As someone who (1) runs a SaaS product for UK letting agents and (2) has hunted for a rented property in the last 12 months I think you've done a nice job but as some others have pointed out I can't see why someone who is looking for a property (rent or for sale) would use this over RM/Zoopla.
These aren't necessarily all applicable/useful to you but some observations/niggles I've had, taking in to account my first two points above, are:
- RM charges extortionate fees (I'm not sure about Zoopla) to agents. They're not happy about it, but feel they have no alternative (there's a reason for that - chicken and egg). This is from numerous comments made by my customers.
- By relying on an API from a major property portal I would be worried - How will you have better data than them? If your USP is UX/ease of use then do you think they would let you get that far before they change their T&C's?
- Because RM/Zoopla are expensive there are still a huge amount of properties not advertised on these portals. From my own experience, I wanted to go with a private landlord rather than an agent… I had to personally visit a huge number of properties that didn't fit my requirements (there was no way to tell in advance because they only advertised on classified sites/local paper) - there's an opportunity here - make it is for private landlords to easily list their properties AND make sure those listings are of good quality (interior photos not just exterior, etc)
- Talking of quality ... Ensure all of your listings are accurate, plenty of photos, floor plans, council tax band, etc. Just forget about low quality listings.
- OR, opposite of that, concentrate on properties that aren't adequately advertised elsewhere… does RM/Zoopla have a property with one low quality photo and a one sentence description? Go out of your way to get that extra information and focus on promoting those properties. When everyone else is looking at RM/Zoopla/etc and seeing the same properties you'll have a different inventory set to the rest with more detail.
- DONT be like everyone else and focus on the entire housing market in the UK (a few other commenters have said the same). Focus on rented, or for sale, or quality listings, unique listings… focus on something you can do better than the rest.
- There have been many competitors to RM/Zoopla. Most of them fail because, in my opinion, they can't solve the chicken and egg problem (either no visitors or poor quality property data) and end up launching an RM/Zoopla clone with a different UI.
None of this is to say it can't be done or you're doing it the wrong way… it can be and I'd love to see someone succeed, but it won't be done just on UI/UX.
These aren't necessarily all applicable/useful to you but some observations/niggles I've had, taking in to account my first two points above, are:
- RM charges extortionate fees (I'm not sure about Zoopla) to agents. They're not happy about it, but feel they have no alternative (there's a reason for that - chicken and egg). This is from numerous comments made by my customers.
- By relying on an API from a major property portal I would be worried - How will you have better data than them? If your USP is UX/ease of use then do you think they would let you get that far before they change their T&C's?
- Because RM/Zoopla are expensive there are still a huge amount of properties not advertised on these portals. From my own experience, I wanted to go with a private landlord rather than an agent… I had to personally visit a huge number of properties that didn't fit my requirements (there was no way to tell in advance because they only advertised on classified sites/local paper) - there's an opportunity here - make it is for private landlords to easily list their properties AND make sure those listings are of good quality (interior photos not just exterior, etc)
- Talking of quality ... Ensure all of your listings are accurate, plenty of photos, floor plans, council tax band, etc. Just forget about low quality listings.
- OR, opposite of that, concentrate on properties that aren't adequately advertised elsewhere… does RM/Zoopla have a property with one low quality photo and a one sentence description? Go out of your way to get that extra information and focus on promoting those properties. When everyone else is looking at RM/Zoopla/etc and seeing the same properties you'll have a different inventory set to the rest with more detail.
- DONT be like everyone else and focus on the entire housing market in the UK (a few other commenters have said the same). Focus on rented, or for sale, or quality listings, unique listings… focus on something you can do better than the rest.
- There have been many competitors to RM/Zoopla. Most of them fail because, in my opinion, they can't solve the chicken and egg problem (either no visitors or poor quality property data) and end up launching an RM/Zoopla clone with a different UI.
None of this is to say it can't be done or you're doing it the wrong way… it can be and I'd love to see someone succeed, but it won't be done just on UI/UX.