The information below is my personal
vision of what the Market Snapshot
is based on my years of selling real
estate, my time at Top Producer and
most recently, as a home seller and
buyer. The attempt is to capture
the spirit of the Snapshot from all
angles as the Market Snapshot while
simple in its content, is often
misunderstood by internal sales
staff and agents in the field. In
my opinion, if an agent could only
use one form of marketing, the
Market Snapshot could sustain an
agent for pipeline management and
customer retention for their entire
career!
Gregg Paul
Evangelist, Market Snapshot
The Market Snapshot is the ultimate
Marketing and Follow up piece for
every type of contact at
every stage, in every
season!
The Market Snapshot was created
initially to respond to online
consumers typically looking for Home
Value information. Consumer
expectations are no longer willing
to wait for information, instant
gratification is required. Unlike
pricing a car however, there is no
Kelly Blue Book method of
determining the value of a home the
way a car is valued: age and mileage
= approximate value.
With real estate, there are many
intangibles that determine the value
of a home such as; age, square
footage, location, assessed tax
values, style, and ultimately, a
physical inspection of the property
to assess upgrades done or needed in
comparison to similar properties
that have recently sold and are
currently for sale. A CMA or
Comparative Market Analysis can and
should take a few hours after a
physical inspection of the home.
The result, no instant value report
of substance can be provided despite
what Zillow and the like will
suggest or claim.
Enter an address of familiarity to
educate yourself on this type of
service;
www.zillow.com
The Market Snapshot can however
provide significant information of
real and unique value to an online
website visitor because through the
provision of MLS data which is the
most up to date and relevant data, a
recipient of a Market Snapshot will
see:
Ö
What is for sale right now?
Ö
What just sold and for what price?
Ö
How fast are properties
selling…typically within a 5 mile
radius of their home!
* Based on this information, a
recipient is inclined to request a
meeting with the agent who provided
the Snapshot, to determine the value
of their home in today’s climate
because the Snapshot demonstrates
the need for a professional to
assess and interpret. While the
comparable homes used to populate
the map have similar number of
bedrooms and bathrooms in a given
zip code, the style and square
footage can be quite different. The
statistical information shows number
of days on market, percentage of
homes sold at, over and under asking
price which in and of itself,
demonstrates that a professional
consultation would be prudent to
find out the most reliable and true
market value given the immediate –
local market conditions.
Best of all, this information is
supplied within minutes! This is
critical where instant gratification
has become the standard for online
research. Additionally and perhaps
best of all, no effort at all is
required by the agent to supply
this information and it gets even
better! Most online consumers are
early stage; they have often and
quite literally, just started
gathering information. Just like
consumers, agents also want instant
gratification and get frustrated or
deem internet leads as poor in
quality mainly because the consumer
is not ready to transact now or in
the immediate future (30 days or
less).
With this in mind, agents can
offer and deliver a unique
report that currently is
unrivaled and not interrupt
working with today’s active
buyers and sellers because no
effort is required to provide
the Market Snapshot on their
website(s).
The widget or lead capture tool
can be placed on multiple
websites, allowing the agent to
position themselves with a
greater online presence if
desired and be reactive to
consumers utilizing the most
influential medium today; the
internet.
The information provided is
‘niche’ information because the
home data is typically derived
from a 5 mile radius of the
subject property. This gives
the impression that the supplier
of the Market Snapshot is the
local market expert. This
allows the agent to be the local
market expert in multiple
regions within the MLS territory
they serve!
The consumer and the agent are
supplied within minutes of the
request for a Market Snapshot,
an email; the link to the
Snapshot is contained within the
email. The email comes in an
html format branded to the
agent. The email to the agent
is a nice way letting them know
that their pipeline is building
and being incubated on a timely
basis.
The Market Snapshot itself is
branded to the agent with
multiple calls to action to
contact the agent who supplied
the Snapshot through a direct
email, phone numbers or website.
The Market Snapshot is recurring
(by default every 4 weeks)
keeping the agent front and
center with updated information
all the while maintaining the
consistency in format which
builds the branding of the agent
through repetition (reputation
feeds on the theory of
obligation) and allows the
consumer to transact on their
terms = the time frame they
desire. This type of respect
builds loyalty, unofficially,
70% of online consumers only
talk to and work with one
agent. Typically this is the
agent who responds quickest with
the information desired but
again, not all are ready to
transact right away!
The agent can monitor the
interest level of the recipients
because viewing times are
catalogued with the date of the
original request, number of
times viewed, date and even time
of last viewing and the date of
the next automated report. What
other forms of follow up and
marketing allow for such quality
information? This information on
the consumer allows for genuine
and relevant follow up outside
the Market Snapshot.
So far, all of the focus has been on
lead generation through the primary
source for new business; the
internet, but agent’s primary source
of income continues to be past
clients for repeat and referral
business. The disturbing part of
this dependence is that as an
industry, past client retention is
poor. In 1999, 7 out of 10
consumers indicated that they would
work with the same agent again.
Sadly, only 1 out of 10 actually
did. In 2006, not much improvement
took place; 8 out of 10 indicated
that they would use the same agent,
only 3 out of 10 did. For the most
part the fallout is due to poor or
ineffective follow up; out of sight
= out of mind. The Market Snapshot
is the perfect way of staying front
and center of past clients by
providing a Neighborhood Market
Analysis.
Just
like a bank statement, the
Market Snapshot is delivered
every 4 weeks as a state of the
union. Homeowners are very
interested in what is happening
in their immediate
neighborhood. The emergence of
the Home and Gardens television
network with it’s multitude of
real estate related shows bears
witness to this.
The agent becomes, remains, the
go to person for real estate
information because they are
constantly staying front and
center of their past clients.
The Market Snapshot is a great
way to reintroduce agents to
past clients who have not been
followed up with. The agent can
make a follow up call to touch
base, discuss the Market
Snapshot and its content and
direct past clients to forward
the email that will come every 4
weeks to friends, relatives and
co-workers so they too can get a
Snapshot.
A
link can be inserted into email
communications directing anyone
and everyone to the agent’s
website in order to sign up for
a Market Snapshot for
themselves.
So far, the focus has slanted
towards home owners, but what about
buyers? How does the Market
Snapshot help them? Isn’t IDX new
listing alerts enough?
Buying a home is typically the
largest purchase anyone will
ever make and yet often,
decisions are made especially in
a fast market without key
information. People will take
more time buying a DVD player,
checking prices, comparing
products, shopping around etc.
than they do when buying a
house.
IDX is essential in that new
listings are provided as they
become available, however…
When buying, often the consumer
will take the agents lead as to
what is acceptable, is offering
X amount below asking price
going to fly or be an insult.
The Market Snapshot allows a
consumer to see the market
conditions in a zip code of
interest because they will have
access to statistics that tell
them the average days on market,
how many homes sold at, over and
under the asking price. The
consumer is empowered and
appreciates this type of
transparency from the agent in
an age where knowledge is power!
This can only enhance loyalty
and hopefully stimulate
referrals.
