Website for people looking to sell their own home

Forums › Startups › Website for people looking to sell their own home - tech friendly?

clicknz

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#272428 24-Jun-2020 14:36

Hi all,

This particular forum doesn't see a lot of action but I would certainly appreciate some feedback from anyone who might have suggestions regarding a website I've just built & put online.

I've worked in the photography/videography space for a long time but my post-covid plan is to help anyone who's thinking of selling their home (greater Wgtn region), by providing them with high quality photos and a video that they can then get straight onto trademe or facebook. The video would be a more artistic look at their home/features and have the owners themselves fronting a portion of it to tell the viewers what they love about the house/suburb/surroundings (not just a walk through with a camera held in front of me).

The realestate projects I've already worked on have been for agents who also work on their own profile in the video, so I can't show any of that as samples of work, but hopefully I'll soon have a good sample video that I can place on the website (at the moment I just have some house only footage).

I've used free web s/w 'Mobirise' to create the site - it seems pretty good and is responsive to different devices but it does do a few odd things with formatting depending on the device. This could be my inexperience with using the s/w. I also have zero experience with SEO.

I'm just about to start paying for some advertising and maybe Google Ads to try and drive people to the site, but if anyone can see something that should be changed before I do that, then I'd be glad of any input - thanks

privatesale.nz

Thanks.

Mike Clare

xpd

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#2511471 24-Jun-2020 14:38

Your About dosent work. :)

XPD^ / DemiseNZ

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Disclaimer - It wasn't me, the dog ate my keyboard, my account was hacked, I was drunk, ALIENS.

Linux

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#2511474 24-Jun-2020 14:40

LOL About 404 not found

Linux

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#2511476 24-Jun-2020 14:41

I am finding more 404's the more I click

clicknz

424 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#2511478 24-Jun-2020 14:45

Well that didn't take long to find my rookie mistakes.... thanks - I was adding a 'subscribe' tab this morning and thought I'd tidy up a couple of link names - doh.

I've just fixed the link to the About page & uploaded a new version - hopefully that's why other pages weren't working when @Linux was viewing....

Should be fixed(ish) now

Cheers,

Mike

Cheers,
Mike

Photographer/Videographer clickmedia.nz

nzlogan

54 posts

Master Geek

#2511490 24-Jun-2020 15:06

The 'Learn more' buttons on both the home page & 'Sell Now' page need their links updating too - getting a 404 error as well :)

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#2511491 24-Jun-2020 15:07

Learn More on the front page = 404 :)

XPD^ / DemiseNZ

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Disclaimer - It wasn't me, the dog ate my keyboard, my account was hacked, I was drunk, ALIENS.

clicknz

424 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#2511495 24-Jun-2020 15:17

Whoah - thanks - more rookie mistakes... and poor beta testing! Ya change a page name and ya have to change ALL the links to that page....doh!

I appreciate people taking the time to let me know.

privatesale.nz

Cheers,

Mike

Delphinus

457 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2511498 24-Jun-2020 15:18

The link to About page from the Learn More page links to About.html rather than about.html so is also a 404.

I'd run the website over HTTPS if you can.

Video - The music was pretty intense and distracting (IMHO). Personally I hated the jump in jump out text and then sparkly text embedded at the start of the video. Felt a bit DIY (eg using too many fancy powerpoint transitions) rather than a professional video. But that's just me.

I'm not 100% sure what the business actually provides. Is it just photos and video? What about all the other private sale requirements, eg Sale Agreement Templates, creating copy for uploading to Trademe etc?

Content is a bit confusing too, eg I would have thought Sell Now links to where I start the process of signing up with you. But it's just a portfolio. I'd put the portfolio and what you actually provide on the homepage, as homepage is currently pretty empty.

clicknz

424 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#2511511 24-Jun-2020 15:32

I've uploaded another version of the website and hopefully fixed those link errors.

Thanks for those comments @Delphinus - good to hear feedback prior to spending on advertising - some great points raised and worth re-designing some pages and perhaps a re-edit of that video (I know what you mean about whizzy PPT transitions...).

Cheers,

Mike

chewster

122 posts

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#2511535 24-Jun-2020 15:55

Sorry if this sounds a bit critial.

I had to to read nearly every page on the site to decypher the value you give me as a potential customer. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this boils down to simply:

"Great photos sell a home"
"We can help with that"

Unless you intend to provide a selection of "add to cart" real-estate services targeted to private-sellers? Things like: listing upload, pricing assistance, FB ads, copywriting, street-signage (design, printing, delivery & install)?

If it's literally just just real-estate photos you specialise in, then would make sense to move that up to become the primary messaging, as I'd imagine that private-sellers are just one subset of potential customers to you. What about real-estate agencies who contract out their photography? That's not a target market?

This would be a perfect situation to use photos to SELL, bring examples of before and after right up there to the forefront.

Before = private sellers own pics (+ TM listing layout screengrab)
After = your professional pics (+listing layout screenshot)

geek turned SEO charlatan ¯\_(~_~)_/¯

Delphinus

457 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2511539 24-Jun-2020 16:11

chewster:

If it's literally just just real-estate photos you specialise in, then would make sense to move that up to become the primary messaging, as I'd imagine that private-sellers are just one subset of potential customers to you. What about real-estate agencies who contract out their photography? That's not a target market?

That's a very good point. If your service offering is photos and videos, who can you sell this to? Instead of throwing $ at advertising, what about doing an introductory offer (free or discounted) to some real-estate firms, so they understand what you're doing and then might use you again in the future. Referrals and repeat business is usually much better than straight advertising.

Are there other people doing photos+video+drone for real-estate companies? Or is this not the market you're targeting?

wellygary

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#2511544 24-Jun-2020 16:14

Couple of points,

Do you really want phone to be your primary contact? - its the top button,

You'll end up having to write down all the details of clients into some other diary/etc. or on sticky notes,- or whatever, its got the potential to be a mess,

IMHO put email at the top as your primary contact, then everything is sitting in your inbox somewhere where it cannot get lost...

put phone way down the bottom of the page somewhere

Also

"You can take control of the process and enjoy selling on your terms "

What does this actually mean, if you are offering photo and videography services just say so.... If you are offering more then say what they are too... Keep it simple

clicknz

424 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#2511546 24-Jun-2020 16:18

Thanks @chewster - more great comments and aspects to change on the current site.

Good to know that the message is not as clear as it should be... another problem of trying to do too much myself, too quickly (& too cheaply!).

Having worked with real estate agents already, I'm not targeting them, as their process is driven towards generally finding the cheapest photographer or a company that uses photography as a loss leader to printing material.

...and more good comments @wellygary - yeah, maybe the phone link isn't what I want up there!

Cheers,

Mike

duckDecoy

135 posts

Master Geek

#2511558 24-Jun-2020 16:34

chewster:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this boils down to simply:

"Great photos sell a home"
"We can help with that"

+1 to this. You are saying you want to help people sell their own homes, but really you're helping anyone sell the home by having better pics/videos. A customer could be someone who wants to use an estate agent but supplying their own better media than the agent would give them.

Basil12

49 posts

Geek

#2511632 24-Jun-2020 17:40

I think it looks great.

You've a typo on the Sell Now page in the Video tells a story section: there should no apostrophe in "We can capture your home looking it's superb best and maybe even..." as "it's" means it is or it has.