Zoomf Blog - UK Property Blog.

The UK property market is probably 2-3 years behind the US market when it comes to using the internet as a vehicle for marketing. Our partners at Nestoria have just gotten back from the Connect conference in San Francisco.

There’s a great recap of UK to US differences from Nestoria founder Ed Freyfogle here on Renthusiast.

…are themselves beginning to sound like a broken record. Everything has to be on a biblical scale when we talk about house prices and today is no different, year-on-year house prices have fallen by 8.1% according to Nationwide. And, you guessed it, that’s the biggest annual drop since records began in 1991.

The average British home has lost almost £15,000 in value since July 2007 and the number of first time buyers has fallen by 41%. Read more at The Times.

A picture tells a thousand words

As part of making sure that Zoomf listings are syndicated across the internet, we’ve just announced our partnership with Develop a Dream. In their own words, Develop a Dream is -

Along with the great services they provide, users can also search the Zoomf index to see what is on the market. Welcome to Zoomf!

We know that consumers will spend up to 12 hours researching local areas to connect with agents who might help them out and most of that is conducted online. Let’s assume I’ve done 7 hours of my research and now it’s time to short list my estate agents to let one lucky agent sell my home. What information do I have as a result of looking at local agent websites ?

1. I have professional qualifications per agent.
2. I can read some testimonials from past customers.
3. I know they run an office and have lists of available property.

That’s about it. When looking at the agent market online there isn’t much to differentiate one agent from another. At least not before picking up the phone and walking into an office. What’s wrong with this scenario? Loads.

I’ll let you in on a secret of running a successful internet strategy —

“content is king”

Simply put, this means that the more fresh and relevant content you have, the more audience you will attract. The same is true for agents here in the UK. If all agent websites have the same content (and for the most part they do), why not set yourself apart?

Brightsale understand this better than most. Just reading their blog you get a proper feel for how these guys think and what they do. They’ve also added some personality to their brand by giving you insight into their day-to-day and their expertise in a given locale. That’s smart. That’s Web 2.0 and that is how you can get that edge over your competition.

If you’re suffering from writers block and you don’t know where to start, Agent Genius can give you some sparks to becoming a property ’super hero’ and in case you need more inspiration, here’s a link to that great rock song from Living Color.