There are tons of review sites for consumer services, so why not one dedicated to real estate services?
PersquareFeet lets you rate/review/share experiences on builders, brokers, architects, and everything else related to home and commercial space.
The site charges businesses (real estate etc) to add their business detail (freemium model), while consumers can register for free and rate/review the services (the site has QnA features as well).
The challenge for portal is ofcourse to get traction – as rating/reviewing of these services is not a utilitarian thing to do (only few % of buyers are in a position to review these services) and frankly, there is no incentive for them to do so (buying house is a one-time phenomena for mass users)
Here is what PerSquareFeet should do (our opinion) – start collating the real estate (and related) content (deals/data) – so that users start visiting the site with a purpose – and in the process, engagement hooks keep them pluggd.
There has to be an intent for a user to visit a site – and pure rating/review doesn’t help in achieving this.
Do give PerSquareFeet a spin and share your comments.
I am willing to participate in this venture as a cofounder .As I am interested in real estate sector.
Hi Ashish,
Many thanks for covering us on your blog. I would like to discuss your opinion about colating the real estate data for which I’ll send you a separate email. Thanks once again.
Just found a similar (but better?) site http://www.indianpropertyreview.com/ It claims to have been started by ISB – IIM alums but doesnt provide any names. The thing i liked about them is the way properties are presented, All India coverage and news section. Probably thats the reason that they are getting so much of traction
The idea of collective reviews on real estate is new but promising. It can help buyers learn other’s opinion and decide accordingly. However, it would be better if there is some way of proving the credibility of these reviews.
I wish Per Square Feet and Indian Property Review all the best
Ravi