Our Guide to Selecting a Winning Agent

Make sure you select a winning agent!

I’ve posted regularly about the essential criteria home owners need to cover with any potential real estate agent prior to appointing them to sell their home.

I’ve now collated this information into “Select A Winning Agent” available in eBook format and hard copy from the office.

In Select a Winning Agent, I outline how a vendor must focus on the facts and not the promises or perceptions of a real estate agent.

Topics Covered in Select a Winning Agent:

• Preparatory Research
• Preparing for your first agent meeting
• Questions you MUST ask an agent
• Tips to avoid sales “conditioning” by the agent
• Being aware of undermining tactics by a sales agent
• Enuring you have trust and transparency

For your FREE copy of Select a Winning Agent, email selectawinningagent@riverviewrealty.com.au and we will email you a copy.

regards,

Andrew Bruce 

Riverview Realty is a boutique agency focused on achieving the maximum price, with a client engagement that is above the industry standard.  We call it the “Ultimate Experience” which forms part of our unique selling proposition.

Ph. 02 9420 0083, 59 Tambourine Bay Road, Riverview.

You’re welcome to connect with us on social media: 

 

 

Real Estate website traffic: The numbers don’t add up

In previous posts we’ve highlighted the differences between boutique agents such as ourselves and  the major franchises.

In Selecting a selling agent: Brand vs Boutique we noted that:

The big agencies are quick to advertise they offer more than what a boutique agency can. “National network, local knowledge” or “tap into our network of buyers” is often used in the sales pitch. The reality is that the majority of the real estate marketing is now beholden to the two large digital advertising sites RealEstate.com.au and Domain.com.au. Both these sites are in the Top 50 Australian websites by traffic*. Many of the traffic rankings for the big franchises are well outside the top 1000 websites.

In The Importance of Digital and Social Media Marketing we revealed:

Digital marketing of a property is nothing new. Websites such as Domain.com.au and RealEstate.com.au have been around for over 10 years and are in the top 50 Australian websites by traffic and can’t be ignored in a real estate campaign. Around 95% of purchasers seek property via these two websites through different touch points including traditional PCs or laptops, tablets and smart phones.

We’ve done a bit more research:

We’ve done a bit more research and can report that all the major branded real estate websites have on average:

• 8 daily page views per visitor
• Visitors spend 2.31 minutes on their site.

Now, I’m not suggesting our web traffic is any better ( it could actually be worse) but what I am suggesting is that as we’ve mentioned previously, Domain.com.au and RealEstate.com.au are the most popular real estate listing websites. I’d much prefer a property we’re marketing be found through either of these sites as opposed to RiverviewRealty.com.au – because that’s what we’re paying for!

Consider those average numbers above. To give you some comparison:

Realestate.com.au is the 17^th most visited website in Australia and has:

• 12 daily page views per visitor
• Visitors spend over 11 minutes on the site

Domain.com.au is the 40^th most visited website in Australia and has:

• 5 daily page views per visitor
• Visitors spend close to 7 and a half minutes on the site.

So next time a selling agent talks about their website and the hits they get, consider these numbers.  I’d bet their numbers don’t add up!

*Website data compiled from www.Alexa.com

regards,

Andrew Bruce and Samia Malouf

Riverview Realty is a boutique agency focused on achieving the maximum price, with a client engagement that is above the industry standard.  We call it the “Ultimate Experience” which forms part of our unique selling proposition.

Ph. 02 9420 0083, 59 Tambourine Bay Road, Riverview.

You’re welcome to connect with us on social media: 

Twitter – Facebook – VIMEO – Pinterest –LinkedIn

Social Media: Contributing to the community

A recent article posted on REBonline.com.au deals with the subject of real estate agent’s use of social media. I’ve posted on the subject previously, and have been quoted about its use by agents for RealEstate.com.au.

Samia and Andrew – Riverview Realty

Here at Riverview Realty, we began our content and social engagement with a strategy to share our expertise on real estate and also shed light on the community in which we live and work. Sure, we do share our recent listings across our platforms, but we would like to think that our experience, expertise and involvement in our great local community that encompasses Lane Cove, Longueville, Northwood and Riverview is much more exciting than anything else. Our recent Pink Ribbon Morning Tea is an example of that.

Further to this, we’ve blogged about real issues: Choosing an agent, tips for selling your home, tips for landlords, and what makes a great auctioneer.

If you’re sick of seeing your local agent sharing photos of their new car or shiny office and instead want some info on the real estate market, follow this blog, like us and join in on the fun on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Cheers

Andrew and Samia

The following excerpts from the REBOnline article are worth noting:

Real estate agents wondering why their social media presence falls short of attracting any new business or why it produces no customer value at all have only themselves to blame.

Social media outlets are not the place to “sell your crap”, nor are they a platform for airing your new shiny suit, BMW keys and more importantly, ego. Online videos made by estate agents, for the large part, are just average – a definition Peter Brewer, real estate veteran and owner of Peter Brewer Consulting, says is the “best of the worst and the cream of the crap”.

Presenting at the Business of Real Estate Conference last week, Mr Brewer said there is so much opportunity to engage potential and use social networks to move real estate agents away from the perception of being a necessary evil to one as being involved with the community at large.

“You have to start using social networks as social and change your own mindset because people don’t go on social media to buy a dog or a refrigerator,” Mr Brewer said.

 “The key is understanding that websites, video and social media are about community, and you need to give reasons for people to go to your site, such as to solve people’s problems and to help the community; not to stand around in a shiny suit with a new BMW extolling your own virtues. If we can do a 90-minute listing presentation in front of a consumer then surely we can get rid of the ego and do a 90-second clip solving people’s problems.”

Mr Brewer added that the average age of today’s real estate agent is 58, and the average age of a consumer is 31, so showing relevance to an audience is key.

Andrew Bruce

Riverview Realty is a boutique agency focused on achieving the maximum price, with a client engagement that is above the industry standard.  We call it the “Ultimate Experience” which forms part of our unique selling proposition.

Ph. 02 9420 0083, 59 Tambourine Bay Road, Riverview.

You’re welcome to connect with us on social media: 

Twitter – Facebook – VIMEO – Pinterest –LinkedIn

The Real Power of Social: 3 Reasons to use Social Media

In June I was asked about the growing role of social media use in real estate. Below is an excerpt of a feature published online by RealEstate.com.au. You can read the full article here. 

“It has to be educational. You need to have something to offer.” – Andrew Bruce.

According to the 2013 realestate.com.au Buy/Sell Report, 85% of sellers who had advertised their property did not use social media. Consumers typically aren’t using the power of social to sell property. But should they be? We look at the potential sales uses for social, which demographics are among the early-adopters and whether it’s working for them.

If the last two years have taught us one thing alone, it’s that social media is a mercurial beast. Simply keeping up with trends in new platforms can almost seem like a part time job. And that’s just another reason why social doesn’t feature high on many homegrown agency playbooks… We speak to two local agents making use of social media and ask how and why it works?

…At Riverview Realty NSW, a social media manager is incorporated into the nuts and bolts of the business. Managing director Andrew Bruce explains: “We have a social media expert who works for us. We pay him a monthly retainer and he does all our social media.” Despite the position being created specifically to grow business networks, not sell homes, Bruce argues this is a worthwhile investment in the future as “generation Y is highly attuned to that market.”

“In the last few months especially, we have focused on Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, LinkedIn, and Twitter,” Bruce says, explaining that once a property is advertised across platforms, the vendors themselves then can supplement the process by sharing the listing through their own social networks.

When it comes to social, measurements in effectiveness aren’t necessarily gauged by sales. “It comes down to increasing openness and transparency,” Bruce says. “Our social media presence is quite involved,” he says. “It has to be educational. You need to have something to offer.”

THE REAL POWER OF SOCIAL: 3 REASONS TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media might not have everyone convinced yet when it comes to advertising property. But for any fence-sitters, here are three reasons that might push you over the edge:

• IT’S TARGETED.

With a goldmine of data on users, advertising on Facebook is now more precise than keyhole surgery.

• GEN Y LIVES THERE.

The next generation of homeowners have been social media literate since Mark Zuckerberg was in college. Social media is their lingua franca and the agency of the future needs to be fluent.

• IT’S INEVITABLE.

No one wants to arrive last to the party. And when you’re talking about 1.3 billion active Facebook users globally, that’s a party no business will want to miss out on.

regards,

Andrew Bruce

Riverview Realty is a boutique agency focused on achieving the maximum price, with a client engagement that is above the industry standard.  We call it the “Ultimate Experience” which forms part of our unique selling proposition.

Ph. 02 9420 0083, 59 Tambourine Bay Road, Riverview.

You’re welcome to connect with us on social media: 

Twitter – Facebook – VIMEO – Pinterest –LinkedIn