Selling real estate online

Pardon the long absence. I was just junketing around for an early Easter treat. Seriously, I went to key cities of Mindanao to help real estate professionals grow their business using the latest tools and techniques in online marketing.  And I would like to thank Rent.ph (www.rent.ph) and Leuterio Realty for organizing seminars and trainings like these which they offer to their partner brokers and salespersons free of charge and to think that they are not only expensive but also physically demanding on the part of the organizers.

Rent.ph and Leuterio Realty are probably the only realty firms I know which invest heavily on free training to catapult their business. Today, Rent.ph is one of the startup companies I know which made it in the league of successful tech companies in just less than two years while Leuterio Realty is the only realty I know which consistently and continuously making waves in the sales charts of major property developers in the country and the only real estate marketing firm that was highly commended by the Philippines Property Awards and Southeast Asia Property Awards being the Best Commercial and Residential Agent, and as Best Property Consultancy, respectively in 2013. Indeed, trainings and seminars can do wonders not only to people who work for you but also to the image and reputation of your company.

I would like to share some things I know about online marketing in relation to selling real estate products. First, I would like to emphasize that selling properties over the internet involves several methods that’s only unique in real estate. Do not believe in those self-proclaimed “online marketing experts” who make cash machines out of broke brokers who are desperate to find their way in the internet. For most of the time, these experts are “internet marketing generalists” who typically employ what your competitors are already doing. So don’t ever waste your time and money listening to them because they are not only “nothing new”, they are downright impractical.

The best online marketers of real estate are those who are actually in the business of selling real estate online. So if you’re a real estate professional who bumps on someone who sells you his online marketing services, ask him straight on the face if he ever had sold a condo online, how many, and if he approves that you verify his sales records from property developers.

It’s such a pity that many brokers and realty businesses fall into their “consultant speak” and salacious internet terms when in truth, real estate professionals understand their markets better than this people. If I may say, many real estate sellers cannot make it in the internet is because they spend more time in traditional marketing than going digital. Manning and exhibits do help generate sales, but they pale in comparison to the amount of sales you generate online. The traditional methods of selling real estate are not only expensive but very limiting as you have to lobby to developers to include you in their manning schedules. 

The success of Leuterio Realty, as an example, speaks of how they were able to carve a name in online marketing. Their agents do not rely on exhibits anymore. In fact, most of their salespersons are no longer interested in these types of campaigns. Accordingly, more than 90 percent of the firm’s sales come from their online campaigns. Their agents spend on the average 6 hours a day in the internet to market pre-sold projects and property listings. If you notice, if you search for properties online, you get to notice that their company dominates major online list and classifieds in the country. 

The company’s online campaign seminars are also the most practical and interactive around as they are culled from the experiences of their agents which they openly share and compare. These experiences are documented and applied in their actual campaigns and are measured in terms of their success rate. As an online marketer myself I am fascinated by how little they spend in paid advertising and yet they make millions of sales every month. One of their superstar agents sells on the average Ph 40-60 million a month which is the typical production of an average realty firm for a year! That’s really spell binding.

Realty firms can replicate the same methods if they only step back for a while and discuss their strategies among their teams then move forward. Many realty firms fold up because they do not have a concrete program to market their inventories. They are still locked in the old school of selling real estate not minding the fact that 98% of buyers look it up in the internet to search for properties.

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