Given the ever-growing level of competition, real estate market players have no choice but to strengthen their positions through modern digital solutions. Among such solutions are powerful multi-functional web platforms like Zillow. Most often, they are special marketplaces that have recently been in high demand due to their undoubted advantages.
Resources of the sort are beneficial to all parties to the process: agents, buyers, and sellers, each of whom is increasingly using provided digital assistance. And these people can become your potential customers and bring you financial benefits. You just need to create a decent example of a real estate listing website and popularize it. But how to make a website like Zillow?
The task isn't easy, and it's better to have a look at existing examples of successful web development for real estate. How about Zillow, for example? Its achievements are truly impressive and might serve as a great source of ideas and inspiration. After all, let’s agree: one should always follow the leaders. That’s exactly what we offer you to do.
But how to create a website like Zillow? Is it even possible? We'll see!
Why is Zillow a Successful Project?
To be added to the number of the best real estate websites like Zillow, you need to know the basics. Namely, what is so special about Zillow? What is Zillow's history? What have its owners done to succeed? And so on!
Zillow is one of the most popular real estate sites today. Tens of millions of potential home buyers, sellers, tenants, and agents visit it in a daily manner. They look through the ads, select profitable mortgage offers, and perform other similar actions. The site owner is the Zillow Group, which publishes data on real estate on behalf of the world's largest brands. In addition to Zillow, the company manages platforms such as Trulia, HotPads, and StreetEasy.
The platform enables clients to put their property on the market, analyze home loans, and use an online calculator to determine the cost of the mortgage. Additionally, Zillow is about choosing the real estate professional that fits your needs (home inspectors, builders, etc.).
Unique Zillow Features
As one of the leading platforms on the real estate market, Zillow has unique features that simplify the audience’s search for the dwelling:
-
The ability to place homes for sale and set a “Make Me Move” price.
-
Find the house of interest on the map and study information about it (photos of the building, data on location, number of rooms, cost, rental rate, and other details).
-
Access to clear aerial images taken not from a satellite but from airplanes is needed to improve the outlook of external property.
-
Rental offers, including private houses, apartments, and condos.
-
3D tours due to which users get a chance to view 3D 360° photographs of the houses they are interested in buying or renting.
-
In 2018, Zillow signed a partnership with Century 21 Canada. So we may safely say Zillow entered the international arena; now, it works not only in the United States but also in Canada (and we believe this is only the beginning).
Zillow Business Model and Revenue Sources
If you’re interested in how to build a real estate marketplace like Zillow, one of the key elements, besides platform features, you should consider is the business model. For instance, Zillow has three business models that enable it to boost its revenue:
-
Premium Listings focused on real estate agents. Premier Agent is a paid service that brings the largest revenue stream to the company. Among the benefits of becoming a Zillow Premier Agent are exclusivity, wider audience reach, and greater visibility. As a result, the agent is more likely to receive a full sale commission.
-
Selling Ad-Relevant Promotions to Real Estate Management Companies. In addition, Zillow makes money by providing property management companies with a promotion platform to advertise their listings. The platform called Zillow Rental Network includes various websites: Zillow, AOL Real Estate, Trulia, MyNewPlace, Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO), Hotpads, and MSN Real Estate.
-
Sale of Advertising to Mortgage Lenders and Other Companies. Zillow sells advertising space to mortgage lenders and other businesses that are willing to interest a maximum number of Zillow consumers. These other businesses are interior designers, home organization retailers, and general contractors. Mortgage lenders pay Zillow based on cost per click (CPC) or cost per thousand impressions (CPM).
Although we discuss how to build Zillow, it is essential to attract your attention to the property management systems that can expand the functionality of your real estate website. Just read our article about the features of property management system to gain inspiration on how you can diversify your property-related business and website.
How to Create a Website Like Zillow?
When you think about how to develop a real estate website similar to Zillow, you have to take into account the technological perspective of its crafting. Tech stack, marketing research, and MVP building are some of the essential steps of the creation process. Let’s dive into discussing them.
1. Building Business Concept
Building a business concept is the first step of any software or website development as it comprises the elements that will determine its further сomposition, the ways of its monetization, and key problems it will strive to resolve.
Marketing Search
How to build a website like Zillow? First of all, you need to conduct a marketing search, which aims to determine the key problems your real estate app will solve. In Zillow’s case, the website aims to provide clients with selling and renting opportunities for multiple types of property, taking into account pricing, location, etc. Additionally, the marketing search phase includes competitor analysis to define their core features, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and market threats.
Identifying Target Audience and Segmentation
Identifying the target audience is about selecting the primary client base, like citizens, business organizations, etc. For instance, Zillow does not focus on commercial real estate listing. Instead, the website focuses on residential listings. Segmentation includes characteristics like demographics, income, geolocation, and behavior to ensure the target audience’s interests are satisfied.
Determining the Core Features and Functionalities
If you are interested in how to make a site like Zillow, you have to determine the tech elements the website will include. For instance, the analyzed website comprises property search, property listing, and interactive map features. The first element enables users to search for property using advanced filters. We will discuss the Zillow-like features in the block below further. The reason for choosing the core features is to optimize the user experience and include the maximized tech possibilities for the clients to find what they aim for.
Defining Business Model and Monetization Strategies
A business model is a marketing feature that can assist you in increasing monetization directly from the website. Zillow implements a combined business model, which is conveyed via monetization strategies like ads, premium listings, and mortgage services. Hence, you should keep in mind this combination of monetization strategies or include freemium and fee-for-service instead.
2. MVP
If you want to build a real estate website like Zillow, the next step you should consider is crafting an MVP. A minimally valuable product comprises basic functions of the real estate app that represent a primary tech draft of the product in the future. MVP can include the following moments:
What is an MVP model, and how can it help you reduce costs? Read our article to find out the answer!
Contact and Inquiry Form
MVP can include the concept of contact and inquiry form to check the basic functionality of this element. Contact form in MVP serves to assess the outlook and work of the form itself and may be developed per client’s request to check whether it aligns with the project needs and whether it requires alterations.
Responsive Design
The developers can craft basic mobile-friendly website layout to present and evaluate the primary level of usability. MVP enables IT professionals to analyze the layout for presenting the basic desktop for the further optimization.
Administrative Panel
MVP can integrate simple and basic dashboards for admins to check the process of listing management, such as removing or approving listings.
3. Design UI/UX
During the UX/UI design phase, the developers craft a visually appealing and functional application. The major sub-elements include information architecture, wireframe, interactive prototype, and visual design.
Information Architecture
Information Architecture reflects the logical hierarchy of content disposition within the platform. IA represents navigation flow and app screens.
Wireframe
Wireframe is about content placement and usability as it reflects screen layouts, buttons, and navigation.
Interactive Prototype
An interactive prototype is about making a clickable prototype to show how the application will respond to the user interaction.
Visual Design
Visual design reflects an aesthetic representation of the application so that it complies with the brand identity.
4. The Development Process: The Technology Stack
The next step to build a Zillow-like website is selecting appropriate tech stack elements that will ensure its smooth and correct operations.
-
Back-End
Back-end is the backbone of the website or application as it ensures data integrity, handles business logic, and executes complex operations, such as sign-in authorization, management of property listings, etc. Node.js and JavaScript environments are beneficial to create a real estate marketplace like Zillow due to its scalable architecture.
-
Front-End
Front-end focuses on making a user-friendly interface as it touches upon how users interact with the platform and what aspects ensure their seamless experience. Some of the front-end functions include the possibility of saving properties and viewing saved properties, updating and saving personal profiles, etc. React Native and React.js frameworks can be integrated to make a website like Zillow. React Native can be applied to build a cross-platform real estate application, while React.js is appropriate for the Web version, ensuring its fast functionality.
-
Infrastructure
Infrastructures like AWS benefit the real estate marketplace for its hosting. Additionally, infrastructure provides the platform with opportunities like automatic scaling to improve performance.
-
Database
Databases like MongoDB, MySQL, Redis, etc. help websites like Zillow store data, ensuring its maximized protection.
5. Create Functions That Match Zillow
The selection of the required tech stack is intertwined with the practical development process of the real-estate website like Zillow. Here, we present the core Zillow-like features you can implement in your website.
Authorization
Authorization is a must-have feature for the real estate website like Zillow. If the client aims to rent or purchase an apartment, condo, or house, they need to have an account, so that they can can select the preferred option. No login is required if the client autjorizes with Google.
Credit: Zillow. [Zillow Log In page].
Property Listings Page
Property listing page provides clients with ability to select the residential area for purchase or rent based on the location.
Credit: Zillow.
Filtering Algorithms
The next feature you should take into account is implementing different types of filters to improve user experience and ensure the maximized number of interests is covered. For instance, Zillow does not only include the location filter, but amenities, stories, and pets. These filters alleviate the overall search of the property by bringing the maximized level of convenience.
Credit: Zillow.
Property View & Related Information
The next feature you should include is the ability to view property to alleviate the client’s comprehension of the property and objects they can utilize. Zillow has a unique approach to presenting its real estate items. Below, property images include detailed information about its features like high-speed internet, costs and fees for parking, pets, and nearby locations, like schools, etc.
Credit: Zillow.
Mapping and Geolocation
This Zillow-like feature can expand the extent of your real estate website elements by enabling the clients to see the location of the potential property on the map, its disposition to the nearest schools, healthcare institutions, waterfronts, etc.
6. Testing
The next step to develop a real estate website like Zillow is to perform testing procedures to ensure its smooth functioning. The functional testing aims to check whether the website comprises all the required features, their correct work, and alignment with the initial project goals. Performance testing is important to ensure the website works under peak loads. Security testing is applied to check whether the platform can secure confidential information and prevent tech errors and cyber attacks.
7. Marketing Launch & Maintenance
Launching the website on the market is the final stage of its development. During this step, the developers collect user feedback and fix tech errors. Finally, the IT specialists create new versions of the application, adding new features to increase the client’s seamless experience.
Choose Agilie as a Reliable Partner
When you need any kind of tech service, from building a neobank to real estate website creating, you have to select a truly reliable partner. But what aspects to consider? The principal elements that define a truly reliable IT development company include years of experience, domains of expertise, clients’ reviews, and adherence to technological trends.
Agilie is an IT outsourcing organization that has worked in the fintech sector for over 14 years. With its values of passion and client-centricity, our dedicated developers craft sophisticated from scratch and optimized digital solutions to diversify the products per your unique business needs.
Agilie crafts tech-savvy platforms and websites that benefit real estate, fintech, logistics, healthcare, and other industries due to its compliance with security standards and the latest technological advancements. Our fintech software development services include mobile banking, payment solutions, and crafting blockchain systems, which are compliant with deadlines and integrate the Agile methodology of software development, enabling your integration at each development stage.
Summary
Let’s suppose you have cool ideas for real estate web development, and you're in need of qualified experts who can bring them to life. If so, we will help you!
Our article discussed how to make a real estate website like Zillow, its core features, and the tech stack required. The important note is to consider the elements that will align with your business needs and diversify your marketing strategy, as Zillow is one of the leaders in the real estate markets. We have vast experience and know how to create property-relevant websites. We're not afraid of challenges and ready to undertake even the most complex projects.
