Before I got drawn into Real Estate the way the space ship was drawn into a black hole at the end of the movie Event Horizon, my career was focused on B2C and B2B eCommerce.
Learning to apply lessons learned in eCommerce to Real Estate on the Web is still the source for many of the things we do.
In practical terms, that translates into subtle merchandising tactics, like conforming to the standard placement of UI elements like login links and search controls.
I was comparing what Apple does on its Product Detail page for the new Mac Book Pro (drooooool) to what we do on our Property Detail pages. The listing I was looking at was typical, un-enhanced, straight from IDX raised ranch in a neighborhood full of nearly identical listings.
I was struck by a very obvious difference between the Apple page and the Real Estate page: Its easy to make a Mac Book Pro look great on a Web page, because the Mac Book Pro looks great to start with.
So here’s my question: Could an independent Real Estate broker create a niche by building an inventory of listings that, like a Mac Book Pro, are eye candy to begin with?
