The challenge for a property owner looking to sell in what continues to be a very tough market, is as ever the task of making their individual home shout out “Look at me! Look at me!“, as the cautious buyers out there scan the listings of this an other websites.
To get that compelling wow-factor that makes sure your property is seen by the best and largest audience is all about content and presentation. This is a subject that has been covered before on this blog – specifically “one relevant property picture is worth a thousand words“, “Thinking of putting your house on the market, don’t be afraid of being a tall poppy” and “Need assistance promoting your property for sale?“. What is interesting is the evidence of how critical it is to get the basics right.
From the US – one of the most actively used and popular real estate websites (Zillow) comes the amassed capability of their analytical team to share this information :
Listings with at least one photo were likely to be viewed 41% more times than listings with no photos
Even more dramatic, providing a full address increases your listing’s traffic by 271%
This data was crunched from Zillow’s 3 million listings over a 7 day period. It is also no surprise that these facts align directly with the research undertaken in NZ by Nielsen Online earlier this year that asked online respondents what were the most important elements required of listings on a real estate website.
There were 12 “wants” that scored over 70% in terms of useful or very useful. Of this dozen 3 scored over 95% !!
Accurate price range of properties for sale – 96%
large selection of images – 96%
Address of properties for sale – 96%
It stands to reason in this Google empowered world were consumers exoect to be able to undertake research on anything anytime of the day or night, real estate should be no different – so if you are a home owner looking to sell – ask your agent why aren’t you showcasing my property to make it shout “look at me ! – look at me !“
Have you read this?
http://www.interest.co.nz/ratesblog/index.php/2008/10/03/opinion-how-a-catastrophic-collapse-scenario-might-play-out/
Considering real estate seems to be on the brink of a major correction, and your banner reads,
Topical, informative and relevant comments and stories related to the real estate industry that hopefully will inform and provoke debate and comment.
What is your opinion on this Alistair? and on the recent discussion from Bernard Hickey and Dr. Morgon seen in the media?
It wasn’t really necessary to crunch the data. Just ask buyers what they look for in a real estate ad. The answer is the same: Price, Position, Picture. I can’t be bothered phoning agents (who are never in their office anyway)if they make the location and price such a big secret. I’m too busy looking at other agents’ ads which allow me to immediately decide whether the property is a possibility or not.
Andrew,
I read this today (I took a day off from reading blogs on Saturday)and have spent a fair amount of time reading other commentary from the UK especially. I have to say I think it is a salutatory piece of reporting as Bernard says he is naturally an optimist, but when it comes to this he is a little bit nervous I think.
Bev,
Whilst I appreciate that the data is self evident – the objectivity of having the information presented through authoritative channels hopefully adds weight to the importance of all agents acting in the best interests of their clients to present this information.
I apologise for using this blog to attempt to demonstrate to a section of the real estate industry what I think most buyers (and by default – sellers) know. However your comment and those of other who read this (and comment or not) will only go some way to help everyone – the industry to present more comprehensive, pertinent information, the sellers, whose property gets presented in the most effective manner and lastly this and other websites that grow in relevance with richer, more relevant information.
No one seems to be asking the question “why don’t Real Estate companies show addresses?” The answer in our office, and serious thought has been given to showing addresses, is that in this market, the serious enquirer will ring to find out the address on a property. This call is our first opportunity, and may be our only opportunity to touch base with this buyer, tell them not only what they want to know but ask questions and tell them more. Our vendors also give more weight to numbers of phone enquiries than they do to number of hits on the internet sites – especially when they have been checking out their property on line every other day and adding to the number of hits!
Tania,
This is exactly what I was hoping for – the value of the blog is a respectful interchange of views and opinions.
As to your point, clearly you have a professional service to offer your client – that being the seller of the property and as such is your primary focus. You need to be able to show success (or at least feedback) – I guess what I am sharing here is a perspective that the measure of success in terms of tracking before the final sale is changing and the weighting of telephone calls as compared to website viewings and email enquiries is changing and this may be an education you need to share with sellers so that you manage their expectations of you.
As a prospective buyer – the fact that I don’t (I am of course speaking hypothetically) telephone you is not that I am disinterested – it is just that I am not yet ready or have no need to talk to you – when I am ready (when I have completed my research of the market) then I will contact you and potentially be further down the track to be able to negotiate a purchase.
As ever interested in your feedback.
Open2View send me a wonderfully comprehensive email every monday morning with the past week’s activities on the properties I have available to view on their site. It shows not only the number of viewers but where in the world they are viewing from and what criteria they were searching when they viewed (ie price band, location, no of brms etc).
I know this is probably available from realestate.co as well but I don’t have time to go looking for it on a weekly basis for each listing. An automated service such as Open2View provides, that allows me to pass on so much more info to my client quickly and easily, might be a turning point in making the decision to show addresses!
Tania
We provide both a weekly email to your office of all data on listings, but more importantly produce exactly the same data as open2view on all listings which is permanently accessible on the site – showing the dynamic day-by-day level of viewings and origin of viewers. This is accessed by clicking the link at the “listing viewed xx times” at the top right of all listings.
This initiative was launched to the site back in May and detailed in this blog post.
We have received great positive feedback from this data visibility since then.