Know Your Neighbour

I recently heard about a local Real Estate company that had created the first application of its kind for the industry in New Zealand. But when I heard what features were available on this app, I was really disappointed. It seemed to be just another way of accessing that company’s listings, with the most unique advantage of this app being that you could access titles or auction information. Which got me thinking about what would be the best way for a competitor to respond.

It didn’t seem like it would be worth it for them to just match this company’s offering, as there would be nothing particularly remarkable about this and it probably would not be an intelligent investment. I decided that in order to be a truly remarkable app, this would need to do much more than just match their competitors offering. Which led me to an interesting thought – what would an app look like that combined the companies listings database with a social networking facility, and how much of an impact would this have upon the way people searched for and purchased houses?

Let’s say a prospective buyer is looking for a house. Currently, the most information they can gather about that place is from official documents or what the Real Estate agents tell them. But what if these home buyers were also in contact with people who could influence the vendors selling that house? What if they were able to learn from people who lived on that street or suburb what was great about the neighbourhood? What if the neighbours were the driving force behind the decision for who the successful vendor was going to be?

And what if by growing a social networking site, a Real Estate company was able to increase engagement with their brand and business? And could this become something bigger than just helping people find a house but also about bringing communities together?

The Realist in me thinks that a Real Estate company would never buy this idea, and there are many factors that would affect how successful this app was – there could be issues with how it was managed by the Real Estate company as a marketing tool, or people concerned about their privacy.

But then the idealist in me is fascinated by the possibilities, acutely aware of how important connections and relationships are, and would be excited to see this idea evolve into what I believe would be a world-first. Is it possible that Know Your Neighbour could be to the Real Estate industry, what Linkedin has become to recruitment? Could this be a smarter way for people to find and buy a house? Sounds like a smart idea to me.