InternetSearches
Half the
money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know
which half.
John
Wanamaker, (attributed)
US department store merchant (1838 - 1922)
Quick
facts:
- 84% of all buyers start their search
on the Internet.
- The top three Internet sites hit are
Realtor.com, Zillow and Craigslist.
- 3 out of the top 23 searches are for
agents, but these 3 don't even show up before the top eight.
The above information is critical to the sale of your home.
The Realtor you interview to sell your home in Simi Valley
better know these quick facts and better be able to demonstrate how
these facts will impact the sale of your home.
Quickly looking at just Single Family detached homes in Simi Valley,
let me show you how far behind my Simi Valley colleagues are when it
comes to marketing real estate in Simi Valley.
Simi Valley SFD
Active listings YTD = 503 only 19% of these
listings have virtual tour. Pictures are mandatory as a rule
of our MLS, so many agents are forced to include at least one picture.
Simi Valley SFD Expired or Canceled Listings YTD = 255 only
14% of these listings had a virtual tour.
Simi Valley SFD
Active listings between $750,000 and $999,999 = 80 only 25% of these
homes have virtual tours
Simi Valley SFD
Active listings over $1,000,000 = 47 only 43% of these homes have
virtual tours.
I randomly entered the addresses for many of these homes into google to
see how visible these homes are on the Internet and was shocked to see
the only a few search results for each property showing up under the
IDX feeds for brokers other than the listing broker. Many
times the brokerage that owned the listing had no serch results on the
first page of goole results. If you enter one of my listings
like 1107
Mesa Drive Simi Valley into google you will see the whole
first page of search results clearly show that this home is for sale,
including much more than a Virtual Tour.
To bring Mr Wanamaker's quote into a full circle where are these
Realtors failing?
- It is clear the largest pool of home buyers is
found on the Internet
- It is shocking to see that the active Realtors
in Simi Valley are clearly unaware of where these buyers are and how to
market to them.
- It is easy to see that the majority of these
Simi Valley Realtors have no idea where they are wasting their
money.
Virtual tours are very inexpensive these days. Tours of much higher quality than
circlepix can be put together for as little as $5.00 per listing.
Knowing this, it is amazing to see that the Realtors in Simi
Valley are including tours on only one out of five listings.
Now granted, there are some homes that have conditions that
preclude them from a virtual tour, but a 1 out of 5 ratio shows that
there are too many listings that are being left behind.
Even looking in the more expensive range there is a home over
5,000,0000 with no virtual tour and no video, just 10 pictures.
There are many marketing companies on the Internet where all
you have to do is upload the photos for a virtual tour and the cost is
small as I mentioned above. Those of us who are embracing the
web 2.0 home buyer have moved beyond just a virtual tour and now
include a video walk-through.
I just watched a kitchen remodel on the DIY channel a few days ago.
The family bought the home off the Internet. Job
constraints kept this family from looking at any of the homes in person
and they had to do all their shopping online and work with a Realtor
online.
The online revolution is here, you need an advocate that can navigate
this territory and give you a fighting chance in these tough market
conditions.
;)
;)
All your points are spot-on. What amazes me, is the lack of "quality" of the photos that are representing each of the properties when looking in, say for example, realtor.com. With more than 80% of prospective buyers "shopping" via the internet, you would think that EVERY Realtor would want to put their best marketing foot forward for EACH property. - Good Post!