The following statistics are provided by the National Association of Realtors (NAR):

• 90% of consumers did online research before they bought their last home.
• 36% of buyers found the home they ended up purchasing on the internet, while only 2% of buyers found their home in the newspaper.
• 63% of Agents marketing budget still goes to offline advertising (newspaper, flyers, etc).
• Consumers’ looked at an average of 12 homes over a period of 12 weeks before purchasing.

Are you staying in touch long enough to capture a relationship with an online lead?

• 89% of consumers said that response time was very important when choosing their agent.
• 56% of consumers expect a response from their agent within 30 minutes.

Online Consumers understand that the internet is an immediate medium. Are you succeeding with your online leads? Do you have a hole in your business model? What is your average response time?

• 88% of Buyers said they would use their agent again or recommend their agent to others (66% said definitely, 22% said probably).
• Only 10% of Buyers used an agent they had used previously.
• 81% of Sellers said they would use their agent again or recommend their agent to others (59% said definitely, 22% said probably).
• Only 24% of Sellers used an agent they had used previously.

The vast majority of consumers — 66% of buyers and 59% of sellers — say they would “definitely” use their real estate agent again or recommend that person to others. Yet only 10 percent of buyers and 24 percent of sellers say they used the same real estate professional that they worked with for their previous transaction. Why is there a disconnect? One reason, undoubtedly, is a lack of consistent communication.

Your day is busy and your time is important.  Make sure that you aren’t letting your clients fall through the cracks.  If you don’t have the time to maintain these high levels of contact, let a drip email system lend a helping hand.  Consumers need constant reminders of who you are, what you do and what does that mean for them.

Make sure you provide the right level of contact.

According to a new Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, recently released by the National Association of REALTORS®, the Internet has become an essential and indispensable tool in the home search process.

• More than one third of buyers began their search for a home by looking online for properties for sale.
• 90% of home buyers used the Internet as one of the information sources in their home search process.
• The Internet continues to be increasingly popular among all homebuyers, while traditional real estate marketing methods such as print media are declining.
• In 2009, 36 percent of buyers reported that they found their home online, up from 32 percent in 2008.

How Buyers Search for Property
Information Sources used in Home Search

It’s important for real estate professionals to understand that the Internet is not replacing them. On the contrary – according to the NAR study, 89% of buyers who used the Internet, also used a real estate agent. And the vast majority of homebuyers still purchase their home through a real estate agent.

It’s not that the Internet is replacing agents, but agents who want to stay current and on top of their game need to harness the power of the Internet and use it as part of their real estate marketing campaigns.

Interesting thoughts on FSBO properties.  Check it out at http://activerain.com/blogsview/1250020/so-you-want-to-save-the-commission-

Welcome to Real Inventive – a fresh, innovative real estate blog that provides an online space where real estate agents and brokers can network, learn about new real estate technology and regulations, follow real estate news, and share interesting thoughts and ideas.

It’s been a rough year for all of us! The real estate market, just like the economy in general, has been through some serious turmoil. Thankfully, it looks like we are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. While the economy is still very fragile, the free fall of real estate prices has finally stabilized in many local markets. Home sales are going up, and as we all know, this will eventually lead to home prices going up too.

In the meantime, if you find yourself without enough work or earnings, think about this as an opportunity – this can be a great time to take a course, to learn something new, to make yourself familiar with real estate technology, and to improve yourself as a real estate professional. Think about times where you have less work as times when you can prepare yourself for the next boom. Economy works in cycles, and the more credentials and knowledge you have, the better positioned you will be to make the most of the next real estate boom.

Before we wrap this up, a quick note for the real estate bloggers out there: we would love to hear from you! We are always open to receive fresh new content to enrich our blog and make it more interesting to our readers, most of whom are real estate professionals.

Please feel free to contact us at: [ideas AT realinventive DOT com].

Even if you’re not a blogger, we would still love to hear from you if you have an interesting idea, a tip, or anything you think we should cover on this real estate blog.

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