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Relola, an online platform that brings homebuyers and real estate agents together in a public forum, has totally redesigned its website.
The new site makes access to the platform’s features a priority, loading much of them on the front page.
The prominent banner image sports a home search function for buyers while the subservient tab provides a “Find A Pro” search, lending more attention to Relola’s vendor database, or Reloladex.
The company has stuck with its inviting brand scheme, clearly a reflection of what it wants to inspire in the industry: Generosity, Trust, Community and Transparency.
The company has stuck with its inviting brand scheme.
Agents will like the homepage carousel of live insights about property they’ve previewed. Clicking one takes users to that agent’s archive of insights, as well as their bio and any client testimonials.
These insights can also be shared instantly to Facebook. It will display on the agent’s page with an image of the property. Nice touch.
There is also a live stream of buyer questions and comments, helping visitors to feel like their part of the site and encouraging new visitors to engage.
The new design gives buyers a clearer path to uncover what listings agents are talking about. In that idea I find the site’s biggest change to be conceptual.
Whereas the previous site led buyers and agents down separate content paths, the new one does a much better job of merging their content needs. The result is a significantly improved representation of the company’s intent.
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I would encourage agents writing profiles to break them up and remember that brevity is the soul of wit. I came across a couple of career bios that presented as heavy walls of text.
The new site incorporates a Featured Agent, Home and Professional section and more importantly, site visitors are geotagged and presented with a scroll of available listings in their market. It’s a fast and smart way to get them interested in little time.
The responsive site fits snugly on my iPad mini. There was a minor glitch with the live insights on Safari for iOS 9.2.1 when viewed vertically on my iPhone 5s.
Relola faces a unique challenge when addressing its website because the website is the company. Its featured content, forum tools, navigation hierarchy, page load speed and collective functionality are entrenched in the business plan.
I think the challenge was met, especially from the consumer perspective.
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