Review Criteria : Site Issues

The presentation can have a significant effect on the effectiveness of adverts placed on it. A professional appearing site can immediately instill confidence in buyers and grab their attention for long enough for them to start searching for properties that they may be interested in.

Conversely, a poorly presented site can immediately put off potential buyers and send them looking elsewhere without even seeing your property details.

Site presentation is far more subjective a factor than the others that we are using. As such we encourage you to visit the sites and judge this for yourself.

Criteria for GOOD rating
Professional appearance and design.

Criteria for AVERAGE rating
Adequate appearance and design does not look like it was designed by a 12 year old.

Criteria for POOR rating
Fundamental problems (e.g. broken links / images, doesn't work for common systems etc) or failing to meet above criteria.

Sites with larger portfolios attract more buyers and are more likely to see them return on a regular basis.

Many sites try to exaggerate their portfolios by keeping old, sold properties online - which actually reduces the chances of getting enquiries from buyers.

Some sites either deliberately or accidentally mask the total number of live properties that they have available. In these cases such sites may not be rated for this criteria.

Criteria for GOOD rating
500+ Properties. None, or few (10% or under) marked as sold.

Criteria for AVERAGE rating
200+ live properties and no more than 20% of main listings included properties marked as sold.

Criteria for POOR rating
Less than 200 live properties or large proportion of sold properties in main listings. (50% plus).

Some people prefer to search by postcode, some by town and some by county. More search options on a site means more ease or use for the customer and more enquiries for you.

We looked at how many of the three geographic search options each site offered.

Criteria for GOOD rating
All three geographic searches possible.

Criteria for AVERAGE rating
Two geographic searches possible.

Criteria for POOR rating
One or no geographic searches possible.

If potential buyers are looking on a site for a property like yours you want to be sure they will find it.

We looked at how many clicks and form entries are required to find a property on each site. More clicks and forms means less chance that a buyer will bother.

Where more than one search option is available we used the method that is given greatest emphasis on the site's won homepage.

Criteria for GOOD rating
Property found within 3 clicks / form inputs.

Criteria for AVERAGE rating
Property found within 5 clicks / form inputs

Criteria for POOR rating
Property not found in 5 clicks / form inputs.

Not all potential buyers want to make contact online and not all sellers want their phone number published on the world wide web for all to see. If you don't want to publicise your own phone number and a site can't deal with telephone enquiries then you will receive less enquiries, so we looked at how each site deals with buyer enquiries by telephone.



Criteria for GOOD rating
Freephone or standard rate number for telephone enquiries.

Criteria for AVERAGE rating
Premium rate number for telephone enquiries.

Criteria for POOR rating
No facility offered for handling telephone enquiries.

The easiest method for potential buyers to contact you is usually via the online systems provided by each property selling site. It is therefore vital that these work well and do not put any obstables in the way of potential buyers and reduce the number of enquiries you may receive.

Criteria for GOOD rating
Simple, clearly marked system for making online contact. Does not rely on pop-ups that may be blocked by potential buyers.

Criteria for AVERAGE rating
Functional and uncomplicated system.

Criteria for POOR rating
System that presents barriers to potential buyers and is likely to reduce number of enquiries received or exposes seller's email address in plain text form.