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New Year, New Issues: The Most Influential Factors of 2018

Constantly ebbing and flowing with the day’s global events, real estate news seems to be always changing, making the task of keeping up with shifting trends a continuous challenge for agents. What trends are essential to your future success, and which are better left in the rearview mirror for the upcoming 2018 real estate selling season?

Real Estate Trends to Take Notice of in 2018
Of all the trends in real estate news to heed, these will be most influential to your sales success in the coming new year:

Online Marketing
Across the board, buyers and sellers are looking online first. Online sales and marketing are no passing trend, with those agencies with online branding dominating the realty arena, and those offering previously coveted inside information to everyday consumers leading the pack.

Social Networking
As with an online presence, marketing through today’s top social networks enables realtors to reach a far larger audience faster and with less hands-on effort. Providing information via casual online posts, photos, videos and links is now one of the ideal paths for marketing homes for all parties, from time-crunched agents to buyers and sellers.

Specialty Sales
Agents with a specialty genre will be center stage in the coming year, from those specializing in video listings to those showcasing luxury, ‘green’ and automated homes, and even agencies catering to Bitcoin purchases.

Home Automation
2018 will put home automation in the spotlight as technology becomes more affordable for the middle class – and more user friendly. Agents will need to stay ahead of the curve on this in order to put this technology to use to gain an edge over the competition.

Generation Z
Generation Z is entering the market, soon to snag the purchasing power of Gen-Y with yet to-be-determined habits.

What real estate news is on the radar for 2018? From trends and legislation to industry-leading tools and tech, stay at the forefront with PropertiesOnline.

Where Should You Focus Your Social Media Attention?

Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr … the list goes on. But there are only so many hours in the day, and the home buyers and sellers you want to target may not be everywhere. How do you determine the best social media approach? Where should you focus your social media attention?

You want to be where your target audience is, first and foremost. Your goal should be to build a community around your business, while you work to expand awareness of what you do, how you do it and the properties you’re selling.

Here are five social media sites you should look into when planning your social media strategy:

Facebook, as we’ve discussed in earlier posts, has a HUGE reach, of over 1 billion global users. The social networking site makes it easy to present yourself as an individual AND as a business, and is working continually to release features that keep it competitive in the social media market. Facebook is used by marketers to reach consumers in just about every industry imaginable, and it is very applicable to real estate professionals marketing properties.

Twitter may not be the ideal place to market a listing (think Facebook and Craigslist for that), but it is a great way to make connections online, boost your SEO, generate conversations, and learn more about your industry, market or potential clients. Twitter has more than half a billion users, and it’s a great site for monitoring trends.

LinkedIn provides good professional networking opportunities, thought leadership, business promotion options. The majority of LinkedIn users are college educated, and involve themselves in the social network for professional advancement, rather than personal socialization. Professionals earning more than $150,000 annually make up the largest bracket of LinkedIn users.

Google+ has been booming, and its user numbers rival Twitter. With its connection to YouTube, the introduction of Google Authorship and the popularity of Google Hangouts, Google+ has a lot of potential for reach, for SEO benefits and brand building. Google+ has a higher than average number of well-educated professional males in its demographic.

Pinterest has exploded in the last couple of years. While it originally caused a lot of people to scratch their heads, its relevance grows more and more clear every day, and it holds a lot of potential for real estate professionals. It’s a great way to showcase images, build links and drive traffic to your site. Remember: pin from your own site if that’s where you want people to end up! Nearly three-quarters of Pinterest users are female, and the majority are college educated. Home décor and home design are two of the most popular topics – this is great if you can showcase beautiful properties (linking back to your single property websites), home staging tips and more.

How Facebook is Cornering the Property Market

Facebook has more than 1.31 billion active users. According to NAR (the National Association of Realtors), 90.5% of real estate agents and brokers use social media to some extent. In a study of traffic sources conducted by Properties Online, using Google Analytics, single property websites received the most referrals (50%!) from Facebook.

Changes to Craigslist in late 2013 mean that referral traffic from the site can no longer be measured. This gives Facebook a boost in ratings, so to speak. And the social networking giant is doing all it can to maintain its place at the top.

Twitter has been growing, but hasn’t had the impact on real estate professionals that Facebook has. Still, at more than 645 million users, the social media site is a significant force, with a lot of potential. One problem for real estate listings is that Twitter is home to A LOT of information. Tweets can easily get lost and end up unseen. But there is something to the platform – something that has had Facebook on alert for a long time.

You may have noticed the subtle integration of some of Twitter’s features into Facebook this year. Actually, just before the New Year, Facebook began by renaming its ‘subscribe’ and ‘hide all’ options with ‘follow’ and ‘unfollow.’ Facebook is using an algorithm—based on your usage—that then controls the content that appears in your newsfeed.

Another Twitter-ish update was the move to ranking link posts from publishers higher in the newsfeed. This seemingly small change led to big things for Facebook, with publisher content referral traffic from Facebook rising 50%, to account for over 15% of all social referrals. At the same time, mind you, Twitter referrals decreased four percent.

Now, as we know, Facebook is great for sharing photos and videos (and this is great for real estate professionals). But Facebook saw Twitter’s edge when it came to user-generated content and changed its algorithm to rank text-only status updates from users higher in the newsfeed. Their research showed them that users respond positively to these types of updates, and that they prompt more of the same. So, that that and run with it – share your thoughts about a listing, the market, anything of interest, with your Facebook followers.

Facebook may never replace Twitter when it comes to real-time news, but it doesn’t need to. And while a full-blown social media presence is great, if you can pull it off, you don’t need that, either. Facebook is a fantastic option for busy real estate professionals, and it’s gotten even better in 2014.

Leverage the Internet as a Real Estate Marketing Tool

Do you have an agent website? Do you create single property websites for each of your listings? Are you active on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter? It’s things like these that allow you to leverage the Internet as a real estate marketing tool.

So if you answered “yes” to at least one of the above questions, you’re doing well! Your ultimate goal is definitely to be able to give a positive answer to all three of them. Having a solid online presence means that you are leveraging the power of the Internet to sell properties, to cultivate professional connections and to establish yourself as a real estate agent who’s current and on top of their game.

But more than establishing an image, the Internet has a real power to help you sell your properties. In fact, research shows that the home buying process – at least the initial stages of searching for properties – is rapidly moving online. These days, being a real estate professional without a strong online presence is just like any other business that doesn’t use the Internet – you are going to be perceived as old fashioned and outdated. No one wants to be left behind!

An Agent Website

Having an agent website is not a luxury these days. It’s a necessity. An agent website is essentially your virtual business card, and in many ways, it’s more important than a business card. Your website should tell prospects about you – your qualifications, what you can do for them, houses you’ve sold, and any areas you specialize in such as luxury homes, specific neighborhoods etc.

Your agent website is your opportunity to turn leads into clients. Make the most of it by making it as appealing as possible. Look for a real estate website service that offers features such as enhancing your site with audio and video, social media widgets and market reports. Fill the website with interesting content and with articles that showcase your knowledge and your expertise. Competition in the real estate space is fierce – use your website to stand out!

Property Websites

Single property websites, which focus on a single property, are always a big hit with both sellers and buyers. They are easy to set up, very affordable, and the best of them include built-in, easy to use tools for sharing properties on a wide range of social networks. Single property websites help agents win listings, attract buyers, and make search engine optimization effortless.

Social Networking

The idea behind any type of social networking, including in the real estate space, is to develop connections and conversations with prospects in your target market and to establish yourself as an expert by sharing knowledge, giving tips and answering questions. While social networking results are not immediate and take time to become apparent, it is a wonderful tool for strengthening your brand and for building a network of devoted supporters.

Social media works organically and naturally to promote you, because when you have a happy client, they will tell their friends about you, and those friends will tell their friends. It’s essentially word of mouth marketing, but it’s done online and so can reach many more prospects than traditional word of mouth marketing.

2014 Goal: Build your Online Presence

If you’ve answered “yes” to the three questions above, GREAT. Otherwise, make it your goal for the year to establish a strong online presence. Don’t allow yourself to be left behind!

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