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Let’s face it, I know very few people who if given the opportunity to run off to a tropical island would not do so. My first choice is St. John, but if I had to choose a second it would be one of the Hawaiian Islands. Well, my good fortune had the folks from Hawaii Life Real Estate purchased a ReviewMe! review of their site.

The Hawaii Life site has the clean crisp flavor of the islands as you can see from the image above. You can appreciate the effort to keep the site easy to use all the while providing information right at your fingertips. So often with real estate search engines or listing tools there is way too much information being put on the front page. Hawaii Life has found a refreshing balance in their visual approach.

Hawaii Life offers 3 main services for visitors to their site; a property search engine, a pitch to use them as your Hawaiian buyers agent, and The Learning Center which is new and looks to provide buyers education resources in the future.

The property search engine is where we will focus the review as it is a great product. The ability to click on the map or scroll down and see the newest listings provide an easy to understand interface for buyers. Since I do not think that the technically astute 20 somethings are the target market, I think the emphasis on ease of use is a great move. Presently the islands of Kauai and the Big Island are searchable, but the additions of Oahu and Maui are coming soon.

The individual property listings are well done with access to an easy to use (see the trend) photo interface and detailed listing information make the potential buyers comfortable with the process. The integration of Google maps with photo’s of the homes is also a great touch for prospective buyers. Instead of guessing where a home may be, they have it mapped out for you.

The ability to search the information without adding your personal information is also a nice touch. However if you find yourself nearing a buying decision or have found the dream property, you can create a user account and save the homes that intrigue you.

Hawaii Life also donates a portion of their commissions to local charities. It is nice to see that they offer to help others and it is a comforting pitch to show the character of the organization.

For all of the real estate agents out there who have added a search function to their site, take a long look at what Hawaii Life has done with their search engine. It is a logical and aesthetically pleasing layout that gets the right information to buyers in a very compelling way. You could very easily use this as  a blueprint for your sites to generate new leads. They have done an outstanding job.

Again, this has been a paid review provided in conjunction with ReviewMe. We turn down many more reviews than we actually accept and try to provide reviews of products and sites that will benefit the general real estate community. If you are interested in having your site reviewed, please click on this link.

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