Borrell Associates, a research and consulting firm that tracks local advertising and helps online businesses develop marketing strategies, published a new report on the state of online real estate marketing...

http://www.borrellassociates.com/ reportDetails.aspx?prodID=91

The report has to be purchased, but I was able to get a free synopsis.

It says that real estate agents, who initially tried to appease home sellers by advertising more on traditional channels, this year cut their print budgets and pushed more money into the Web.

In short, total ad spending on real estate declined 3% this year, while spending on the Internet grew 25.8%, hitting $2.6 billion. The company projects online real estate advertising to grow at 12.4% next year while total real estate advertising continues to decline.

By 2012, Borrel believes that agents and brokers will be spending more ad dollars online than in newspapers.

Real Estate Ad Revenues ($ thousands)
	2007 Forecast	2012 Projection
Newspapers	$4,842	$3,295
Online	$2,582	$3,453
All Other	$4,038	$4,458
Total	$11,462	$11,206
Source: Borrell Associates, Inc., November 2007

What Borrel didn't say (in the synopsis) is that the current slump has forced agents and brokers to find new ways to market their services and properties, and this is what is driving the online marketing spend. Should the market bounce back to a seller's market, I'm sure newspaper marketing will bounce back.

And as for newspaper advertising, Borrel goes on to paint a grim picture. They project that coming off last year's high of almost $5.2 billion in print advertising, there will be a 6.8% decline this year, almost the same again in 2008, followed by a 16% fall in 2009, and 13% in 2010.

This analysis is pretty consistent with other reports I've read.

So, let's assume that Borrel is correct, and that the real estate industry will largely market itself online. We can look at existing tools, like Zillow, Trulia, blogs, and RSS feeds.

But every ten years, there's a total paradigm change in the way we perceive reality. Ten years ago (1997) you probably didn't think you'd be sitting here learning Internet marketing. Obviously, ten years from now, it's too difficult to predict where we'll be.

I tend to believe that Wi-Fi networks will greatly evolve into marketing tools. Imagine driving by a house for sale, and a broadcast appearing on your car's LCD monitor, showing you the video of the interior. Or, pulling into a Starbuck's drive-thru, seeing the menu on your car's GPS display, and punching in the order right there. This sort of thing already exists in limited applications, using Bluetooth.

I'm sure Google or Yahoo is going to get in on the real estate business, and buy up Zillow. Imagine being a Google real estate agent!

The 18-35 year old market is the most computer savvy of all. Eventually, they'll be wanting to buy a home, and no doubt they'll turn to the Internet before even thinking about calling an agent. So, where will you be in all of this?

Labels: Real Estate Marketing