Of all the challenges in emerging real estate markets, quality content may be the hardest. Without an MLS, brokers and agents have no protection on their listings, so they are hesitant to include specifics such as unit address in fear of their listings being stolen. There is no “one-stop shop” where a listing is created and replicated to various real estate networks. Instead, brokers regularly post (and re-post) the same listing on classified sites.

To make matters worse, many brokers and agents aren’t educated in online conversions and best practices. It’s not uncommon to see listings without photos, metadata or descriptions aside from “Call Kevin for more Info”.

This all creates an ecosystem of weak and repeated information, which makes it difficult for homebuyers to search and compare. It’s no wonder most people ask an agent to do the hard work for them.

Online Classifieds: Not a lot of choice

For the past year we’ve tried to make ZipMatch stand out by only approving listings with correct metadata and decent photography. This approach seemed simple enough, but after a few months we found we were rejecting over 50% of listing submissions… we decided there had to be a better way.

Inspired by Paul Graham’s advice to do things that’s don’t scale we set out to collect content for real estate projects in the same way that AirBnb does with its units. Metro Manila (and the Philippines as a whole) is in the midst of a real estate boom, which means Condo’s, Townhouses and subdivisions are springing up everywhere. Why not provide as much content about the building, or subdivision as possible and let the brokers fill in the listings underneath?

Last week we launched our first iteration of this strategy for our hometown of Taguig City, and so far the feedback has been great. Taguig is densely packed with condominiums, and for each we’ve provided a review from property scout visit. 360 photography and tours, data on amenities and nearby attractions and all sorts of other relevant information homebuyers seek.

Example Project Page

Listings are still available of course, but they are embedded on the page of the real estate project. We still encourage the best quality photos and descriptions possible for listings, but our aim is let the brokers do the closing, and let us handle the content.

Example Project Review

Our most exciting part of the new pages is the ability for homebuyers and brokers to rate the projects themselves. This is something fairly unique to real estate. If you buy a phone or book, you can usually form a general opinion after a few hours. We think real estate (and condominiums especially) are unique in that it takes months (or years) to really form a sound opinion. How’s the area around the unit? Was the building built to spec, or was it a rush project? (a common problem developing countries). If there are property management staff, are they courteous and helpful? We’re excited to bring this sort of data to the market here in the Philippines and beyond.

There are a ton of gaps in the real estate supply chain in developing markets. Creating a better search and comparison is by no-means a full solution, but it’s the first step forward in making real estate easier and more accessible to everybody in the country.

We’d love the feedback of the geekestate community about our strategy. Drop us questions or comments below.

Photo Credits: ZipMatch.com – Property24.com.ph