Real Estate: Thriving in an Unpredictable Market

Throughout history there are countless examples of businesses thriving in the midst of unpredictable market conditions. If we’re to believe the media hype about the current market, we’re embarking on one of the most challenging economic times since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis with continuous speculation on changes to negative gearing, an impending election tipped to flip along party lines and the impact of the Banking Royal Commission are creating uncertainty. Uncertainty unfortunately creates, well, more uncertainty. Vendors hold on and don’t sell, and renters postpone moving in favour of staying put until things are less uncertain. However, as startup entrepreneur Phil Morle says, bushfires create new growth. So regardless of market conditions, ANY business, including yours, can thrive.

One might argue that real estate is a recession-proof business. Few other industries are guaranteed to have transactions regardless of market conditions. There may not be as many buyers, but agents are still the ones who will connect them with the right property.

So what does it take to thrive in an unpredictable market?

1.) Know your customer

As an agent, your business is connecting the right person with the right property at the best possible price, regardless of the volume available. In effect, agents are the matchmaker for a consumer’s most important financial transaction - a home. To do this effectively, agents need to know their buyer/renter - their budget, preferences, timeline, and the factors that will accelerate their decision.

Most consumers don’t share much, if any, personal contact details at or prior to face to face inspections, their level of interest about each property or their criteria for decision making. Without this information, an agent is flying blindly to try and match them with the right home.

2.) Leverage technology to develop a personal rapport

Before the availability of email or online property portals, the property transaction was very personal. Consumers would interact with their local real estate office multiple times before transacting, enabling a personal rapport to be built and a deep understanding of what each consumer was looking for and their drivers for decision-making. But with the proliferation of digital technology, some of this personalisation has been lost, leaving agents in some cases with less knowledge about their prospective customers and in a worse position to be able to convert them. More is known now about the property and the vendor, but not as much about a prospective customer. In an unpredictable market, this is an opportunity to gain the competitive advantage.

Digital technology, such as Home Live’s purpose-built live-streaming tool for agents, is designed to enable remote engagement with prospective buyers & renters. It dramatically increases interest while reducing the barriers for buyers & renters to inspect the property, and even more importantly, identify and qualify them in advance. Too often at face-face opens, consumers don’t share their contact details, or relay fake details to avoid being contacted. This results in a lost lead for the agent and ultimately, the agent learns little about what the consumer is looking for, or their interest in the listing. Home Live solves this, benefitting agents, vendor and buyers, enabling agents to build a deeper rapport with prospective buyers/renters before the face-face inspection, gain more information about them, and build a direct process for converting them off the back of the walk-through. This ensures the subsequent face-face inspection delivers not only a quality lead, but a conversion.

Different to Facebook Live or other live streaming tools, Home Live puts the agent in control of the live streamed open, and provides data gathered from the stream, including viewer contact details and transcripts of questions asked during the stream. Home Live connects directly to all major real estate CRM systems, pushing their full portfolio of properties to both the Agent tools (broadcast apps and admin site) and Consumer website, home.com.au. Agents can schedule live streams, manage their contacts and broadcast live, all from the Home Agent app.

3.) Bring the property to THEM

Convenience is a significant influencer in the buying process. Why do we pay more for petrol from our local petrol station versus driving 5kms to get a cheaper price? Convenience. Why do we pay more for milk at the local milk bar versus driving to Coles or Woolies? Convenience. And why are we willing to pay to have our groceries delivered when we can pick them up for free? Convenience. Convenience can’t be underestimated as a significant factor in consumer decision-making, and agents can use this to their advantage by bringing the property to the consumer. It’s a well-known fact that attending particularly mid-week property inspections is a challenge. Removing the barrier to the inspection, by making it available online and live at as time that suits the consumer, removes the barrier to ‘yes’. Home Live empowers agents to do exactly that, like scheduling live property walk-throughs with consumers located anywhere, including interstate or overseas, at a time that suits them.

In any market, removing the barriers to ‘yes’ is the key to success.

If you're interested in knowing more about Home Live, contact us.