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Simon Parker
While photography remains an important part of property marketing, floor plans, site plans, copywriting and virtual tours are also rated highly by agents, a survey conducted earlier this year has found.
The online survey, of past and present clients to national property photography company Top Snap, revealed that while the vast majority of respondents valued photography, a number of other elements were also highly rated when it came to successful property marketing.
Respondents, who were based in NSW, Qld, NT, SA, WA and Vic, said that black and white floor plans (84 per cent of respondents), site plans (67 per cent), copywriting (65 per cent), virtual tours (63 per cent), virtual furniture (56 per cent), textured, coloured or furnished floor plans (56 per cent) and interactive floor plans (53 per cent), were also important elements of any property marketing initiative.
The survey also asked agents about their preferred property marketing channels, with brochures and agency websites coming out on top, followed in descending order by realestate.com.au, signboards, online listing sites, local newspapers, letterbox drops, window displays and domain.com.au.
Around 63 per cent said they are using Facebook to market listings, with 36 per cent using Twitter.
Top Snap added that property video proved to be a less popular tool, with only 21 per cent of agents currently using it. Of those not currently using it, around 37 per cent said they are likely to start doing so in the next 12 months.
Only recently, a number of leading technology suppliers told Real Estate Business that video listings were attracting a greater number of ‘click throughs’ for the agents using them.
Petra Sprekos, general manager at realestateVIEW.com.au, told the recent Real Estate Business Technology Roundtable that video is now expected by consumers.
“Traditionally, video was in the top end of the market, but now it has become more and more affordable for everyone to have a video,” she said.
“The consumer wants the most information; they think the agent is hiding information if they only put up three to four photos. In a few years time, if a listing doesn’t have a video then it will [undermine] the trust of agents.”
Tony Blamey, general manager, real estate at Fairfax Marketplaces, owner of Domain, said the more information agents gave with their listings, the better.
“You certainly get the feeling that in some parts of the industry there is a desire to withhold information with the belief that if I withhold it, then a potential buyer will need to come to me,” he said.
“But that is old school thinking: the listings with video on Domain get about three to four times the viewer inquiries that a non-video property has. That’s about engagement and getting the right people to look at the property.”
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