Online real estate website makes property search easier

Makaan.com helps you minimize the hassle of property deals without stepping out of the comfort of your home.

If today, you are in the market to buy or sell, or let out or lent out property, you will likely go online to do so, at least initially.

Websites have largely replaced newspapers when it comes to property classifieds. And, among them, www.makaan.com was the earliest. The website, www.makaan.com at present boasts of 1.1 million hits per month.

It is one of the websites run by people group and pretty high on innovative tools for users. Its primary focus, as with all other websites is property listing, both for buyers, as well as sellers.

The website lets you search for both resi­dential and commercial property to buy or rent. It even has listings for paying guests accommodations. It lists property in 10 major markets; some of them being Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore.

The search is fairly simple. All you need to do is enter your requirements, and the search engine will throw up a list of properties that meet your criteria. The search engine is pretty effective. If you look deeper into the details of the properties which you have selected, you will get particu­lars such as price of property (if you want to buy), expected rentals, age of property, number of floors it consists of, and so on. If the seller posts the picture of the property, this portal also allows you to see that. In case of property sale you can get the similar details listed on the website.

Apart from offering the options to locate a property, it has a host of other things that will help the prospec­tive homebuyers. Through Makaan.com Property Index (MPI) you can get an idea of the movement of average capital values at the national level and across the eight cities. Further, the MakaanIQ helps you with tips on various issues concerning real estate. These include tips for paying-guest accommodation search, guidelines to buy a home in the secondary market, future trends, and so on.

As such there is not much cost involved. An individual wanting to list his or her property on www.makaan.com gets one free basic listing. From the second basic listing onwards he has to pay Rs 450, including the taxes, for a validity of 30 days. In case of a fast response listing, one has to pay Rs 900, including taxes, for a validity of 60 days.

There are, however, few ar­eas where the site needs some improvement. First, the site needs to have an area conver­sion calculator. Second, when you search for properties to buy, there should be an option to filter a ready-to-move-in property from an under-con-struction one.