Real estate agents, this is a silly way to get leads15126
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 WGAN FanClub Member Queensland, Australia |
Wingman private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I am bombarded by local REAs with their spam to do free appraisals, updates on their recent and coming sales/auctions on full including mailbox, email and SMS. I have never subscribed to them but I have contacted them to offer my services. How silly to do such things sending their spam to a photographer? I have tried to email them asking why they are doing it and whether they have actually read my email, no reaction. Unsubscribed from anything from them and emails stopped(may be for a short time) but they still send me SMS(unsubscribed from them too). Another agency dropping me their spam in my letterbox even though I only communicated personally and through email to one agent about doing tours for them. I do not understand what they are doing and I cannot imagine how much money on flyers, emails/sms campaigns is going to a drain and annoying a lot of local people. Do they really so poor to hire a good marketing person who can find a more effective way? I actually never seen any paid ad created by them, not online and not offline. Agents put some ads on a bus stops put they are promoting themselves. Even though it is usually a face with their own estimation that they are the best :-) Sorry it is not directed to agents here, just a curiosity and a topic to discuss. BTW, I have asked in a local Facebook group where seems to be at least a few 100s of local real estate agents how much they are willing to drop their commission if I bring them buyers with my all marketing media ready and they only need to list them and do marketing media. I did not say I will do tours for buyers and they do no need to waste their weekends on public inspection but I have mentioned it is going to be easier to sell with my media. Can you guess how many have reacted to an opportunity to drop 0.5% from their normal 2-4% commission so my buyers can save all that and agents get a 100% working lead? |
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 WGAN FanClub Member Buffalo, New York |
GETMYVR private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @Wingman I tell agents the reason you want me to take your photos and your virtual tour is because I will convert that viewer into a lead and possible sale, and no other local real estate photographer has a 20 yr digital marketing background as I have to understand what pictures really mean. We create emotional events that cause people to take an action. The actual website that displays the listing content, our images and the virtual tour, is secondary to the success of that listing. I agree, we should all be marketing to homeowners, because once they're armed with the ultimate digital marketing package that we provide, they can pick and choose their agent or agency. |
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Houston |
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| The average agent does around 5 deals a year. So yes... with the listings at an all time low they are blowing up any and every person they can think of scrounging for listings, referrals and leads. Competing on price is very likely irrelevant to their target market. When you are selling your largest investment do you really care if you save $3,000 but lose $20K because the cheap agent was no good at marketing or negotiating? Just as with photography, competing on price will bring you price focused customers who are probably not your target market. Right now agents could literally snap a photo of dog poo and post it to MLS with a listing and the listing would still sell in record time. Days on market is at an all time low. Tough properties that are distressed, not listening to the agent, or not turn key benefit from better marketing, but only slightly. |
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WGAN Fan Club Member Buffalo, New York |
GETMYVR private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @briangreul five deals a year with professional photography and they won't be at that level forever. Five deals a year with iPhone photos, you'll need a full-time job to supplement your hobby selling real estate. | ||
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Houston |
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| I'm just telling you what I see.... I don't see how some agents make it, but it is what it is. | ||
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WGAN Fan Club Member Buffalo, New York |
GETMYVR private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @briangreul you're pretty much spot on buddy | ||
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WGAN Fan Club Member Queensland, Australia |
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Quote:Originally Posted by GETMYVR I want to go further than this. I want to let homeowners to save on professional marketing media promising free photos(matterport) with another modern media(I won't say that it is a 3D tour in my ad). We all know any agent will markup photographers fees, some even double charge their vendors for it. This already can save a few 100s for a vendor. However what also worth mentioning is that it is not going to disturb them much during the whole period of their sale, help them to reach more buyers and I can promise them a discount from agents of their choice or find one that will charge them no more than they are willing to pay. That's why I have started that post in REA local group. Only one has responded but she is moving interstate, wants 3% commission and is happy to drop it for me to 2.5%. That's a start even though I am sure any of them will be happy drop their commission if you want to get my client on board with them. And if this works and I can catch a few vendors I may follow your idea and get my own license as an independent agent and offer a really low commission. Or may just stay on catching new vendors idea as a photographer. It would be silly for just a photographer to go that way as it would remove a lot of benefits of selling with a 3D tour but we are doing Matterport or other good tech tours and if agents do not care for any reason about it we need to talk to vendors directly. If it works they will start chasing us, may be not because they can learn how 3D tours help them to sell a property but because they can sell their services better with it or want to eliminate us as a big disruption to a local market. I did some tours for local agents I personally know for long during covid in early 2020. They were asked by vendors to do a tour so these agents budged and asked me to do tours for these properties. But what is really disturbing that one did not even put a 3D tour link anywhere on a property listing and those who put them buried a tour link at the bottom not listening to my advice to put the link at the top of the property description. As a result one poor family with a newborn baby who asked for a tour simply because of the baby has sold their house very cheap. Even back then they could at least get extra $50 000(7%) especially when public inspections were totally banned and any buyer looking to buy then would be jumping on any listing with a 3D tour to inspect it without any risk. Now, just 12 month later they would get over $100 000 extra as it has grown even more. I have been told recently that Matterport is planning a campaign focused on homeowners. I hope it will happen and it will be a worldwide campaign. However why wait until it happens, I cannot survive on my partners jobs or a few of my own clients that I catch on Google. I will try to reach sellers and if it works I will write a guide for others if I succeed. |
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 WGAN StandardMember Las Vegas |
VTLV private msg quote post Address this user | |
| 65 responses The great panic before many agents decide they're going to help a friend out for a little while. By working a side gig for a little bit through the end of the year  . Seems like everyone wants to buy or list my home right now. And they send me a picture of this.  Notice more and more of them Name Dropping their Brokerage lately? I don't understand how a logo is supposed to make them smarter at writing a contract or advertising. Just like all those people who started a 360 company last April with a Theta S and an Iphone. It's time to ax all those people who were getting into real estate the last couple years who sold to a couple friends and family members. It's time to go. Allowing our normal agent teams to feed us with work and lower the burden of our marketing costs. |
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WGAN Fan Club Member Queensland, Australia |
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Quote:Originally Posted by briangreul There is no one cheap in my area. They all want at least 2-2.5%, some are even nuts and want 4%. The area I am in is not cheap. Medium price is $800 000-900 000 and this is for old 20 years 4 bedroom no more than 150-200sqm. We have even mansions on hectares(over 3M price tags) with fantastic hill views or just modern big houses sold for $1.5M One independent local agent using Matterport. I do not know why she has even started using them. She does not care to post it on her Facebook page that has a few 100 followers, does not care to say anything about a tour in her property listings, only adds them to a property media section which puts a tour at the end of all media by default. However she sells at least 2-3 property a month and has about 20 active listings. She beats a lot of franchised agencies agents locally and even when I mention to other agents that she beats them using a 3D tour they do not seem to show any worry about it. Quote: Originally Posted by briangreul Hard to argue but they always scream everywhere that they want more listings. Plus they earn on commission so higher they can sell it for the more they will get. We have a big intestate move now with homeowners from Sydney and other capital cities wanting to relocate to Brisbane and other areas close by in my state. Not surprising because they can sell their old 20-30 yo house for $1.5-2ml just because of its location and buy something modern and much bigger twice closer to CBD and cheaper. And I am sure some are realising they can work from home these days and their location does not matter these days so much. Do you think any agent is helping to make an inspection easier for buyers willing to make a move? I tried to catch a lot of agents just on this explaining them that a Sydney buyer with $2ml in their pocket will most likely overbid any local buyer hiking a property price and increasing an agent income. Nope, no reaction at all. One has ordered a 3D tour but I believe he has not seen my post about it. He just googled me and was totally honest.. he has said Sydney buyers are bugging me to make a live inspection for them. It's obvious it would cost him more effort to do a few live video inspections than pay for a tour less than $300 |
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WGAN Fan Club Member Queensland, Australia |
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Quote:Originally Posted by VTLV Do you mean they do not want to show a name of the agency they are working for? All personal agent local ads where I am are like this. Some do not say who they work for. It can be that they are independent and work as subcontractors under corporation umbrella. Or simply may want to advertise themselves only as they can move to another umbrella anytime. Some agencies though buy the whole 3-4 pages in every issue in a local magazine/newspaper but this is coming as an agency ad only. Then they either put only sold properties there or some of their vendors listings that are for sale and charge its vendor extra for a marketing package. Another silly idea because I simply cannot get, who is looking for properties there to buy in our digital era? Any Australian buyer knows where all listings are online and listings in a newspaper are all listed online on MLSs. So who is it for, for an agency to squeeze more money from a vendor without giving any extra exposure. Who has a coffee in the morning with a newspaper with no desire to buy any property, opens real estate pages there and suddenly decides to buy what is shown there? PS. sorry forgot to say it was only 1 response and I said about it in my second post. And I have actually offered them to contact me through a DM in case they do not want to say it publicly. Go figure what these agents really want. |
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Houston |
briangreul private msg quote post Address this user | |
| The going rate in Houston is 6%. 3% per agent buyer or seller. There are some discount brokerages, but you get what you pay for.... it might be nothing more than being put in MLS and you do your own showings... ROFL. Keep in mind, even if an agent gets 3% they have a broker split or office rent. So the agents are not living the high life. A "cheap" listing in this market is $250K. The average is around 350K and $2MM isn't going to raise that many eyebrows here. Everyone has to eat and agents have to hustle to make it. Believe it or not, even the folks who do 5 transactions a year are hustling, so don't throw darts at them. While I love the idea of the seller paying for marketing like a 3D tour or photos..... and a pre-listing inspection, the reality is that most of them won't. I always groan when I see easily fixed items that shouldn't be in photos... like burned out light bulbs, dirty windows, clutter.... etc. |
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WGAN Fan Club Member Queensland, Australia |
Wingman private msg quote post Address this user | |
| 6% is a lot but it is for a buyer and a seller agent together. We do not have anything like this. At least all sales I know it is only a commission that a vendor is being charged by a seller agent. They do not pay anything to a buyer agent.. a buyer needs to pay commision from their own pocket if they engage a buyer's agent. And as far as I know an agent gets 50% cut from the commission and the rest goes to an agency. On top of that 99% of agents will charge anywhere from $1200 to $4000 AUD and more for marketing media & listings and it is upfront and not even refundable if an agent cannot sell a property. Few may say you do not pay any marketing cost until it is sold but they are confident these days they will sell anything. I am sure when it is a buyer's market with plenty of properties available and much harder to sell these offers will disappear. An average shown in Google Search on how much an agent earns in Brisbane is $200K I am sure it is not that shiny and as you say some may sell only 3 properties per year. However I believe you can still make $80K-100K per year if you are not a lazy agent and put some effort to find new listings. That is only 16-20x 500K properties per year with 2% commission If commission is 3% and you are operating in areas with 800K properties that only 7-90. A lot of agents selle 20 and more per year though and may have sales for $1.5M-3M properties so it can be even 4-6 properties per year to get $100K and much over it. 100K is not a huge salary now but it is well very far away from surviving. My wife is a marketing manager and her salary is ok comparing how much marketing managers can earn but is is only slightly more than $100K |
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