Years ago, if you wanted to buy a house, the first thing you’d do was pick up a local newspaper. Those days are officially over. According to the latest NAR statistics, only 1% of home buyers find their house this way anymore. Still, 27% do actually look through the home classified ads in the newspaper in conjunction with more preferred home search methods, such as the internet (90%), through an agent (87%), yard signs (53%) or visiting open homes (45%). At the end of the day, 42% are more likely to sell a home by listing on the internet, as opposed to the newspaper. Do you know these important facts? Are you an informed agent?
Perhaps of even greater interest is that fact that a prompt response is one of your strongest weapons as an agent. The first agent to respond to a home seller usually gets the listing. Sixty-six percent of sellers go with the first agent they contact.
Are you using video to sell homes for your clients? If not, you should be. 73% of homeowners say they’re more likely to list with a realtor offering to do a video, yet only 14% of agents create listing videos.
The internet is the most popular place to advertise a listing – 93% of agents market their listings on the internet. This is followed in popularity by yard signs (79%) and open houses (55%). Syndication sites are used by 28% of agents, and 7% are now using social networking sites to market their listings.
Technology increasingly helps real estate sales happen. It provides real estate agents with a competitive edge, reduces lag time in responding to clients (buyers and sellers), makes an agent appear more current, saves time and money, and more. It’s understandable, then, that 48% of agents and associate brokers would like their broker to expand the amount of technology provided.
SOURCE: The Broker Report