Google launched a new add-on feature to its popular gmail service today to allow users to share updates and information, similar to what you can do on Facebook and Twitter. Gmail is #3 in popularity behind Yahoo and Hotmail. Good strategy? I guess if each”buzz” can generate new ad space for Google…probably.
Click here to read the full article.
I was looking through the 2009 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers research report published by the National Association of Realtors, and I thought I would share some interesting information.
1. What website features buyers value. 97% of buyers thought photos and detailed property information were helpful (not sure what the other 3% are thinking here…?). 89% thought virtual tours were helpful. I would like to think if they all saw a FloorPlanOnline tour, that number would be close to 100%! I would also like to point out that other companies have done research around online content, and several studies have indicated that Photos score the highest in terms of essential content and floor plans score #2! So, if your listing does not have its Floor Plan Online….it should.
2. More and more Buyers are Online to search. The first step taken by far in the home buying process was go online to look for properties for sale – 36% listed this as the first step taken. This was double the next highest action, which was contact a real estate agent (18%).
In addition, 90% of all buyers used the Internet to search, while 93% of first time buyers used the Internet. Again more than any other source. In the key buying group of 25 to 44 year olds, 96% of the respondents used the Internet to search.
3. Websites used in the Home Search process. The most used site by far was the multiple listing service (MLS) website. This could be a factor that agents typically email listing info to their buyers, so it is pushed to them. Some MLSs have their own consumer oriented search site…but I know some do not. The total list of websites used by Buyers (percentages are for All Buyers surveyed):
It is interesting to note that the types of sites used by different age brackets did not differ much at all. The top site for all groups was the MLS, followed by the company site and Realtor.com. Also, there is a lot of hype about social media and YouTube…but this is not necessarily translating into buyers using these sites for searching. For example, between the age groups of 18 to 24 and 25 to 44, only 1% said they used social media websites. The 45 and over crowd said less than 1%. Surprisingly, 2% over 65 said they used YouTube, while all the other age groups responded with less than 1%. Now, this does not mean there is no value to social media or YouTube…these outlets just need to be used in the right way and for the right reason. I also think there is some search engine benefit to posting content on these sites. Note…we will address the YouTube video posting issue in 2010. 🙂
4. The Internet is getting results. 36% of respondents FIRST found the home they purchased via the Internet search. This was the same as through a real estate agent, and up from 32% last year. No other source was higher. Print newspaper was down to 2% now….ouch. Also, 77% of buyers drove by or viewed a home after finding it online, while 61% walked through the home. Another interesting stat – 28% found the agent they used to buy the home online. There was also a high correlation in people that used the Internet to search and those that used an agent to buy – 79% used an agent to buy.
Implications – I think what all of these stats boils down to is YOU need to be online and you need to have the best online content for your listings, because chances are, if you make an impression online, you are going to get a buyer to call you, drive by or tour your listing. The first step is getting the right content. People want to see photos and floor plans. All the other fancy stuff like spinning 360s, deep zoom, property videos with voice over has actually scored lower on the desirability scale. In some cases, like voice over and music playing when you first open a tour scores negative. People want to see the essentials quickly and easily.
The second step is get this content distributed to the KEY places people search. Your virtual tours need to be linked to your MLS (use the unbranded link – in many markets we do this for you automatically), on Realtor.com (we link the tour for you automatically….and it is FREE if you are a Realtor.com Showcase member), your company website and your website/blog. This will get you 95% or more there. You can then use our tools to link the tour to your Facebook site, Twitter, and more. Realtor.com has a nice Facebook widget to add your listings to your Facebook profile. We also are posting listings to Google Base now. We will be working to add more sites like Zillow, Trulia, Craigslist, etc. in the coming months (however you can do this now manually).
In addition, talk to your company IT people about posting the company tours to Zillow, Trulia and others. As part of this make sure your virtual tour links come through with the data feed. Most if not all of these sites can include the virtual tour link…but the company needs to send it along. As I stated in a previous post, your company should really be posting tours to these other websites….There is a hierarchy Zillow and others use, and companies like us are the last on the list. So if we link a tour to Zillow, for example, and your company pushes the listing there, it will push our link off…and if the company info does not include the tour link, your tour will not get exposure on Zillow. So, push your company to post listings to these other website portals and make sure the virtual tour links are included. You paid good money for the content and you deserve the most exposure!
All for now…time for the weekend. Thanks for reading
-Kris Cone
As always, please feel free to contact me.
I am very pleased to announce that one of our long standing FloorPlanOnline customers (actually, THE FIRST customer in the US, since she is my mother!) was honored last week as the 2009 Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors Salesperson of the Year! Congratulations Linda!
Linda is an agent with Reece and Nichols in Kansas City. She has used FloorPlanOnline from the beginning….so I would like to think we had something to do with her success, but I am also sure her hard work and dedication to her clients and community contributed to receiving this great award! Linda can be found online at www.KansasCityLifestyles.com (note, this site is something I put together for her using WordPress…..it is a great tool for real estate agents. Contact me if you want more info).
We found out last week when we are all vacationing in Maui as a family. I took a video (using my iPhone, so not the best) of the announcement by Catherine Clark, Linda’s broker. Just play the video below to see more (Hawaii was awesome, by the way… :)).
If you have news about you or someone else that uses FloorPlanOnline, we would also love to hear from you. Just email us and we can create a blog post and possibly even create a press release to mutually benefit both of us!
Best regards,
Kris Cone
For those of you that use Google Apps (like gmail for business, Google Docs, etc), please read the below. We highly encourage you to upgrade from Internet Explorer 6 if you are still using it. Microsoft is no longer support it, which means there are inherent issues, including security holes. Plus, it does cause a few issues with the edit process of the FloorPlanOnline tours. If you are afraid to upgrade to IE 8.0 (the latest), there is a way to upgrade to IE 7.0. Just go to Microsoft and the Internet Explorer download page and look for the IE 7 download. Or, use Firefox – I highly recommend it as a browser as it is faster and easier to customize. You will need to install the plugins for flash and adobe reader. I understand some MLS systems may only work on Internet Explorer…but you can always use multiple browsers on your computer.
From Google
____________________________________
In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.
We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.
Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.
Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser. We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.
In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience. We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.
We are excited to highlight new FPO tools and one Beta Tool on the FloorPlanOnline “Tour of the Week” Today.
The FPO Custom Hotspot tool launched this month and allows agents to link youtube video, neighborhood websites or other FPO tours directly on the interactive floorplan. On this tour the hotspot tool is used three times to link various other content. Two “house” type hotspot icons on the right side of the floorplan take you to a tour of the area Clubhouse and amenity’s. The second “house” hotspot links to the Naperville Park district website. Imagine how buyers will appreciate the custom information and ease of use.
Live the Naperville luxury Lifestyle in this Brick Home - The FloorPlanOnline Tour of the Week.
Statistically Neighborhood Quality is the number one factor in deciding on a property (according this years NAR data). Thus – the more you can highlight about the quality of the neighborhood the better.
Secondly, the longer a visitor stays looking at a listing online, the more emotionally attached they become to the property. With the Beta FloorPlaner tool (gray icon to the left of the floorplan) buyers may select furnishings and move them into the home digitally. Select a couch, chair or lamp, and drag, rotate and click it into place. Its still in Beta testing, so not bug free – but a cool look at the possibility’s. Test the new tool here or on the tour above and give us your feedback!
Finally, we introduced the mouse over feature on all listings as well. Simply mouse over the camera icon on the floorplan to view a thumb nail or click it to view the large photo.
This listing is in Naperville IL, (Chicago Suburb) and located at www.floorplanonline.com/56464
If you wish to volunteer one of your upcoming listings for future Beta testing send an email to chris@floorplanonline.com.
Hi FloorPlanOnline users.
I wanted to give you a sneak preview of a floorplanner tool we are working on and get your thoughts. Can you review the tool below and then complete the poll on what you think. We are working to bring this, and some other exciting enhancements, to our tours soon. The embedded version is below, or Click Here to see the full screen version (so the icon library is not over the plan as in this embedded version).
You must be logged in to post a comment.