Opportunities are everywhere. Lessons from my experience with e-commerce and holiday real estate.

I have never thought of working on anything related to real estate. I worked on my other usual e-commerce matters when an opportunity came knocking. It literally knocked on the door. A person from a neighborhood, not IT literate, asked for help — to put a property online for rent. I wondered — why would this person just not go and use one of the real estate agencies in the area? The answer was simple — they have a lot of properties, it’s going to cost a lot, they will not dedicate enough time for us. The Eureka! moment with new-found challenge and excitement arrived. This is how me and my business partner found a specific niche — networking, building relationship with a community in our area, finding holiday homes and boats for rent. Trust is crucially important and it was obvious that we cannot network and expect to build a portfolio if we do not have anything to show. Few intense days and the beta version of a new e-commerce real estate website was ready.

If an opportunity is knocking on your door, recognize it and take action to realize it.

Simplicity is the best bet. You cannot go wrong by being simple, human, authentic and honest. Use the same qualities offline and online.

• Know your target audience. Will you need a multi-lingual support? What is your customer budget? What type of property your customer will prefer — a town apartment, a boat, a beach house, a luxurious villa on a beach with big garden? What is the generation group of your target audience?
• How are you going to take payments? Card payments, as always, are the best option. This will come in handy if you ever have a misunderstanding or a complaint.
• What CMS platform are you going to use? You can simply buy a domain and use one of pre-made or drag and drop design websites. It is a quick and cost-effective solution. However, in the century of IT & innovation, you may decide you want a unique, custom made website or a mobile app, which you can develop further on, add new innovative features anytime you wish.
• Your authenticity. What makes you different from your competitors? Is it your dedication to clients, all automated-robotic processes or the opposite — keeping it old fashioned.

So, once I had the website ready, it was time to progress into exploring, networking and finding partners for our portfolio. Are you going to do this work by yourself or are you going to outsource? If you outsource, make sure the person(s) is representing your values. Make a plan. There are many ways to build a portfolio — from finding property ads online or on a newspaper to scouting the area in real life. Online marketing, online ads may be more difficult when looking for your first partners, due to the fact, that you did not build an online reputation and trust yet. Once you have a website, few properties in your portfolio, you can run online ads and wait for new partnerships to come in.

I was not surprised to discover that future partners preferred the “old-fashioned” face to face meetings and getting to know each other. None of the partners were from the generation Z.

Drop photo filters. Staying true, simple and authentic means you don’t beautify your property / area pictures.

When traveling and staying at different holiday properties I noticed that sometimes pictures differ from what is offered, descriptions do not match the reality. On a beach, means on a beach; not a 10 minute drive. Work with the principle “what you see is exactly what you get” and I am sure you will receive an honest appreciation from your customers.