Are you worried about lead generation in the new housing market? Real estate agents can prepare for the new normal by understanding the preferences of potential buyers and their perspectives amid the pandemic.
At the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, the turn to remote-first work and stay-at-home orders made some homeowners, buyers, and real estate professionals apprehensive about the future of the housing market. However, according to CoreLogic, recent data shows that not only are home prices steadily increasing, home ownership is on the rise for opportunistic buyers.
Use the following list of problems and solutions we are seeing in the current housing market to learn how you can get more real estate leads now, and into the foreseeable future.
Problem #1: You are renting intellectual property.
When you can help potential buyers visualize a new home, you are doing a lot more than providing a straightforward look at a property. Buyers want a look at their potential future from an individualized point of view. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is with virtual tours and professional real estate photography to highlight the unique features of each property you want to sell.
With this in mind, real estate photography reveals itself as more of an art form than a bare necessity. Unfortunately, when you work with real estate software companies like Matterport, you pay the artisanal real estate photography price, without most of the benefits. Real estate agents accrue hosting fees, without ownership of media content. Companies like Matterport keep a tight grip on virtual tour hosting, with restrictive and limited copyright.
Solution #1: Take ownership of your content by working with media producers with flexible contracts.
You’ll save money and stay in charge of your listings. Do not hand over your listing to Silicon Valley. Files from HomeJab’s 360 cameras are common JPEG files that you can download and control, unlike with those of Matterport.
Most people who enlisted the help of a real estate agent—87% of sellers in 2019— used a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) website for listing their homes. It’s true that MLS photo rules were changed to mitigate “frivolous and expensive copyright infringement lawsuits,” but the team at HomeJab would like to ease the burden further by transferring all content rights to you with a flexible contract.
Our team can help you make real estate 3D virtual tours with 360 cameras and open source code for virtual tour and floor plan creation that is just as persuasive as Matterport. Here’s a look at how content ownership benefits you:
- You can host photos on your own terms.
- You will save money, while retaining and maximizing the value of your listing.
- You can tailor individual listings that speak to potential buyers in a way that limited restriction listings cannot.
Problem #2: You are going nowhere fast with only using virtual tours.
Virtual tours are an important component of the online real estate industry, but the effectiveness of virtual tours depends on a good multimedia presentation strategy. Your content should be optimized for mobile and tablet devices too—not just computers—73 percent of all buyers seek information about properties from a mobile or tablet search, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Solution: Turn lackluster virtual tours into inclusive, virtual experiences.
Consider multimedia formats for your listings, like real estate listing videos and real estate drone video technology with HomeJab. When you work with HomeJab to create video content, we can increase the wow-factor of your virtual tours. Here’s what we know video can accomplish that still photos cannot do alone:
- Communicate depth perception and space: A new report from Time says that homeowners are looking to depart from condensed city living, in favor of more open-space residencies. They want to see and feel the impact of space around their new lives.
- Leave a lasting impression: 35 percent of all buyers in 2019 relied on a real estate agent’s online videos to learn more about a home, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Beyond this year’s pandemic, we are facing a permanent culture shift towards remote work and lifestyles. Consumers are shifting to virtual resources first, and it will stay this way—even after a vaccine. To capture the attention of virtual audiences, you will need to provide content that brings mindless scrolling to a screeching halt.
Problem #3: You don’t offer extra value.
For buyers, navigating massive real estate listings on websites like Zillow, Trulia, and Remax can be overwhelming. If any of these websites have the same content as a broker’s website, the corporate website will often outrank the local agent in real estate search engines.
Solution: Add value to your listings by adapting to future-forward real estate technology.
Extra value for buyers and sellers comes in two forms: Technical, and personal. Use this knowledge as your leg-up in the impending battle between big real estate corporations and independent agents.
On a technical level, if you send photos to Zillow but maintain ownership of the virtual tour and/or video, then consumers seek out your media first. This maximizes the chances of lead generation and conversion. On a personal level, qualified content generates leads that are a good match for your home listing and your business model. Buyers and sellers want to work with a real estate agent who puts their needs first, while keeping track of the latest technology and trends.
You can use HomeJab property pages at no extra cost: We offer free leads to listing agents. We don’t sell leads, and we don’t sell advertising. Hosting your files on HomeJab is completely free for the listing agent and the consumer. If buyers are interested in your listing, leads get automatically forwarded to your inbox. Our goal is to work with you to produce the content at the highest quality, while turning over all ownership and revenue to you.
Make Your Real Estate Marketing Recession-Proof
Your business can be more resilient when you act on the likely uncertainty that lies ahead. The pandemic situation continues to unfold, and changes in the economy seem unpredictable. Secure your place in the future economy by anticipating the ups and downs yet to come.
Understanding how to get real estate leads in an uncertain market simply requires a bit of flexibility. Like all good real estate professionals, you must prepare for the worst, and hope for the best.
