How do top real estate agents in Rapid City use the internet to sell homes? 

 ("This ain't your father's real estate!")

The Basics:  What Gets People to Buy Real Estate in Rapid City SD?

Answer: "Buyers get buyers to buy homes."  What I mean by that is, in most every case when some one winds up buying a particular home it is very likely they persuaded themselves.  The most persuasive person to talk a buyer into making an offer on a home is that person.  In fact, many agents I know are careful not to "talk them in to" selecting any specific property, for a variety of legal, ethical and social reasons.

Sure, a good agent may coax a buyer to get off the dime and make a decision about whether to make an offer.  Especially if that buyer may be dissappointed when another buyer buys it out from under their nose.  But in most cases, buyers talk themselves into selecting a particular listing to buy.

So what is the agents' role in facilitating the sell/buy spark?  I believe that for every home there is at least one good-fit buyer somewhere who would be ready and willing to make the offer, if they just knew about it.  So that's one key, I believe, in an agent's role to get people to buy a particular listing.  Our job is to get as many buyers' eyeballs as possible to look at the details in the ad for the listing, then trust those serious buyers to make their decision.

Perhaps in the 1960's era, when I bought my first home, it may have been more conventional then for buyers to go to an agent's office to look for homes, then maybe even be "sold" a home.  But not any more.  The buying decision has shifted full swing to "buyer-centric."  Agents don't sell homes...buyers buy homes.

So, how to get these buyer's eyeballs to come see what's for sale?

We don't.  That's one major shift in "The New Real Estate."  Instead of bringing the buyer to the listing, to be competitive in our sales, we need to take the listings to the buyers.  And the way we must do that is go find where those buyers' eyeballs are, then position the information in front of them

That's where the internet comes in.  We can exploit the growing ubiquity and unanimity of the internet to precisely position our home-sale advertising in front of a specific type of buyer, and at a specific time of the day and week (or even at flex times tuned to the buyer's daily routine).

Internet Advertising:  "If we build it, will they come?"

Too late.  They've already arrived.  Today I spent all day helping a recently retired client couple look at 12 homes among the real estate in Rapid City area for sale.   Those 12 'finalist' shopping-cart homes were culled from a list of about three dozen candidate listings they had already found for themselves, by themselves, on the internet, before they ever called me to help them.  

So how does that explain what new marketing strategies need to be used by a listing-agent to sell homes in "The New Real Estate?"  Simple.  If buyers are surfing all over the web at all hours of the day, then the listing agent needs to become tech-savvy enough to present the seller's best material all over the internet at all hours.  

Grief and Fear

But what are the challenges of grief and fear in trying to advertise with ubiquity on the internet.  Plenty.  In "The New Real Estate" there is far more competition among agents to present their seller-clients' most convincing facts in the most places.  And even if/when an agent can overcome the grief of possible competitive losses, there is always the fear of being beat out tomorrow.  Real estate marketing technology is the scene of an arms race.

Top Three Competitive Strategies for Agents to Sell Homes Better Than Other Agents

First, the listing agent needs to be aware and up to date in knowing where the buyers are.  Where are they logging on, when shopping for homes in the geographic market similar to the new client's listing?  This is an intelligence-gathering step.  In most cases the buyers are on one of the few dozen nationally recognized web sites dedicated to searching for homes for sale.

Second, the agent needs to know the best tools and how to use them, to get the listing's advantage-message delivered to those buyers' web sites.  

Third, the agent needs to know how to 'convert' the online buyer prospect to a living, breathing, motivated consumer.  This is a social skill.

The Whole Package

Like the quote above, "This ain't your father's real estate."  Today's agent needs to be a market researcher, technician, and social-networking master of human engagement.  And that is the tough part.  It is rare to find an individual these days who is both an adept technician and outstanding socially oriented person.  So when you do find one, and she or he is helping you find real estate in Rapid City, then you've found one of the top real estate agents in the Rapid City market.

Find your Black Hills dream home at Rapid City Search .com