by Nik Wakelin
There's recently been a bit of furore in the media and social channels recently about an NBR article - Why Online Marketing Fails House Sellers. My partner and I are currently looking to buy a house, so I thought that our perspective might be interesting.We look online. We send links to TradeMe and Realestate.co.nz properties back and forth. We send email enquiries, and we get frustrated when Real Estate agents don't respond quickly over that channel.
One of the comments on the above article, from Lance Wiggs, claims that print advertising is important due to "serendipity". I usually agree with Lance, but on this he's unfortunately dead wrong.
The typical Sunday morning for Ange and I consists of an iced coffee and eggs benne for me, fruit, muesli and yoghurt for her. I'll definitely have my iPhone, she'll usually bring hers too. I'll start the Realestate.co.nz iPhone app and tap "Near Me" to see all the open homes happening close to me on a convenient map. If I see something I like, I'll hand her the phone and we'll browse through the photos. Next, I'll load up TradeMe - they get second billing because their property search drop-downs are a little fiddly on the iPhone - and we'll repeat the process.
Ange might read the paper (I'll usually browse the NZHerald app and sometimes Stuff.co.nz) but I can't recall her ever pointing out a property from it - why would she? The photos look terrible on newsprint compared to my phone's "Retina" display and there are less of them. Half of the ad is taken up by an overly euphemistic description of the property which I usually just scan for CV and Body Corporate rates, and the ads are ordered by Agency, then Agent - not what's really important for us.
Here are a few of the things we consider when looking at a house ad:
- Location
- How many bedrooms/bathrooms (we'd like to have a study)
- What is the floor area of the property? Capital Value? Rates? Body Corp?
- Is there an outdoor area?
- Does anything look like it needs obvious work?
- What kind of sale is it? (We're a little gun-shy about Tenders, it being our first home purchase)
The agency or agent selling the house is quite simply not considered - why then is that the most important criteria print advertising is organised around?
Now, I understand I'm quite techy and potentially not everyone has the same level of disdain for the "dead tree". What the Property Press and friends from the NBR article fail to realise is that this is where the future lies. In fact, in the article itself they admit that TradeMe has a clear edge in the rental markets - wake up guys, those are the buyers of the future, and they haven't even heard of the Property Press!
Print advertising for property is going the way of the dodo and the yellow pages. In fact, I was trying to do some research for this post, and I accidentally summed the debate up quite nicely in a text to Grant this morning:
"Where do you get prop press!?"
Ian Simpson said:
We've just been in the same boat as you, buying our first home.
You're totally right. I don't want to waste my time looking at 2 bedroom units, or $1,000,000 mansions, or houses in certain suburbs, etc. We had our list fairly finely-tuned by the end, so probably had 95%+ of the properties on the market here crossed off before looking at them.
Paper just doesn't allow you to do this. To do things anywhere near efficiently we needed Trade Me and Realestate.co.nz. I set up saved searches with both and was emailed new properties that matched daily.
We get the Property Press each week. The one really handy thing was it was the same day we usually got fish and chips, so we put it on the couch to avoid grease stains.
Posted 19 th April, 2012James Nisbet said:
When I recently bought my apartment at auction, I found it via TradeMe. I confess I didn't even look at RealEstate.co.nz (and obviously no agency windows/papers/magazines).
The only interaction I had with an agent prior to the auction itself was a family friend trying to pawn off his useless listings to me so he could get his fat commission cheque.
Posted 19 th April, 2012Mr Truth said:
It's almost like a dying industry wants you to think that a huge customer of theirs, another dying industry, is super important... Wonder why?
Posted 19 th April, 2012Scott Mayo said:
We bought our house 2 years ago. Most of our looking was online, I don't remember picking up a Property Press at all when as part of the purchase. However every time I travel/holiday in an area I like I always pick up a Property Press. It's a good time kill and gives you an overarching feel for the market and area. As such it probably works well for agents and agencies as a lead tool as you may ring to look at a property. This may be the serendipity effect Lance refers to.
I feel as the population gets more tech literate the move to online will continue until such a point you wondered how it used to be done. Remember the Trade & exchange? Funny how you used to have to wait 'til Thursday before you could find secondhand stuff you wanted to buy...
Posted 19 th April, 2012Russell said:
The real estate agencies are keen to keep profile high by using sellers money to push their brand. Dont get sucked in sellers - online is the preferred source when looking for a home!
Posted 19 th April, 2012Ann McClure said:
I bought my current house in Auckland in 2001, at the time I was living in Spain & found my house listed on Open2view, I travelled to Auckland & spent 2 days with a lovely agent from a well known REA who showed me not only her listed properties but others as well. (I realise she would still share commission) She gave me good advice warning me to steer clear of Leasehold property no matter how cheap.
I firmly believe the Internet.is the best vehicle for buying or selling. The ability to see many images of interior & exterior is a time saver as is location map & street view but wished all listings also featured a diagram of the layout of the house & outdoor areas & provided other information eg: distance to transport & essential services, shopping & entertainment.
Posted 13 th May, 2012Debbie said:
I like the internet search as the pictures are far clearer and there are more pictures to veiw of the property, Real Estate agents need to revisit their agent fee as most I know will try to sell via internet rather than pay the real estate fee, additionally the seller pays for anty printed advertising.. I love the line , this will be an easy property to market as I have potential buyers already. Well if it is that easy then, why not advertise it on line yourself.
Posted 31 st January, 2013The property press is a great little magazine, but unfortunately by the time it is printed a fair percentage are sold or under offer.