Spotlight on Real Estate Marketing
NAR Statistics Continue to Prove Value of Digital Tools
Periodically NAR (National Association of Realtors) surveys home buyers and puts out a report called "Real Estate in a Digital Age." At first glance, the 2019 report seems to say pretty much the same thing the 2017 report said - buyers use technology to find a home.
44% of all buyers still look online as the first step in their home buying process - before they contact an agent or think about financing. The typical buyer still takes 10 weeks to decide on a home and visits 10 homes in the process. In 2019, 93% of all buyers used the internet in their search and 87% considered images as one of the most important factors in their search. Both of these numbers are within 2% of the 2017 report.
Mobile Search
One of the biggest changes in this year's report is the number of buyers who found their home online. In the 2017 report, NAR reported 58% of the buyers who used mobile found their home online. Not surprisingly, that percentage went up 18%, but the verbiage for the percentage also changed dramatically.
No longer does NAR talk about this figure in terms of the number of buyers who use mobile, instead they just said 76% of all buyers found their home on a cellphone or tablet. Did you hear that? 76% of all buyers found their home on a mobile device.
This statistic tells you exactly where you should spend your money when marketing your listing. 93% of all buyers are going to look for their home online and 76% of them are going to find that home on a cellphone or tablet.
And what are those people looking at? Photos and video!! One of the most important things an agent can do for a listing is provide high quality images. We can help you with that.
Let's Get Social
Then the NAR turned to agents and asked them about where they got their leads. 47% said social media was the best source for high quality leads. Not magazines, newspapers, postcards, cold calls, networking, grocery carts or park benches. Social media is king. You do know we can help you with that too, don't you?
Other strong contenders include the MLS, which 32% said was a good source and the brokerage's website, which 29% recommended. If you take a look at social media, you'll see that agents are sharing to social media from the MLS and their brokerage websites, so the importance of these three assets cannot be overemphasized.
Overwhelmingly agents recognized Facebook as the most used social network - 97%, in fact. However, you might be surprised to know that next in line was Linked In at 59%. Do you have a Linked In account? Are you using it? Instagram is only used by 39% of agents. Are they missing an opportunity?
Up in the Air
If you use professional drone images in your listings then you know what a great tool they can be, just like 29% of all agents. Another 5% of agents actually fly their own drones. 14% of agents plan to use drones in the future. So, almost 50% of agent are using or are planning to use drones in their listings. We think that means drones are here to stay and yes, our photographer is commercially licensed by the FAA.
A Word About Video
In the 2019 NAR report, photography and videography are lumped into one category - images. However, chances are this will be changing, because other sources like Biteable.com list statistic after statistic which indicate consumers prefer video to still images, such as:
Social media posts with video have 48% more views.
62% of people said they were more interested in a product after seeing it in a Facebook Story.
Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and image content combined.
Video campaigns on LinkedIn have 50% view rates.
By 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic — 15 times higher than it was in 2017.
A Facebook executive predicted that their platform will be all video and no text by 2021.
YouTube is the second most popular website after Google.
So, maybe it's time you add video to your arsenal. We'd love to help you do that.
Whatever your marketing needs - real estate photography/videography/drones, social media management or other online marketing tools, call us at 972-971-5263. We can help.