Homesellers Look Beyond Traditional Real Estate Marketing
Posted by 
Al Filippone on Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Homesellers Look Beyond Traditional Methods and Town Borders in Search of Buyers
The “Three P’s” are no longer effective
There was a time, not too long ago, where finding a buyer for your home was relatively uncomplicated. Hire a realtor who would place it on the Multiple Listing Service, conduct an open house for the members of that service, place a photo ad in the local newspaper and voila…a buyer appeared.
In recent years there has been a dramatic shift in those dynamics. And it’s not simply a manifestation of a downturn in the economy. The change gradually began a decade ago, impacted largely by the internet boom. Up until that time, print advertising accounted for as much as 16% of the buyers. Since then there has been a steady decline in that number, and a recent survey conducted by the National Association of Realtors shows that percentage down to a dismal 3%. NAR Home Buyer and Seller Survey Shows Rise in First-Time Buyers … The same study shows that 32% of the buyers learned of the availability of the home that they eventually purchased via the internet. Another 34% was told about the home that they purchased by a realtor and surprisingly enough 15% found the home that they purchased by seeing the For Sale Sign. Quick math indicates that those three venues account for 81% of all buyers.
An analysis of currently pending sales in Darien, Ct., a gorgeous suburb of New York City that prides itself in maintaining its own MLS, suggest that sales there are in line with another trend discovered in the study’s finding. Almost 30% of those properties where sold by a realtor from an office located outside the town borders.
It doesn’t take hours of analysis to realize that, moving forward, your realtor’s marketing efforts must now focus on the internet, social networking and email (either directly to the buyer or via the buyer’s realtors) in order to procure the most successful sale. It sounds obvious but the “Three P Approach” (Place it on the MLS, Put up a sign and Place an ad in the newspaper) envisioned by many sellers is fast becoming a strategy that is doomed to failure.
