Understanding The Online Real Estate Consumer

March 27, 2009

As the internet began gaining worldwide usage in the mid 1990’s, some thought it would ultimately make real estate professionals obsolete.  The rationale was, “now that these professionals are no longer the gatekeepers of real estate information, and the public has online access to even more information than real estate professionals could provide before the internet, people will no longer need a real estate professional”.  We’ve seen this has been true for a minority of consumers, but the great majority still use a real estate professional.

Unfortunately, many real estate professionals still do not understand the online real estate consumer and how they should engage and serve them.  It’s very important they rectify this problem because about 80% of consumers use the internet when buying or selling a home online.

So here are some of the most important things to understand about today’s online real estate consumer:

Who They Are

Here is some demographic information on the typical online home buyer:

- Average Age Is 30 to 50 Years Old
- Average Income Is $75K
- Most Are University Educated
- Equal Ratio Of Male To Female

How They Find Your Website

This is how online consumers find websites on the internet:

- Links From Other Sites – 88%
- Search Engines – 85%
- Friends – 65%
- Print Media – 63%
- Directories – 58%
- Signature Files – 36%
- Television – 32%
- UseNets and Online Discuss Groups – 29%
- Other – 29%
- Books – 28%

Note how much the top two ways exceed print media.  Therefore, it’s critical you have your own real estate website and don’t rely on your company or brokerage’s website for people to find you.  My Moneymaker website for real estate professionals is a turn key solution for helping those online consumers find you.

What They’re Looking For

This is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the online consumer.  Having easy access to great amounts of real estate information and having become very accustomed to researching during college or university, these consumers typically turn to the internet for information even if they’re not currently actively seeking a home.  They often start their online research several months before they begin seriously looking at houses.  So it’s key you ask these people at what stage they’re at in their home search and give them what they want, when they want it, and in the way they want it.  They will probably contact you by email, so reply to their requests via email.  It’s a great way of sowing seeds that will blossom into sales once these prospects start searching for a home.

Learn how to ensure these online prospects find your real estate website by taking my course Building Your Ecommerce Business.  This course was been approved by the Registrar, REBBA 2002 to qualify for 6 Credits.

Filed under: Attracting Buyers/Sellers With Email,Using Email For Attracting Buyers/Sellers

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