Each year, the National Association of Realtors performs a study of home buying and selling habits. The NAR surveys of over 100,000 home buyers and home sellers across the country about their home buying/selling experience. The survey results are tabulated, summarized, and published each November in the NAR’s “Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers”.
While there are literally hundreds of survey questions summarized as part of the study, one question stands as the most informative. When it comes to marketing homes, this question is all that you need to know. Asked to home buyers, the question is:
How did you first learn that the home you purchased (in 2008) was on the market?
Here are the results:
My Real estate agent told me about the home 34%
I found the home on the internet 32%
I saw the “for sale” yard sign 15%
Friend, relative, neighbor or otherwise knew seller 9%
Learned of the home from the home builder 7%
Print Newspaper 3%
Other printed ad (home and land guide, etc) 1%
* Results total 101% due to rounding
If you look at the results from the standpoint of someone trying to sell an existing home (ie not new construction being sold by a builder), then the internet accounts for over a third of the prospects. Further assume that you have exhausted your list of friends, relatives, and neighbors – now the internet accounts for 38% of all prospects. If, in addition to the previous 2 assumptions, you live in a condominium or an HOA that does not allow signs, the number jumps to 46% of all prospects.
The data show why having a comprehensive internet strategy is necessary to sell a home at the best price in today’s market. It is especially true of most condominiums and some HOA’s where signage is prohibited. It also shows that most of the seemingly proactive and outbound marketing (push) techniques (like print advertising, open houses, and TV) are a waste of time and money. More on these differences later and why inbound marketing works so much better (today anyway).
