Bad Advice in the Digital Age II

Few of my blogs have brought the criticism and praise that my Bad Advice in the Digital Age has.

Check out the commentary. I got responses from agents with positive and negative commentary. John Boudreau the actual writer that prompted my original blog chimed in.

I would like to further the conversation by clarifying a few points.

I mentioned that a website does not sell a property. And of course it does not. And it never will. Not until you put a contract and ecommerce shopping cart on a Realty site. Try that one and wait how long it takes for the wrath of the State AG's to come down on you. It is not to say that someone won't call you to see a house off an open non-forced registration. They --MIGHT.

One reason, that I am against an open MLS without forced registration is that it imply's a free service of data that is not free. It is paid for with a heavy price by the industry. And as an ex-Realtor and vendor that benefits from this industry called real estate, I feel it necessary to come down on practices that I see counter intuitive to everything I know about Marketing.

It is not to say that the day isn't coming whereby I think there will be a shakeout of the industry. I do believe that we will see fee for service as more common practice some day. Heck, what is too stop Big Brother Google from creating MLS.Google.com?  They do have a goal of indexing the worlds information. But that is a topic for another day.

The second reason is that an open registration is analogous to a person working up desk & giving out all the information on a property without any reciprocal information back in return. "Ya'll just feel free to call me back now".  There are many styles, but the only successful people in real estate are those who know how to sell. And the only way to sell, is via some sort of communication. That requires interaction. Not what in affect is brochure marketing. Any sales class I have taken, Corporate or Private, has always laughingly reminded me that when I hand out a brochure, it goes right into the round file.

An open MLS is a passive process. You are waiting for a "prospect" to come back. Study after study has shown that loyalty is fickle on line. Again, when it takes up to two years to buy a home, I would rather not count on Joe and Mary home buyer's "bookmarking" system in their browser. It is for the same reason you make people register at an open house.

To call people smart who don't want to give up information is contrary to current trends. In fact, many sophisticated searchers are now looking for services to packet information together for them. As they are tired of having to package together information. This is why Google, Yahoo and to some extent, MSN, keep coming out with narrower forms of search. You have Local search, Blogging Search, Music, etc, etc.

So my experience tells me that people whom are serious shoppers don't mind opting into a follow up system and appreciate the service.

In fact, just recently DM news reported that 78 Percent Buy After Seeing Ads, Promotions ,"New consumer data shows that e-mail marketing works--quite well, in fact. Seventy-eight percent of respondents to DoubleClick's sixth annual consumer survey, "E-mail Solutions," said they've made a purchase as a result of receiving an e-mail, 59 percent said they've redeemed an e-mail coupon in a store, and nearly one-third said they've clicked on an e-mail and made an immediate purchase. Users are now comfortable with e-mail; the report says they understand and accept the fact that marketers collect and use data to send them relevant e-mails. "

The opt-in is the transaction of your website. There is not a sale, except of your MLS data. The purchase is when they give their information away, for the MR/MRS Realty's MLS data. Of course the above study isn't from real estate. But it does show a favorable behavior trend.

Now, by the same token, expecting someone to show you loyalty just because you showed them your listings after opt in, is still wishful thinking.

However, now you have the opportunity to swoon them with your direct response and drip strategy.

Now, after all that, I do not think it unreasonable to test partial information as a tease to tempt the visitor to opt in. We see this often whereby visitors will go to a real estate thumbnail page of listings, and then have to opt in to get more information.

Everyone is welcome to comment. As you can see from the previous posts, I listed positive and negative comments. One teetered on the edge of being more of a flame than a post. However, I chose to approve the comment because of the point the writer finally did make.Don't be afraid to list your company. At the same time don't make this into an advertisement without adding to the conversation.

Comments

[Dustin]

Tim,

It is a very interesting topic, and I got my fair share of flaming when I took the opposite side back in this post:
http://www.raincityguide.com/2005/10/01/agents-are-you-prepared/

Interestingly, I think that you're arguments make ton of sense if we're to assume that real estate search is going to stay the same. However, if agents continue to put barriers to finding homes, that is only going to play to the hands of all the new real estate search sites that are cropping up that are have the ability to bypass agents altogether (I'm thinking of sites like Trulia, Propsmart, and maybe even Zillow.)

I think the competition that agents need to be worrying about is not competition with other agents, but rather, competition with competing ways of buying and selling homes!

[Tim O'Keefe]

Dustin-
I agree that agents need to look out for the other sites.

But those other sites can at best only scrape content from other classified sites, unless they have express permission from your local Board to publish your data!

So if you see a site that is out there like many of these newspapers sites, I think you have to ask yourself. How do you as Board paying Realtor, benefit from the local newspaper publishing your data, openly and without registration? DO you get those leads? Who benefits?

The opposite argument of course is that the Board is doing the responsible thing and getting the listings out to the world.

Even if the world was to change, and there was no NAR, someone is going to get paid for published data.

As Realtors, I would be very concerned how your data, is being pimped around freely by the Boards. Again, if the papers and what not captured leads for the Board then I wouldn't see a problem with this.

But I think that agents have in the name of a skewed sense of Fiduciary responsibility, let their MLS data go to the wind.

Ask yourself, if the lawyers controlled this, would it be free and open registration?

[Tim O'Keefe]

Do you guys charge a cut rate commission? Because if your website sold these houses all by themselves, then how can your service be worth 6% +/-?

Does a Classified Ad, or the local, 4 color "Homes and Whatever Magazine", sell houses?

The most your website can do, like the traditional media, is to generate a lead.

You show the property, sell the home, negotiate the sale, and close the escrow/sale. There is a whole bunch of time and effort called selling and managing put into those four activities.

The offer to purchase is nowhere on yours, or any website that I can see. Because it would be a regulatory nightmare.

Otherwise if the contract was on your site,and your site sold the property, your service is not worth 6% of half a million dollars or more, let alone would it be worth $500.

The net, at its very worst can be just what the old traditional media is/was. Show an ad, wait for the phone to ring.

The difference is that instead of the local paper, you have thousands of other webpages competing with you, and that will show the very same ad (idx/Vow Data).

The reader of the traditional ad is loyal to the local rag or magazine.

The real estate website is a commodity until you can capture the reader and earn loyalty thru a drip and follow up system. Bringing them to a head whereby they ask you, or you ask them, to either get pre qualified or to see a home.

I find most agent blogs are an attempt to build huge content to build the "brand" of the agent.

It is my belief that this is great, but does not come into play until the housebuyer seller has done their preliminary research of homes. Then the ability to create loyalty can escalate by a skilled follow up campaign. That is when all that personality and content will matter. That is when concern about what agent to use will matter.

Remember, people come to the web to research. There is a reason that Amazon learned early on to add sticky content about the book. Because you can buy a book anywhere.

Amazon knows that people come to the web to dig information and research. The MLS is by its nature, simple and organized method for home and neighborhood comparisons.

One of the biggest frustrations with Ecommerce is that consumers go online to research, and then buy at a local more trusted location.

Thus, why would you give -free- access to your data? Is it not exclusive? Does it not have value? What is free worth?

Does it not make sense to capture the visitor, and begin interactions with them? To build a relationship? Or to wish and hope for the phone to ring?

The competition will only increase and reliance on image advertising will not serve you, as more and more pages try to capture that same position from the engines as you.

As always, thanks for your comments as there have been some good cases made. And, I am told, it has at the very least deepened many agents thought processes of marketing online. Thanks!