Why 21st Century Real Estate Agents Must Embrace Technology to Connect with Buyers
Selling a property is not the same as it was twenty years ago. Back then, real estate agents did everything in person. They marketed properties in the local press, held open days, ran leaflet drops, and spoke to clients in person. Today, although the legal process of buying and selling a home is mostly the same, the marketing rules have changed completely.
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Modern real estate agents can’t survive without a web presence. Most people look online for a real estate agent before they do anything else. Without a professional looking website, you will almost certainly miss out on new clients.
It is better to have a slick website created by a professional web design agency, but there is no reason why you can’t build your own website using WordPress and a custom template.
Online Marketing
Traditional methods of marketing a property are not redundant, but digital marketing has largely superseded them. People are accustomed to searching for properties on national property portals such as trulia.com. In fact, they are more likely to hunt for their dream home online before they think about visiting an agent’s premises.
Real estate agents need to embrace the joys of social media marketing. A prominent social media presence is vital to a successful business. Social media allows professionals to connect with their customers to build a brand and deal with any queries. Millennials, in particular, prefer sending messages on social media rather than picking up the telephone.
Create a Facebook page for your real estate business and start using sites like Instagram and Twitter. The real estate business is very visual, so posting photos of homes for sale on social media is a great way to attract extra attention, particularly from out of state buyers.
Embrace Modern Technology
You don’t need to be a tech-geek to make use of modern technology to market homes for sale. There are lots of tools available for real estate agents. For example, real estate agents can use an open house flyer tool from Spark Adobe to create professional, custom flyers for free. This will save you a fortune because you won’t need to hire a design firm to create your marketing brochures and flyers.
Digital Communication
In the old days, communication took place via telephone or in a letter. These days, the majority of people are more likely to send an email or message on social media. Buyers prefer the ease of sending an email rather than waiting for a letter to arrive in the post. Most buyers don’t have time to schedule appointments to discuss minor details of a sale; they would rather just have an informal conversation over email instead.
Many old-school real estate agents believe they can stick to the old ways and continue growing a successful business, but this is not the case. Unless you embrace modern technology, your real estate business is going to lose business to a younger, more digitally aware demographic.
