Heatwave signals househunting via mobile devices - especially on Sundays.
Rightmove recorded that over 1 in 5 property searches were performed on mobile devices last Sunday as home-hunters took their property search outdoors to enjoy the heat wave across the UK. In total, 20.86% of searches for property were performed on mobile devices.
The figure was the highest
Rightmove has ever recorded and highlights a behavioural shift which has seen mobile devices grow to become a key component of the property search process in recent years.
Christian Harper of London's flat-fee estate agent
OiverFinn: “Mobile devices are now vital marketing and communications tools in the property industry. We all have a general impatience for accurate data and we want it now."
Harper's firm was one of the first estate agents in W4 to embrace social media for informing buyers of new properties for sale or to let. It has used text messaging for communicating property details for years, and has embraced social media options such as Facebook and Twitter for reaching buyers and tenants.
“People just don’t have to time to trudge along Chiswick High Road from one estate agent to another,” says Harper. “Plus the postal system just slowed things down - by the time the details landed on the doormat it was often too late."
The OliverFinn website is updated instantly, guaranteeing clarity on all the latest developments. Professional photographers capture first-class images, and individual floor plans are created for every property - benefits which are still not industry standard.
Social media and bar codes
The firm is currently developing QR (quick response) codes for all the properties on its books. These are bar-code style logos which, when photographed with the appropriate ‘app’, immediately take people to all the information and resources about potential new homes.
“The property market is constantly evolving and estate agents should be information centres rather than sales offices. This being the case – do we really need dozens of estate agents in W4 all advertising the same properties? Obviously the answer is no.”
Sundays are now OliverFinn's busiest day of the week for receiving phone calls and traffic to its website.
"This trend for instant, accurate information will continue to grow and the industry will have to embrace it. But not everyone is in favour of working on Sunday - property owners also need a day off from work, viewings and estate agents!"
