DISQUS

Roger · 2 years ago

You mention briefly social networking sites like Facebook. This is really the "sleeper" in marketing online. A lot of internet marketing types are rushing over there and creating accounts, then leaving after a couple of days because they're not making their overnight riches.

It's really a natural fit for people in real estate. RE people trained and conditioned to work with people long term - as long as it takes to buy or sell a property, right?

Take that same principle and apply to the online social networks.

Go to something like Facebook and really become part of the community. Join groups and make useful contributions. Over time you will gain a following and when people are ready to buy or sell they're not going to make a decision based on the company you work for (for the most part) but based on the "you" that you have presented to the community.

This goes past "oversaturation" and goes straight to getting their "attention" because you have become a trusted source.

sellsius · 2 years ago

That makes a lot of sense. Roger.

Question: do you personally know of anyone getting business from Facebook? It sounds like a natural place to network but is it too social -- by that I mean do people back off from those trying to do business on FB?

retrove.com · 2 years ago

Excellent points to which I agree. I think you can already see this devaluation of brand. Compare real estates top brand - REALTOR.com to Z & T by looking at an Alexa chart comparing traffic levels over 3 yrs. You can see a trend (no just the obvious slowing of the market as a whole) but Z & T market share increases it appears to take directly away from R (who also spends 20+ million in advertising w/ 1.2 mill advocates – how’s that for brand building?).

I would also say there already is no “brand loyalty” when it comes to selecting a buyers agent / RE company to find real estate. This is evidenced by CAR’s surveys, which indicate that 71% buyers selected their real estate agent based on who called back first. This is because most buyers initially call agents only to get in to see inside properties they have already identified. Again supported by NAR’s survey, which indicated that only 36% of the time did the buyer purchase a home found by the actual agent.

When it comes to sellers selecting a company to list with, I suspect there is more perceived brand “trust” not actual loyalty. Sellers often select an agent based on the referral of a friend to an individual agent not the company they are with.

Regarding… “It seems inevitable brokers and agents will be asked to upgrade to featured status,” or course this is exactly what will happen. But will it be effective in the long run?

The idea of advertising is to increasee awareness of something by making it stand out. But how much can a listing stand out when it’s on a page that is full of other listings? This solution is what I call the “yellow page syndrome” – just buy a bigger ad – instead of being more creative in your marketing. This is a “syndrome” because you see your competitor buying a bigger / featured ad so you get infected with the need to replicate vs. differentiate. Look at any of the supermarket RE books… all the ads look the same, right?

As I indicated in the referenced post, craigslist has loyal users because that’s the only place you can see those listings. Imagine what would happen if a major RE brand did the same? They automatically go onto all buyers “short list” of must visit sites. Obvisiously difficult to achieve is they are members of the MLS with the current DOJ issues.

If the brands continue as they are now doing, real estate agents will move from a profession to simply a service provider. Especially if as you say Zillow becomes that “monster” since they allow FSBO to appear next to traditional listings, which will enable consumers to have the same audience access without the traditional RE costs.

EDYN Real Estate · 2 years ago

I don't think you should try to do business on FaceBook. If I go out to the bar or to a local event, I'm not trying to do business with peopel I meet. I am trying to make a connection, hopefully that connection turns into a relationship.

Missy Caulk · 2 years ago

I have asked that same question to many people and now you are asking it. With all the syndication, vflyer, point2 agent NLS, realestate shows, they all syndicate to the same sites, so who wins?

Which site will the listing show up in Trulia from vflyer, or realestate shows.
I dropped my enhanced listing package with r do c
I never get leads from it. Now Trulia wants me to do enhanced on it.

I agree big franchises are losing their loyality for buyers, but not sure about listings. I have a search site and I can tell you the buyers could care less if I am with REMAX. But, would they want to list their home with a no name company? That is the question I am trying to decide.

Teresa Boardman · 2 years ago

This is dead on. When it comes to listings they are every where and I think that consumers, and that includes me, are doing everything we can to ignore advertising. This doesn't just apply to real estate, we are bombarded with ads. As for the big brand real estate companies, they don't sell real estate, agents do. Consumers don't get it, if they did we could disintermediate the middle man, which is the real estate company.

sellsius · 2 years ago

On the buy side, I dont think there is any question that the agent gets the buyer, not the brand. But do buyers more often walk into name brand offices? For some brokers we met on the Blog Tour, a large portion of their business came from walk-ins-- on buy/rent and list side. Maybe brand helps for the walk-ins? Hmm..

On the sell/list side, I think sellers are more likely to list with a name brand office. But that brand may not be a national franchise-- it will likely be the brand leader in the local market. That's why local branding is so important. If people see your "sold" and "for sale" signs all over the neighborhood, hear you speak at local events, read about brand sponsored events, etc.-- i.e. brand awareness is high-- they are more likely to list with your brand-- or at least put you on the short list.

Missy-- the enhancement sell is always just around the corner. In our opinion, it is evidence the websites can;t live on ads alone. That's why we fully expect Zillow to charge for upgrades at some point.
The enhancement pitch is based on the premise there is too much of the same thing out there and you need to jump in front of the line.

Katie · 2 years ago

Excellent points made in your post. You say the future looks fuzzy. I'd agree - and say it also makes me dizzy. Every day I stumble on some new fangled-angle of the web 2.0. Which one do you choose? By the time you research a product or program, a new one will be out. And as for newspapers - we are finally getting out from under their thumb. And there are many new thumbs out there waiting for our listings.

I do not know what is going to happen. The knee jerk reaction is to run fast and jump on the bandwagon or your competitor will surpass you. Hurry, hurry, hurry, driven a little bit by fear. But making wise decisions that could affect the future of your business do take some time. A little waiting on the sidelines may be in order for me, at least until some dust settles, and this decision could be driven by a little fear there too.

Late Night Austin Real Estate · 2 years ago

Personally I think the real estate market in general is getting oversaturated. Its like a year ago everyone in the universe decided that it was a good idea to open a real estate business. At some point something is going to have to break. Are these companies like Z and T making a profit yet?

Maurice · 2 years ago

As a realtor myself, I get pelted with eflyers and I hate it.
To plaster it on the email and hope that it sticks is not the right approach. It is presumptuous to say the least.
Buyers are very sopjhisticated and would rather find their proeprties in the still of the night and so they look to simple but helpful websites for the answer. Here is one for commercial deals:
www.ourcommercialspace.com
It unites commercial professionals from all over the world and they are doing deals especially pocket listings and private buyers.
Check it out.
Facebook is a social networking site that caters to an age group that just graduated from myspace. They do not represent a serious real estate consumer.

Tim White · 2 years ago

The term "exclusive right to sell" does not translate to the exclusive right to market listings. The value of marketing listings by brokers and agents to consumers, although significant, has been largely marginalized by the bigger players who can afford to fish in the exclusive waters upstream--and who in turn may charge fees for capturing those leads and selling them back to real estate practicioners whether by referral or advertising fee. For the broker and agent in the street, who have completely lost control of listings marketing game for all intents and purposes, they need to look elsewhere to differntiate themselves from the competition.

IMHO, the term "elsewhere" translates into "local." Meaning that in this brave new world of online marketing, the broker/agent must focus on demonstrating their service value to consumers at the local level. Sure, listings are bait, but, as stated above, everyone is using the same bait. Today's broker/agent must find ways to demonstrate and deliver value to online consumers, and that "value" is not in the listings so much as it is in illustrating to consumers their depth of local real estate knowledge (e.g. market trends, community amenties, sales experience, etc.)

The focus on local expertise and value must then be delivered to consumers anyway an agent can. Whether it is delivered through blogs, livestreams, social networking sites, vlogs and, yes, even print, the value proposition is the thing we, as brokers and agents, must focus on. It is the only way we can not only differentiate ourselves, but really simply to remain relevant.

Realtors must see themselves not as mere marketeers, but publishers of quality local content if they are to survive.

cellular · 2 years ago

The problem to is that a lot of these real estate companies will spend big dollars on advertising in so many different places and not track the results. Most companies are unable to tell you where the most sales or visitors come from, they're just blindly spending money.

sellsius · 2 years ago

That's true cellular. If you can't track it, how do you measure your ROI?

N. Kateus · 1 year ago

The whole Zillow concept terrifies me and I'm not even a Realtor, merely an individual who shudders at the thought of someone--anyone being able to get a guesstimate and everything that entails via the Zillow platform. Please allow an 'innocent bystander' of this debate say that as in all other competitive markets, the entity who keeps the edge is the one with the value-added stamp. Nothing beats excellent customer service, sincere attention to the individual seller or purchaser in your cases, to retain customer loyalty. Zwallow that Zillow.
n.kateus http://www.ipowerdirect.net