June 6, 2018
RE/MAX found that home listings can be effective areas for marketing if used properly. Image credit: RE/MAX
While home buying may not be the first thing one thinks of when it comes to ecommerce, an estimate from Re/Max says that almost 90 percent of home buyers shop online.
This represents a drastic shift from how homes were traditionally sold and advertised even just a few years ago. Where once home listings were little more than a list of facts and information about the home, they can now serve as powerful marketing tools of their own, according to Re/Max.
"Online shopping lets buyers view more properties in greater detail than was ever possible in the days of paper listings," said Jeff LaGrange, vice president of the RE/MAX Northern Illinois Region, Oak Lawn, IL.
Luxury real estate
Retailers have long known that today’s consumers are more knowledgeable than ever before.
Thanks to the Internet and mobile devices, customers always have a massive repository of knowledge about any given product with them at any time, allowing them to make informed decisions and on-the-fly research whenever they need to.
Low supply and high demand have helped propel growth around the world. Image credit: Christie's International Realty
However, this trend also applies to real estate. Customers have now done loads of research on a home and the surrounding area as well as on the realtor and anything else that might be relevant before arriving at a showing.
Re/Max believes that online listings can now be used for much more than just giving information. Since so much of that information is already easily available and customers are familiar with it, online listings can be used to attract attention to homes with flashy photography or engaging copy.
As the luxury real estate industry in particular continues to grow in popularity, realtors need all the help they can get in making their homes stand out among the crowd. To do that, Re/Max says they need to stop thinking about their listings as simple fact sheets and begin thinking about them as opportunities for a full aspirational advertising campaign.
Online marketing
This shift in how homes are marketed and sold today coincides with considerable growth in the luxury real estate business.
In 2017, international luxury homes sales had their best annual growth rate in three years.
According to a report from Christie's International Real Estate, luxury home sales around the world were up 11 percent this past year, significantly better than in previous years. This growth was buoyed by a number of factors both political and economic (see story).
The trend elucidated by Re/Max is in line with the strategy seen from many of the big luxury realtors. For example, Real estate broker Douglas Elliman is looking to gain better traction with its marketing through a new hire.
Samantha Yanks, a marketing expert with experience of over 18 years in luxury real estate, fashion and lifestyle content, will be joining the firm as chief marketing officer, overseeing its branding, digital marketing and positioning. She comes to Douglas Elliman from Modern Luxury, where she was most recently editor in chief of the magazines Gotham and Hamptons (see story).
In hiring Ms. Yanks, Douglas Elliman is embracing the trend of making marketing a larger part of the real estate purchasing process.
For luxury home buyers, there is a mountain of options available to them at any given time with lots of homes to sort through before finding the perfect one. As Re/Max sees it, realtors that embrace the power of digital advertising in online listings will find it a great way to stand out from the crowd.
"Online listings have to capture the attention of buyers or the home is less likely to sell, and there are two approaches to do that effectively," Mr. LaGrange said. "One route is to price the home very aggressively.
"That certainly gets buyers' attention. The other is to present the home via an alluring series of photos that make buyers think, 'Gee, that place looks great. Let's ask for a showing.'"
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