious tasks, the possibilities of template solutions are too limited. Of course, you can always resort to the development of a custom plugin or e-commerce API for such a resource to solve certain unique problems. But constantly building up the platform’s functionality in this way generates a lot of vulnerabilities and makes it hardly supportable.
When it comes to solutions that need rich and unique functionality (which is typical for the real estate niche), it is appropriate to consider custom development from scratch. This way, you can adequately implement all the features you need (much better than in any builder) and achieve the highest level of personalization and usability. This is almost impossible when using out-of-the-box solutions and CMS.
Custom real estate software development will provide a strong foundation for further scaling. After all, developers will initially develop an architecture that can be easily improved, optimized, and expanded. So, you will protect yourself from the scenario in which your out-of-the-box platform will lose relevance at a certain stage of business development. After all, it will be impossible to implement new services while maintaining performance, stability, and cybersecurity.
In the long run, custom real estate software development allows you to provide users with the best experience and service, saving your business money. After all, over time, you won’t have to abandon your old resource and create a new one from scratch.
Types of custom real estate software
The real estate industry generally distinguishes four main types of digital platforms. Technically, such services can be created as web solutions or mobile applications. They are usually adapted to any device (desktop, mobile, etc.).
Real estate listing platforms
This solution connects tenants and landlords in a single online space. It provides users with information about the characteristics, prices, and location of properties and contains reviews, photos, and videos.
Some sites offer more complex functionality, such as VR and 3D tours, tools for communication and presentation of properties, etc. It’s worth noting that to launch such a platform from scratch, you need the help of developers with deep expertise in the real estate domain. We have such experts in our SoloWay Tech team. We even know how to apply blockchain in your real estate project to get the maximum benefit from this.
Real estate aggregators
Such platforms collect offers for sale or rent from external real estate platforms such as agencies, listings, brokers, owners, etc. Thus, users get a wide catalog of available offers and can filter and sort them by various parameters, such as area, price, location, features, and condition of the building.
At the same time, real estate aggregators are not engaged in conducting transactions but only provide contact information about sellers or landlords. They are often monetized through commercial promotion of objects at the top of the search and advertising of related services.
Real estate management platforms
Owners, managers, tenants, and other stakeholders use these property management solutions. They allow for various tasks: occupancy control, rental automation, maintenance, accounting, bill payment, etc.
Such platforms not only improve management and service efficiency but also ensure transaction security, privacy, and document compliance. More advanced systems can also integrate with smart home IoT devices, allowing users to monitor the status of the property in real time.
Real estate marketplaces
These marketplaces allow sellers, buyers, tenants, and investors to find, compare, and transact in real estate. Unlike listings and aggregators, they often include transaction functionality and allow you to close transactions online. In addition, they often provide various value-added services: online real estate appraisal, selection of loan programs and insurance packages, contracting, online consultations with specialists, market analysis, and investment opportunities.
Such platforms facilitate and accelerate the buying, selling, renting, or investing in real estate, ensuring transparency and security of all transactions.
Necessary features of any custom real estate software
Today, any web platform development for the real estate niche must meet basic quality standards and have some usability features:
- Clear navigation based on a well-designed layout
- Adaptability to any device
- Integration with social networks
- Reliable user data protection
Regarding specific features of real estate platforms, the following 6 features can help you succeed.
Multiple Listing Service systems
MLS systems simplify the transaction process between real estate brokers by helping listing brokers collaborate with agents dealing directly with buyers. From a practical standpoint, the MLS is a private database. So if you don’t provide any real estate rental/sales services but need access to it, you’ll need to put in some extra effort.
Search with filters
The real estate market is flooded with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of new properties every day (depending on the size of the region you’re working in). Finding the best option for users can be daunting if you don’t have the right supporting tools.
Specifically, you can narrow your search using filters built into your search bar. This path will allow your users to focus on one or two dozen options instead of browsing through hundreds of suggestions.
You can also optimize search in your platform by integrating an interactive map with real estate tags. Google Maps, for example, can help you with this. With this kind of integration, you can limit your users’ search to the region they are most interested in.
Images for each real estate asset
Obviously, even the most skillful work of a copywriter can’t make any offer truly appealing to a client if it doesn’t include detailed, high-quality images. That’s why any custom real estate platform development involves creating components, defining the media loading requirements, and displaying them properly in the interface.
Video and virtual tours
Virtual tours can free your clients from visiting the property in person. In addition, you can accelerate deal closure and improve success rates. This feature is usually realized with the help of 3D technologies or high-resolution panoramic photography. A promising direction is the use of VR for the presentation of objects. Rendering will allow clients to see even those projects that do not yet exist in stone.
Messaging tool
When creating a custom real estate platform, it will be advisable to implement messaging capabilities directly on the platform without extraneous messengers. This will allow easy, instant, and secure communication between owners/landlords and buyers/tenants.
Blog
Finally, to promote your platform effectively in search engines, creating a blog with articles on relevant topics makes sense. This way, you can increase your conversion rate through organic search. SEO perspectives should be carefully considered already in the design phase; otherwise, the web platform will probably contain pages that are either impossible or very difficult to promote in search engines.
However, a blog is not created just for search engines. With the right approach to content, it can become a source of valuable expert information for your customers. This way, your brand will gain additional weight and reputation that will work to close deals.
SoloWay Tech – your reliable custom software development partner
You are on the right page if you are looking for a partner for custom real estate platform development. Over the years, our SoloWay Tech team has implemented more than a dozen solutions in the real estate industry. Our experts are well-versed in real estate digital transformation.
We always carefully analyze our client’s business goals and study the market. We strive to create not just competitive solutions but products that cover the maximum share of the client’s daily work processes. As a result, our partners have the opportunity to take their business to the next level just a few months after the release of a new solution without the need to increase staff.
By choosing us, you can be sure your project will be realized using the most up-to-date technologies. It will fully meet the current market requirements, no matter how fierce the competition.
On top of that, we always pay special attention to the safety of the products we create. Meeting your unique business needs also requires adherence to generally accepted cybersecurity standards and policies, and we ensure that. Feel free to contact us right now!
