Real estate agents who are hungry for income growth and better efficiency in day-to-day processes have no shortage of material to read online. Every day we’re bombarded with dozens of “hot new real estate marketing tools” and “best real estate marketing trends” and “explosive social media channels for Realtors.” Yes, dear real estate agent, “The world is your oyster” -- if only elements like time, money and attention were no object! The reality is that, most of us – luxury brokers or not – have to pick and choose where to focus our efforts because resources are finite.
Since opening in 2011, Lenihan Sotheby’s International Realty (LSIR) has grown into one of the top brokers of luxury real estate in Louisville, Kentucky. They have grown from $36 million in sales their first year and $76 million the following year, to $232 million last year and an estimated $300 million this year. The company’s trendsetting methods have been shared in presentations to the entire franchise network at the Sotheby’s International Realty Conference in Las Vegas this past May.
According to owner and principal broker John Lenihan, the secret to their real estate success boils down to “agents, technology, and brand.” A full-time coordinator heads marketing efforts through social media and blog channels. Several key personnel are heading up efforts in podcasting and Matterport 3D Virtual Property Tours -- two of the emerging technologies Lenihan has used to great effect within the last year.
Matterport 3-D Video
Lenihan Sotheby’s International Realty adds high definition, 360-degree 3-D “video” to every high end listing now. Before we delve into what’s possible with the newer real estate video tools out there, consider these statistics:
- 40% of buyers consider video real estate tours to be useful
- Real estate listings with videos received 403% more inquiries than those that did not.
- Realtor Century 21 saw a 20% increase in sales after implementing a video marketing campaign.
- 73% of homeowners said they’d be more willing to list with an agent who marketed with video.
- People are spending 52% longer on a brokerage firm’s page that features video tours on listings.
Video tours have been around since the earliest days of real estate marketing, but you really have to see the new technology in action to believe it. Forget the old “fish-eye effect” and clunky panoramas, says John Wurth, VP of Marketing for LSIR. “The video we produce with Matterport is something completely different.”
Modern real estate video is being shot by drone, aerial cams and high-tech room scanners. It takes about an hour to shoot a new location in HD for every 1,000 of square feet of property space. In addition to taking stills and video from all sorts of unique angles, the software also measures the space.
The software then translates the footage into a diverse array of different tours. One of the tours is called “the dollhouse view,” which gives you a roof vantage look down into all the rooms of the house, which is really neat for clients who want to visualize the entire flow of the floor or where their furniture might go.
Exterior shots taken by drone are absolutely fantastic for showing off a large farm estate that comes with a lot of property or showing off the beautiful surroundings during an early morning sunrise or late night sunset on waterfront properties.
The future lies in offering clients a pair of Google glasses or some form of virtual reality goggles and letting them fully immerse themselves in a home, without ever actually walking through it. As you can imagine, this ability presents an amazing opportunity for investors or people in the market for a second / vacation home to consider properties wide and far from their geographic location. Likewise, agents will be able to save time and expand their market reach in ways never before possible.
Podcasting
Podcasts are by no means a new technology, but 2016 is considered by many marketers as “the year podcasting exploded.” Here are a few statistics that back this claim.
- The number of people who’ve listened to a podcast this month has tripled since 2008.
- The number of regular podcast listeners has increased 23% from 2015 to 2016 alone.
- Despite busy schedules, 1 in 5 Americans say podcasts are a priority in how they receive news.
- 63% of listeners used information gleaned from a podcast to make a purchasing decision.
- Weekly podcast listeners consume an average of five shows per week.
- 88% of podcast subscribers faithfully listen to every new episode.
What’s the allure of podcasting, one might ask? Mike Mueller has the answer. Mueller is a survivor of the great tech bubble of the 1990s, a consultant on social media real estate marketing, and co-producer of a podcast show called “Social Media Edge.” For him, portability is a huge asset.
In 2014, most podcasts were listened to on a PC, but in 2016, 64% of podcasts are listened to on a smartphone or tablet. Mueller, for instance, listens while he bikes. Many of his friends dig into podcasts on a lunch break, while stuck in rush hour commutes, or during that morning dog walk. “A lot of podcasts go over to iTunes, so the delivery method is phenomenal: I could just bring up all the things I subscribed to and listen to anything,” he explains. It’s important to remember not everyone processes textual information best. Some prefer to absorb knowledge audibly.
A great example of real estate podcasting can be found at LouisvilleRealEstate.fm. The feed launched in mid-2015 as a way to showcase local real estate listings, but it has since grown to become a repository for all the topics, trends, and activities that matter most to Louisville residents. Podcasts have spanned everything from revitalization projects in the Portland neighborhood and recaps of Homearama in Norton Commons, to philosophical discussions with local artists and news about the launch of a new bourbon-based teriyaki.
The Lenihan Sotheby's International Realty office runs several different types of podcasts to segment their audience. There are podcasts geared toward buyers in the custom home building market, podcasts geared toward the luxury lifestyle (multi-million-dollar real estate included), and the “Perspectives” podcast geared toward the Louisville lifestyle in general.
LSIR says the offering of cutting edge technology in their market has allowed them to stay ahead of their competition as the premier luxury real estate brokerage in town. Real estate agents and firms looking for “next-level” marketing should follow the example set by Lenihan Sotheby’s International Realty to offer the type of value today’s discerning real estate clientele expects.