Image by mastermaq via Flickr
Yesterday’s post introducing our blog series Common Mistakes in Real Estate Internet Marketing was one of our most popular ever. We discussed the first common mistake – haste – and then we shared some best practices from our year of research at Harvard Business School. These best practices from our proprietary research are incorporated in RentJuice technology to help agents make less errors while simultaneously becoming more productive.
Before we share more details about the second common mistake – chaos – we’d like to share a reminder that our tweets from RE BarCamp Boston are under the Twitter hashtag #rebcbos. It’s easy to find – in Twitter search just type in “#rebcbos rentjuice” and you’ll see our info from that day (or by clicking here).
Here’s more on the second common mistake – creating our own chaos:
Real estate marketing really got its start in your local newspaper. Yes, there has always been direct relationship marketing, including postcards and fliers, but reaching a city’s renter market was effectively done by adding listings to your local paper – in the case of Boston, agents would add listings to the Boston Globe. In the early days, as our customers recall fondly, there were two benefits to this: only “legitimate” brokerages with capital ($) could afford to advertise, and secondly, those agencies could afford to be less aggressive and let leads come to them through this single marketing channel.
Then there were other forms of marketing listings, including countless paid classified ads sites online. Following those, Craigslist took hold, and the savviest agents were using it from the beginning. It was free (and continues to be, in most places)! But eventually most agents came around and realized how valuable Craigslist was to their business – for real estate sales, for home rentals, and for apartment rentals.
At its core Craigslist is limited in many ways (to be discussed in a later post). Agents have experimented with other services like Hotpads, Oodle, or Google Base, to name a few – that is, online rental housing and real estate search that also utilizes creative interfaces like maps, widgets, and better search. And many real estate marketers feel a need to be on all of these sites at once.
Somewhere in this period, Google had begun asserting itself as the predominant general search engine and real estate agents took notice. Real estate agents began to realize the value of search engine optimization for their website, so that they’d be found by people searching for homes on Google (which people still do). One good way to enhance SEO was to advertise listings on various services and have those listings point back to an agent’s website.
Since agents were also advertising on every service mentioned above, plus their local advertising efforts, just advertising real estate and rental listings became a full time job. This is where the chaos in a real estate agent’s life gets really scary. In our research, rental agents have become increasingly obsessed with splashing the web with advertising; they’re showing and closing less often, and doing a lot more clicking and typing than they want.
Realizing this, real estate agencies and brokers striking out on their own realized they needed a better way to manage these listings. Without an authoritative MLS in rentals, they started investing in their own listings databases and immediately hired relatives or freelance programmers to create custom databases – because unfortunately no one else was focused solely on serving their market.
These custom software products, built by a small team with other projects or purposes, were built by software engineers for software engineers. Even worse, customer service from these local companies has consistently been reported as abysmal at best. For a rental agent, if your listings database breaks, how can you continue advising your clients or marketing your listings? To be fixed in time, you’re looking at another expensive bill! Just managing listings internally, from administering the software to doing the data entry, became a second full time job for real estate agents.
And what about leads and the “back-and-forth” of being a broker? Successful real estate agents manage their relationships consistently, but there have been few real estate CRM products that link listings and leads in a way that matters for rentals. With renters being in the market for only weeks and not months, it’s up to the agent to focus on two keys to success: speed of their response and quality of the inventory presented. Having leads arrive in an email inbox that is disconnected from your listings adds time and effort to this process and reduces the quality of your response. Making these connections manually should not be yet another full-time job. It’s no surprise that the season where agents get most of their leads and deals is also the most frustrating and difficult.
With real estate agents (and not attorneys or landlords) handling the paperwork, credit checks, and communication for a deal closing, your agents are spending more time than necessary just to keep up with it all.
It’s no wonder so many real estate agents ignore home rentals and apartment rentals – all this work could only be profitable if it was done in a high enough volume, with little care for the little details that make a renter’s experience referral-worthy. (Proper rental customer service will also be discussed in an upcoming post!)
Does any of this sound familiar? What’s the solution?
Well, you might have guessed by now that we at RentJuice are passionate about these issues — intuitive software that doesn’t break, automating jobs that used to take hours, and converting leads into successes. It’s absolutely perfect for a brokerage’s busiest season, as our latest members have been finding out.
For a free test drive, sign up for one of a free 10-day trial!
By
David Vivero on
June 16, 2009 in
Marketing with
Image by MrB-MMX via Flickr
Our team attended RE BarCamp Boston last Friday and gave a presentation on common internet marketing mistakes. It was great to see so many real estate agents taking notes on the facts and tips we shared, but we wanted to make that information available to all real estate agents who were not able to attend the conference.
First, we live tweeted the event under the Twitter hashtag #rebcbos, so the sequential tweets are available. It’s easy to find – in Twitter search just type in “#rebcbos rentjuice” and you’ll see our info from that day (or by clicking here).
However, it’s difficult to tweet an entire 45 minute presentation chock full of internet marketing facts, so we’re going to share the presentation in a recurring blog series called Real Estate Internet Marketing: Common Mistakes.
Here’s part 1 called The First Real Estate Internet Marketing Mistake is Haste:
Based on about a year of research that started at Harvard Business School, and based on scanning over 600,000 ads on Craigslist and other internet listing services, we found that roughly between 10% and 15% of ads didn’t follow best practices.
So what are best practices? Well, it’s simple and yet overlooked at the same time. Because rentals are often all about speed, real estate agents who do rentals often make quick mistakes that end up being disastrous for their business. That’s why the first major common mistake in real estate internet marketing is haste.
Agents will make simple mistakes by putting improper contact information, such as putting in a 9 or 11 digit phone number. We even saw agents who forgot to put their name and agency on an ad, not to mention forgetting an email address.
You should also use headers and footers on your ads that include a call to action, so that a potential renter has more of a reason to contact you. Examples include putting in the name of your agency, your name, and something about the place that will cause the renter to contact you (i.e. this apartment won’t last long – act now!)
So how does RentJuice help fix the problems caused by haste? We do many things to help real estate agents who do rentals avoid these simple yet costly mistakes. If you’ve forgotten to put in your contact information, you will have a big, red reminder that you’re not following best practices. With RentJuice, there’s no feasible way to make those costly mistakes anymore – and that definitely gives you a leg up on your competition.
Plus there are many other features we have that put our proprietary research into action to make sure you’re utilizing leading best practices for the entire rental process. Another example is that with RentJuice you can have custom headers and footers that show up automatically across all your ads.
And there’s so much more to RentJuice and specifically our internet marketing capabilities – by being able to manage and advertise your listings in a fraction of the time it takes on other services, you aren’t under as big of a time pressure. Which is another way that you’ll be less likely to make an error.
Bottom line: Get rid of the problems caused by haste. Haste causes simple mistakes that are costly to your business in the form of poor ads and a lowered perception of your agency’s reputation. Closing more deals starts with effective internet marketing. More effective internet marketing is a result of one of two options: taking more time with your advertisements (which causes less errors but takes more of your time) or starting a free trial with RentJuice.
Only with RentJuice will you be able to take advantage of our substantial proprietary research, instantly advertise your listings more effectively across over 16 leading partner websites including Craigslist, and take advantage of our local ad syndication partnerships with Boston.com and Wicked Local.
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Find out more about our powerful solution at http://www.rentjuice.com
By
David Vivero on
June 11, 2009 in
Renters with
Flickr by midwestnerd
On our @RentJuice Twitter account we tweeted a link to a great post busting some myths about renting. But it got us thinking back to a book some members of our team read called Who’s Your City? by Richard Florida. Specifically, the book subtly makes the case for a major benefit of renting – flexibility. Here’s a great quote:
“The point is, where we live is a central life factor that affects all the others—work, education, and love—follow. It can make or break existing work arrangements and personal relationships. It can open new doors. And regardless of what kind of life we envision for ourselves—whether we aspire to make millions, have a family, or live the way of a bachelor—choosing where to live is a decision we all must make at least once. A good number of us will make it multiple times. The average American moves once every seven years. More than 40 million people relocate each year; 15 million make significant moves of more than 50 or 100 miles.”
If you take those moving statistics at face value, it’s easy to see why renting actually offers a major benefit over buying a home. If you’re trying to stay competitive in the work force, or if you are younger and willing to chase opportunities as they arise, there’s a big cost buying a home: you limit your options and are tied down.
“As the most mobile people in human history, we are fortunate to have an incredibly diverse menu of places—in our own countries and around the world—from which to choose. That’s important because each of us has different needs and preferences. Luckily, places differ as much as we do…
It’s not just that places’ personalities are different. What we need from a place also shifts with each stage of our life. When we’re young, just out of school and single, many of us want a place that’s stimulating, offering lots of jobs and opportunities for career advancement, great nightlife, and a vibrant “mating market” filled with single people to meet and date. When we get a bit older, and certainly when we marry and have children, our priorities change. We want a place that offers good schools, safe streets, and better lives for our families. And when the children go off to college and leave the house, our needs and interests change yet again.
At each of these turning points, and at many others along the way, a growing number of us have the opportunity to choose a place that truly fits our needs.”
Renting lets you move closer to jobs both within your current city or within a new location. Add in that you avoid many of the hassles of ownership, and it’s easy to see why in today’s world renting instead of owning is becoming a more popular and acceptable option – and not just when you’re younger.
It’s not just about jobs either. If you rent, you typically are not tied down to any place more than 6-12 months, depending on your lease. And even then, you can usually get out of your lease for a fee.
Additionally, the flexibility of renting lets you try out new locations within your city and all over the world. Not only do you avoid having to do major repairs on your home or apartment, but you also can “change the scenery” as long as you’re okay with moving.
Bottom line: The flexibility offered by renting is increasingly important for jobs, relations, pleasure, and more. The benefits of owning a home are eroding while the benefits of renting are becoming more pronounced and important in the world we live in today.
By
David Vivero on
April 14, 2009 in
Renters with
Image by Ivy Dawned via Flickr
The other day we came across this article in the San Francisco Chronicle that focused on tips for new renters. Most of these tips are also a great reminder for people who have rented before and are looking at new homes or apartments to rent. And reading the article made us realize that if you’re a renter or a landlord, you have to put your detective hat on and really do your homework on the people with which you’ll potentially be signing a lease. In the article we spotted some strong tips like this one focused on inspecting common areas of a rental property:
“If the hallways and elevators are dirty or the grounds overgrown, there’s a risk the landlord will also take a long time to make any repairs.
Ask some of the residents about the landlord or property manager. You might get details you wouldn’t hear otherwise, like odors from the restaurant next door or the upstairs neighbor’s dog that barks all day when the owner is away.”
And here’s another important tip we liked focused on checking a landlord’s financial situation:
“If you’re renting from an individual, you can check out his or her financial situation by sifting through district court records for any foreclosure actions, judgments or bankruptcy filings. You can also contact your local Better Business Bureau to see if there have been any complaints filed against the landlord.”
The two quotes highlighted here are some of the softer tips that renters often overlook. And yet it’s a great reminder of how incredibly important it is to approach the rental process like a detective – both for a prospective renter and for a landlord who needs to do their complete due diligence on a renter before they sign a lease.
By
David Vivero on
September 14, 2008 in
Renters with
Image by edenpictures via Flickr
One of the most important aspects of choosing your next rental apartment is the characteristics of the neighborhood you’ll adopt. Sure, the apartment itself is essential, but keep these tips in mind when you’re picking what areas of a city are right for you.
- Demographics of the residents. Are they retired people? College students? Families with kids? Do you see a lot of people walking dogs? Spend a day getting a sense for the people who will soon be your neighbors. A great online resource for this is Yahoo Real Estate’s Neighborhood Profile. Here’s the results for my old neighborhood in San Francisco, for example.
- Availability of parking. You may not drive, but you may buy a car in the next few years. Better yet, guests who visit will need a place to put their car while visiting. It also can be quite frustrating when you’re moving in/moving out, and you’ll need some place to put a van or truck. Go visit the area at night (when residents are parked) and during the mid-day (when business traffic is usually parked). Rush hour times, when meters are just being turned on or off, is usually an odd time to assess parking. We’re also excited for the launch of SpotScout, which promises to be an online marketplace for parking spots. (Go pre-register there to be posted on their launch.)
- Nearby amenities. Make sure there’s some convenient way to get to a grocery store, a gas station (if necessary), a laundromat, a coffee shop, a drycleaner, and some go-to restaurants for a quick bite. You’ll always regret living in an apartment where you can’t get at least the basics on a daily basis. For this, simple searches using your address on Citysearch, Yelp.com, or even Google Local will do.
- Public transportation. Have to get to work or to a friend’s place? Don’t forget how important it is to make those trips seem convenient. Unless you’re working from home, you’ll truly value the ability to get to and from with ease. The best part is: find this information is really easy. Google has created Google Transit to help with planning trips using public transportation, including schedules and transfers. Give it a whirl using your prospective apartment address and another useful address (like work or a friend’s house).
- Crime activity. Another great indicator about your neighborhood is the level of crime activity. It’s incredibly important to live in an area you trust to be safe in your daily life and welcoming to guests. Try using some of the visually pleasing search tools available on Everyblock, which is a service that streams local activity from public databases around your area. The only limitation is that it’s only available in a few major metro areas in the US. If your city isn’t there, you can try searching against your local police department database.
- Major construction and noise. Understand any current or upcoming major construction in the area you’re searching. Often times, residents will move into an apartment not knowing that the building across the street is scheduled to be demolished and they’re faced with months or years worth of an awful view or (worse!) the sounds of drills and cranes early in the morning. Along these same lines, make sure your apartment or house isn’t directly near a highway or commuter railway system, as these can cause tons of noise or a vibration of the entire unit. It’s best to ask your broker, landlord or other residents in the area about this; EveryBlock also provides a stream of important building permits issued for your area, and these give insight into upcoming construction work.
There are several other things to think about — including the balance of commercial and residential property in the area, or how long other residents have lived in the area — but in general the list here should get you started. If you have other ideas, we welcome them as comments below!
