Crimewatch Comes To Online Property Search
Here comes the future - at least for property searches. American property portal Trulia has added what, in their view, is an essential component to its search facility: crime data.
Like the 'Crime Maps' announced by the government here earlier on this year, Americans will be able to discover just how safe - or unsafe - any future home of theirs can be. Trulia might not be the first American property portal to reveal crime statistics, but they're certainly the most specific when it comes to time, date, location and type of incident.
Would that be too much information? Maybe so. But it's almost a certainty that savvy websites like Zoopla and the like, who already provide an enormous amount of information to potential homebuyers, will be considering adding this kind of data to all that information. It's not surprising, because after all when it comes to deciding on where to move to, crime - and the fear of crime - are high on the list of considerations for many people. And since those property portals are falling over themselves to dominate online search, the more information they can provide, the more of the ever-growing segment of online property searchers they can attract. And that segment really is growing: between them Zoopla, Rightmove, Findaproperty and Prime Location now receive approximately 14 million unique visitors each month - around one third of the entire UK online population.
Listing crime data, though, could be seen as both brave and foolish. Do estate agents really want to lower their chances of a sale by admitting that a particular area has a high burglary rate, or is no stranger to criminal damage... or worse? This could really be 'too much information'. Whether British estate agents will take a leaf out of Trulia's book remains to be seen.
Whether UK estate agents go all American on us or not, one thing is for certain: online property searches and transactions continue to rise as online estate agents become increasingly preferred to - and considerably less expensive than - traditional high street estate agents.
Like the 'Crime Maps' announced by the government here earlier on this year, Americans will be able to discover just how safe - or unsafe - any future home of theirs can be. Trulia might not be the first American property portal to reveal crime statistics, but they're certainly the most specific when it comes to time, date, location and type of incident.
Would that be too much information? Maybe so. But it's almost a certainty that savvy websites like Zoopla and the like, who already provide an enormous amount of information to potential homebuyers, will be considering adding this kind of data to all that information. It's not surprising, because after all when it comes to deciding on where to move to, crime - and the fear of crime - are high on the list of considerations for many people. And since those property portals are falling over themselves to dominate online search, the more information they can provide, the more of the ever-growing segment of online property searchers they can attract. And that segment really is growing: between them Zoopla, Rightmove, Findaproperty and Prime Location now receive approximately 14 million unique visitors each month - around one third of the entire UK online population.
Listing crime data, though, could be seen as both brave and foolish. Do estate agents really want to lower their chances of a sale by admitting that a particular area has a high burglary rate, or is no stranger to criminal damage... or worse? This could really be 'too much information'. Whether British estate agents will take a leaf out of Trulia's book remains to be seen.
Whether UK estate agents go all American on us or not, one thing is for certain: online property searches and transactions continue to rise as online estate agents become increasingly preferred to - and considerably less expensive than - traditional high street estate agents.
About the Author:
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