Last week, New Zealand real estate agent Antonia Baker got in touch to let us know about the launch of her new business, The Property Market.
Baker says The Property Market is a bit different from anything else on offer in NZ. Through its fee structure, sellers are charged one percent up to capital value and five percent on the remainder. “We aim to get new listings on the market for next to nothing by focusing on online advertising rather than expensive press ads,” Baker explains.
A visit to The Property Market immediately shows that sellers’ questions - “How is the market?” and “How much is my property worth?” - have been taken into consideration. There’s also a strong emphasis on social media, with Facebook, Twitter and blogging all covered on the homepage.
Baker says she enlisted the help of online design company Gravitate to build her whole business around the website itself. ”I can upload new listings and buyers’ details straight into the database via my iPad (thereby eliminating the cost of admin staff) and I can also pump out pre-formatted signage and brochures that I can fire straight off to the printer (thereby eliminating the cost of art workers or designers),” Baker says. “It just didn’t seem right to me that clients should have to pay for stuff that can be automated.”
In terms of traffic, Baker says she saw 478 visits in The Property Market’s first week online, with an average visit time of 5 minutes and 16 seconds. “In all of my ten years in advertising, I don’t think I ever saw an average duration like this,” Baker says. “The Facebook page also had 775 visits in its first week – I like to think they can’t all be my mum.”
The Property Market is also open to private sellers, but Baker says this strategy is actually resulting in more listings. “By endorsing their ambition to sell their own property, I buy myself the right to have an honest conversation with them about the pros and cons of listing through an agency,” she explains. “From there it’s only a hop, skip and a jump to convert them into a listing.”
Do you have a real estate marketing strategy you’d like to share? Get in touch with us at [email protected] and we’ll feature you in the next instalment of Agent Strategies.
Related posts:
- Agent Strategies: Hyper Local Blogging
- Agent Strategies: A Charitable Niche
- Agent Strategies: Real Estate Blogging that Works
- Agent Strategies: When Portals are King
- Agent Strategies: Your 2011 Business Plan
- Agent Strategies: Property Photos Still an Issue
- Agent Strategies: Optimise Those Landing Pages
- Agent Strategies: A Real Estate Marketing Mix
- Agent Strategies: Keeping them Interested
- First Week Crucial for Listings
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