How has Real Estate Marketing Changed in the Last 5 Years?

Real Estate affects every aspect of the economy – retail, offices, manufacturing, housing, ranching, farming, recreation, worship, and entertainment.  As such, the target audience for real estate marketing is vast and crosses many sectors of the population – from prospective homeowners to business owners.   With advances in technology, Real Estate Marketing has gone through tremendous changes in just the last few years.

With the advances of real estate technology over the past decade, there are so many changes occurring in the day-to-day business of real estate sales.  The Internet plays a very vital role in a real estate agent’s marketing plot.  Social networking sites, blogs, and video-uploading sites provides home buyers and sellers more options to access information about the housing market. Internet technology has changed the real estate industry dramatically because of improvements in online communication, the creation of more independent agents, more intellectual customers, virtual tours, mobile application, online shopping just to name a few.  See these statistics in the  United States:

• 75 % of people use the  internet for real estate services – that means 3 out of 4 people!
• 90% of home buyers search for homes in the Google search engine.
• 94% of those 24-44 yrs ancient use the internet to search for homes,
• 86% of home buyers used a real estate agent to buy their home.
• In 2009, only 33% of realtors surveyed reporting using Social Media but in 2010, that number increased to 84%.

There are now more people in the real estate industry than ever before.  Competition is stiff and adding technology and social media to your real estate marketing plot is no longer optional but essential to your success. If you do not have a definitive presence on the web, you are missing out on a large segment of your target audiences. At the very least you need the following:

1. Website with custom domain and blog;
2. Facebook Fan Page; and
3. You Tube Site

What else do you reckon a successful real estate agent needs to have a significant presence online?