Posted on September 7, 2010 in
General Interest,
Conferences
By Tanya Henderson, Advertising & Membership Relations Director
SNA’s Classified Alliance Real Estate Webinar given by Borrell Associates’ Pete Conti and Gordon Borrell last week hammered home the point that realtors need your help. In today’s housing market Borrell says that realtors are “jumping ship” to other firms to obtain better leads and better commission splits.
According to Borrell’s latest research, 33.7 percent of total local real estate ad spending is going to online while 30.5 percent is going to newspaper. This category includes real estate development, mortgage loan providers, realty agents and brokers, and rental property management. Brokers and agents provide the largest percent of ad spend.
There is a definite increase in ad spend per home sold today. Borrell projects that $4,890 is spent per every home sold. The fact of the matter is it just takes much longer to sell a home these days and according to Borrell, it has to consistently be marketed. The longer the house is on the market the worse it is for the agent. If a house sits on the market too long in this market, the seller will switch agents – not good for the agent’s income. So the agent will do everything in his power to appease his customers – including running newspaper ads. It’s the sellers that drive the advertising in the newspaper, not the agents.
So who’s keeping the agents happy so they don’t jump ship? According to Borrell, you’ll find that many of the larger realtor firms are starting to purchase key words and online advertising to provide leads for their agents to keep them happy.
Projections show that ad spend for newspapers won’t increase until 2013 however online will continue to grow and accelerate when the market corrects. By 2015, Borrell predicts that mobile will rival online ad spending.
So what is your newspaper doing to adapt to the changing market? What plans do you have to inject new products and services that can help agents? What about the rise in rentals and foreclosures?
SNA is pleased to announce the SNA Classified Conference in Chicago November 10-12. Sessions will include these timely real estate topics as well as the other important vertical categories. Click here for the full conference agenda. For more information on attending or exhibiting at the conference, contact me at 804.262.3341 or email tanya.henderson@suburban-news.org.
Click here to access the entire free Classified Alliance Real Estate Webinar audio and presentation.