August 11, 2006

Ninety-five percent of homebuyers visiting real estate websites do not want to talk to a Realtor and are not ready to buy a home. Yet, website designers and the real estate industry continue to utilize a website design that puts the Realtor/Broker up front in the buyers face. The most successful of these websites are producing a 1% to 2% conversion rate between visitor traffic and inquiries. These websites are targeted for the buyer who is ready to buy a home. In other words, they are targeted for 5% of the Internet market. We need to create Internet real estate marketing that targets the 95% of the buyers that are not ready to talk to a Realtor.

The Internet today is a source of information, an entertainment medium and a communications channel. It has also become a global market place. It is a part of the information age and in utilizing this technology the consumer has changed his behavior. This includes the behavior of the homebuyer.

Before the advent of the Internet a homebuyer would browse the classifieds in a newspaper and respond to "for sale" signs. He wouldn't contact a Realtor until such time that he was somewhat serious about purchasing a home. This traditional real estate marketing was not interactive. This was static advertising that reached out into the marketplace. The Internet has introduced a whole new concept for the real estate industry and the homebuyer as well as the home seller. The homebuyer can now go on line and learn about homes for sale anywhere in the world. He can view home listings and learn about a city while sitting at his computer at home or in the office and he can do this 24/7. Given this ability a person will "surf" the Internet as he just begins to think about making a move. He enters into an information gathering stage as he considers purchasing a new home. This might be a relocation of his principal residence or the purchase of a second home. The information gathering stage can last many months or even more than a year. Ultimately this person either becomes a serious buyer or gives up the dream.

For those of us involved in the Internet marketing of real estate we must change our approach. Our historic conversion ratio of 1% to 2% makes it very expensive for our Realtor clients. We at GAW Associates have changed our strategy and are now creating marketing programs that are achieving an 8% to 12% conversion ratio. But we feel this can be further improved.