New Harcourts Tech Revolutionises Buying and Selling

location based services

Wed, 16 Aug 2006

Harcourts is again expecting to have a huge impact on the way the public manages their real estate transactions thanks to two industry leading Harcourts initiatives just launched, according to Bryan Thomson, CEO of Harcourts New Zealand.

Commenting in the latest issue of Harcourts MarketWatch newsletter overviewing Harcourts’ July 2006 activity, Mr Thomson added that Harcourts' ongoing leadership in the highly competitive world of e-real estate has seen it once again revolutionise the industry with two exciting ‘firsts’.

The launch of the highly sophisticated Google-powered mapping systems on www.harcourts.co.nz property listings is believed to be a first for a major Australasian real estate brand. The Google-powered maps provide Harcourts’ property listings with a street map, detailed satellite image, or a hybrid of the two with street names overlaying satellite imagery to pinpoint exactly where each property listing is. With over 600,000 visitors to www.harcourts.co.nz each month, it has consistently been the most visited real estate company website in New Zealand for a number of years.

Harcourts’ second major launch has been designed to answer the most frequently asked question posed by potential property sellers - ‘What’s my home worth?’ www.helpsellmyproperty.net enables website visitors to enter a set of property criteria such as suburb, property type etc and in return view a list of recently sold properties meeting the criteria with everything from photos, address, sale date and price.

Mr Thomson noted that real estate websites had traditionally focused on providing information for buyers by showing current listings and their details. “www.helpsellmyproperty.net enables those thinking of selling property to undertake quick and easy research to better understand their local market through free access to recent sales information, which was a first for New Zealand.”

He added that while technology would never replace the skilled services of a real estate professional it was playing a crucial role in ensuring today’s top real estate performers provided an even better, faster and more comprehensive service.

“We see our investment in real estate technology as imperative by putting the power of the process back in the hands of the public through ensuring they have access to world-leading tools for a productive and successful real estate transaction. It also ensures our own team can meet the increasingly sophisticated expectations of the public."