Searching for a property, on your phone

It turns out that mobile devices are also changing the way that buyers search for their dream homes. Traditionally, buyers scoured the weekend property segments in newspapers trying to find their ideal home, or they visited the offices of various real estate agencies in the area. Both of these options necessitated a measure of effort and expense.

Mobile property search site

In April this year Leapfrog Property Group the raised the stakes with the creation of a mobile property search site. Developed by Cape Town-based SEO company, Synergize, the site is in line with Leapfrog's no-nonsense approach and it seems the public prefers it too; the site has had over 6000 visits since May and over 15 000 pages have been indexed. If you look at the numbers, creating a proper mobile search site was the next logical step; there are millions of buyers we can reach through this medium.

The site works for a number of reasons: Firstly, it's obviously convenient in that buyers needn't even leave their beds; and secondly, the problem with searching online is that websites designed for desktops don't display well on cellphones and navigation tends to be cumbersome. The Leapfrog mobile site was created to display on Blackberry, Android and iPhones without distortion and with images that were optimised for speed and appearance.

No typing

Every property on the website can be accessed without having to type in anything; the "bread crumb" hierarchy simplifies navigation with each search based on a province - city - suburb selection. It was important to us that the site is really easy to navigate; you don't need to click more than three times to find the properties you're interested in. Buying a property is a big decision that we'd like to make a straightforward for as possible for buyers.

Once a buyer sees a property he is interested in it is important to give him access to information about it quickly and conveniently. With the mobile website he can gain the information immediately even if he's just driven past a house that will be on show the next day - increasing the chances that he will come to view the house.

It seems that both Leapfrog and Synergize have succeeded in that goal; according to stats from Syngerize 50 percent of local mobile searches lead to a sale.