As surfing the Internet becomes second nature to most Americans, the medium continues to grow in strength as a marketing tool, especially among real estate agents, according to a recent study by the media research company Borrell Assoc.
The Internet has become the most powerful consumer research tool in the process of selling real estate, according to the company’s “2005 Update: Online Real Estate Advertising.” And most Connecticut Realtors have long since jumped on the bandwagon, although letting go of traditional advertising – like advertising in newspapers – has been slow to happen.
At North Haven-based H. Pearce Real Estate Co., Realtors advertise in both ways, according to Maureen Campbell, vice president of corporate and relocation services.
“We have to wean the agents and the clients off the idea that if they don’t see their house in the paper, it means we’re not doing anything,” she said.
Online ‘Shift’
But even though many of the old advertising traditions are still in place, H. Pearce has made inroads into the world of online advertising. A few years ago the company started ctopenhouses.com, a Web site devoted to the dates and times of open houses across the state, and descriptions of the homes. The site is not branded with the H. Pearce name, and the company has invited other Realtors to use the site. H. Pearce hoped it would be an alternative to newspaper advertising, but instead the company’s Realtors ended up using both the Web site and the newspaper classifieds.
The company also does a lot of traditional advertising, like direct mail, to draw people to ctopenhouses.com and to the company’s own Web site. It also advertises on television. But as far as H. Pearce’s advertising budget goes, the company still spends a larger percentage on newspaper ads than on online advertising, according to Campbell.
“It’s such a competitive business and it’s what the sellers are used to,” she said.
But marketing a home online can be effective, according to Borrell’s report. At any given time, about 1 percent of the adult population is seeking to buy a new home, and, in April, nearly 20 percent had visited a real estate site, according to the report.
But overall, real estate advertising has not reflected those statistics. Borrell projected that $11.4 billion – 2.2 percent more than last year – will be spent on advertising. Real estate companies are, however, spending more of their budgets on online advertising than on ads in newspapers, homes magazines, direct mail and directories, according to Borrell.
At Coldwell Banker in Connecticut, Realtors place importance on advertising on the Internet. They cite National Association of Realtors statistics like the 2004 profile of homebuyers and sellers that showed 74 percent of home shoppers use the Internet as part of their search, and that 40 percent more homebuyers use the Internet instead of newspapers at some point during their search.
“Certainly, the Internet and computers today are affecting all of our lives,” said Debbie Pace, vice president of marketing and previews. I think the shift has been happening for the last couple of years.”
Coldwell Banker in Connecticut therefore markets its regional Web site with direct mail and also places traditional institutional ads, which send a message about the company rather than advertising specific homes for sale.
The trend toward online advertising and marketing also can help Realtors. Coldwell Banker uses a system called LeadRouter, which is used by many companies owned by Cendant, including Sotheby’s and Coldwell Banker, to track interested homebuyers and to allow Realtors to return their messages faster. LeadRouter converts a consumer’s e-mail message into voice and calls a sales associate’s cell phone within 10 seconds to relay the message.
Weichert Realtors, which has seven offices in Connecticut, has a similar setup. The company launched Weichert Lead Network about two years ago. As part of the network, a 40-person call center – open seven days a week – answers consumers’ phone calls and, through a special technology platform, responds to e-mails within a minute or two.
The call center representatives gather information from consumers – such as the type of property they’re seeking and the location they’re interested in – and as the information is entered, a computer system dials an appropriate agent. If the agent is unavailable, the system automatically contacts another agent, continuing the process until an associate who can accept the lead is located. The agent is then connected with the customer.
H. Pearce uses the Internet for more than selling homes. The company has started using Monster.com to recruit new employees, and also has a real estate simulator on its own Web site to give prospective Realtors an idea of what the job is all about.
