How to Develop an Auction Platform for Real Estate Business

We live in the world of digital businesses where almost everyone relies on mobile apps for everything. Be it online shopping, grocery purchases, flight ticket booking, or even home search, we depend on apps. The real estate industry is progressing every year with a tremendous rise of digital solutions and apps aligned with the best features that help in solving users' problems. Online Real Estate auction is gaining huge attention as it provides ease not just to the home sellers but also to the buyers who look for new homes at a good price.

Property Types That Can Be Listed On Auction Platforms

Beneficial for investors and homebuyers, a Real Estate Online Auction Solution helps them find different types of properties such as short-sale properties, foreclosed properties, bank-owned properties, etc., and bid on the desired property online. Before we move on to the features section, let's find out the types of properties that can be listed on an auction platform -

• Foreclosed Foreclosure sales of properties are the ones that are forced by a lender who wants to recover the loan balance on their own. It involves a lender seizing the property to find alternatives for both the lender and borrower such as paying off the outstanding debt or selling property before it goes to foreclosure to avoid any negative consequences.
• Short-Sale Mostly initiated by homeowners/distressed owners, short-sale property sale attempts to sell homes for less than the outstanding mortgage on them and pay their debt to a lender. It benefits both the lender and borrower as it enables lenders to avoid repossessing property in foreclosure and the borrower to avoid harm to credit/bankruptcy.
• Retail These types of properties are for shopping stores, service businesses, etc. mostly popular among business owners, investors that wish to expand their portfolio, or startup owners in commercial real estate who wish to acquire a portfolio.
• Bank-Owned These are the properties taken into a bank's ownership after a failed foreclosure sale and are usually available on the bank's websites. They are made accessible from a real estate auction website as well and sold at lower/discounted rates, making properties good deals for many property investors.
• Investor-Owned Though many homes sold using online auction platforms are distressed sales, not all of them fall in this category. Flipped properties/investor-owned properties are the ones that are owned by investors which are fixed and upgraded before selling them. Such properties are quite popular among first-time home buyers.

Top Features That Will Make Your Auction Platform a Success

The main motive of a good real estate auction platform is to enable buyers & sellers to interact effortlessly for a great bidding experience, which in turn helps in closing deals faster. Here are the best features that you must keep in mind while building a real estate auction platform for your business.

• Easy Registration One of the most important aspects while designing an auction platform is to have an easy registration process where users can create personal accounts using basic information like name, address, phone number, address, etc. Once registered, they can conduct online auctions with ease. Investors need to add the company name, license number, etc. while home buyers need to add bank details for the closing deal &making payment.
• List Properties Home sellers must list properties on your real estate auction platform where they can add/modify property information anytime they like. Additionally, they must also have the freedom to choose the duration for receiving bids, reoffering the property, etc.
• Detailed Information While adding property listings on the auction platform, users must be able to add information such as photos, videos, 3D tours, interactive maps, auction timer, etc. Adding such information will not help buyers to make a purchase decision faster but also help in gaining their attention.
• Bidder Dashboard To help you plan, manage and keep track of all bid management activities through a single place, you need a well-planned bidder dashboard in your auction platform. This is essential as it can help buyers to have quick access to shortlisted properties and offer them statistical reports & smart analytics to help them make the right purchase decision.
• Quick Bidding Setup The bidding process should be made simple and easy using your online auction platform. Your users should be able to set bidding rules, minimum bidding amount, target price, etc. Other important features are a countdown timer to help in resetting the clock before bidding is closed, automated bidding to help in bidding even without the presence of a buyer, auction calendar for timely updates on new auction events.
• Advanced Search Another important aspect is the advanced search filter that helps in targeting the right audience and increasing website traffic enabling users to find the property of their choice. Add parameters like location, property size, number of bedrooms, amenities, price, etc. to make your search filter perfect for your users.

Final Thoughts

As we know auctions are no longer for deep-pocketed business people but also common men looking for homes at best deals, it's time to boost your online presence & build a larger customer base using a reliable real estate online auction platform. However, choosing the right partner is essential to build a custom solution that matches your brand value and increases the likelihood of auction platform success. Connect with our expert developers that can guide you to build an auction website from scratch or update an existing solution with new features.