Move’s commitment to data accuracy is a critical part of the company’s culture. “The industry has a lot of initiatives going on at the moment around data management,” says Glass. “The accurate dissemination of data is a core tenant of Move, and data on realtor.com and ListHub has always made accuracy a top priority.”
Hosack echoes the importance of accuracy. “We pulled off of Zillow nine months ago for accuracy reasons,” he says. “We’re still on Trulia, but we’re monitoring that constantly. When data isn’t accurate, we hear it from consumers who get frustrated when they see a home for sale online that really isn’t for sale, or when they use a mortgage calculator, but it doesn’t include property taxes, so they end up not being able to afford the home they think they can afford. The worst outcome is when their negative experience leads them to think ‘we shouldn’t move; I don’t even want to deal with this.’ That’s a big disservice to the public and that’s why achieving accuracy with the data is critical.”
Camp agrees that data accuracy is a critical piece of the puzzle. “More and more brokers have woken up to realize what the true value of their information is and how to deliver it in meaningful ways to the consumer,” he says. “Realtor.com is investing in creating that positive experience and understands that at the end of the day, if you’re going to create a meaningful experience for consumers, the information has to be accurate and useful. We don’t want to align with an entertainment site; we want to align with a site that will complement our own site and be useful to consumers, and one that supports our industry and our trade.”
And the proof is in the pudding: Quality data translates directly to more business for agents. According to addendum questions posed in NAR’s 2014 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 17 percent more homebuyers found their agent on realtor.com than on Zillow, 133 percent more than on Trulia, and 250 percent more than on Homes.com.
In it for the Long Haul
As the portal drama plays out, Move will remain focused on one thing: Leveraging technology, especially mobility and big data, to deliver tools that give REALTORS® the insight they need to be more productive. And the real estate professional will always remain front and center.
“We’re going to continue to make realtor.com a more vibrant brand and a very high-energy company,” says O’Hara. “We’ve been good and now we’re going to be even better and that will serve both REALTORS® and consumers well.”
The Lifecycle of the Lead
“What I like about realtor.com® is that it’s providing information that’s driven toward the transaction-ready consumer,” says Andy Camp, general manager of Cutler Real Estate. “When we have engagement through realtor.com®, it is very meaningful and people are active in the home-buying process, not just looking around because they’re curious, or snooping for information.”
In order to capitalize on this audience of transaction-ready consumers, Move provides an end-to-end solution for brokers and agents designed to turn leads into closed transactions, as well as repeat and referral business.
“The industry creates a lot of leads across realtor.com® broker and agent sites, and people are starting their home search further and further out,” says Luke Glass, EVP of Industry Platforms for Move. “No agent is going to be able to effectively follow-up without professional-grade tools and marketing campaigns to keep connected to the consumer during the home search. We’ve built those systems so that it’s effortless for the agent.”
Among the several lead conversion tools Move offers are:
– FiveStreet: Delivers leads in real-time with consumer responsiveness at its core
– Market Snapshot: Allows agents to communicate directly with their buyers and sellers by providing real-time market analytics to elevate their connection and capabilities in clients’ eyes
– Top Producer: Drives repeat and referral business by streamlining customer follow-up during the home search process and homeownership
– Connection for Co-Brokerage and TigerLead: Delivers an advertising product that provides industry leading insights into the consumer’s search behavior when they reach out to an agent
“Our belief has always been that the Internet lead is very perishable,” says Tom Hosack, president of Northwood Realty. “If the listing agent doesn’t respond right away, we get the lead to an agent who will respond.”
To that end, Hosack recently incorporated FiveStreet into his firm’s lead conversion repertoire, which sends an automatic response that lets the lead know that someone is following up and will be in touch soon. “We believe the responses from FiveStreet, which are more human than an auto-responder, give us a little more control to get the lead out quicker and ensure a better conversion rate,” he explains.
Move is also crunching data to help brokers and agents understand where a consumer is in the buying process, says Robison. “Both lead quantity and lead quality are important,” he admits, “but putting the right offering in front of the right consumer at the right time with the right agent, really makes a difference in terms of conversion.”
Of course, a seamless mobile component is a must. “Data tells us that most consumers are doing deep research on their tablet or laptop, but they also don’t want to miss anything when they’re on-the-go, so they rely on their smartphones,” says Robison. “We’ve created a more unified experience across all those devices. It’s not a mobile versus Web strategy—our mobile strategy is our web strategy.”
For more information, visit www.realtor.com.