A prospective client searches for a house online. People can now search for commercial property and rental houses or apartments online. Photo by Faiswal Kasirye
In Summary
Technology has disrupted various industries with real estate being one of them. Jonathan Adengo writes about how house hunting is moving to the online space.
Technology has simplified the way we live our lives today. There are a number of advertising avenues and social media is one such important marketing tool you can use to search for a house.
Many house brokers have used online platforms and networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube to look for clients.
As a trend today, real estate dealers, fumigators and florists have taken to famous social media networks to market their goods and services.
Lamudi
The real estate boom in the country has of late attracted different service providers. Some have embraced the technology, especially social media, to engage different stakeholders on what they feel about the real estate industry in Uganda.
Online market places such as Lamudi , a global property portal that focuses on emerging markets, launched a campaign dubbed the Lamudi Challenge centred on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Lamudi is an online real estate classified website focusing exclusively on the emerging markets.
The website offers sellers, buyers, landlords and renters an easy-to-use platform to find or list properties online. Founded in 2013, you can post your house and also search for any property for rent, sale and look out for apartments.
Lamudi also has a phone-based mobile app that allows you to get listings.
Social media
While Twitter and Facebook offer good opportunities for interaction and promotion, your online marketing strategy should not rely solely on these two accounts.
A website can play an important role here.You can post available listings on your website and post a link on Facebook or Twitter account that leads to your site.
Dan Mudeeka, a real estate dealer and also managing director of Simplelink properties, a real estate website explains how he uses social media to get buyers.
“I post houses for sale and rent plus land for sale on popular Facebook groups such as Liquidation and Kings Salesman. This has worked for me because I have got serious buyers out of this.”
He says he has a website called simplelinkproperties.com where he posts listings.
“I mainly aim at Ugandans abroad who may not trust their relatives by sending them money to build. So our website has fully furnished houses for sale, houses for rent and also land.”
When someone is abroad, they can log onto our website and look at the houses that are on sale.
After the website visitor has picked interest in a particular house and has filled the form, we receive a notification on our email.
“As a broker, I communicate to the owner of the house and we go into negations with the buyer,” Mudeeka explains.
He adds: “After sending our company registration details and convincing the buyer that we are indeed legitimate, they then send part of the payment so that we don’t sell the house to some other person.”
OLX
OLX is synonymous with online classifieds in most of the emerging markets across the globe.
The platform operates as a national online classifieds marketplace for houses, used goods such as furniture, musical instruments, sporting goods, cars, youngster and baby items, motorcycles, cameras, mobile phones, property and much more.
OLX has a website, the local Ugandan-specific site being www.olx.co.ug and native mobile Apps.
The company OLX has a presence in over 106 countries across the globe.
Precautions for searching for a house online
False claims. In the online space, free listings are more likely than others to make false claims. Agents often use wrong photos, false specifications and low prices to draw attention and generate leads. When people contact the agent, they are told that the listed property is not available and they can choose from other properties.
Consult others. Ask for references from other people who you know that have already done business with anyone you are thinking of buying from or selling to. This can help you get a general idea of the character of the person before you commit to any deal with them.
Check through the Feedback forum. Make sure you check through the feedback forum to see if there have been any posts made about the person. Always make sure the information they give you tallies before you proceed with a transaction.
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