Huff Realty - Home Finder

Challenge
Huff Realty wanted to provide a service that would enhance their customer's home buying experience. Huff wanted a system their clients could use to save and organize the homes they found while searching the listings on the Huff Realty web site. They also wanted a system that could notify their customers when similar houses came on the market. This was a pioneering concept at a time Huff requested it.

Strategy
Build a shopping cart style web application that had much of the same functionality of a standard e-commerce shopping cart without the retail overhead. Enable Huff clients to save searches with different criteria and receive e-mail notices when changes occurred to the results of those searches. Provide secure access on multiple levels to accommodate administrative functions. Solicit customer and client feedback throughout the development process to tailor the design to meet the specific needs of the industry.

Tactics
Developed a database structure, search engine, reporting function and custom web interface to accommodate the requirements. Integrated system with data downloads from local multiple listing system to provide current, daily updates. Provided multiple save/search function capabilities for individual clients. Incorporated search system with e-mail function to notify Huff clients of any new listings or changes to the results of their saved searches. Created administrative intranet to easily maintain this new system for clients and agents.

Result
The custom web based solution provided the greatest efficiencies for cost and usage. Huff Realty received very positive feedback from their customers. Agent web sites with this feature showed a significant increase in activity, particularly in the number of return hits, indicating that customers returned frequently to their web sites. This repeated exposure helped reinforce Huff Realty's branding as well as provide numerous additional opportunities for agent/client interaction and increased sales opportunities.