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With vendors coming onto today’s property market “definitely motivated” amid tighter conditions, a number of agents are recognising the need to look towards the most cost-effective means to get both houses to market and buyers to bite.
For industry professionals such as McGrath Estate Agents’ co-head of sales, James Hayashi, this means “as agents, we have to look at where the marketing dollars are best spent”.
He’s noted that across all portals of advertisement, the quantity of buyers has dropped off due to COVID-19.
It’s led to McGrath looking for the best quality of buyer for the best return on investment.
“The good news is that, if they are asking for an inspection now, they are likely a qualified buyer,” Mr Hayashi said.
For Australia City Properties Management principal and licensee Robin Wang, the requirement to do more with less while engaging qualified buyers also rings true.
“It’s absolutely imperative to use tools that are inexpensive but that increase your reach,” he said.
“Right now, our marketing is focused on reaching more buyers, not fewer.
“We are being proactive in communication with our database and also letting them know that we are here to serve them. We know they always expect the best service and the best advice, and we are committed to delivering that to them in this time.”
Mr Wang conceded that while the market has slowed down, negotiations are still underway. He is conducting video conferencing, virtual tours and property videos on a scale he has never done before.
The unique context of the current market has led both McGrath and Australia City Properties Management to look away from major Australian property portals in a bid to boost their engagement.
From Mr Hayashi’s perspective, “Soho allows exposure without the costs”.
“McGrath puts all its listings through to ensure that we achieve the greatest exposure for all our listings. Not only that, agents can post content on Soho, which makes it a platform where they can share insights and content to become actual thought leaders within the industry,” he explained.
Mr Wang has outlined that he is using a range of communication tools to drive efficiencies: “Social media, websites like SohoApp.com, e-newsletters, traditional portals — you have got to let people know that you are there as an organisation to serve them.”
From his perspective, “this is not the time to cut down your marketing campaign, but you can make it more efficient”.
He posts regularly to Soho because it allows him to “reach people you can’t get on realestate.com.au and Domain”.
“There are some people who are just exclusive to Soho. They want to have a bit more variety of options on the properties than what’s already available on realestate.com.au and Domain. You can do that property match feature on Soho, which you can’t do on the others,” the principal explained.
Soho’s CEO himself, Jonathan Lui, has weighed in on the phenomenon that’s driving today’s “necessity to talk about how to get better results for less or for free”.
Agents and vendors are only hurting themselves if they aren’t looking at options for expanding their market reach now, he added.
Even just six months ago, he recalls agents “weren’t publicly vocal about the major portals’ rising listing fees and their return on investment”.
Highlighting that there are free and low-cost solutions that can offer agents and vendors a unique audience and good results, Mr Lui said: “Many vendors now are not sure they want to invest thousands of dollars into an ad campaign as they don’t trust the market is active enough.”
He advised that “for a vendor like that, you can get them started by posting their listing online at no cost and seeking expressions of interest”.
“That can result in a sale or at least in showing to the vendor that the market actually is stronger than they think and they should do a full campaign,” the CEO said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Grace Ormsby
Grace is a journalist across Momentum property and investment brands. Grace joined Momentum Media in 2018, bringing with her a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) from the University of Newcastle. She’s passionate about delivering easy to digest information and content relevant to her key audiences and stakeholders.
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