A study was released today by VHT, Inc. that shows a direct correlation between agent spending and their average listing price.
After surveying more than 1,300 real estate agents and brokers nationwide, VHT has reported that the longer an agent has been in the business, the more money they are spending on marketing each individual listing. For example, newer agents spent an average of $675 to market a listing and agents who have been in the industry for more than five years spent $864.
In addition to spending, an agent’s longevity also corresponds to more listings, including higher priced properties. As a direct result, these agents are spending more and paying more attention to the visual representation of their properties including professional photography and video.
The biggest gripe: Most agents reported that regardless of their spending, they were faced with the challenge of tracking results and managing multiple input forms and having to re-enter listing information for each media outlet.
Online Vs. Print:
Another interesting finding of the study shows that only 20.4 percent of agents feel that newspaper advertising was “effective” compared to 49 percent who feel that online ads are “very effective.” However, 92.4 percent of agents surveyed said that their sellers mention newspaper ads as important in promoting their property.
The Good News: By using single property Websites, agents can affordably (under $50.00) present a property with its own Website and domain name, AND save money in their print advertising by referencing the property Website address (e.g., www.123AnySt.com) instead spending money on valuable space for property descriptions.
The benefits of single property Websites in light of this survey are:
- Affordable, elegant online representation of the listed property
- Savings in print ads by directing buyers to the Website (saving space and eliminating the need for expensive descriptive text), so you can still make your sellers happy by including them in the newspaper.
- Statistics and tracking – see how many visits the single property Website is getting, and even know what search terms are used to find the property and what domains are directing the buyers to your listing.
- Time Savings: One-stop, submission to Realtor.com, Craigslist and Google (rated by surveyed agents as the top national Websites) as well as other real estate portals like Homescape, PropSmart, Yahoo!, Trulia and Oodle.
For more information on AgencyLogic’s single property Website solution for agents and for brokers, visit: www.AgencyLogic.com
