Selling property in the digital age
Category Property Tips
As with most industries, digital disruption has brought significant benefits to the real estate sector, but where it was initially thought that it would displace estate agents, it has quickly become clear that it has enhanced the service and role of agents in property transactions.
The fast-paced advancement in technology now enable agents to offer more focused and almost real-time marketing and promotion of properties while also enhancing our administration and after-sales service to our clients.
Seeff has been one of the early adopters of tech in the real estate industry, ensuring that we are able to offer the latest digital tools to market and sell our clients' properties and offer the administrative support to manage the process to its conclusion.
We are now able to communicate our listings faster and target these more accurately to the right pool of buyers. Before, we would have advertised in traditional print newspapers without knowing whether our target buyers would see the listings.
Our listings now offer more information, a series of photographs and often a virtual tour as well. Our digital alerts notify buyers as soon as a property in their search criteria comes onto the market and buyers can view a pool of properties online to narrow down their choice to view.
We include a call to action so that buyers can immediately contact us to set up a viewing. Online listings provide added information such as an affordability calculator and bond repayment and transaction cost estimates to help buyers in their decision making.
While still using traditional media platforms such as print advertising, flyers and a printed magazine, we are increasingly switching to faster, more targeted digital marketing tools including digital alerts, newsletters and a digital magazine as well as social media platforms.
Our new website makes better use of hyper-local content to attract a greater pool of potential buyers and our listings are syndicated widely to property portals and search sites.
Digital advancement has highlighted the need for accurate pricing as buyers are more informed and have instant access to competing listings. For this same reason, the notion that listing your property with as many agents as possible aimed at getting better offers and a higher price, is outdated in the digital era. Multiple listings are grouped online which presents a dilemma of choice for buyers who are likely to simply move on to the next listing, especially in an overstocked market.
There is no one-size-fits-all in real estate and while technology has revolutionised property marketing, it is still the individual area agents who know and understand the market and are able to broker the right deals for clients. Traditional estate agents are responsible for over 90% of all property sales and generally achieve better prices for sellers. So, while the way property is bought, sold and promoted has changed, the role of estate agents is here to stay.
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Author: Gina Meintjes
