Real Estate Marketing Blog

RSS and Real Estate

34 % of global respondents to a March social media survey from Universal McCann said they had "ever" subscribed to an RSS feed. That represents a large jump from the previous year's findings, when the agency found just 15 percent said they had subscribed to a feed. The data were gathered from 17,000 Internet users in 29 countries, aged 16 to 54.

The Big but is that the U.S. ranks far down on the RSS useage list, with penetration of only 18.6 %.

RSS is heavily accessed in Russia (57 %), Brazil (55 %) and China (54 %t). Only 25 % of U.S. respondents who use RSS said they access feeds daily while  35 % get them weekly and 16% monthly. 

Marketing for Real Estate Business

In a normal market, there is only two choices for a Realtor to do:

1. Wait for business
2. Market for business

I will pick door number two Drew.

Part of marketing is selling value. When all you are used to selling is price then that really isn't selling. Value is the inherent benefits of homeownership. Make a list. Blogs are perfect for selling your local area.

And if you happen to be waiting on the market to shift, or if you need some uplifting real estate news. Check out PositiveonRealEstate.com. I have been posting good stuff in this site for months now. You can too if you like, just register and you can even get on the mailing list as I do marketing trainings once in a while.

Also, Bernice Ross does some great commentary of the market in her email newsletters and podcasts. She offers real positive stats in her most recent cast:The good news in the foreclosure numbers that the press did not report--you won't believe the two states where foreclosure numbers were down for the first time in months! 

These are things to load you up on good info that your prospects simply are not getting about real estate. In fact, Bernice's newsletter alerted us that the numbers that the public are getting and negging out about are actually false numbers. 

So be sure to put good powerful information into your skull instead of all the crap being said out there these days. Because, if you do not fully believe in real estate, how is your prospect going to believe?Oh one more cool resource. Check out the interview we did with Dave Lakhani. (His book is out by the way and from what have read so far it is amazing).

Web is Not Important for Purchase

A new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project tracks the decision-making processes for buying music, purchasing a cell phone, and buying or renting a home.

Even though many buyers use the internet research products, surprisingly few say online information had a major impact on their behavior. Only 7% of music buyers, 10% of cell phone buyers, and only 11% of those who bought or rented a home in the prior year say that online information had a major impact on their decision.

29% did say they thought online information helped them save money on the house they bought or apartment they rented.

My Take:

I have helped to market many websites that have in my opinion the best out of the box CRM functioning in the business. However, I do not believe that any of these real estate agents, (my clients or those I have witnessed) really use the CRM functions at any level of sophistication, basically turning it on with plug n' play pre-written letters.

I believe with all the leads captured, agents could have created relationships thru a good CRM system. Instead these prospects are obviously harvesting the Realtor websites for all the market information, and then buying offline from someone else. Rendering the websites as charity cases. They didn't even send those agents flowers.

It is for this reason that I believe that the anemic consumer loyalty to the source of their online real estate education is as high as it is.

I also believe that it will only get worse as the noise continues to play out online.  The home sale takes place offline and the vast majority of your prospects are not conversing online and hanging out in realty forums and blogs.

They are at Soccer practice, at work and their real community. The conversation that matters to you, if it is happening at all online is in local oriented groups of blogs and forums. Not at yours or someone elses website. So if you are not capturing them, and then engaging them with more email marketing, is it any wonder such a small percentage buys because of their online research?

Trash the Pre-Written Systems

If you are capturing leads (if you are not, why not?) then for goodness sakes create direct response marketing sequences that engage and enthuse your prospect to use you.

I know this is the opposite of what the gurus are teaching about web 2.0 and such. But the numbers listed above are what they are.

A Confession

Links forgive the sins of your website. Time to go to confession?

Engines and Websites

I was just reminded of an SEO rule today that I am not sure if most people understand. That is that search engines rank pages not websites.

Each page that you own is an opportunity at traffic. That is one reason a blog does well if it is updated. The main page changes and you are creating new pages with each new post.

Are You Number One in Google in Your Own Mind?

Is checking your Google positions your favorite time killer?

Come on be honest, doncha love just typing in "Your City" real estate and reveling in your ultra high position? Well, if that is true then make sure you sign out of your Google account because you are going to probably show higher than when you sign out of Google.

The reason is that Google is tracking your visits to your own site, and as part of its personalized search algo is positioning your site (that you visit all the time), a higher position than the regular results (which is where your prospects will come from). It does this by tracking your hits or clicks.

Prices are Going Up?

I guess it is all in whose stats you read.

This from Coaching Clues Newsletter: The Sky Is Not Falling!

They point out that despite the media darling Case-Shiller index, the better indicator of the indices is provided by OFHEO (the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight), Realogy and NAR. These three organizations seem to validate one another's results.

They all have come to the same conclusion: 

"Overall U.S. prices were UP 0.6 percent....In other words, a whopping 77 percent of the areas in the U.S. reported a price increase in January 08 - February 08! The Case-Shiller Index, in contrast, concludes that 95 percent of the MSA's reported negative returns. "

Bernice has been at the forefront on preaching the positivity as we have at positiveonrealestate.com.

I believe that this economic situation is way overblown and so is the housing crisis. It cannot be a meltdown when you continually hear of multiple offers occurring across the country.

By blogging and posting great real estate news you can help counter the negative impressions that get published daily in the traditional media. You can be a leader and can help form the public impression on housing.

More Info:

Dave Lakhani Ends the Recession

Another reason

I recently wrote on the housing crisis. But what I failed to mention was the Realtor Bubble. Like in the State of California where I can literally walk to two blocks and chances are that one of those homes I pass will house a licensee.

The current stats in California is 1 in 53 adults in California has a real estate license. Mike Ferry used to joke they hand 'em out at the DMV with your drivers license.

The stats are only a bit better across the country. When there is less deals and more agents, well you do the math and maybe that will help you figure out why there are less deals on the board.

When the industry treats their licensing like an MLM invitation it can only cause a worsening image for the agent, and mean less deals per agent.

The Biggest Dollar Demographic in Your Future

This in from the Wall Street Journal:

• Hispanics now account for more than 15% of the U.S. population
• Hispanics control more disposable income than any other minority group. The figure stands at $860 billion a year and is expected to hit $1.3 trillion by 2012.
• Between 2000 and 2007, 16 states -- among them West Virginia, Illinois and New Jersey -- saw their white population decline, according to the new Census data. Over the same period, whites accounted for a majority of population growth in only 11 states.
• According to the Pew Research Center, whites are projected to make up only 45% of the working-age population in 2050, down from 68% in 2005.
• The center projects that the share of Hispanics in the working-age population will double rising from 14% to 31%.

FROM WSJ

If this is not a wake up call to take the Hispanic Demographic more, seriously I do not know what is.