As an independent real estate firm or agent we often don’t have resources (time and money) to research market trends and analyze consumer behavior. So what do we do? I recently read Crash Boom, By Greg Rand (great book—lots of awesome real estate principals) and he suggested following the leaders; for example, if Lowe’s is opening a store, they would do the research to know there will be homebuyers and residents to support it. I think that makes pretty logical sense.
When it comes to your marketing and what you need to be doing, the same principal applies; follow the leaders. Facebook’s (they’ve done a pretty good job at marketing) recent IPO filing shared a lot of interesting statistics about the company. “In December 2011, Facebook had more than 425 million monthly active mobile users—people logging in from the company’s apps and mobile website. That is just over half of its 845 million monthly active users overall.”
Their filing went on to read, “”We are actively seeking to grow mobile usage.” Mobile currently plays a huge role and given what their research has showed, it will only play a bigger role in the future of their business.
The WAV Group Report released Friday, February 3, 2012 featured a Nielsen Profile on Trulia and Zillow; another two leaders in their own right. The profile highlighted the Mobile Internet Demographic for the firms, stating, “One of the biggest changes in real estate technology that has emerged over the past three years is the adoption of mobile search. Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com, Homes.com and others have been outspoken about the volume of visitors searching for real estate property information on these devices. The total audience measured is 45 million. Of this group, Trulia reaches 3.9 percent of the total audience. Zillow reaches 9.6 percent of this audience.
If I have not succeeded in making my point thus far, here it goes; follow the leaders and invest in a mobile solution now if you have not already done so. It is not going anywhere, and will only to continue to grow. Your sellers are aware of how popular mobile is, they see what these “leaders” are doing and want to know what you are doing if you are going to the one representing them in one of the biggest transactions of their life.
Don’t know how to get started on mobile or who to look to for advice? As you may know from reading Monday Morning Mobile, I am a huge believer in Mobile Real Estate ID’s mobile solution for real estate agents (www.MobileRealEstateID.com).
However, if you don’t want to take my word for it, I recently heard about a great way to ask your peers about different technology products and services and recieve unbiased advice from those who use them. There is a new Facebook group you can join called “What Should I Spend My Money On?” started by Jimmy Mackin. Here, you can hear about what your peers are using and what they have to say about the products you are thinking about. If you want to get exclusive offer and deals on all the products you can even join the Frugyl Club (www.Frugyl.com), which is like Groupon for real estate. Check it out—it’s cool.
