Real Estate Trends

Clickz.com recently cited an NAR study on Realtor’s tech budgets. They say the average Realtor spent $1300/year on technology, up 52% from 2002! Virtually all agents work for firms with websites ad 50% of Realtors have their own site. Comparatively, the NAR found that typical members budgeted $1200 for promotion and marketing expenses for 2004.

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A recent article in the Philadelphia Inquirer mentioned a number of statistics about the currently booming real estate industry. Some interesting facts & figures include:

• More than 200,000 Realtors have flowed into this market over the last five years, with the greatest percentage increase coming in 2002 and 2003. The current number of NAR members is now at 1 million.
• NAR members account for just 53.1 percent of those with state licenses who actively sell real estate, and 40.7 percent of all licensees, whether they sell or not.
• The number of FSBOs has increased to as high as 25% in some markets.
• The median age of a broker in 2003 was 52, 49 for an agent. However, the median age for agents who have joined the NAR since 2000 is 43, and one in eight is under 30.
• The median income for new agents is $22,500, compared with $39,300 for all sales agents. But after only a couple of years, the median for the new ones can reach $45,900. Two in seven Realtors work in other occupations, earning a median of only $14,700 for spending 25 hours a week selling houses. Full-time Realtors work an average of 43 hours a week and earn a median of $36,000 (both new and old agents).

» On the House | Masses involved in a blazing market

The numbers are in for April, and apparently higher mortgage rates are starting to take their toll. As CNN’s Money states read full entry

Stocks are down to their Dec 2003 lows as of todays because of fears of a stronger economy, which inevitably means the Fed is looking to raise interest rates very soon. Marketwatch.com is predicting a 92% chance that the Fed will raise interest rates in June, and five quarter-point moves by the end of the year. And the market has been rather bearish about this.

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Sales and Marketing Management published a story on the job outlook for a number of industries in their Feb 2004 edition. Their outlook for the Real Estate industry looks pretty cool in comparison to other industries surveyed: read full entry

Perhaps you’re wondering why I’ve been listing so many stats and trends in my recent postings. I see so many organizations that use lots of marketing tactics, but have no strategic focus. They send mail or advertise at random – particularly when they need business or when they see a competitor doing so. Haphazard marketing never gets you the ongoing results you are looking for. Yes, you might get a few leads here or there… or you might get none at all.

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These are from NAR

There were a total of 6,100,000 existing-home sales in 2003, up 9.6 percent from the previous record of 5,566,000 in 2002. NAR began tracking the sales series in 1968.

Existing-home sales increased 6.9 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate* of 6.47 million units from a level of 6.05 million units in November. Last month’s sales activity was 8.9 percent higher than the 5.94-million unit level in December 2002 and was second only to a record 6.68 million-unit pace in September 2003.

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Here’s an interesting study on why people purchase homes – and it’s not the super low mortgage rates of the last several years. This should give you some ideas of the best times to reach prospects and what you might include in your info kits. read full entry

Real Estate News has published an article on 2004 trends. To summarize some of the trends, while 2004 is still looking good for the real estate industry, Realtors are facing more and more competition, not only from the increasing number of Realtors (approaching 1 million in the US this year) but also from discount brokers and fee for service firms. There is a greater push to justify 6 & 7% comissions. Brokers also will have to start recruiting more strategically – targeting serious agents rather than those ‘occasional’ ones.

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If you’re still unconvinced that the internet can be a great lead generating marketing tool, here are some stats that demonstrate the growing popularity of the web. Of course, generating leads requires that your website be professional and up-to-date with new content added frequently! read full entry