Real Estate Marketing SEO Blog

Their Loss is Your Gain

Exodus:

From Lasner:

The state Department of Real Estate reported that by the end of 2009, 503,284 people had California real estate licenses — down 29,247 or 5.5% from the end of 2008. December’s agent total was the lowest monthly total since May 2006.

Still, California had one real estate agent for every 25 households in the state by the end of 2009.The decline in agents has led to slightly less competition …

• In 2007, when to total number of people with real estate licenses peaked at 549,244, the state had one agent for every 23 households in the state.
• At the start of the decade, however, there 38 households for every real estate licensee.
• Put another way, California had one agent for every 76 men, women and children in the state in December.
• That compares to one per 69 residents in 2007, when the number of licensees peaked. But that’s down from 112 at the start of the decade.

State figures show further:

• Starting in 2000, California saw an uninterrupted increase in the number of real estate agents for 7 1/2 years while home sales and prices boomed.
• But well into the housing slump, the number of agents began a two-year drop.
• During that time, broker licenses held steady, while the number of “sales agents” — those who must be employed by a broker to work — fell 12%.
• California had a record 398,716 sales agents in November 2007. By last December, there were 350,870 sales agents.

We see this across the nation. The players are lasting the test of time.  Hang in there. The fakers are almost all gone.

A Paid Link Gets Me This House

BIGresearch’s Simultaneous Media Survey (SIMM 11) provides clarity on who uses sponsored links and their influence to purchase.   Of 15,727 respondents,1 in 10 (9%) said they are influenced or greatly influenced by sponsored links when searching for products/services on the Internet.

How many will buy a home in the next 6 months? Read on......

Who is Affecting Your 2008?

We have finished the two part exclusive interview with Stefan Swanepoel. His Trends Report for 2008 is in book stores now and is a Must Have desktop reference guide.

Stefan Swanepoel takes us thru the top real estate newsmakers of 2007 and how they are affecting the real estate industry in 2008 and beyond. Listen here online or download it for your pod.

Part 1

Part 2

Show notes for Stefan Swanepoel Top Ten News Makers for 2007. Get this terrific resource today.

Who Is Selling All That Real Estate

Who is selling all that property?

With all the doom and gloom out there, did you know that 2006 is on pace to be the third highest transactional year.

National Association of Realtors (NAR), 2006 is on pace to be the 3rd best year in history for transaction volume. Despite flat & in some cases declining home values, property is transacting. 

So why are many agents/brokers feeling a pinch?

Because NAR says that the number of Realtors has more than doubled. There simply is less volume to go around. In an earlier post I mentioned that in California there is 1 real estate licensee for every 52 adults. Basically, that is like one agent for every other block.

Read my last post and how buyers and sellers pick an agent mostly because of personal contact.

Myth:The Internet is not a method to lesson the need for personal contact. Last I checked, it is still illegal to put a house up for sale into an online shopping cart. So if you cannot sell the house online, then what is your reason for being online?

That question often is never answered. Yet, it should be the first question one asks themselves before embarking onto a marketing campaign.

The web is indeed a way to have people opt-into your most valued offerings. Once they are into your world, then you are able to add more value and more value with the goal of personal contact for a real conversation and consultation.

Its Raining Realty Agents!

I feel like I just recently posted that there was one agent for every 75 people in California. I even put it into my presentations.

"At one time there was an agent on every corner with a website, now there is an agent on every other driveway with three websites or more!".

Well, time to pull out the metaphor book again.

It seems that there is now 495,000 licensed agents in Cali. The state now boasts a licensed agent for every 52 adults, the California Department of Real Estate reported.

"The level of interest in real estate licensure is unprecedented," said Jeff Davi, the department's commissioner, in a statement.

Men and Women Surfing Habits Differ

The Pew Internet & American Life Project's report, "How Women and Men Use the Internet," finds online differences between the women and men.

Male online users increased to 68 percent in 2005.
Women users increased to 66 percent.

Young women, ages 18-29, are more likely to go online than men of the same age group.
86 percent of Young women, ages 18-29, uses the Internet, compared to 80 percent of young males.

The over 65 group has 34 percent of men using the internet, while 21 percent of women are online.

70 percent of White men are more likely to use the Web & 67 percent of white women regularly go net surfing. 

60 percent of black women use the Web, while 50 % of black men go online

The percentage of English-speaking Hispanic women online women has gone to 66 percent. While men are up to 67 percent.

75 percent of married or living-as-married women surf, while 72 percent of married and living-as-married men are online, compared to their single counterpart which is online 62 percent.

Kids equal more online time. 80 percent of parents with kids under 18 use the Web compared to 60 percent of those without children under the age of 18. Clickz has asome good graphs to explain it all.

On Domain Names

When we first go online, often we buy a jillion domain names. I often find my Search Engine Marketing Clients will buy a bunch of names that represent various areas of their marketplace.

Many of them have taken the URL's and have created redirects to their real hosted domain. Some of my clients thought that this might even be useful for a search engine campaign. It isn't. And in fact, if done wrongly could hurt your real URL.

The redirect is created with the hope that someone might type your url into the browser. After managing and running thousands of search campaigns. I can tell you it is pretty much a poor use of a good domain.

A better use, in my experience is to take the domain. Host it on a cheapy host with simple tracking and use it for your off line ads.

This will solve your problem of knowing what is causing your traffic from the offline world. Because your logs in your main URL will now be from your redirect page. And your redirect page show traffic.

You will have to set up your redirect properly so that it does show your clicks. But that is simple programming. Now you can also track your offline ads in seperate parts of your market.

Reasons to charge more commission!

As an ex-California Realtor, I have always joked that there is an agent for every corner in California.

Well I just saw that:

1. Nearly 2 % of Californian adults hold a real estate license to sell residential property in the state.

2. So far this year, there has been over 135,000 real estate exams administered in California.

3. Since the beginning of 2004, California sales volume have gone up by 2%,  the population of agents grew 26%.

If you think the market is soft, maybe it because there are less transactions available per agent, and not really a soft market.

Here is an interesting thought. While the market has increased in value, many naysayers say that realty agents are over payed. Yet, your competition has gone up by 26%!

Not to mention, the fees you charge are often making up for that deal that fell out of escrow, or the buyer or seller that jumped ship after you spending hours and hours with them.

Don't let the naysayers chisel you down!