Home owners decide which local estate agent they will instruct long before they’re ready to put their properties up for sale.
Furthermore, they will probably make their decision based on whether the agent advertises in the local paper: apparently, it’s important for 79% of people.
Since the research was conducted by local newspaper owners Johnston Press, perhaps that conclusion is not too surprising.
The story appeared, even less surprisingly, in a number of Johnson Press papers last week.
But the research, conducted by a firm called SPA Future Thinking, did come up with some surprising conclusions: that sellers on average only talk to two agents before deciding which one to instruct, and that 30% only talk to one.
It is not clear what the researchers did ask the 600 members of the public who took part. For example, we know that they asked about local newspapers, but we don’t know if they asked how important it is for agents to be on Rightmove or Zoopla. If they did, the answer did not appear anywhere in last week’s stories.
According to SPA Future Thinking’s Chris Bland: “People form opinions about local estate agents long before they think about selling. For many, that could have been through years of looking at the property sections of their local press and shaping their perceptions over time.”
The research also revealed that while 35% of vendors who don’t read local newspapers know which agent they will instruct when they decide to sell, for those who do read local newspapers it is 56%.
The survey also demonstrated that advertising in the local newspaper drives interest in properties and “therefore traffic to digital sources”. The R and Z words, however, are not mentioned.
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Comments
Joe you also missed the point. I dont care how a buyer finds a property. They used to do ok in the 90's before the internet....
Its how somebody finds you to sell iam interested in. i.e. internet companies have 0.1111% market share in every city. Why?they are on rightmove etc.
People want genuine businesses. i.e office, local press etc,,any muppet can list on rightmove/zoopla..and we all do
Out of all the areas I have ever worked the most succesful agents tend to be the heaviest advertisers in the local press. Interestingly though, those agents who spend a fortune on rightmove extras don't tend to be the market leaders.
I agree with Ray, the newspapers are still and have always been instruction getters as long as the distribution can be believed. Having said that our local papers website is becoming the place to go for the local news and I am seriously considering using them to reach the local market.
My current view.....
Newspapers are still one of the main things for instructions. They are LOCAL and agents adverts should be used to mainly advertise the agents qualities as they do not have to be deliberately looked for, they find you whilst the reader is involved in the local news. Portals are important but have to be deliberately accessed and are the thing for finding the actual properties.
'JOE' - "...about 90% of sold properties in the U.K are found online..."
Hmmm... you've REALLY fallen for what the portals tell the public, haven't you.
Pity, really... If the 'net collapses - then you will be redundant by your own admission.
Or... you work for RM.
Which is it?
'agent 1' - "when was the last time a buyer called your office and said Ive seen a property in the paper???"
Erm... that would be about an hour ago, actually - which has spurred me to respond. Sorry to pee on your firework. We get calls virtually every week.
Sorry if you don't - maybe you need to look at your advertisements...
In Southport the vast majority of our Landlords have come to us because of an advert/editorial in the loacal papers.
We don't have a radio station and Southport seems to have a lot of people with out a computer or interent so paper advertising really works for us.
I suppose it is different for diffferent areas. I wonder if that bit of research was done here!?
Actually I think it is very difficult for property owners to make up their minds which agent to use.
I guarantee though that they don't just wake up one morning and say "I'm going to call the agents in" - I bet you that decision takes months.
I would say that people do pick up the local paper in those months and they can make a subliminal choice by association ("Oh, that looks just like my house - that's a good price, which agent was it?").
In my area people are deluged by leaflets (maybe 3-4 a week from agents) and generally ignore them on a daily basis, but again I bet they take it all in subliminally.
I have heard time and again "You agents are all the same" - something I call The Rightmove Effect. But I also bet that people will investigate their area by checking this out too.
And "Sold" boards - there really is no better way of working out who is good at selling houses near where you live - if you are even just beginning to think about thinking about it you will automatically start to pay attention.
As the old adage goes "50% of advertising money is wasted - but which 50%?"
We have stopped advertising in the paper, but only time will tell.
@RICH, your clearly waffling, and have no idea what your talking about, about 90% of sold properties in the U.K are found online, were in 2013 not the 90's, i don't think anyone can argue the importance of Rightmove and Zoopla
Isnt this the sort of research rics etc should be doing so we actually know..anyone know who does know this useful stuff>? i would buy it!
Your only as good as your stock!!
I think : 50% local press coverage
35% office
15% any relevant website.
If you need rightmove to list property you probably should get a job selling new cars. they sell themselves as well.
indy, do they still advertise in it now, or stopped now launched?
Hi,
When i worked in colchester i had one/two calls a week about properties in the paper. London evening standard and the essex county standard.
It does help when you show how much more advertising you do. Even if it is brand awareness.
Isn't it more to do with "brand awareness"?
I think it depends on your market.
My business is in Leeds and the press there (Yorkshire Evening Post) is just a rotting corpse of its former self.
However I live in North Yorkshire and papers like Harrogate Advertiser are still essential, and successful platforms.
When Foxtons opened a branch recently they took two pages a week for over a month in our local paper - 0% etc. I wonder why they did that..........
In 25 years of dealing with hundreds of estate agents I can't recall a single one saying they used the local paper to sell houses. It has been, and for me always will be, their means to attract instructions. This is why, against popular thought that property press advertising would be dead by now, the majority of agents continue to do it. Planned & executed correctly i.e. tell readers about your company rather than stick 50 properties on a tabloid page, newspaper advertising still has a role to play in the overall marketing mix for property.
Yesterday! Newspapers offer a precis of everything on the internet.
Being very honest now when was the last time a buyer called your office and said Ive seen a property in the paper???