ONLINE REAL ESTATE ADVERTISING UPDATE
Despite a 36 percent increase in available inventory to advertise, real estate advertising has grown less than 4 percent since 2001. This is one category ripe for change, and it appears that the transition is underway.
Underlying Dynamics in the market point to dramatic changes in how agents, brokers and apartment operators are spending their advertising budgets.
Real estate advertising has remained virtually unchanged at $11.6 billion. Home sales have slowed down, meaning agents have more inventory to advertise but less money to spend on that marketing. Despite the hype about Internet advertising, there is plenty of room for growth: Most agents don't even have a Web site or advertise online. Online real estate advertising will grow to a $2 billion category this year and swell to $3 billion by 2010, surpassing the longtime leader, newspapers.
Real Estate Professionals Focus Marketing Dollars Online
Online real estate ad spending grew from a $4 million market in 2001 to a $1.7 billion market last year, increasing its share of total real estate ad spending from 3.5 percent to 14.7 percent in that time, according to a report produced by a research company. By 2010, online real estate ad spending is expected to grow to a $3.1 billion market, representing an estimated 32.1 percent of total real estate ad spending. In the mean time, newspaper real estate advertising is projected to decline rapidly over the next couple years.
While ad spending is on the rise, newspapers are suffering from a decrease in ad dollars. Today, 54% of people choose the Internet over the newspaper to look for a home. For that reason alone, if you are not dividing your advertising dollars with at least a nod to this reality, you are throwing good money away.
Ken Baris, President of Jordan Baris, Inc. Realtors, spoke about the Internet and how it affected his company. "We receive 10 percent of our business from the web. We are now budgeting upward of 25 percent of our advertising dollars online." The Internet is enabling a whole new behavior. It allows home buyers and sellers to begin their research months in advanced and prior to even contacting a real estate agent. If an agent is positioned correctly, they can begin to harness the power of these consumers and get in front of them months before they make a decision on whom to work with.
On the Internet, people can go back, time and again, to see if "their choice of dream house" is still available and they can probe deeper and deeper into everything they want to know about the home and the community, and who to choose as a real estate agent. No one can do that with a newspaper. The depth of information available on the Internet far exceeds what you can post in a classified ad. If agents are not positioned correctly and able to take advantage of these online consumers—a huge opportunity is being missed.
As an individual agent or brokerage, what can you do to be on the Internet and achieve success? Here are three simple strategies.
Register a consumer appealing domain name . Most broker or agent domain names contain some portion of your name. For example, www.BettySue.com (Note: the domain names used in this article are used only as examples and may or may not point to an existing website). This domain could potentially scare away potential clients who are not ready to be called by an agent. Register at least one consumer related domain name to use in your advertising efforts. For example, www.BuySanDiegoCondos.com or www.FreeRealEsateInfo.com. These domains placed in advertising are much more compelling for clients to click on or to visit. It's about them and not you.
Make your website all about the client – NOT you! Time and time again we se brokers and agents plastering "I'm #1" all over their websites. They believe that saying that they are the best means people will want to work with them. What's wrong with this? Most online visitors are looking for information to benefit themselves, not to red a full page resume about the agent. Make sure your websites message is geared toward the prospect or client. Content should read "Find out what your home is worth" or "Find your dream home at a price you can afford." Make this text link to interior pages of your website where they can perform these tasks.
Gain traffic to your website. If you're like most other Realtors, you aren't having enough success with your website because no one can find you on the Internet if they don't already know your name. Work with an expert who can make it so people looking for homes in your neighborhood come to you when they describe what they are looking for. For example, if you are trying to capture relocation business to your area, optimize your website to be found in search engines for local searches like "San Diego County Relocation."
Now you are asking yourself, how will this all pay off?
NAR confirms that 77% of home buyers begin their home search online The wealthiest Americans are the largest group of online users. The majority of homebuyers consider online detailed property information to be extremely valuable in their search for a home.
The importance of Internet presence is already greater than newspaper presence for real estate professionals, and it will continue to climb. Start now and be solidly established and you'll be happy you did. For the last incentive to start now, consider this: next year at this time, most of your competitors will be that much further ahead of you if you don't get started with an Internet Marketing strategy.