We recently have seen Zillow throw its hat in the ring of online real estate sales with its Instant Offer program. This has followed a flurry of others such as Opendoor, Offerpad and Redfin, to name a few who also are pushing the envelope on virtual agents and home sales. So, is this the end of the big local real estate giants? Or rather, is it the birth of new tools to do it all yourself as a real estate agent or real estate professional?
What I really see is a correlation to the change that Napster was preparing us for during its attack on the music industry. Napster was a free, user-friendly service launched in the early 2000s that allowed users to join and download — the precursor to what we now know as stream — music without having to pay for it. At its peak, Napster had 80 million users. (For comparison purposes, Apple Music has 50 million subscribers.) Instead of embracing the Napster model and figuring out how to use the technology, record label giants sued Napster into oblivion and forced the company to shut down and file for bankruptcy. At the same time, these labels also did nothing to change their already decaying model of selling music on physical CDs.
What those record labels did not realize is that they didn’t stop the problem. What Napster had created was a new generation of music entrepreneurs who would now find ways to release their music virtually and build their own personal brands to launch their careers. This brought to the forefront services such as My Space, the first mega-popular social networking site, and then eventually SoundCloud and YouTube where artists could promote and release music to a large audience for free.
The New, Virtual World Of Real Estate
As I see it, some of the larger real estate firms are taking the same approach as the record labels did in the early 2000s: Instead of embracing the virtual change, they are fighting it and trying to discredit these new platforms.
As a real estate agent, how can you capitalize on this new push to make real estate sales virtual? The answer seems clear to me: Build your own virtual brand.
Social media has become one of the top ways to advertise yourself to attract new customers, engage business partners and expand your network. It is also one of the most cost-effective ways large companies advertise. According to forecasts by eMarketer, in 2019 digital advertising will surpass print and TV for the first time, and about $87 billion of the ad spend for digital marketing will be spent targeting mobile devices. Social media can be the least expensive and most effective form of advertising available today.
This is all good news for a real estate agent’s solo brand marketing.
Most real estate agents are either 1099 employees or act as solo entrepreneurs, even if they are affiliated with the biggest real estate firms. Why not, as a real estate entrepreneur, build your brand on social so you are the first person your audience thinks of when they are thinking of buying or selling their home?
What I have seen social media do — and what I see as its greatest power in business — is make followers or connections comfortable with you as an expert voice in your field. If your customer trusts your voice and connects with you virtually, there is a better chance they will come to you, rather than these new and emerging virtual real estate giants, for their homebuying or selling needs. What all this cheap and mostly free advertising is creating for solo entrepreneurs is opportunity: the opportunity to become the master of your market without needing a big brand or advertising beast to back you.
Currently the biggest real estate buying group are millennials, and 70% of Instagram users are under the age of 35. Your buying audience is at your virtual fingertips.
Real estate professionals and agents cannot be overrun by virtual companies if you build a large virtual presence yourself. Of course, your individual business will never be as big as Zillow. But it doesn’t need to be. What many successful agents will tell you is their most important asset is their network. So why not put your money and time to build your social network so that when the market becomes mostly virtual or digital, you are secure because you have worked to build your engaging audience.
Social media can be a complicated and confusing landscape that makes it challenging to have your voice heard by an audience that will buy what you are selling. But the beauty of it is that failing at it will only really cost you time. You can test different strategies for free until you find the right one to put your investment behind. You don’t need expert help to test the waters.
What I know from history is that fighting the change won’t help your business in the long run. So one way or another, agents will eventually have to embrace the changes taking place throughout the real estate industry.