Is Your Margate & Ventnor Real Estate Agent Web Savvy?

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Does your agent know the web?

How do most home buyers & sellers in Margate & Ventnor pick a Real Estate agent? Print ads? Lawn signs? Billboards? Radio? Nope. Not anymore.

We recently read an epic post at the INMAN Real Estate site. The following contains excerpts & inspiration from an article written by Creed Smith:

Today, those who are ready to buy or sell a seashore home, are evaluating and judging Real Estate agents prior to ever interviewing them. Even if someone get a referral, that potential buyer/seller will still do an online  background check on that agent. Note: Very few are impressed with all the contests & industry awards they may have won.

Here are some fresh new findings:

  • Over 50% of homebuyers, age 25- 50, find the home they eventually buy, by themselves, via the Internet.
  • According to a leading Real Estate listing website, Internet leads to Real Estate agents are up 300%
  • Brokers with poor or NO Internet presence get less leads from buyers looking to buy
  • A fast growing portion of home buyers, find the agent they work with, online.
  • Home buyers are not impressed with a generic agent page within a corporate site.
  • Approx 70% of Jersey Shore homeowners or buyers are from out of market. they are less likely to be influenced by legacy agents ans their traditional print, outdoor, direct mail campaigns.
  • 62 percent of millennials and 56 percent of Gen-Xers consider more than one agent. Referrals & word-of-mouth are less likely.

80 percent of home buyers use a real estate agent. Before they pick one… they’ll spend months doing their own research on both homes and potential agents via the Internet

How Buyers & Sellers Evaluate a Real Estate Agent. What to look for in an agent:

  • They must prove their specific real estate and neighborhood knowledge. Copy and paste pitches, seen on most agent sites will not make that phone ring.
  • Does the agent display recent reviews from local clients? Are there photos & full names attached?
  • The days of gaining an “automatic client” through referrals are waning. There are just too many ways for potential clients to research your skill sets, knowledge, reputation and sales activity on the internet.

Real Estate agents really need to take control of how their information and skills are presented. The best way to accomplish that, is to have personal website and email database.

The Internet has Changed ALL the Rules of Jersey Shore Real Estate

NAR’s own statistics show that how buyers find the home they actually purchase has long since shifted — from the majority of information coming from the MLS through agents to the buyers finding the home they purchase by themselves via the internet.

The most active and largest group of homebuyers are twice as likely to find the home they actually purchase by themselves via the internet than having an agent find it for them through the MLS.

Homebuyers have been screaming from the rooftops. They want  agents to help them find the right home to buy. Yet most Real Estate agent websites don’t do this. Too many agent websites feature tech that is already 20 years old. Price range, bedroom and bathroom count is about as far as these clunky site will go.

Real Estate is, in many ways, a technology industry that buys & sells homes. Once the MLS data became readily available online…. that changed everything. An agent that has an easy to use, non-cluttered website, that offers hyperlocal information that can’t get found on a national based portal….is a winner.

http://www.inman.com/2017/01/13/agents-homebuyers-dont-need-website/

Inman News is the leading real estate news source for real estate agents, Realtors, brokers, real estate executives and real estate technology leaders who need the latest real estate news, insights and analysis to grow their business and stay ahead of the competition.