Via Lost Remote, I get word that Borrell has a new report out. It claims that while 77 percent of the potential home buyers use the Web, a mere 15 percent of the advertising dollars are flowing online.
Yes, this is an opportunity.
It’s an opportunity for newspapers for four reasons.
- First, strong pre-existing relationships with Realtors;
- Second, real estate is a highly fragmented market online in many regions, meaning a strong newspaper effort has a chance to corner the market;
- Third, the Web is a natural place to search for real estate — it just works so much better for finding and viewing listings than any other medium … real estate and the Web were made for each other;
- Fourth, newspapers can leverage their market leadership among consumers and their superior ability to create content to “feed the dream” of home ownership, or of moving up;
Feeding the dream is very important, something most online real estate sites fail to do. A content-rich site is the answer.
Of course, a real estate site isn’t just about homes for sale. Renters need a place to search, too.
Once you establish a brand as a comprehensive, reliable, trusted source of housing information, you should be able to own your local market online.
Of course, building a great real estate site doesn’t come cheap. To do it right, you need a robust listing application, a strong new homes product, a flexible rental search, a strong sales staff, and lots and lots of content, both evergreen and current. You need school and crime databases, geographic and topical information, neighborhood profiles, people profiles, home buying information, and plenty of multimedia. And don’t forget marketing, and your marketing should include frequent consumer-centric contests.
But look at the opportunity.
LATER: Online News Squared has a related post.
