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Don’t let Google take your Real Estate Clients without a Fight

Friday, Jul 31, 2009

Courtney Huckabay

 

I ran across an Advertising Age article which — unfortunately — purports that realtors and realty agencies are making a mass exodus from newspapers and flocking to the Internet … permanently. Ugh.

It looks like Realogy is the leader of the pack, with 3 of its brands making major Web and social media pushes. As MST reported earlier in the year, Century 21 moved all of its national TV advertising dollars to the Internet in January. According to TNS Media Intelligence, “Realogy spent 31.7% less on measured media in 2008, down to $129.3 million from $189.4 million in 2007. And more than half of the decrease, $31.8 million, came out of newspapers. At the same time, Realogy upped its Internet spending 29% to $8.6 million.”

Sure, Internet’s cheaper, but it’s also where the homebuyers hang out. The articles sites that, “Nearly 9 in 10 homebuyers used the Internet as an information source, and 1 in 3 found a home on the Internet, according to 2008 data from the National Association of Realtors.”

OK, here’s the pep talk. It’s not all sunny-side-down for newspapers. Focus on your Web aspects, for Pete’s sake! Yeah, no one reads Real Estate Listings at the dining room table on Sundays anymore. Boohoo, no one circles dream homes with a red pen anymore. Sell your paper’s Internet listings in addition to print! Pitch for a digital special section on local homes/condos for sale! It’s overwhelming (and visually boring) to search for homes on the MLS — make it easier and condensed on your Web site!

Ad Age writes that homebuyers are looking for blogs, virtual tours and help in finding homes. Take that in a new direction — supplement your realtors’ sites. Get an agent to write an advice column or blog about local properties exclusively on YOUR paper’s site, with listings YOU sold! Most papers already do this — so why are ad sales slipping away? Make your offerings DIFFERENT! Don’t be just another search engine. Don’t post just videos of home builders’ commercials. Remember, homeshoppers want advice, not a sales pitch.

Or, take a different real-estate angle altogether. Sell to rental communities and property-management companies. With so many foreclosures, this should be a HOT market for you to step up your rental listings. Spice up your rental ads to compete with the Apartment Guides and For Rent magazines. Your paper’s digital rental options could blow their Web sites away and become a new destination for renters.

It’s a Google world for everything else, but it doesn’t have to be for real estate. Ad Age talked to Sam Sebastian, director of classifieds and local advertising at Google, who said he has “conversed with more real-estate clients in the past 4 months than he used to in a year and a half.” Those are individual agents you could be lining up. Local realtors still make media-buying decisions. Mort Goldstrom, VP-advertising for the Newspaper Association of America, said he thinks some ad dollars will return to print when the real-estate market turns around. He believes, “A real-estate company’s site alone won’t do it. The site is a branding tool and a listing tool, but you have to get to it,” and so should you.

[Source: Miley, Marissa. "Real-Estate Ads Find New Home on Web in Recession." Advertising Age. June 1, 2009.]

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  • S. Harlan

    Ok. So maybe I’m still a bit partial as a newspaper employee, but I think you’re going too far when you say, “no one reads Real Estate Listings at the dining room table on Sundays anymore.” People do still do browse that way. It helps them get started, helps to identfiy brokers, helps to see some of the FSBO listings, etc. Too many people have jumped on the “newspapers are dead” bandwagon. Unless we adjust our perspective and remember what valuable services we provide, both in print and online, continued declines in our print products will contine to become a self-fulfulling prophesy. It’s time to get creative and energetic again about all of our products.

  • http://www.admall.com Courtney Huckabay

    I think we actually are in agreement, for the most part, S. Harlan. Maybe “NO ONE” was a little strong, but readership has declined. FAR too many of us in the industry and outside it have jumped on the bandwagon — as you say — and that’s why I was trying to motivate and inspire belief in newspaper relevance in a Google-obsessed society. I could not agree more with your perspective about the self-fulfilling prophesy! Thanks for posting your insightful comments.