Keep Your Eyes On These Real Estate Markets In 2012
by Phoebe Chongchua
Trulia.com recently released its top five markets to watch in the coming year and there might be some surprises.
Topping the list are two cities in Texas, Austin and Houston. Trulia reports that these two markets are seeing steady job growth and a revival in construction which make the markets potentially promising and definitely worth watching in 2012.
According to Trulia's chief economist, Jed Kolko, "Smart cities are hot." What exactly does that mean?
It means that cities that can foster new and stronger job growth will benefit from seeing increased rising home prices in their market which correlates to fewer empty homes creating an overall better real estate market as well as spurring spending in associated home-furnishing industries. It also means that the areas on the top five list share common bonds. For instance, several of them are technology centers. Others are, literally, smart. The education levels are well above the national average.
Coming in at number three on the list is San Jose, California. This may seem quite ironic considering how inflated the housing market was in California–not to mention the ongoing barrage of foreclosures that continue to wreak havoc for many homeowners.
According to Trulia, California's market is as diverse as the United States. So, while prices may steeply decline in one area of California, they may rise in another area. The inland areas experienced tremendous foreclosures but the costal regions were not as affected.
In an article on Trulia.com, the company writes, "San Jose's perennially tight housing market makes it faster to bounce back. The San Jose market –which includes most of Silicon Valley – has rapid job growth and the lowest vacancy rate in the country."
Head to the east coast and you'll find the fourth market to watch next year. Boston, Massachusetts and, in particular, the Cambridge-Newton-Framingham market, which is located west of Boston will likely be positively impacted by a "strong jobs engine". Like most of New England, this market also avoided the worst of the housing crisis.
Why this market? It seems that the Cambridge-Newton-Framingham market along with Worcester (a little further west), and the norther suburbs near Peabody in Boston, offer benefits to homeowners. They're less crowded and expensive and offer exactly what many homeowners are looking for: "more suburban or smaller areas".
Closing out the top five markets to watch next year is Rochester, New York. And, yes, this is surprising. The economy and many big businesses have taken a beating in New York in the past few years. However, the city makes the top five list because Trulia says prices are "stable, and the economy has weathered blow after blow and is expanding".
So, highly educated, tech-savvy cities may steer the way out of the pot-holed and badly marred real estate markets, creating a new road map to a better and brighter housing and job market for 2012... let's hope.
Published: December 30, 2011
December 8, 2011—Commercial Real Estate and Technology: Get on Board
By Barbi Reuter, PICOR
TREND Report
December 2011
TREND Report
December 2011
Commercial real estate (CRE) is a relationship business. Technology tools enhance relationships and service delivery; they don’t replace them. Said another way, technology and social media are not ends in themselves, but means to improve service through improved research, analysis, marketing and productivity.
Early adopters jump on the newest, brightest shiny objects, sometimes in the name of being the cool kids on the block. We’ve seen this trend in the use of QR or quick response codes (those black and white scannable images that link to web content). PICOR uses them on window signs for buildings with walk-up traffic. You can scan the code on your smart phone and link to extensive information including floor plans, specs and pricing to determine if the space meets your needs. But QR codes on a ‘for lease’ sign in the right-of-way: Can you safely drive up and scan that code and get information? Or QR codes in an email: I’m on my computer already – just give me the link and save me the step of scanning the image.
Is real estate a commodity?
With technological advances and free or inexpensive web-based access to oodles of data, many services have become commoditized. Does CRE fit that profile? Could a buyer or tenant conduct their own space search online and deal directly with a landlord or seller? Technically, yes. Anyone can search for listings on LoopNet, CoStar, or on the websites of service providers like PICOR. But skilled brokerage provides a value add: Market expertise, analysis, counsel, and negotiating skill to facilitate a meeting of the minds to lease or buy commercial property. That being said, the speed at which information flows and transactions occur in today’s marketplace demands that brokers are tech savvy to focus these resources, productively, on the end result: a successful transaction.
Technology’s impact on space demand
Product compression impacts multiple facets of the market. From a productivity standpoint, ‘unitaskers’ of the past are now consolidated into one pocket-sized, mobile, web-enabled device: the smart phone. Due to innovation, many of us may never buy another dictionary, alarm clock, calculator, flashlight or standalone GPS. While most smart phone applications are free, the trusty HP calculator apps (12C and 10Bii) are still a bargain at around five or six dollars.
Clearly, while we have gains in efficiency, the consolidation of products has a direct impact on space use. Fewer products means fewer manufacturers (impact on industrial), fewer products to sell (impact on retail), and less support (impact on office). That being said, old products give way to new industries, bringing their own facilities needs from R&D to manufacturing, warehousing and support.
Remember telecommuting and hoteling? These trends, now a decade old, were said to spell the demise of the office building as we knew it. What adaptive reuse would we devise to repurpose all those empty commercial buildings? Now many pundits say the shopping mall and strip center are doomed by skyrocketing e-commerce. People still want and need to convene. Shopping is still a social or tactile experience. While neither product type is likely to disappear, much change has taken place and will continue. Embracing change when your asset is grounded by bricks and mortar may mean revising your footprint or considering a different tenant mix. The key is to anticipate and embrace change and not let the market pass you by.
Tools in the toolbox
Getting a property leased or sold means first connecting to the right market. Tapping expanded networks and tools enhances our ability to do so, but always requires judgment and expertise. Listed here are just a few examples:
§ Website. Our website is a crucial statement of our brand, from culture to capabilities. First generation websites served as digital brochures. Today, the best websites are knowledge centers, and those with the highest traffic provide fresh content that is of value to their market. This means current listings, news, market reports, analysis, and links to other providers of value.
§ Cloud based solutions. Being a nimble broker is enhanced by the movement of data and resources to the web or cloud. A single broker can play bigger, and a large firm like ours can react quickly and back it up with expanded resources. To the client or user of commercial space, this means nearly instant access to information while touring properties, informing their decisions on the go.
§ Social networks. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube…Should I or shouldn’t I? Essentially, you should if they support your strategy. Have a strategy. Know what you want to accomplish. We consider our activity in social media an extension of our ability to lease, manage and sell space for our clients by networking through new and different channels. This means building our brand by engaging with people and our local community–building relationships with the intention of driving business for mutual success.
§ Mapping & data. Subscribing to the latest mapping software, demographic information and databases of investor and tenant activity informs decisions and allows brokers to market properties with timely, accurate and relevant information.
§ Alternative marketing. Auction sites and services now allow brokers to use this vehicle where appropriate. They provide new arrows in the quiver to target marketing to a specific need.
What’s on the horizon?
Historically, our industry has been slow to innovate and adopt new technologies. At the end of the day, using technology wisely means harnessing innovation to your advantage to provide the highest level of personal service. Read the news and blogs and you know that the technology life cycle, too, has compressed. How will emerging technologies like voice and near field communications (NFC) impact commercial real estate? Opinions are plentiful and time will tell.
Barbi Reuter, RPA is one of 13 PICOR principals. She is responsible for the firm’s operations, research, finance and new media activities, liaises with the global services platform provided through the Cushman & Wakefield Alliance, and serves as Associate Broker. Barbi is active in industry and community leadership, through such organizations as Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW), Greater Tucson Leadership, Arizona Town Hall, and board work for the Tucson Girls Chorus and PICOR Charitable Foundation. Connect with her by phone (520.546.2744), email (breuter@picor.com) or Twitter (@BarbiReuter).
Guide to Real Estate Marketing Technology and Tools
http://4realz.net/toolshed/
However, tools are somewhat a waste of time without a great strategy. For a better understanding of a good internet marketing strategy for professionals, here’s an (updated) presentation I gave at the NAR’ Annual Conference in San Diego:Content Management Systems (CMS)
These are technologies that power the backend of your website! And thanks to the many benefits of blog platforms over standard real estate websites in terms of ease-of-use, cost, consumer engagement, and ease-of-ranking well within search engines, many agents are now opting for blogs and that is the only CMS I’m going to focus on here.
In terms of a platform for hosting real estate websites, WordPress is my personal favorite. There are two flavors of WordPress… The hosted version, WordPress.com and the self-hosted version: WordPress.org.
Website Analytics and Tracking
Google Analytics is by far the most widely used tool among real estate professionals for analyzing websites… and best of all, the incredibly functionality of the tool is available for free from Google. It is quite easy to install on most websites adn it can be used to track how visitors get to, interact on and take calls-to-action on your website.
Others analytic tools you should consider include: SiteScan, Woopra, CrazyEgg, 4Q, Feedburner, ClickTale, GetClicky, Keyword Envy, SEOQuake
For background on each of these tools (and more), check out this podcast on tracking and analytics for real estate professionals.
Social Networking
There are a number of social networking site developed specifically to engage real estate professionals. Some of the social networks designed to help real estate agents network with other real estate professionals and consumers include: MyDealBook, RealSeekr, PropertyQube, and Zolve.
For a discussion on how agents are using social networks to add value to their business, check out this roundtable discussion.
Also, to see how I’ve been pushing the boundaries a bit with Facebook Pages, check out my HomeSyn Page and the Dustin Luther Page.
Tools to Help Sellers
Some of the tools that were mentioned in our conversation of tools that help agents help sellers included Docusign (a religious experience), Point2Agent (Robust listing syndication), Altos (Great reports to engage sellers), Transaction Point (Great tool), eFax (Couldn’t live without), Real Estate Shows (Great tool for demonstrating traffic
Technology Transforms Real Estate
By Allan Hoffman, Monster Tech Jobs Expert
The Internet and mobile technologies are transforming the lives of real estate professionals by challenging long-held assumptions about the business. A new generation of agents is eager to find an advantage from their familiarity and comfort with MP3 players, online video and other staples of the digital age.
Today's agents tote Treos and tablet PCs. They buy specialized software packages to build Web sites with video tours, audio clips and even video podcasts. And if they haven't yet ventured into the world of multimedia, they are probably feeling the pressure from upstart agents who make every effort to connect with today's homebuyers and sellers looking to the Web for a growing list of information, goods and services.
"Homeowners and consumers are more and more tech-savvy, and they're looking for agents who are capable of using technology," says Rusty Lindquist, vice president of agent products at a la mode, a provider of real estate software. "It's causing the more traditional agents to change.
The Portable Digital Real Estate Office
Consider Charles and Jennifer Turner, Realtors with Prudential Northwest Properties. Their technological arsenal includes:
· Individual tablet PCs for displaying and retrieving documents and other computing tasks. "The client's signature directly on the screen is as good as a signature on paper," says Turner.
· A portable printer.
· Treo 650 smartphones that display listings and photos.
· Internet-based fax numbers.
· Proprietary real estate software.
"We don't have to carry files with us or get stuck not having the right paperwork with us," says Charles Turner. "We have a desktop, but the vast majority of our work is done on the tablets.
The Turners also maintain the Portland Real Estate Blog, where they cover everything from square-footage rates for condos to how to serve as your own general contractor.
If this sounds excessive, consider how most people start their search for a home online. Numbers vary, but Realtors estimate three out of four homebuyers make the Internet their first stop. Buyers go online to community message boards, local blogs and even Google Earth, which allows computer users to get a bird's-eye view of a neighborhood before contacting an agent.
A New Generation of Real Estate Agents
The changes in the field have led to opportunities "for a whole new generation of real estate agents," says Lindquist. Real estate can be "an appealing path if you're looking for a technically engaging way to have a career. This new breed is looking at the market and seeing a way to utilize technology in their careers. The real estate industry is becoming this high tech field, and it wasn't viewed that way before.
In fact, some agents mainly focus on technology. "They really specialize in innovative technology marketing of a listing," says Lindquist.
Todd Ernst of Keller Williams Realty not only works as a Realtor but also serves as technology director for Keller Williams in the Michigan/Northern Ohio region. When he seeks to list a home, he registers a domain name for the property based on its address, then creates a preliminary version of a Web site to demonstrate the technology's marketing power. Once a home is listed, he will hang a rider below its For Sale sign with the home's Web site address.
With a la mode's software for real estate Web sites, an agent can now take video of a property and upload it to allow home buyers to view it as a video podcast. Listings can also be linked to Google Earth. "There's a demand for agents to deliver richer and richer multimedia experiences when it comes to presentation of a property," says Lindquist. "When an agent goes into a listing presentation with someone wanting to sell a home, that agent needs to show they can market the home powerfully online. If they can't, it's a gaping hole
Agents, brokers and realtors have found successes in lead generation, sales and brand building through use of mass audience social platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Meetup, and LinkedIn, as well as real estate specific platforms, like Trulia, Zillow, WellcomeMat and Architizer.
Whether they are sharing videos, listings or advice with their communities and prospective buyers or sellers, real estate pros are making progress in using social media for real results.
Attracting Buyers and Sellers
The core goal of real estate pros utilizing social media is to attract sellers looking to list their homes or buyers looking to purchase homes. Naturally, the 1.0 version of social media for real estate is setting up pages on social networks that fit your company’s content and audience.
Corcoran Group, the largest residential real estate firm in New York City, is a fitting example of how real estate agencies are going above and beyond to make themselves available for buyers and sellers. Corcoran differentiates itself by simply being available and open. The “Do More” tab on their Facebook page says it all — you can find them on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Foursquare, and Gowalla, among other sites. And if you need more, you can download their iPhone app, where you can find nearby homes for sale or rent and open houses. The app also promotes their Twitter, Facebook and YouTube pages. If you dig a little deeper, you can also find Corcoran on Tumblr, Blip.tv and Vimeo. Simply put, Corcoran has found a way to be everywhere for its clients. This is the first step to converting fans and followers into buyers and sellers.
Matthew Shadbolt, Director of Internet Marketing at The Corcoran Group, filled me in on Corcoran’s social media strategy. As a lifestyle brand, Corcoran doesn’t simply create a presence, they participate in it. For example, the Corcoran YouTube channel features CEO Pam Liebman answering questions posed by Facebook and Twitter followers regarding the state of the housing market and New York living tips. Furthermore, Shadbolt proactively leaves local neighborhood tips on Foursquare and Gowalla for users to find. He notes,
“We have created and implemented a comprehensive mobile marketing strategy of leaving tips around New York based on the huge wealth of local neighborhood knowledge which we specialize in at Corcoran. Our brand premise of communicating what it’s like to actually live in a neighborhood and what living in NYC is like ‘beyond the four walls of your apartment’ is a key driver behind this approach.”
Shadbolt went on to explain that revenue from social media had been substantial:
“The main thing we’ve seen is that the quality of the referral traffic back into our main website has significantly increased. Not only are we seeing more traffic coming in, but visitors coming in from social media sites are staying longer and looking at more things — something we had also seen with search engines but not in such large numbers. We have generated business through both Facebook and Twitter, primarily on the rentals side. People engaging with us directly on Facebook in particular has been increasing significantly over the past two months.”
Another company that seems to be doing well with attracting customers is ApartmentHomeLiving.com, an apartment lifestyle guide and apartment finder. Their Facebook page is full of requests for apartments, which they promptly respond to with listings and ideas. They even have an admirable YouTube presence, with 1,600 videos, totaling over 113,000 views in the past year.
Sharing Listings, Tours, and Showings
In the real estate world, listings, open houses and tours are the main stepping stones towards making a sale, and the digital world has made those steps much easier.
Corcoran, for example, recently created a Twitter account, strictly for new listings, to accommodate demand. Meanwhile, the main Corcoran Twitter account stays fresh with local and industry news.
WellcomeMat, the largest community of real estate professionals, brokerages and filmmakers using full-motion real estate video tours to market themselves and properties, has made producing and sharing video property tours easier, as well. With a community of 18,000 real estate professionals, WellcomeMat serves real estate agencies, brokerages and firms of all sizes, and also partners with and powers video for some of the nations top real estate brokerages including Halstead, Weichert and Prudential Douglas Elliman.
The service offers over 3,000 local production teams for those who don’t have videographers on staff, and also allows for easy integration with your website and YouTube channel. Users can also take advantage of automated link distribution into Facebook, Twitter and Craigslist, and the advanced reporting tools offered.
Phil Thomas Di Giulio, Co-Founder of WellcomeMat, explained in depth how real estate pros are using the full-service video platform to make an impact on their bottom lines:
“The majority of the videos being uploaded to WellcomeMat involve property tours, neighborhood profiles, brokerage information and updates, or agency advertisements. The common identifier with each of the videos is their ability to engage and capture the imagination of the viewer online while delivering quality information about a property, place, person or town.
“Video enables agents and brokerages to share this local knowledge and connect with consumers in a whole new way. This is very important because consumers are more likely to work with an agent [or brokerage] who displays superior knowledge about the local area which they represent.”
After generating a lead, there are many options for scheduling, but one of the newest and easiest-to-use services is Tungle.me, a service that promises to mitigate “double bookings, time zone mishaps, or email ping pong.”
Drew Burks, 2008 San Diego Real Estate Broker of the Year, uses Tungle.me to schedule company meetings with his agents, new Realtor recruitment meetings, and to schedule showings on his listings. Burks elaborated on how his brokerage is continuing to experiment with the service:
“I believe [Tungle.me] will increase our agent showings, because there won’t be the missed calls and confusion over showing times, especially when the seller doesn’t allow us to use a lockbox on their property [where a spare key may be stored]. This technology is proving to be much more effective than scheduling appointments and showings via the telephone.”
Lending Expert Advice
While an occasional listing may be appreciated by your social media community, many experts advocate engaging your audience with industry knowledge and an expert perspective, rather than alienating users with useless information. Because there are so many factors that must align to make a listing pertinent to a single customer, such as pricing, location and size, there is a high probability that most listings do not pertain to most people in a given social media audience.
James Kimmons, real estate business expert on About.com, advises real estate pros to refrain from overwhelming their followers and connections with real estate listings. He advises,
“Promote you, your business, and your expertise in your local area real estate market. Do it with market commentary, education and statistics. Link out to your IDX search page, because a lot of your visitors will want to look at listings at some point, just not your listing du jour.”
There are many sites with specialized sections for real estate professionals to lend their expertise, such as Trulia Voices and Zillow Advice. Both sites are frequented by prospective home buyers, on the search for answer about topics ranging from pricing and relocating to financing and closing. A typical question on either site will yield quite a few answers from agents or brokers specializing in a specific geographic region or area of real estate. This type of interaction with folks on the market is a great way to build a credible reputation and build brand recognition for future consideration.
YouTube also presents a valid platform for sharing real estate tips. For example, Keller Williams Realty International, a real estate franchise company, maintains a YouTube channel full of videos on monthly real estate reports, real estate advice and current company events. Keller Williams boasts nearly 400,000 video views, 100,000 channel views and 2,000 subscribers. Those are numbers worth celebrating.
If you are a real estate professional, keep an eye out ways you to showcase your expertise and local knowledge. You should start to see an increase in interaction, as you provide useful, relevant information to others.
Connecting with Other Real Estate Professionals
In order to improve upon their skills and network in the industry, real estate professionals are using social networks specific to their industry. Some of these networks include ActiveRain and The Flipping Pad.
Although it is in beta testing, Architizer is the largest crowd-sourced database of architecture online, with over 10,000 finished and proposed projects posted from fans, owners and architects that are easily searchable. The site provides a networking space for real estate developers and architects, where developers can search for architects and architects can upload their projects. This type of social network is allowing developers to get a better grasp of the talent options on the market, while also giving architects a better chance at being discovered.
CEO and Co-Founder Marc Kushner, also an architect, explains that, “The old model revolved around magazines, in which architects had to make it into certain issues. So, say that that a developer picks up the November issue of a certain architecture magazine. The only way that the architect would have the chance of being discovered by the developer was if he happened to be in that November issue.” Architizer simplifies the connecting process by bringing architects and developers together in one place.
More well-known social networks, including Meetup, Flickr and LinkedIn are provided spaces for real estates pros to connect and learn from one another. Some examples of active Meetup groups include Chicago Real Estate Group and New Jersey Real Estate Social Network. Both Meetups are ranked highly and have received favorable feedback from attendees. For example, Loan Officer Lorna Roberts, said that the New Jersey Real Estate Social Network Meetup, is an “excellent way to network and learn more about what is affecting the community and businesses.” For more information on how to get a real estate Meetup started in your community, check out our tips on organizing a successful Meetup.
Other group settings on social networks, such as the National Association of REALTORS on LinkedIn, or the Photography for Real Estate group on Flickr, are great places to connect with specialized professionals in the real estate industry.
From connecting with buyers and sellers to networking with industry peers and lending expert advice, there are many ways to utilize social media as a real estate professional. What are your tips for using social media in the real estate industry?
More real estate agents turning to social media
Michael Gardner, who writes a real estate blog about Malibu, is among a growing number of agents who in recent years have embraced social networking sites and other online tools to attract clients.
June 16, 2011|By Lauren Beale, Los Angeles Times
As a blogger, Michael Gardner relies on a familiar celeb-tracker formula, lacing beauty shots with exclamation-pointed prose about the "super sexy" and "crazy famous."
But Gardner's drool-worthy subjects aren't people — they're properties. Gardner writes the Malibu Real Estate Blog, which helps him sell houses in beachside neighborhoods where some of the world's wealthiest individuals own second homes the size of palaces.
Gardner, with Prudential Malibu Realty, is among the growing legion of real estate agents who have begun making broader use of the Web. More than half of the National Assn. of Realtors' member agents reported using social networking sites last year, compared with a little more than a third in 2009. Nearly two-thirds have a website and 1 in 10 has a blog.
For-sale listings began migrating to the Web years ago, but many old-line real estate agents resisted the lure of online, preferring the in-person approach.
"Traditionally this business had been done people to people, by agent-to-agent referrals," said Ben Kinney, author of the e-book "Soci@l" and owner of Keller Williams brokerages in Washington. "In this market, where people are in distress, they may be more likely selecting an agent online."
And with the ill wind of the housing downturn at their backs, agents are trying to go where their clients already are. Last year, 89% of buyers surfed the Web to find a house, while only 45% attended open houses and 36% looked at print ads, according to the National Assn. of Realtors' Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.
Hoping to elevate their profile online, Dave Girling and his father, Bing, a 25-year residential real estate veteran, developed a quarterly sales price tracking feature called the Balboa Island Price Index for their real estate blog at GirlingREIG.com. The content has built a following, increasing page views three- or four-fold when the index posts, he said.
The BIPI, pronounced bippy, has even been used in court to argue the value of a property in the wealthy enclave. Dave Girling plans to expand the index to 15 neighborhoods in a Newport Beach Price Index.
The original version has become part of how they are known, Girling said.
"When I'm out with my dad it's not unusual for someone to say, 'Bing, Dave, what's the BIPI doing?'"
Gardner has figured out how to make his online efforts pay off, closing multimillion-dollar deals and landing luxury listings of up to $14 million. His approach is simple: Write about things that draw readers — $2-million mobile homes, $20-million price reductions — and bet that some readers will become buyers.
A landscape designer before he turned to real estate sales seven years ago, Gardner started out like many agents — sitting at open houses a couple of Sundays a month and spending his marketing dollars promoting himself in Homes & Land Magazine, a color glossy of homes for sale.
"One of my biggest goals was to just get an email address and have my computer online at the open house," he said. While other agents were collecting emails on sign-in sheets, he was emailing prospective buyers information on listings that matched their criteria.
"That was probably my first experience of how technology can be used to connect with a buyer right away," Gardner said.
The approach landed him a few clients and small transactions. More important, though, he started thinking about how to best use the emerging tools that were available through the Internet.
Around the same time, companies that set up websites for real estate agents were touting their services. "They would charge $2,000 to $4,000 for a good-looking website," he said. "A lot of us tried it."
Gardner, however, wasn't impressed with the results. His site didn't make the first page on keyword searches, had little traffic and yielded no phone calls.
In late 2007, blogs "started hitting my radar," he said. Gardner spent hours every day reading about how to blog and craft articles so that they would gain notice from search engines. He ditched his personal website, watched tutorial videos on YouTube on how to host a free WordPress blog and registered a domain name.
"The blog would strictly focus on the town I lived in and sold in," Gardner said.
With the learning curve behind him, the hard work of writing began.
"I basically fear having to produce a bunch of great paragraphs," he said. "You have to start thinking like a reporter, find an angle and something interesting that people will talk about."
Within three months, his blog made it to the first page of Google when the phrase "Malibu real estate" was searched. Daily page views started to rise until he was averaging 300 a day. On days when a news aggregator picked up one of his posts, page views soared to as many as 8,000.
Social Media: Real Estate's Best Friend or Worst Enemy?
Social media seems like a tailor-made business tool for real estate. It allows agents to personally connect with clients in a business that relies on client-agent rapport. And its array of networking platforms offer benefits to buyers and sellers as well. Buyers can scope out properties and agents; sellers can search for buyers.
But tweeters beware: Social networking has as much potential to undermine a deal as spark one.
The story of one homebuyer in Tiburon, Calif., reported by MSN Real Estate, highlights what can go wrong. Thrilled over a house that she visited, the woman broadcast the listing on Facebook. Bad move: The post percolated through her network of "friends" until it reached another house-hunter. That buyer acted fast, snatching the property from the grasp of the woman who had unwittingly promoted it. (Grounds for "unfriending" if ever we heard one.)
The lesson, says Mike Gardner, a Malibu-based Realtor known for his social media savvy and real estate blog, is not so complicated: Keep deals to yourself and off other people's social-media news feeds.
"If you love to blab on Facebook and announce, 'Hey, I'm thinking about buying this condo because it's a smoking deal,' Gardner says, "you've potentially advertised to thousands of people.' "
According to Katie Lance, social media director for real estate technology website Inman News, ill-considered tweets or posts can also undercut a homebuyer's bargaining power.
"Realtors on Twitter are searching aggressively for anyone buying a home," she says. If an agent spots a tweet suggesting that a homebuyer thinks one of the agent's properties is a deal, the agent and the seller know not to budge on their ask.
There's a risk for home sellers too. If they broadcast a desire to get out of Dodge as fast as they can, prospective buyers might gain a negotiating edge.
Social Media Do's and Don'ts for Agents
First and foremost, Lance says, be aware of legal hazards such as copyright infringement.
A social media guru -- she grew Inman News' Twitter following from 6,000 to 25,000 users in only a year -- Lance points to a once-thriving Realtor-referral Facebook page. It had garnered about 45,000 "likes" on Facebook until it was shut down because "Realtor" is a trademark owned by the National Association of Realtors. After a name change to The Official Real Estate Referral Group, though, the page (pictured above) is back in business.
Legal considerations also extend to advertising. While social networks may seem like casual forums, the claims that agents make on them can be subject to laws that apply to ads in newspapers or on business websites. Agents must be sure that any claims they make about properties are accurate or indicate that they are estimates, Gardner says.
"There's an issue of disclosure," he says. "Agents have to be very careful about what they say."
Agents are also required by law to identify their brokerage on social media, according to Sam Kraemer, general counsel for Prudential California Realty.
"Ninety-nine percent of agents probably don't," he says.
If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say...
Of course, effective marketing means more than just not breaking the law.
The most basic rule: Don't say anything negative about your customers or your product.
As obvious as this may seem, agents' carps and complaints regularly surface on the social-media news feeds of homebuyers and home sellers, Lance says.
"I see a lot of agents posting negative stuff, venting about their clients," she says. "It's not good. It can definitely come back to bite you."
Of course, if an agent expresses frustration over a client's refusal to lower his price or laments the poor condition of one of his properties, he runs the risk of alienating his client. It's also important for agents to avoid sending the message that they are only interested in moving their properties, experts say.
"Don't hammer people with your houses" by publishing come-on descriptions, Gardner says. Try something a little less forward, he adds, like inviting friends and followers to an open house for their "opinions on it."
Realtors should also consider tweeting or posting content unrelated to their business pursuits, and actively engage users on the level originally intended by networking platforms: a social one.
It's "not just posting up stuff but taking the time to answer questions and thank people for liking their page [Facebook page]," Lance says.
But at the same time, she adds, Realtors mustn't allow their digital missives to stray too far from the subject of real estate -- at least on Twitter:
"Then your followers are like, 'Who is this person? Are you a Realtor?"
But tweeters beware: Social networking has as much potential to undermine a deal as spark one.
The story of one homebuyer in Tiburon, Calif., reported by MSN Real Estate, highlights what can go wrong. Thrilled over a house that she visited, the woman broadcast the listing on Facebook. Bad move: The post percolated through her network of "friends" until it reached another house-hunter. That buyer acted fast, snatching the property from the grasp of the woman who had unwittingly promoted it. (Grounds for "unfriending" if ever we heard one.)
The lesson, says Mike Gardner, a Malibu-based Realtor known for his social media savvy and real estate blog, is not so complicated: Keep deals to yourself and off other people's social-media news feeds.
"If you love to blab on Facebook and announce, 'Hey, I'm thinking about buying this condo because it's a smoking deal,' Gardner says, "you've potentially advertised to thousands of people.' "
According to Katie Lance, social media director for real estate technology website Inman News, ill-considered tweets or posts can also undercut a homebuyer's bargaining power.
"Realtors on Twitter are searching aggressively for anyone buying a home," she says. If an agent spots a tweet suggesting that a homebuyer thinks one of the agent's properties is a deal, the agent and the seller know not to budge on their ask.
There's a risk for home sellers too. If they broadcast a desire to get out of Dodge as fast as they can, prospective buyers might gain a negotiating edge.
Social Media Do's and Don'ts for Agents
First and foremost, Lance says, be aware of legal hazards such as copyright infringement.
A social media guru -- she grew Inman News' Twitter following from 6,000 to 25,000 users in only a year -- Lance points to a once-thriving Realtor-referral Facebook page. It had garnered about 45,000 "likes" on Facebook until it was shut down because "Realtor" is a trademark owned by the National Association of Realtors. After a name change to The Official Real Estate Referral Group, though, the page (pictured above) is back in business.
Legal considerations also extend to advertising. While social networks may seem like casual forums, the claims that agents make on them can be subject to laws that apply to ads in newspapers or on business websites. Agents must be sure that any claims they make about properties are accurate or indicate that they are estimates, Gardner says.
"There's an issue of disclosure," he says. "Agents have to be very careful about what they say."
Agents are also required by law to identify their brokerage on social media, according to Sam Kraemer, general counsel for Prudential California Realty.
"Ninety-nine percent of agents probably don't," he says.
If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say...
Of course, effective marketing means more than just not breaking the law.
The most basic rule: Don't say anything negative about your customers or your product.
As obvious as this may seem, agents' carps and complaints regularly surface on the social-media news feeds of homebuyers and home sellers, Lance says.
"I see a lot of agents posting negative stuff, venting about their clients," she says. "It's not good. It can definitely come back to bite you."
Of course, if an agent expresses frustration over a client's refusal to lower his price or laments the poor condition of one of his properties, he runs the risk of alienating his client. It's also important for agents to avoid sending the message that they are only interested in moving their properties, experts say.
"Don't hammer people with your houses" by publishing come-on descriptions, Gardner says. Try something a little less forward, he adds, like inviting friends and followers to an open house for their "opinions on it."
Realtors should also consider tweeting or posting content unrelated to their business pursuits, and actively engage users on the level originally intended by networking platforms: a social one.
It's "not just posting up stuff but taking the time to answer questions and thank people for liking their page [Facebook page]," Lance says.
But at the same time, she adds, Realtors mustn't allow their digital missives to stray too far from the subject of real estate -- at least on Twitter:
"Then your followers are like, 'Who is this person? Are you a Realtor?"
