Property Management
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Why REALTORS Must Learn to Trust the Internet
If you are a broker, an association officer or an MLS executive, you want to know how to make your agents more competitive in an increasingly technology-oriented world. The first thing you have to do is help them overcome their fears of the Internet, and the best way to do that is to lead by example. If you are an agent, just beginning to feel your way around the Internet, this article will speak directly to you. Over 18,000 new people a day are getting on the Internet - without lessons or training classes. The fastest growing segment of Internet users are over 50 years of age. If they can do it, any agent can do it, too. The first step is letting agents know that real estate buyers and sellers are already using the Internet. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, three out of four buyers visit the Internet in their home buying quest. According to Realtor.com, the official Web site of the NAR, over 6 million visitors a month visit Realtor.com, which has 95% of available listings. Homes are viewed as much as 130 times a month. Realtor.com estimates that over 12 million visitors a month are visiting online loan and real estate sites. Obviously, the Internet is the place to be to reach homebuying consumers. Yet less than 11 percent of agents actively use the Internet to conduct business, according to recent studies in Florida. These figures are echoed by management figures - only 10% of broker/owner members of the Real Estate Brokerage Managers Council have and use email, I learned in an interview six months ago. If managers haven"t cut over to the Internet, it"s hardly surprising that agents aren"t following. In some recent seminars that I have given about the benefits of using the Internet, I informally polled Realtors to find out why they aren"t using the Internet to enhance their businesses. The five most significant reasons I"ve found that prevent agents from using the Internet are: 1. Fear of being disintermediated 2. Fear of learning something new 3. Fear of losing the personal touch 4. Fear of costs 5. Lack of support from the MLS or the broker Let"s take these fears one at a time and explore the solutions. Fear of being disintermediated Many Realtors believe that the Internet will come between them and the consumer. If the consumer can go on the Internet and do things for herself like shop for homes or shop for a loan, or research home buying strategies, that leaves the Realtor out in the cold. They fear that the value of their services will go down. In fact the opposite is true. The NAR has found that Realtors who use the Internet actually earn more money than nontechnology-oriented Realtors. If an agent uses the Internet, his/her value goes up, because that agent has taken the training, invested in the technology and employs the most state of the art methods to communicate and deliver service to customers. According to a recent survey at RealEstate.com, home buyers are tapping into the Internet. Out of 1,000 buyers polled, 90% plan to use the Internet in some part of the home purchasing process. People aren"t using the Internet just to find homes - they are also using the Internet to eliminate homes, which ultimately save any agent working with consumers time. With very little training, a Web page, a digital camera, and email, an agent can quickly use the Internet to market homes to buyers and show sellers that they know how to get their homes where the buyers are, and putting links to favorite lenders and other service providers is crucial to online transaction management. Indicative of this trend is Prudential Real Estate which just signed a strategic partnership with Chase Manhattan and mortgage.com. Why would they involve an online loan company if they didn"t think that online loans would be preferred by many of their home buyers? Realtors want to be the first point of contact, but it is no longer a question of whom the consumer will call, it is where the consumer will first go for information. The Internet is quickly gaining as the first point of contact for consumers because they can perform a number of searches using the same medium. The only Realtors who will be disintermediated will be the Realtors who aren"t available to help these consumers once they are on the Internet. Also See: Stop Worrying About Disintermediation Fear of learning something new Fear of the Internet is based in lack of understanding how the Internet works and what it really is. Sure you may be only a click away from unpleasant or undesirable content, but the Web is also the residence of legitimate businesses too numerous to count. What makes the Internet unique is that it is the only medium in which a Realtor can advertise homes and services and make contact with the customer instantly. you can"t do that on TV, in the newspaper or on the radio. Two-way communication via the miracle of email is the joy of the Web. And all it takes to be able to do it is a modem, a keyboard, a mouse and a screen and an email program. If you can turn on your computer, and left click your mouse, you can navigate the Web. I believe this fear closely related to losing the personal touch. Realtors have little time to invest in training that doesn"t immediately profit them. And the Internet can seem overwhelming. Although many people use a computer, they don"t realize that on the Internet, much of the work is done for you. Fear of losing the personal touch Realtors are "people persons." They often don"t understand how the old skills like personal service translate to the new online world. How will they be able to retain the personal touch in the high tech cyberworld? Well, nothing could be more personal than instant contact. When a consumer clicks on a home, there are links embedded in the ad that carry the consumer straight to the Realtor’s home page where she will have a chance to show her services, other homes for sale, schools, crime statistics, community information and other areas of interest that will hold the consumer’s attention. The beauty of the whole thing is that this communication tool is virtually free for the consumer and the agent! Email is as important a development to the Realtor as the cellular phone, yet did you know that the number one complaint by online homebuyers about Realtors is that they don’t answer their email? Would you fail to return a call on your cellular phone? You’d be surprised that some Realtors don’t believe that emails are leads, but email replies are considered the gold standard of the Internet. It"s been proven that online buyers will typically work with the first Realtor that responds to their email. If you are into personal service, then you should know that nothing loses the personal touch faster than ignoring an email message. When you get an email, you have a buyer on the hook. Don’t let them get away. Fear of the costs Every time you turn around, someone is hitting you up for money. Now you have to learn a whole new medium - the Internet and it looks expensive. According to the NAR, 90% of Realtors own or lease a personal computer, so buying a computer to access the Internet isn’t a problem for most. Many have Internet access at home for $20 bucks a month or less, so that cost isn’t a big deal. But building a Web presence and advertising on the Web, that’s a different story. But is it? Is Web advertising expensive? It doesn’t have to be. Remember, your listings are already on the Internet for free, reaching over 30% of homebuyers. All you have to do is augment with a personal Web page. You can start with free or cheap Web pages. Realtor.com has just enhanced its Web page, web hosting program called Agent Simple and upgraded it to iLEAD a multiple page Web site. It’s $250 a year, but your Web site will be linked to every one of your listings. This is to compete with HomeAdvisor.com and HomeSeekers.com, two home listing sites that have joined services to give free Web pages to Realtors. A custom site can cost as much as several thousand dollars, but if you stick to template sites, you"ll have a choice of two or three styles. You can upgrade your Web page on HomeSeekers for a nominal cost. You can always get a custom site later. Speaking of costs, what are your classified ads costing you lately? Did you know that there are numerous places on the Web to place free classifieds ads? Try classifieds2000.com. Actually, on the Web, you don’t even need classifieds. Your homes are already on there for free. Add a link to your personal Web page and you are in business. The primary advantage Realtors have on the Internet is a means to generate leads. That is what your Web site can do. Whether you start with a template site, or a custom site, you can add attractive content like school data and homes for sale and other information that most real estate consumers would want to know. Did you know you can probably link to your MLS listings, and if you can"t, you can have your listing created on HomeAdvisor. Just supply the information and you have an instant listing on the site. Instead of creating packet of expensive literature for clients, you can refer them to your Web site for information. You can use your Web site in listing presentations and in buyer’s meetings to demonstrate your services. If you need handouts, you can download material from your site. There are plenty of free things on the Web that you can do to enhance your site. You don"t have to buy content or write your own. Realty Times, www.realtytimes.com, offers their news service free of charge for any agent to put on their site. We also have a monthly newsletter, that you can sign up for that puts your photo and contact information on a monthly newsletter. Every month we send you the link and, and you can send it outPages: [1] 2
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In this technology based world everything depends upon the internet. A realtor must be internet savvy to help the agents and eradicate their fear. Thanks for an awesome content.
03.05.2012