Build your own Real Estate Portal?

[Dan_NextPlace]

Hi,

I'm hoping to get a discussion going on the likes/dislikes of the current portal scene as it specifically relates to you, the property investor.

If you were given the opportunity to design/develop your own portal, what features would you like to see?

I have read a lot of old posts on this forum (have been lurking for about a year) about certain functions on sites you like/dislike, and the less than favourable responses received to your feedback.

I would very much like to hear about your dream real estate website, perhaps a merge of the best features on sites you use know, or like overseas, or even something you have just dream't up you don’t think is possible?

I should say this shouldn’t just be limited to portals but include any kind of online research? A lot of people jump around a few sites as part of their research phase.

I appreciate any sharing of insights and opinions on what you wish was possible out there.

Disclosure: I own and run the recently launched property search engine, nextplace.com.au. My aim is not self-promotion here, I genuinely get excited about the cool things that can be done with data and tech, particularly around search and location/maps. My thinking is that readers of this forum are looking for more than just your average 3 bed double garage house hunter, therefore may have more challenging/funky/useful requests.

 

[HD_ACE]

I have found that realestateinvestar has alot of good things going for it. A complex search engine, valuer, news and articles, suburb reports, portfolio tracker with cashflow and cg projections etc. all these sort of things in the one place makes it very appealing.

Cheers

 

[Savanna100]

Id really like all the relevant planning controls accessible when I looked at a house to buy via a real estate site. "Allhomes" in Canberra does a basic job but its a fantasy of mine to have full info available...very difficult when each jurisdiction's planning controls are different.

 

[Dan_NextPlace]

Thanks very much for the replies

I have found that realestateinvestar has alot of good things going for it. A complex search engine, valuer, news and articles, suburb reports, portfolio tracker with cashflow and cg projections etc. all these sort of things in the one place makes it very appealing.

Cheers

All in one spot I understand, when you say complex search engine, could you expand on what you mean? What sort of thing do you like to do/how do you search?

Id really like all the relevant planning controls accessible when I looked at a house to buy via a real estate site. "Allhomes" in Canberra does a basic job but its a fantasy of mine to have full info available...very difficult when each jurisdiction's planning controls are different.

I think your referring to council Zoning? Is this street 2a/b/c etc?
In theory this is a very simple thing to implement, getting it out of the grips of the local council is a bit more difficult.
Perhaps the local DA to that area would help? Eg street scape rules etc.

Do you use google maps satellite view at all in your search? If your looking at a street/area, and can see that others in the street are developed, would that help narrow it down?

 

[HD_ACE]

Thanks very much for the replies



All in one spot I understand, when you say complex search engine, could you expand on what you mean? What sort of thing do you like to do/how do you search?

Well you can search according to strategy ie development cashflow reno undervalue mortgagee etc

And key word searches work better like triplex or r40 or deceased etc. and it searches alot of sites in aus and shows them all on the one site.

Just conveniant and easy to use which goes along way in my books.

Cheers

 

[Dan_NextPlace]

Absolutely. I agree.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[James m Dawson]

How does the pricing work for investa ? could you give me an idea for 12 months? thanks
james

 

[grantwhit]

maybe a feature of overlaying councils maps when searching by map. ie a button to turn on a layer that shows bushfire boundary lines, another that turns on min lot size for each block etc etc.

I'm not sure how accurate you could get this but a handy tool could be an aerial view of a lot ( near map image would be best) that has the boundary of the lot defined. you then have a spot to type in an offset value and a polygon is drawn parallel to the boundary at the nominated offset. This gives the user the ability to chevk offsets to property features - great for checking for buildings, sig trees, weather a battle axe handle can fit etc.

a list of links that take the user to the relevent planning controls

a link that can order dbyd searches for the user to check for services (this could be tricky to do)

thats all I can think of atm

 

[HD_ACE]

How does the pricing work for investa ? could you give me an idea for 12 months? thanks
james

http://somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87707&highlight=Investar

The longer you subscriber the cheaper it is and more things you get. Plus month to month after your subscription is cheaper than you can get any other way.
Tax deductible to.

Cheers

 

[Dan_NextPlace]

maybe a feature of overlaying councils maps when searching by map. ie a button to turn on a layer that shows bushfire boundary lines, another that turns on min lot size for each block etc etc.

I'm not sure how accurate you could get this but a handy tool could be an aerial view of a lot ( near map image would be best) that has the boundary of the lot defined. you then have a spot to type in an offset value and a polygon is drawn parallel to the boundary at the nominated offset. This gives the user the ability to chevk offsets to property features - great for checking for buildings, sig trees, weather a battle axe handle can fit etc.

a list of links that take the user to the relevent planning controls

a link that can order dbyd searches for the user to check for services (this could be tricky to do)

thats all I can think of atm

Thanks for the response. We have looked into a lot of this ourselves and it seems the only way to get it out of the councils hands is with $$$.

Even if we got access to this data, updating it based on which new council elections and zoning changes make it a potential nightmare.
A workaround is to use an online mapping system like googlemaps to plot your search area based on what others have already done in a particular area, but it has its limitations such as
1. Council regulations change all the time (have known people to have zones changed on them in the middle of a sale negotiation
2. If its already being done in an area (development) you are not exactly without competition on a block.

If the data is not in the councils its in the states (OSR in NSW) for property sales data (this one is something we are working on at the moment). Some property price data companies rely on agents, to get around this expense, and there is often agents who dont update.

I think this is why google see's such opportunity in maps due to this data just being so locked up.

Your idea around setting offests based on polygons is actually very simple to implement, if I can get access to the base polygon dataset or suitable workaround. Ill look into that one and post back an update. Thanks