Technology Is Changing The Way Homes Are Sold

In all honesty, I can't remember the last time I had a phone call resulting from a newspaper ad. Talk about expensive! You’re looking at approximately a hundred bucks a pop! Newspaper advertising is becoming increasingly ineffective year after year, as people migrate to the internet for “all things real estate”. It has been shown that the #1 reading audience of newspaper real estate sections are sellers. Not surprisingly, the #2 audience are real estate agents. 81% of buyers begin their home search online.

More telling is this quotation taken from The National Association of Realtors 2006 Survey of Home Buyers and Sellers:

"When asked where they first learned about the home purchased, 36 percent of buyers identified a real estate agent; 24 percent the Internet; 15 percent from yard signs; 8 percent from a friend, neighbor or relative; 8 percent home builders; 5 percent a print or newspaper ad; 3 percent directly from the seller; and 1 percent a home book or magazine."

In other words, you are almost as likely to know the person yourself as you are to find your buyer via the newspaper. In short, it’s a big expense that experience and statistics show just doesn't work.

Dirty little secret - newsprint ads and other mainstream print media are designed to create name recognition and attract new sellers for the agents. Think about it: Since sellers are the largest viewers, those ads are nothing more than advertisements for realtor listings. I find spending money on technology and having a more flexible fee structure is a far more efficient approach to sales success. Huge companies can't deviate from the standard fee structure while spending thousands of dollars on ads that are primarily designed to solicit new business.

To sum up: Print media real estate advertising is going “the way of the
Dinosaur”.