Your house is already on the market

via economist blog via trendwatching:

“Finnish real estate site Igglo lets potential buyers ‘pre-order’ houses that aren’t on the market. Igglo has photographed every building in Helsinki and several other Finnish cities, and combines these photographs with satellite images and maps. Every property is listed, not just those that are currently on the market. (Their tagline is: “Your house is already on Igglo.”)

“On the side of intentions and consumer sellers, there’s US based Zillow, which lets home owners take the initiative, by allowing them to set a “Make Me Move” price without actually putting their house on the market. Once owners set a price (“that magical number you just can’t refuse”), potential buyers can contact them anonymously via email. It’s then up to the owner to decide whether they really want to sell.

Combine the two, the economist blog says, and you’ll have a great business model.

It certainly is a great end game for property sites. Consider that property sites have a huge volume of turnover, and so will collect photos and descriptions of an increasing percentage of houses. Combine this with drive-by photos and fly-by photos and the endgame is in sight.

People wanting to sell their house could just (pay to) flick a switch and turn on the ‘for sale’ sign on the property site.

People that have a “make me move” price could pay a lot less, or pay only when they receive a serious offer. Opting out would need to be either a free option or, given privacy concerns, the default.

Scoopit!