If you are able to recall what it was like before the Internet became mainstream, you’d know that marketing real estate was costly if you wanted results. The only marketing options available were newspapers, magazines, flyers, and good old “pounding the pavement.” Now that the Internet has become essential to the real estate industry, the “marketing landscape” has changed for the better.
The result of this new medium, is a more powerful and cost effective method to expose home listings to those looking for them. A quick search on the internet for “Real Estate” will identify a huge number of websites, at last count there were over 300 million web pages connected with Real Estate. This shows just how many real estate firms and associated industries are benefitting from the power of the Internet.
So, where do you start? First, you need to understand that this is a very competitive area, so you need to find a niche, which is an narrow and specialized service that makes you stand out from rest. For example, you may want to go into the rental market, but this is also very competitive. Let analyze what kind of niches there are in this market. One option is to provide a service to property management companies and private landlords. You can also focus on a geographic location. As you go through this process you start to narrow down the field of competition. Once you have identified your niche the next thing is to consider the strategy. How are you going to market your service? What will your services cost? I was in London 2 weeks ago, and noticed an ad for a website on a mini-cab I hired. It was a great example of an established niche. The site is Simple2rent.co.uk, and it focuses on London properties to rent. That happens to be an incredibly competitive market. I learned that intially advertisers could list on the site for free. That makes perfect sense. A site without listings won’t get very much traffic, and people won’t list on a site with little traffic unless it is free. People are only willing to pay if you have something they want. When listing real estate, people want exposure!
Once you do establish your real estate niche you need to remember that the internet marketing is hard work. You can not just set up your website and collect the revenues. You have to continually market and develop your services to keep ahead of the competition. Websites are not a “set it and forget it” type medium. The internet is the most cost effective method of marketing in real estate. That is also the main reason why it is so competitive. Finding the right niche that fits you is key to being successful. Another approach is to provide traditional Real Estate services via the Internet. Since we have been talking about England, I’ll use another example from the area. EnfieldEstates.co.uk is an Enfield Estate Agent service that brings the knowledge of local service and the power of the internet together. Carefully considering all options and assessing your strengths and weaknesses is important to finding the right real estate niche. You need to confident with this decision before you do anything else.
We are happy to introduce our newest Real Estate educator, Tim Leadbetter. Tim hails from the Southeastern United States, and has quite an impressive resume. Tim was a principal of Tega Cay Partners, the development company that built Tega Cay, SC back in the late 1970’s. In 1990, Tim was recognized by Jack Kemp who at the time was the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, for implementing an ingenius solution to the affordable housing problem that plagues this country. In 1991, Tim was named Professional Builder for the Year by the Giant 400. Tim currently owns a boutique realty firm that specializes in the Charlotte Real Estate market. This company has received local recognition for helping people become homeowners.