Website Answers Frequently Asked Property Question

NEWS RELEASE
Harcourts Launches Revolutionary Website to Answer Most Frequently Asked Property Question

For Release
31 July 2006

www.helpsellmyproperty.net

According to Harcourts’ Chief Information Officer, Jason Wills, the most frequently asked question in the world of real estate is ‘What’s my home worth?’ As a result, Harcourts has this week launched a unique website to help answer that question for every potential property seller in the country.

www.helpsellmyproperty.net enables website visitors to enter a set of property criteria such as suburb, property type etc and in return will receive a list of properties that have recently sold meeting the criteria with everything from photos, street address, date of sale, and selling price.

“Real estate websites have always focused on providing information for buyers by showing all the current listings and their various details. However we identified a real gap in the market to provide something that enabled those thinking of selling property to undertake quick and easy research to better understand their local market by having access to recent sales information.” Mr Wills believed providing this level of information at no charge to the public was a first for New Zealand.

He expected some of the most popular categories of www.helpsellmyproperty.net would be:
• ‘Market Information’ - provides property sales statistics for any given area of the country.
• ‘Recent Sales Notifier’ – enables the public to automatically receive email notification, including price, when a property that fits their criteria of interest sells.
• ‘What’s My Home Worth’ - provides a list of sold properties with sale date and price in any geographic area of interest as well as criteria such as property type, bedroom/bathroom numbers etc to enable them to compare their own property.

Bryan Thomson, CEO of Harcourts New Zealand said, “We’re absolutely excited about the launch of www.helpsellmyproperty.net. Our focus on growth isn’t just about opening more offices, it’s also about growing marketshare and brand loyalty as we continue to focus on customer excellence and innovation. We strongly believe www.helpsellmyproperty.net serves a need and is another way of putting the power of the process into the public’s hands.

Mr Thomson added that while technology would never replace the skilled services of a real estate professional, www.helpsellmyproperty.net provided potential property sellers with a stronger sense of confidence and more control over the sale of what was often their most significant asset. “There’s no doubt that buying and selling a property can be a stressful process, so by providing more information to the decision makers, we intend to provide a more positive process.”

For over a decade, Harcourts has prided itself on being an industry ground-breaker in real estate technology. It was the first real estate group in New Zealand to launch a website in 1996 which since then has undergone several relaunches with increasingly innovative options, most of which have been developed inhouse by Harcourts’ now fulltime technology team of ten across Australasia.

…ends

© Scoop Media