Real Estate Agents – Get Online or Get Out
By Anna Johnson on July 9th, 2008The U.S. real estate marketing may not be “hot”… but that’s all the more reason for real estate agents to not only get online, but invest more in their online presence.
In its June 2008 survey of real estate agents, real estate software company VHT found that a quarter of agents spent $250 to $500 on listing a property online, one-fifth spent $500 to $1,000, and another quarter spent $1,000 or more per listing. Nearly 20 percent said their level of spending depended on the property. The most popular sites used by agents were Realtor.com, Craigslist and Google.
VHT also found that the more experienced real estate agents were more likely to market their properties online. In an industry where real estate agents “eat what they kill” – and if they don’t “kill” they don’t survive in the business – it’s telling that the industry veterans are the ones who are investing more on the web. Could it be that the better agents (i.e. the ones staying in the game and making money) know a good thing when they see it?
Meanwhile, more and more real estate buyers are actively using the Internet to find homes. More than half of the U.S. Internet users surveyed by VHT said they had taken virtual tours of houses, apartments or neighborhoods online. Over 50 percent of users also used the Internet to research the community quality of life and to search the websites of real estate companies and agents.
Here at Kikabink, we have worked on several projects with real estate agents, investors and others in the real estate industry. One of our clients is a real estate company, based in Melbourne, Australia.
Although the market here has softened, it’s still fairly strong. Australian real estate firms generally handle both property sales and property management/rentals. In both cases, real estate marketing has evolved to the point where listing a property (for sale or rental) on one of the popular listing sites such as realestate.com.au or domain.com.au is NON-debatable… whereas advertising in the local newspaper – previously a mainstay of real estate advertising – IS debatable. In general, the only reason our client lists properties in the local newspaper – or even has “for sale” or “for lease” signs outside homes – is to attract home SELLERS, not buyers.
All our research indicates that buyers are no longer beginning the process of finding a home by personally visiting a lot of agents or driving around neighborhoods. On the contrary, their first port of call is the Internet, where they are visiting real estate and community websites to see what homes are available, and to find out about the shops, schools, hospitals, public transport and other amenities in the relevant area. Only after doing all that are they contacting agents and visiting homes. I can only imagine that, if and when the property market dampens further here in Australia, the Internet will become even more critical as a marketing tool for real estate agents.
What does this mean for Internet marketers? It means that providing Internet marketing products and services to real estate agents is a hot niche! Yes, many have been doing this for years… but think about the local agents in YOUR area. Are they using the Internet to its true potential? Heck, are they using direct response marketing to its true potential? Trust me, there’s money to be made in helping real estate agents survive – and thrive – by arming them with direct response Internet marketing strategies.
Source: eMarketer, “Real Estate Agents and Buyers Online”, July 1, 2008
