Internet marketing is a tough question on its effectiveness and if it actually works or not. For some people it works wonders, and for some its just not worth the time you put into it. I believe in internet marketing and I believe that it will play an increasing part in the way Real Estate is searched and found in New Zealand. I am not just talking about the major portals such as realestate.co.nz but I am also talking about the individual Real Estate Agents that advertise their own listings on their websites.
Some people spend so much money and time on a website that is a stagnant page that does not alot for that person. You need to be able to gather information from all your visitors and actually follow them up.
I found a good article that stimulated me to think and I wanted to share it here with you. From Joe McFerrin streetdirectory
Internet Marketing for Real Estate can be both an effective real estate marketing endeavor or it can be the worst idea you have ever tried out to build your real estate business. Internet Marketing for Real Estate is a whole new ballgame in itself, so be prepared to be an astute learner to gain the most from the experience.
The main purpose of any Internet Marketing for Real Estate campaign is to help you get the leads you need to be able to make a prospects list. This prospect list is composed of people you believe have the potential to become customers for you eventually. And this means managing traffic to your website appropriately.
Internet Marketing for Real Estate websites have to be useful somehow to visitors. Visitors who get disappointed by your website will never return and since you know how hard it is to get a person to visit in the first place, your Internet Marketing for Real Estate website has to offer as much information pertaining to the real estate biz as you can fit in without making your site look cluttered or disorganized. This leads us to the next tip.
The right Internet Marketing for Real Estate campaign will work if you snare the attention of visitors as soon as they enter your site. Yes, first impressions definitely last – but for them to lead to a possible sale, you have to have follow-through as well.
To produce follow-through, try examining your Internet Marketing for Real Estate website as if you were yourself just a visitor: what do you see? Do you just see a website like any other, or do you see a website that would attract people interested in real estate, that provides information that is actually usable for them, and that tells people the owner of this website is the person they should look for when trying to buy or sell real estate? Hopefully, it would be more of the latter for you.
When visitors drop by and leave a note, what is your Internet Marketing for Real Estate follow-through? Do you just take note of them then drop their names into a giant database to be swallowed up and forgotten forever? If you are a true follower of Internet Marketing for Real Estate follow-through techniques, you should follow through by sending them a message at whatever contact address they may have left. If all they left was an email address, that is okay already. You can start by sending them a thank-you email for visiting your website and tell them that you hope they will agree to be part of your subscription list for your business-oriented newsletter. It is always part of ethical Internet Marketing for Real Estate practice to ask before adding anyone to an emailing list – think of it as good etiquette for real estate agents.
Your Internet Marketing for Real Estate website would be incomplete if all you have are the same static content to showcase day in and day out. This means that your Internet Marketing for Real Estate articles on the website should always be updated, maybe even replaced when necessary, so that visitors get intrigued and come back for more. The better the service you provide this way, the more visitors will want to read and learn about what you have to offer.
Internet Marketing for Real Estate may be misused in one way though, and that is by using too much data that visitors get glassy-eyed and click on the mouse to find a less burdensome site to visit. It is tricky, this Internet Marketing for Real Estate campaign work, so you need to have a good sense of when you are overdoing the content.
If you want to add a personal touch to your Internet Marketing for Real Estate website, you may want to use a blog on your website as well. This helps visitors see things through your eyes.
May 11 2009 | Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Are the days of having a party at your home inviting friends and family around and possible clients gone. In one way yes and in another way its taken on a whole new form. The old days of making some useful contacts, get referrals and meet prospective clients through events like these prties or dinners or even casual lunch dates with friends are pretty much gone. Dont get me wrong, this type of stratergy can still work but the target markets these days where you want to be putting yourself or your property forward are changing. These offline
activities are still very much a part of every day life and can be very benificial. I know a number of people who cant use a computer at all. They come to the office sit down make a few calls and then all of a sudden the next day they have a new listing or sale. But that older styled way is changing and the scope of reach is never going to be wide and as far as could be achieved now with the internet. People are becoming less social offline and more social online. So what does this mean for you and your real estate business or how you market your peoperty today.
There are two websites that I like to use for the purpose of social networking They are Facebook, Linkedin and the latest craze Twitter. Facebook has quickly become one of the largest social networking sites in the world with ove
r 100 million users. Started by a college kid (now a multi-millionaire), Facebook has grown from a simple college leisure site to one of the most powerful, far reaching social networks on the web. LinkedIn also started with humble beginnings, but has grown to become t
he largest business networking site in its domain. LinkedIn allows professionals from all industries to network with like-minded professionals and/or network to find new jobs or employees.Twitter only a recent addition to the social family is a very very powerful way to create and grow your network. The use of a micro blogging system where you tell your audience what your doing, a useful link or just anything that may help them can have huge benifits to your business. These three networks alone have helped many people take their businesses to the next level by providing them with extremely simple, expansive networks to find prospective clients where they may not have otherwise been able to reach. But remember the use of these sites is not just limited to the use of the Agent. Sellers or buyers can use these sites in a similar way to network out to find what they want to achieve.
But you might ask me why does this bare any relivance to Real Estate which is an offline activity. Well if you think of the initial question of how the fact that people are becoming more social online, as opposed to offline, affects your business you will get the answer. The facts is over 85% of real estate transactions start online usually via looking at the peoperty online and then the person contacting you. Prospective clients are on the web. Whether they are doing searches on Google, conversing with friends on Facebook or watching community videos on Youtube, people looking to buy, sell or invest in real estate flock to the Internet to gather as much information as possible before making one of the largest financial transactions of their lifetime. Why… Because the internet has probably everything that person wants to know and if your their when they are searching you could get a lead. This is more of a reason than any that you must be found easily on the web but you need to establish yourself as an authority for the services you offer in your area. So that when it comes time for that person to make the descision about who he wants to call your at the top of mind.
But how can you set yourself up for this. The one thing that all of you will agree is that everyone hates a kiss arse. Someone who says look at me, pick me blah blah blah. Online it is easy to be like that but if your marketing yourself right you will be seen as a person of help to these people. Inbound marketing tactics work the best online. This is marketing that does not need to be intrusive or interruptive, is one of the most organic and effective ways to accomplish these two goals. Social networking is the prime example of effective inbound marketing – if done right of course. By plotting your social networking strategy and / or employing professsionals to manage or consult you on your social networking strategies, you will be able to define yourself as a true resource on the web – the place where a pool of prospective clients continues to grow each day. They will benifit you in the long run.
If you want you should take the time to learn more about the social networks mentioned above. Marketing for your real estate and your business online in these types of ways can truly increase your client base by making you a trusted resource online. Remember, you may be one of the top producers in your market, but if your clients can’t find you online when they are looking for your services then you may as well be a brand new agent with no experience or credibility yet. It is never too late to get started, especially on social networking as this is still relatively new for the real estate industry, so take advantage of it before you fall too far behind the pack. And as I said it doesnt just stop at marketing your business online.
These social network sites are only the party. This is where people get channeled in. I will talk a little later on how to channel these from the social networking sites to your own site and to your properties which is where you ultimately want traffic online to go. But just remember its all about the party and entertaining your guests that have arrived and stearing them into the right direction.
March 15 2009 | Uncategorized | 7 Comments »
Affiliate marketers ignore article marketing at their cost. Do you want more customers and more money or less of both? Ignore the following reasons to let someone do your article writing for you when you market your goods at your own cost!
Any successful online marketer will tell you why “You Should Outsource Your Article Writing”, and if you are reading this, then so are potential customers who you would never have reached. Just think about that for a second or two.
Affiliate marketing experts realise the importance of traffic, without it there is no business. It doesn’t matter how good your product or service is (or the product or service you’re marketing as an affiliate) if people don’t know about your site. No traffic means – no sales; article marketing is one of the most popular and most effective means of bringing visitors to your site as well as increasing your search engine page rankings through the large number of back links that can be created this way.
However, not every affiliate marketer or web based business person has time to write articles. The answer to your problem is to let someone else who enjoys writing do it for you; there are plenty of talented copywriters out there who specialize in producing well-written, search engine optimized content for affiliates and other online marketers. This is exactly the kind of content you need to grow your business – if you’re not convinced that this is the way to go, keep reading to see some of the best reasons to have others write your articles for you.
1) Your articles will be professionally written – Your strength is more than likely in business, and you might be the first to confess that you are no article writer. That’s perfectly OK; you don’t have to be. You can leave this work to the professionals.
2) It saves you time – Writing articles can take up a lot of your time and more than likely you have more important things to take care of. By outsourcing your article writing, you can turn your attention to other important tasks.
3) It can save you money – When you factor in the value of your time, it’s better for you to have someone else write articles for you – short articles can be written quickly and inexpensively by professional copywriters.
4) Improved SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – A writer who specializes in producing content for article marketing will have a good understanding of SEO and can produce you article which get you results.
5) Better consumer response – Search engines tend to take more notice of articles written by a professional – and so will human readers. Remember them? They’re your potential customers who you might be ignoring right now.
6) Increased Credibility – Have you ever read anything that sound terrible, looks unstructured and is full of typing mistakes and bad grammar – what a turn off; professional writers will produce content which is free of these problems and more enjoyable to read.
7) Brand building – Well written, informative articles can establish you as an expert in your field – and isn’t it much better to make a choice to buy based on the opinion of someone who knows? Remember, the core message of any brand is “trust me”.
More tightly focused content – A skilled copywriter will be sure to ascertain exactly what your target market is and how best to get your message across to them; this translates into increased sales.
9) Expertise – If you’re marketing in a niche which you are less knowledgeable about, you can find a copywriter who has some expertise in the field or who has the necessary research skills to write about it knowledgeably.
10) You hate to write – Did you really enjoy writing when you were at school? Most people did not relish the thought of having to produce a good essay. It’s not that different when it comes to writing articles either. If you are sensible enough to let someone else do your article writing, you will get better articles than you might ever imagine, and that will bring in those all important customers.
So now you have a decision to make. Do you have so much money that you don’t care or need any more OR are you clever enough to realise you can reach and attract more customers and increase your income?
March 01 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
If you are one of the tens of thousands of homeowners attempting to sell your home at any one time now then you know how hard it is becoming to both get people to the home and once there get them to like it enough to put an offer on it. You will have been undoubtedly been told that times are tough and to expect to take a hammering on the price of your home. Not only are homes all over the country losing value, but sellers are having to compete with mortgagee sales at lower than market value and the credit freeze that is preventing a lot of people from getting financed. So what is the secret to selling in today’s market? If you are really serious about selling. Over the past few months I have been flooded with reports with people saying they know the answers to how to make that sale in this market and there seems to be a clear point that all seem to agree on. And this is Staging.
Chances are, if you’ve bought or sold in the past few years, you’ve heard of the term “staging.” Staging is the art of preparing your home to appeal to the most buyers through de-cluttering, organizing, cleaning and repairing, and then marketing to your target audience. The last one may sound like a business pitch, but it is vitally important. The first four on the list are not only important, but will benefit your family and your well-being by bringing about a change and newness to your home and ultimately prepare you for your next move.
De-Cluttering:
This can be a touchy subject for some people. We all know that many items in our home are sentimental but when you have to resort to trailblazing a path to the front door, it’s time to let go. If you MUST keep 100 copies of your favorite magazine, rent a storage unit while your house is for sale. You will get back the money you spend when your house sells faster and who knows, you may even learn to enjoy the extra space!! De-cluttering also includes de-personalizing. Start your packing early by putting family photos, heirlooms and other personal items in storage. Replace them with neutral accents or no
thing at all. A buyer has to feel as if the home they walk into could be their home.
Organizing:
This goes right along with de-cluttering. Organization and placement of items in your home will not only make your rooms and closets look much larger, it will show the buyer that the current owners are organized and accountable and believe it or not, trustworthy. Check out home décor magazines for inspiration and ideas.
Cleaning and Repairing:
We all put off home repair or remodeling projects due to lack of funds, schedules and other priorities, but now is the time to get serious. Any project that has been left undone needs to be finished or at least finished to the best of your ability/budget. This will be your advantage over foreclosures; many of them are left dirty and in disrepair. If your home shines and looks well cared for, the buyer’s perception is their reality! The number one complaint from real estate agents who show or visit your home is a lack of cleanliness. Cleanliness also happens to be the hardest part of staging. If you have animals or children, you undoubtedly find a mess as soon as one is cleaned up. Deep cleaning is the first step. Clean your drapes, dust your window blinds, and by all means, keep your kitchen spotless! If you are leaving the appliances, make sure they are thoroughly cleaned with a grease cleaner, oven cleaner or specialty cleaning agent for your appliance. Don’t forget the top of the refrigerator and range hood! You never know how tall your potential buyers may be! Then have your family make a pact and be diligent about it until the house is sold.
Reaching your target audience:
This is where the little touches make a big difference. Make sure your home is inviting from the inside out. Neutral paint on in the interior, adding greenery on tables and shelves, and dressing up the front porch or entry with a wreath or nice patio furniture will all make an excellent first impression. Put away any kids’ toys in the front yard and hide garbage cans the best that you can. Don’t forget to make a lasting impression by having a sheet with all of your home’s information– schools, shopping, library, golf course, etc. And last but not least, treat your potential buyers like a new friend: have warm coffee or tea brewing, bottled water and cookies or other snacks readily available in the kitchen.
These are the very basics of home staging. You can find many more tips and suggestions on the internet, home and garden programs or with your real estate company. Also, there are many professional home stagers who will do the job for you. If the project overwhelms you, this may be a practical and worthwhile solution. Find these professionals online, in the phonebook, ask a friend, or enquire in your local chamber of commerce.
The benefits of home staging are lasting long after the ink is dry on the contract. You may just make a habit of staging your next home…for yourself!
February 25 2009 | Sellers | 7 Comments »
As you are probably aware by now I am very interesting in Social Networking and online marketing. This interest is leading me to some awesome contacts around the globe and opening my eyes to many different stratergies when it comes to marketing online and also in the offline world. If you look at my post about where 2009 is taking us and also if you look at my post about marketing real estate in 2009 you will see my opinion on the topic.
I will keep this post short and swet but I am asking for your help. This medium isnt the best source to ask on but I will try it anyway.
what I want is to create some small tutorials via web and video and blogs. Just to assist you hopefully. This is mainly targeted at the many agents that view this blog but also the sellers and buyers. This is a little project I am working on so please ask any question you like.
The more questons the better really – dont worry how silly they may seem. One topic is on how to embed a picture to a blog page. I will not be selling the stuff I do. It will be made avaliable freely through youtube and this blog. The things I am looking at pointed towards the online marketing world, but as I have said the online marketing is very much able to be used in the offline world. I thankyou in advance.
January 13 2009 | Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Marketing, price, presentation
Christmas and New Year is over. We are pretty much now beginning the 2009 year off back into work. I was back at work today to a bombardment of paperwork to be completed. The joys of life. As I said in my previous posts I said 2009 will be a year for change and opportunity. In terms of the change I believe that it will be more important than ever to be at the front edge of what’s happening so you don’t get lost in old ways of technology so that you’re not left behind which could cost you money.
There will be in 2009 a very big change in focus when it comes to marketing. As the credit crunch and the recession take full effect during the early parts of the year there will be a focus to finding more effective ways to market products to reach the audience. And Real Estate will be no different. This to me will be a vitally important key component that is going to become more and more important this year than ever before. Where and How you market your property will be the defining point in the result you achieve when you try selling. Obviously there are other things and I will cover them here as well.
The medians to advertise your property are going to change. In my opinion the need for print media is going to become less and less effective. The cost vs. the result isn’t stacking up any more. Don’t get me wrong that if you put a good sized ad in the news paper you are going to get a lot of local views that day in the paper but it’s a one shot. With the time taking to sell increasing and the attention span of the reader gets smaller due to increased pressures at work and with the family. (Our lives aren’t getting any slower). I think the way to go moving on in the future will be for longer term and specific advertising. This will be online and longer term print media.
When I Say longer term print media I am talking about the local Real Estate book that gets published by either the company or a collective of companies. But I feel that if the company isn’t big enough and doesn’t hold enough listings that if it tries to make a publication of its own for the area it will not get as much coverage. This is only because people these days and I think more towards the future don’t want to have to look all over the place to look at their complete choices. The one stop shop type of model is going to please the consumer of tomorrow.
Realestate.co.nz which is now New Zealand’s leading online Real Estate portal has a dominating effect on Real Estate adverting online. But this is a good thing for the way we as a society want to go. This will enable the public to have the greatest and a more comprehensive search. The reason I say that these sites and publications are going to become more important to your marketing is that people will want to compare your property with what else is on the market. I know people have been doing this for ever but the thing that I think is going to change is that people don’t want to be searching around all over the place to find comparisons. Also with our ever fast passed world you need to be out in the spotlight for longer. This is the reason for the publication with a longer shelf life to be more important in your marketing.
Along with where you market your property in 2009 Price is going to be ever so important. The slow down and recession which started in 2008 and that is now coming with us in 2009 is going to make pricing harder than ever but more important than ever. The thing is that some people will price to the market and some wont. If you are one that hasn’t our going to help the ones who have sell their property.
During the comparing process the buyer goes through your property will simply be eliminated because it’s a higher price compared to what they could buy down the road. I can’t stress this enough. You MUST price the property competitively in today’s market if you want to sell. And you need to advertise that. Be firm on that price but make it known. If you’re going down the track of no priced marketing Auction is the best way to go but make sure you at least have a guideline and listen to the buyers feedback on where they believe the price could be. But be firm on a reasonable value because buyers in a buyer’s market are tough but do listen.
One thing I want to mention on this point is that I know of agents out there actively in the field who are buying listings. Telling the vendor at the point of sale that the property is X amount which is a little more than any other agent you had in has said. This tactic is going to kill your chances of selling and what’s more frustrating is its going become more stressful for you when it seems like your dropping your price constantly because your agent you have chosen says you need to meet the market. 2009 will not be a time to test the market. It’s a time to listen, be aggressive and achieve results.
Presentation is going to be important. When marketing your property online the only guide the buyer has to go by when in the comparison stage is the pictures. Which make having good quality photographs very very important. There are plenty of places to go to have photography done and there will be more I think coming soon to give you a good choice of photographs. But it’s also about the photos that you take. Some agents and people swear by having less photos so that a person enquiring will ring the agent for the enquiry. This is wrong. And even more wrong for a generation Y person. Generally what will happen is that people just want to see everything so that they fully know what to expect. Then they can compare and either eliminate or shortlist the property.
Once the property is shortlisted you then will find the buyer will contact the agent and find out more meaningful and maybe more specific information for their needs. If they don’t contact the agent directly they will go to the open home. If all the preparation work and everything is done right then you will hopefully get a contract on your property. But everything has to be right. In 2009 there will still be sales and probably more than in 2008 but the properties that sell will be priced right, marketed right and well presented. The combination of these factors and doing them right, especially been proactive about the marketing will ensure that you have a successful sale in 2009.
January 05 2009 | Sellers and The Market | 5 Comments »
The Christchurch Real Estate Market was alive and well today. Harcourts Grenadier held 18 Auctions today. After all were conducted the results were quite good. 8 properties sold under the hammer, 2 were sold prior and 2 were sold after the property was passed in and it sounds as though a few will be under offer in the next few days. The interesting thing to note is that many of the properties that were been Auctioned today were of the higher end of the market.
This may be good news for the market in the fact it shows that the buyers are still out there and there are still people with money to buy. Sales numbers on previous years are well below what they were so it is still more important than ever to have your property stand out. Targeted, high profile marketing, sound presentation combined with a strong structure and a competitive edge when it comes to the price and you will attract the buyers out there to your property and hopefully the hard work put in will get an offer on the table that if not at an acceptable level you can work with.
The total amount of sales this year has been consistently moving downwards as the economy in New Zealand has been crippled by the global credit crisis. In recent months there has been some relief for us all with interest rates falling, fuel prices falling and tax cuts from the government but these are still not seen to be enough to help some of the struggling families out there as many won’t feel these reductions for many months to come. So the market still has some
The statistics below show the data collected by the REINZ for the Christchurch Central Area (The 4 Avenues) and how much different this year has been to two years ago.
The tables below read: DATE; MEDIAN; TOTAL SALES; DAYS ON MARKET
|
May 2008
|
$322,500.00
|
57
|
52
|
|
|
Jun 2008
|
$357,500.00
|
42
|
47
|
|
|
Jul 2008
|
$342,500.00
|
40
|
57
|
|
|
Aug 2008
|
$334,950.00
|
43
|
57
|
|
|
Sep 2008
|
$332,250.00
|
34
|
59
|
|
|
Oct 2008
|
$310,000.00
|
33
|
47
|
|
|
Nov 2008
|
$310,000.00
|
35
|
45
|
|
Now Compare this for the same period 2 years ago.
|
May 2006
|
$315,000.00
|
86
|
42
|
|
Jun 2006
|
$319,000.00
|
82
|
41
|
|
Jul 2006
|
$298,750.00
|
92
|
41
|
|
Aug 2006
|
$307,000.00
|
84
|
53
|
|
Sep 2006
|
$300,000.00
|
77
|
53
|
|
Oct 2006
|
$327,000.00
|
82
|
38
|
|
Nov 2006
|
$300,000.00
|
91
|
40
|
|
Dec 2006
|
$355,000.00
|
93
|
43
|
You can see quite clearly that the sales volume is below half of what it was two years ago for the exact same area. This is why it is so important to do all the things I mentioned above. The fact of reality is that there are more listings than last year and half the sales. Dont be the one sitting on the market and not selling. Be one of the ones who do sell. It is hard to look at the price from these graphs and compare it in this cross section as it is only a small sample of the market and too much influencial data can skew the data. But below is a graph of the median price for this Christchurch Central (4 Avenues) area. The other thing is the sales stats from the REINZ only show medium not average so many influencing factors can skew the graph over each month.
The market is not completely dead, as I said right at the start of this post there are still properties selling and today we saw a number sell under the hammer which just hasnt been heppening to that extent on a consistent basis for a while now. The feeling I get is buyers are ready to buy but are waiting for that opportunity that they consider a good buy. Most buyers I talk to out there say there is still a lot of room for the market to move. And unfortunately when your in a buyers market these are the words that are going to ring true in many cases. The sales volume for New Zealand in November 2008 were 4297 sales. The next lowest was in August 2008 with 4220. But previous to this years shocking sales volume drop the lowest sales in any given month was a massive 16 years ago when in January 1992 there were 4,427 sales.
Buyers are holding tight, but are still buying in other ways. Its a funny market, one none of us can predict.
There are people out there that can see good buys but so many more are saying they will get better and are waiting.
December 11 2008 | Buyers and Sellers and The Market | 2 Comments »
If you are wanting to market a property on the internet you need to have an edge on the marketing. Video is something that both engages the audience and wows them. On my YouTube channel I have done a comprehensive tutorial on making a video slideshow using windows movie maker. There is three parts to it.
If you want to view the finished product it is here. This only took me an hour to make, it is by no means perfect but it is simple and there isn’t an excuse not to be able to do this. Some companies charge $250 + to do this but if you can do it yourself you can use that money in some other productive ways. I hope you find this useful
Regards
Deon
December 04 2008 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Sellers around the country are finding it increasingly difficult to sell their homes. Two years ago sellers could put their homes on the market and slap a for sale sign in the yard, and buyers would inevitably come. As an agent in New Plymouth, I feel very fortunate to live in a city with a good real estate market compared to most other markets around the country. But, even in New Plymouth’s market, sellers are becoming frustrated with not being able to sell their homes. If you’ve listed your home with no success, you may want to consider
taking it off the market, even if it’s just for a short time.
How long has your home been listed? The time it takes to sell a home (Days on Market) depends on your local real estate market. In New Plymouth at present this is approx 51 days – up from 38 the previous year. This is only the average. But in any market, if it’s been listed for 9 or more months without any success, you should consider your options: take it off the market for a while, find another listing agent, or make a considerable price reduction.
How many showings per week does your home receive? Showings are also a market sensitive number. If your home is getting fewer showings than your competition is, it’s due to price or to marketing. (your agent can tell you this) Be sure to look over your marketing, make sure you show off your home’s best features. Sometimes replacing dark pictures or rewriting your remarks section can be an easy fix for getting more showings. Since there are so many homes on the market, buyers are having to do a lot of shopping (and eliminating) on the internet. So, make sure your home gets on buyers’ lists of homes to see!
Have you received any offers from buyers? Again, this depends on the market. But, a safe rule is if your home has been on the market for 9 months with no offers, it’s going to take some drastic changes to get an offer. After a home has sat on the market for a while, buyers often think there is something wrong with the home and won’t put in an offer to buy it. If you have received offers on your home and decided not to take them, then you may have learned that buyers are making low ball offers left and right in this market. There are a lot of unrealistic buyers who think they can negotiate 20% off a listing. As a seller, you have no control of the offers that you get. But, be reasonable. There are a lot of unrealistic sellers, too, who think they can get more for their homes than the statistics show. The main thing is be flexible and work with everything you get.
How badly do you need to sell? Of course you wouldn’t have listed your home if you didn’t need or want to sell it. But, do you absolutely need to sell or move right now? If so, and if you haven’t gotten any offers, you may want to consider renting out your home. A lot of sellers are choosing to rent their home out instead. It’s a lot easier to rent a home right now than it is to sell one. So, at least consider this option.
Is your home priced competitively? If you’ve reached the lowest point you want to go in your asking price with no success, you may want to list again later when the market has balanced out. If you look at the statistics, in most neighborhoods the very lowest priced homes are the ones that are being sold. Of course it depends on the neighborhood, but buyers are wanting a good deal in this market. Homes are going under contract everyday – but, they are only the homes that are priced competitively.
All of these factors depend on your real estate market. So, be sure to ask your listing agent how your home is doing compared to other homes for sale in the same price range and area. He or she should be able to provide you with statistics for recent sales and showings. This will give you a good idea of where you stand in the competition. And, if your home isn’t fairing well, it would probably be better to take it off the market for a while. Most real estate analysts think the market will show a significant change around the spring of 2009. So, don’t feel like you’d be taking your home off the market forever. But, if you can wait to list again in the next 8 to 12 months, real estate markets in most places are expected to pick up significantly by then. After all, this strong buyers’ market won’t last forever!
October 19 2008 | Sellers | 11 Comments »
This is the 21st Century. Gone are the labourage days and the days where it takes a week to get any type of response to a request. This was what the Baby Boomers and some of the Generation X people went through. This is the communication age. This is the era where we have social networking sites, instant messaging, text messaging, video calling, email, online shops, online forums where you can get any question you ever have answered. This is the time when you want to know something you go to the internet and find it out.
Have you ever asked someone something and the answer you received was “Just GOOGLE it”. Well that’s the sign of the times. www.google.com and the other many search engines and all the things I mentioned above have revolutionised how we interact with other people and get the information we want to know.
Who is the powerhouse for this revolution. We are known as Generation Y or the “Connexity Kids”
Generation Y encompasses those a very large number of people born between 1980 and to 2000 and some experts saying even till today and represents the first generation to grow up online.
To be able to market effectively to generation Y you need to understand their needs and wants. This generation has been bought up online. And as I said before has had the luxuries of being able to get almost anything they want instantly online.And every other generation using the internet has this luxury as well, but the difference being generation Y don’t know any different and expect and demand it.
But not all our life is lived on the internet. But below I have 4 key points that you will need to know when you think about Generation Y.
- The defining value of this generation is “connexity”: the importance of staying connected in order to grow. Digital media ha ve given youth unprecedented means to connect with each other and the world. As a result, for brands to succeed tomorrow, they must forge connections with consumers that go beyond simple product func tion. There needs to be something for them in it.
- Knowledge is power. It is also cool. Digital media have made knowledge cool through a fusion of fun and learning. This means for us in real estate that as an agent or a home owner you need to know the information the buyer may ask or know exactly where to direct them to be able to get it.
- Generation Y is a confident, self-reliant, optimistic and positive generation. The Internet, personal computers and C D-ROMs represent tools that have empowered this generation. As a result, these consumers are marketing savvy and much less brand loyal. They will go for what gives them the best in their situation.
- Digital media has produced a new language. This new generation of online users is verbally and visually more sophisticated. In fact, verbal and visual literacy have converged, creating a whole new language which tomorrow’s marketers must learn. You need to describe your home on the advertising in a way that makes your home seem modern fresh and something that will appeal to a Gen Y
Generation Y generally want an answer now and want it with the least amount of effort possible. They also want results quickly. Say if a gen Y sets up a business they expect results to happen fast and are very critical if it doesn’t happen. The catch is gen Y don’t want to do as much work as previous generations but prefer to work smarter. Gen Y is under a lot of pressure to achieve and excel which sort of explains why they expect results fast.
Now to put this into perspective:
As an agent:
We need to know the lingo. Marketing isn’t just a case of putting an ad out there, leaving it on the websites and then hoping to get hits and hoping even more the people that are hitting it want to ask a question. A generation Y person is used to social media platforms where they interact with the people and the things they are looking at. This is where smarted advertising is needed. Emphasis on the points that benefit the buyer are very important and also photos. But even better are interactive home tours. In the United states there are software companies developing software where a buyer is like an avatar and can walk anywhere they want to in the house as if they were there by themselves and then there is an option where they can ask the agent a question while they are there which is sent to the agent as a text message and the agent can then reply to the question instantly. This real time conversation like approach to marketing is what is needed to engage the new audience and get the best results from them. Some experts say that a reduction in traditional print media advertising and a shift toward media more commonly frequented by Gen X’ers and Gen Y’ers is going to be needed with inclusion in weekly publications, more electronic billboards, regular radio spots and more online advertising on websites that offer a large range of products all over (like a one stop shop concept).
As a home buyer:
Your home needs to have modern aspects to it and be in a decent state of repair. Not just for generation Y but this trend has evolved as generation Y’s influence has started to spread to everyday life. They don’t really want to do any work to the house. The simple things like having a dishwasher, internal access garages, automatic garage doors, automatic heating etc are big things that can woo the generation to buying yours rather the one next door. The theme that runs through this entire blog is convenience. Don’t get me wrong that anyone will buy anything at the right price. But convenience is a big part of today’s lifestyle. And if you can as a seller prepare your home before the market to be more convenient and easy to live in this will have a better reward later down the track.
Deon Swiggs
Property Profits
August 12 2008 | Sellers and The Market | 14 Comments »
In today’s technology driven world, more and more buyers are turning to the internet to look for a home. As I stated in my last post I have found that almost all my buyers are looking at the property on the intenet before considering looking at it in person. And with so many homes on the market today, it is now essential that these buyers see your home first.
And in the real estate market’s current state, it’s now more important than ever to have a solid internet marketing plan as part of your overall marketing plan. With so many homes for sale, buyers simply don’t have the time to see the hundreds of homes on the market.
Here are some ways a technology savvy real estate agent can use to help market your home?
1. Preparing the Home to be Showcased
Even though this isn’t high-tech, preparing your home for showings and pictures is essential for producing showings and eventually offers for your home. In today’s market, buyers are pickier than ever and expecting homes in the like-new condition. If you look at the all the sales, the ones that sell fastest or at closest to asking price are the ones that stack up for an investment or are in move straight in condition. So before you even take a picture, talk with your agent about cleaning, painting, and staging your home to sell.
2. Photographs, Descriptions, and Virtual Tours
After your home is properly staged or prepared for showing, photographs should be taken, either by a professional photographer or by a realtor with a good, panoramic camera. I always offer and give my clients the option to use Open2View who use wide angle (panoramic) lenses. A panoramic camera will be able to showcase entire rooms and will make the house bigger. So many times, there are beautiful homes on the market with poor photos. And no matter how spectacular your home is, if you have poor quality pictures or a lackluster description, a buyer might eliminate your home without ever stepping onto your property. Also work with your agent to describe the features you love about your house into a description that makes your home stand out. Lastly, virtual tours may also be a good option for showcasing your home but in some instances not having a virtual tour encourages buyers to visit the property instead of just see the virtual tour.
3. Maximizing Exposure for your Home
Now that your home is featured in its absolute best light, it’s essential to get as many people to see it as possible. An agent up-to-date with technology should have a standard way of distributing information about your property online. I always send an email to my database of my new listings and my database also links with several other agents in the office so it gets out that way as well. My goal is to showcase my seller’s property to everyone I can, even to agents from other companies because they might just have a buyer for my client’s home. Second, I also have a constantly growing number of sites I submit to, in addition to those above, all to put your property in front of as many buyers as possible.
Although the tools above will help you gain more exposure for your home, internet marketing is not a comprehensive solution but should be used as a part of an overall marketing plan that includes traditional marketing ideas as well. Open homes are very important as mentioned in my last post, signs, and the real estate office network are still vital to selling a home for the most money in this market.
June 18 2008 | Sellers | No Comments »
I have just come back from a quick trip to Sydney where I was learning about how the internet is starting to dominate our lives. And the startling fact is that it is actually far more dominating than I think any of us realise.
Think about it. Where do we go to look anything up. Where do we do any research, for example when ever i look up someones name i dont use a phone book. I just use www.whitepages.co.nz Its just more convenient. Also when your buyers are out and about where do they look for property. A recent study that I have been completing at my open homes for the last 6 weeks showed that 94% of my buyers were seeing the property on the internet before coming to the property and looking at it in person.
Something else I found was that 76% of the people were researching the property and the market trends of the property in question on the net without the assistance of any agent. Most of this was done through www.qv.co.nz and some people used local council statistics etc. But seriously the internet is a great tool for you to be able to get most of what you need from the comfort of your home. And with the state of petrol prices this is becoming more important than ever.
In the USA there are over 2.5 billion internet users and the studies that I have been looking at are that most of these users go on the internet in one way or another with their credit card in hand prepared to spend money. Studies as far as i know of this kind havent been done in New Zealand but imagine if we were the same here. Couldnt we channel at least some of that traffic to our advantage.
Buyers, Sellers and Agents should if not already embrase the advances in technology and realise that their is alot of bussiness avalliable on the internet. Not just in sales but in information gathering andsocial networking. Social Networking these days is very popular. On my myspace profile I have contacts around the world who always have different points of view on everything and this sharing of knowledge will aways make you a much more well rounded person.
Take the chance and look at some of the Real Estate websites around. soak up the information, whether your a buyer, seller or an agent. You will always find something new everytime you look on the internet.
June 16 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
I commend everyone who puts out newsletters, emails or blogs. I highly commend people who have their own websites and work towards establishing themseves an online presence. I have three online bussiness that make me a very good income. And they all help people in different ways. The people that do this I call proactive and actually do things that may or may not work. I have spent alot of time and money investigating neich markets and channels where people look or need help. Some of them work and some of them haven’t. But I never give up.
I know many people and have alot of influence from these people within the online world. All have done the hard yards. And all of the people who are writing on this blog have great things to share. We all have different perspectives and all have different views on how things work. And to me i think this is natural and a good way for us to be. Because for me I read what everyone else says and it makes me think of different perspectives on what im reading. This is the great thing about blogging. And everyone here should be proud to be proactive enough to get on and do it.
Two years ago my mentor Brett McFall and Stephen Peirce said to me that the online world is going to be everybodies first pint of call to gather information. And they are dead right. So by establising yourself on the net in your blog your establshing yourself to many clients you didnt know you had. For my online bussiness which I want to remain seperate to this I work with clients from all around the world from all walks of life. I get about 2500 orders every month from 20,000 unique visitors. This electronic product costs me nothing to produce and i get $5 for each order. I then go on and sell upsized back end orders. But thats enough of that
It is good to see other proactive people like Ross Brader with his blog for his clients, he has some great stuf there. Also Alistair Helm with his unconditional blog and his dedication to this site. Without him this wouldnt be here. Very proactive and a great idea.
Today i am upset with a comment i recieved on my blog. It is obvious from the comment that the person concerned did not agree with what was said. I think though he may have missed the point of the blog. But none the less he gave me a nasty comment. The comment read:
” What a simplistic one minded inexperienced version towards educating on a “how to”. To say things like there are only two ways of handling a situation is just rubbish. I hope the writer is not activly ‘assisting’ vendors with negotiating on their single biggest assit. Find an experienced agent how has been in the industry for many years and listen to them, NOT this dribble.”
My reason for doing this blog is just for people to have some information , to have something interesting to read and if they want more ask, its not to give people false information or to piss them off. Comments like this which i will delete in a few days really do actually hurt me. I mean if you were doing something like this to try and be helpful and someone commented on something in this manner how would you feel.
I hope im not going off the way side here. But this is something that i find imprtant to write about and bring awareness. If you have problems with peoples content do the honorable thing and get in contact with them directly. There are many ways to do it. And maybe you can help that person out if there is a problem.
Thanks 
May 09 2008 | Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
