Real estate marketers? Hasn’t the internet get rid of them but?
I hear this query all the time. Most people count on that property portal in India are running in the direction of disposing of dealers and facilitating direct interplay among supplier and consumer. Though this is partly correct, real estate sellers are the biggest customers of these portals and the portals are doing their bit to facilitate their growth. We interact with agents each day and we see most of them are doing the right commercial enterprise. I need to make an effort and explain the dynamics at the back of Indian actual property, the function dealers’ play and the way the function of dealers’ is going to exchange within the destiny.
Note – Throughout this newsletter, I’ve focused most effective at the condominium and resale marketplace and now not long gone into the sale of latest assets by way of builders because the dynamics of that market are considered exceptional. Also, the scope of this newsletter is restrained to Indian Real Estate.
“MakeMyTrip has eliminated travel agents. So why hasn’t the identical befell to real estate agents?”
One desires to remember the fact that ticketing is now a point-and-click on enterprise – tour sellers have been replaced by means of computers. The technique of getting records approximately the journey AND buying the tickets can be achieved on the internet. Real estate is basically an offline process. Though data aggregation is an essential part of it, site visits, negotiations and office work all want to be executed offline. Even from an owner/dealers angle, renting out/promoting a domestic isn’t as simple as listing it online – the technique can stretch for months. This is in which actual property dealers step in – in guiding clients via the offline a part of the transaction, bringing both events to comply with the phrases and finishing off the paperwork.
Why are not property portals trying to get rid of agents and come to be digital middlemen?
A property portal affords a platform for a seller and a customer to interact (A dealer can be an owner, builder or an agent). If we dispose of sellers from this equation, portals are left with a C2C platform with property proprietors being the simplest supply of inventory. Though many pick a scenario like this, we want to determine out how the platform company is going to monetize from this setup. They have the subsequent alternatives –
Listing costs – They can gather a rate from the proprietor/supplier to listing their assets. There are few proprietors who’re inclined to pay for top class listings (the closing time I checked, about five% of owners list on-line had been inclined to pay) but that is truly no longer sufficient to maintain the business. Indian consumers are prepared to use a carrier that is unfastened (free listings) OR pay for a carrier as soon as it’s rendered (brokerage) however are not OK with whatever in between.
Charge assets seekers to get owner facts – Another option might be to price belongings seekers a rate to give them facts approximately the proprietor who is listed. This additionally isn’t a sustainable option due to the fact owners who listing on-line generally tend to listing on multiple portals and you can continually reveals a portal which offers you the proprietors statistics totally free.
Brokerage fee while the deal is closed – This could be a fantastic monetization scheme that everybody would be willing to pay for, but could be very hard to enforce. To do that, portals need to preserve music of each deal that closes offline and that could be next to not possible.
There is probably more options, but I don’t surely see them becoming big ‘sales making machines’. Running a real property portal is a VERY costly affair and portals might want a solid revenue move to offset that value.
This is wherein Real Estate Agents step in: Agents are willing to spend correct cash to marketplace their properties on a platform which could deliver them properly leads. Property portals see this as a constant, sustainable sales circulation. This, reputedly, is a suit made in heaven.
So, you’re pronouncing belongings portals have made no dent in the brokerage enterprise?
Undoubtedly, they have got. In a BIG way! With many owners listing their houses online, agents are starting to experience the warmth. Coupled with the fact that the wide variety of real estate retailers has almost tripled inside the last few years, you may see that the average real property agent earned a LOT much less in 2014 that he did in 2011. Agents are starting to recognise that there’s a paradigm shift and it’s time to mend their ways, before the game receives taken out in their arms. There needs to be a shift in their mentality and it wishes to manifest NOW.
