In today’s information age, property agents need to find and use technology tools to sell a property. Gone are the days where property agents just need to place ads in newspapers with plain text to snag a potential buyer.As the owners of the property get more internet savvy, more of them will be inclined to sell or rent on their own, without the need for property agents. Transaction data is readily available on the URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority) web and tools such as Streetsine’s X-Value are also available to home owners. Even property portals who have been immensely loyal to property agents so far, are not immune to the fact that more home owners are DIY sellers as well. ST Property, the internet arm of SPH (Singapore Press Holdings) allows home owners to list their property for free, with add-ons such as featured listing also available to them for a small fee.It is definitely much tougher for agents at the moment with dwindling interest from buyers and plummeting transaction volumes. As the industry moves into the technological age, agents with the knowhow have a huge advantage over those who are still using traditional methods of marketing.The most common new-age marketing channel are websites. If you do a Google search for Singapore property today, you will be faced with a barrage of websites touting the latest project launches in Singapore. These are created and run by property agents. If you are not already on the bandwagon, I would suggest you not jump into it now as property websites rely solely on web traffic and getting them is becoming increasing competitive and expensive. Paying a few thousand dollars to SEO companies to increase pagerank and buying keywords using Google AdWords is not unheard of. It is not guaranteed that the huge investment will come with a huge payoff, unlike 2 or 3 years back where there wasn’t much competition.If not websites, what then? Agents have to be mindful of the fact that property still and remains strongly a people business. There are still many property owners still willing to pass the job of handling their property to professionals as long as there is value added service. Therefore a good balance of online and offline marketing should be the way to go.One suggestion is to use a virtual 360 tour to market your properties. By having this added weapon in your repertoire of marketing tools, a home owner can see that you can bring an extra element over the rest. A virtual 360 tour brings the potential buyer a walkthrough of the entire house, sort of a preview before the actual showing. This cuts out unnecessary time and effort to show the house at every opportunity, in the process saving the buyer’s time to view properties that are not suitable, the seller’s time to prepare the house for viewing and the agents time to travel back and forth for non potential buyers.Ask any home seller and they will tell you the worst thing about selling their house is the distress of showing the place. Plans get interrupted, privacy of their own home is violated and having to rush back to entertain home-shoppers at short notice is something they can do without. By offering this solution, the seller will be able to see that you are looking out for him by implementing a basic filtering of buyers.A virtual 360 tour has to be accompanied by a floor plan of the house and a write-up with detailed description and directions. Before arranging a viewing, direct any enquirer to the hosted page. Statistics have shown that 70% of buyers who have viewed an online virtual tour of the property before coming down for the actual viewing are more inclined to offer a price on the house. If you haven’t realized by now, the actual viewing is in fact a 2nd viewing of the property.Another technological tool to complement your Virtual 360 Tour is using QR Codes. QR codes can be printed on traditional print media to bring the prospect straight to the hosted page where your Virtual 360 Tour is. All the prospect has to do is take out his smartphone and snap a shot of the QR code with a QR code app and he will be re-directed to the website. You can publish your QR codes on flyers or your newspaper advertisements. The possibilities are endless.This article serves to help Real Estate Professionals gain an edge over the rest in a highly competitive market. All opinion is of the author only and does not guarantee that results will be the same for everyone. Property is essentially still a service and Real Estate Professionals will be wise to use any tools ON TOP of GOOD SERVICE they are providing to their clients.
Tag Archives: Marketing
Raise Capital With Private Investors
If you have launched your own startup, your first biggest challenge is to raise capital. Fortunately, you choose from a lot of options to raise the funds your business needs. Among all the sources, crowdfunding is one of the best ones as it helps redefine how startups can get off the ground. In this article, we are going to help you know the benefits of raising capital with private investors through a crowdfunding platform. Read on to find out more.
Benefits of raising capital with private investors
1. Funding is not equity-based
First of all, crowdfunding is not necessarily equity-based. Although startups have the liberty to use the equity in order to catch the attention of potential investors, It’s not required to give up ownership to collect capital.
The good news is that some platforms allow their members to apply a reward-oriented approach in order to raise capital. For instance, if your business deals in a specific product, make sure you hand over a few units to your prospective investors before you roll it out for the ultimate users.
2. Attracting potential investors is easy
With crowdfunding, you can attract a lot of potential investors without putting in a lot of effort. Although you can try for angel investors, keep in mind that this process can cost you a lot of time. The reason is that you will have to pitch your small business concept several times.
On the other hand, if you use a crowdfunding platform, you will have to post your business pitch in only one place. And this page will be ready by hundreds of investors from across the globe.
These platforms have a lot of useful features that may help startups collect funds from investors. So, attracting potential investors and raising capital will be much easier using crowdfunding platforms.
3. Higher visibility
Crowdfunding can help you make your startup more visible. Since marketing may consume a large chunk of your budget, it makes sense to use a crowdfunding platform instead. For potential investors, it’s easy to fund a crowdfunding campaign.
And these activities can help boost the visibility of your brand. Plus, you can also attract investors for your next funding rounds.
The Bottom Line
If you want to raise funds for your startup, crowdfunding can be the best choice. All you need to do is become part of a crowdfunding platform and you will be able to tap into the pool of potential investors. And this will help you kick start your business and make it a success in the industry.