The California Association Of Realtors recently released their 2007 Home Buyer survey. The survey is based on Buyers during the second half of 2006. Overall this report has a wealth of information and many, many AR posts could be written about the various pieces of information this report delivers. Any agent working to put together a media strategy should read this report to help them make strategic marketing decisions.
Today I wanted to touch on one interesting piece of information that jumped out at me regarding where Realtors are spending their ad dollars.
The report found that 72% of Buyers used the Internet as an important part of their home buying and selection process. This compares with 2.5% that said they looked at a real estate magazine during their search, 4% who said they used a newspaper ads, and 7.6% that said they viewed newspaper Open Houses.
Borrell Associateshas said that approximately $5 billion dollars will be spent this year on advertising in the real estate category. They also estimate that of this amount, approximately 14% of these advertising dollars is spent on online advertising.
There is huge gap between where consumers are going to find real estate information and where Realtors are actually spending ad dollars.
I know that many Internet sites allow you to advertise your listings for free, so the gap in the amount of exposure online may not be as big as the advertising dollars show, but nonetheless, the gap is very big.
Knowing this, it seems the current trend in shifting ad dollars online is inevitable, but it surprises me how slow this shift is occurring.
The CAR report goes on to examine where these consumers are spending a bulk of their time online. Again, good information to know when building a media strategy.
- 35% of Buyers visited Google first when starting their search for a home. This means Realtors that show up in Google search results have a big advantage.
- When asked "what was the most useful website visited during the home buying process?" Buyers said:
- Individual Realtor web site (31%)
- Realtor.com (20%)
- Real Estate Brokerage/Company site (12%)
- Zillow.com (12%)
- Yahoo Real Estate (5%)
Hopefully knowing this information will help you put together an efficient marketing strategy moving forward.
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I'm very surprised tht individual websites was the highest percentage. Everyone assumes that buyers seek MLS portals from sources like AOL or Realtor.com. Any thoughts what the reason for this may be?
Greg Zaccagni @ www.MortgageAdvisor.info
Here is another interesting related statistic, however I don't know the source, so I will link to the full article: http://internet.seekingalpha.com/article/39565
"The yet untapped opportunity in online advertising lies in the fact that 61% of the real estate agents do not advertise on the Internet and 87% of the agents do not buy keywords on Yaho0 (YHOO) or Google (GOOG) or MSN (MSFT)."
Sarah, I blog, post to about 20 different sites and list with loopnet, craigslist, backpage, Google Base, and yes Zillow. My traffic is higher than it was when I was using adwords and my advertising costs are very low! It's all about keywords, and most Realtors just seem to not get it. My traffic is through the roof for the niche that I have created. It has been a lot of work and I continue to work at it.
If you have a small Internet presence you will have to pay for clicks but if you build your links, blogs, and content the traffic will come. Advertising is free at many sites and it pays off if you spend the time at it. But you cannot let it get stale. You must update it frequently.
Ben , Turn-Key Properties LLC
Kansas City Investment Property
This stresses the importance of a website. The realtor is still neccessary. The buyers do their research and they still need a realtor.
It is important to know the tools that technology presents today. Think about business that went door to door. Encylopedia brittanica anyone?
Sara,
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! We wouldn't want our off-line competitors to switch from their newspaper advertising to compete with us online. :-)