Mike Andrew’s Real Estate Tips & Technology

Hi all, as i mentioned yesterday, I’ve been in the US on holidays but still spent a fair amount of time researching the market for my presentations to real estate agents. The one thing that has stuck in my mind about the US real estate market is how aggressive the industry is in marketing itself. I know agents in Australia who are cutting back their advertising, particularly On Line, whilst in the US, it appears that most realtors have taken the opposite strategy and are actively marketing on TV and On Line with very little, if any print. A lot of the TV advertising from the major groups such as RE/Max and Coldwell Banker is promoting their Internet sites, fuel prices play a part here I would think, and I noticed a lot of on line auction sites also being promoted. This is so you can monitor or even bid on a property without actually being there. Also being promoted quite heavily were video tours and multiple photos on all listings.

I’m leadingup to the release of the C.A.R 2008 Survey of Home Buyers which was released last month and I’ll be including those stats in my presentations which I’ll talk about in a later post, however, just looking at some of the more interesting results and how you as an agent or office can make sure that you’re taking advantage of the way the market is changing. So lets look at some of the major points:

1. 78 percent of buyers used the Internet “as an important part of (their) home buying and selection process,” compared to 72 percent in 2007.

2. Buyers who stated that the Internet was an important part of the buying process spent an average 8.3 weeks searching for a home with their agent, up from 5.2 weeks in 2007 and 2.2 weeks in 2006 — reflecting the slowing sales environment of the past two years.

3. 31%  of the Internet group in the survey expected an instant response from their agent, up from 22 percent in 2007. And 96 percent of Internet buyers expected a response within four hours or less, according to the latest survey. That compares to 94 percent in the 2007 survey. 84% of participants said they considered the agent’s response time to be either a “very important” or “extremely important” factor in their decision-making process.

4. 71% of Internet buyers in the survey said they would use the same agent again, down from 92 percent in 2007.

Among the “traditional” buyers, 27 percent reported they would use the same agent again, down from 47 percent in 2007 and 79 percent in 2005.

5. 90% of buyers in the Internet group found their real estate agent using the Internet, while 9%  found their agent through a for-sale sign and 1% through an agent’s marketing materials.

6. Multiple pictures,Video and slide shows were named by survey participants as “extremely important” Web site features by buyers (61 percent), followed by maps and directions, agent contact options, virtual tours and neighborhood profiles.

So now that we can see where the trends are, it is time to look at what you are doing in your marketing or agency operation to ensure your agency is performing well in the key findings. One area that I believe most agencies do not perform well in, is using tools such as social networking, blogging, video,podcasting etc to communicate with the on line market. 90% of on line users found their agent whilst using the internet, with only 1% actually being influenced by farming or marketing materials and 9% via for sale signs. Am i suggesting that these don’t work? No not at all, but I believe an agent needs to be aware of what is changing in the buyer market and then formulate an aggressive on line strategy for the office that will at least get you ready to communicate with these customers as the market changes.

I’m about to undertake a series of power breakfasts for domain.com.au in Qld and I’ll give you the dates shortly, in these presentations I’ll be talking about how to set up your 2 year on line strategy and how you can use the on line tools to get maximum benefit for you or office and the results that can be obtained by using these tools effectively in the market. These are not about selling you more product, there about setting you and your agency up to take maximum advantage of the on line space.

As always please let me know if you find these posts interesting or helpful.