Marketing Bonita Springs Homes Internationally
Recently, I went to interview for a listing in Bonita Springs, Florida. My listing presentations are fairly comprehensive and data driven with market statistics, sales statistics plus information on how consumers locate, purchase and fund their new Bonita Springs home. I create my own market reports, do the research, build the graphs.
After reviewing the data, the home seller eventually asked if marketed real estate internationally. The answer is yes.
First, I not only market internationally but I target market specifically by community name or/or lifestyle command to bring buyers specifically looking for a home in that neighborhood to a comprehensive, thorough, custom built web page with the most information about the community. At the bottom of that page is a list of the active homes for sale in that Bonita Springs community. That’s how a lot of consumers search for real estate in Bonita Springs. “Community Name Bonita Springs” or by “community name” if it’s distinctive enough. For example: Brendan Cove or Meadowbrook Bonita Springs. There are works in progress that are on the front page and heading up: Cedar Creek Bonita Springs and Bonita National Bonita Springs
The homes sellers seemed rather unimpressed that I am able to build a top ranking, organic web page that shows up first in Google for their neighborhood name. They wanted to know what magazines or newspapers I was going to blanket all of Europe or Iceland or Africa with to sell their home. Good marketing, the best marketing is not necessarily print advertising. I can’t afford to pacify sellers with good dollars thrown at print advertising.
With exception to a few classifieds I run in the local paper, I don’t generally engage in print advertising. It is the most expensive, least effective type of marketing on the planet. Yes, planet. If it was effective, home owners would put a full page ad in the paper and a week later be skipping off to the bank with their sales proceeds … and not call a real estate agent.
Here’s the goods: Ninety-two percent of home buyers use the internet for their home search. Check out the rest of the statistics on how buyers find the home they eventually buy, from 2013 National Association of Realtors® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers:
When buyers were asked where they first learned about the home they purchased, 43 percent said the Internet; 33 percent from a real estate agent; 9 percent a yard sign or open house; 6 percent from a friend, neighbor or relative; 5 percent from home builders; 2 percent directly from the seller; 1 percent a print or newspaper ad; and less than 1 percent from other sources.
Forgive me, Mr. and Mrs. Home-Seller for not marketing to the 1% of buyers looking for real estate and concentrating on the 92%. It is not fiscally responsible or part business plan and to cater to that whim. At the time, I sort of exited knowing where this one would end. I don’t take all listings. The good agents never do take every listing. That interview process is reciprocal and I exercised the rule of two feet.
As I pulled away I murmured, I am sure you will find another real estate agent who will gladly martyr their finances for a listing …
They did find that real estate agent and when the property hit the market I Googled and found only a profile page on the brokerage website for web presence and a few incidental social media sites. There was a name on Trulia but not even a photo or bio was visible. Trulia is usually one of the top links for any “community name Bonita Springs”. It’s a waste for any real estate agent to not flesh out that profile.
So here’s the elevator pitch synopsis of “marketing real estate” or “marketing real estate internationally”. Print ads are for the seller’s ego. The fact of the matter is that buyers do not go buy a magazine or a newspaper to find a home or condo whether they’re shopping from Boise Idaho or Brussels. They search on the internet, usually from a mobile device. You, as a home seller, really need to Google your neighborhood by name and the agents you interview to see just how far they actually can reach and to see if they have a funnel (or are capable of building a funnel) pointed at your neighbor hood before you list your Bonita Springs home.