Real estate marketers? Hasn’t the internet get rid of them, but?
I hear this query all the time. Most people who count on that property portal in India are running toward disposing of dealers and facilitating direct interplay among suppliers and consumers. 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 effectively on the condominium and resale marketplace and now not long gone into the sale of the 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 that ticketing is now a point-and-click on enterprise – tour sellers have been replaced using 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 essential, site visits, negotiations, and office work all want to be executed offline. Even from an owner/dealer’s angle, renting out/promoting a domestic isn’t as simple as listing it online – the technique can stretch for months. This is where actual property dealers step in – guiding clients via the offline part of the transaction, bringing both events to comply with the phrases, and finishing 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 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 how the platform company will monetize from this setup. They have the subsequent alternatives –
Listing costs – They can gather a rate from the proprietor/supplier to listing their assets. Few proprietors are inclined to pay for top-class listings (the closing time I checked, about five% of owners, list online had been inclined to pay), but that is truly no longer sufficient to maintain the business. Indian consumers are prepared to use unfastened carriers (free listings) OR pay for a carrier as soon as it’s rendered (brokerage); however, they are not OK with whatever is 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 listed proprietor. This additionally isn’t a sustainable option because owners who are listing online generally tend to list on multiple portals, and you can continually reveal a portal that offers you the proprietor’s 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 the music of each deal that closes offline, which could be next to impossible.
There are probably more options, but I don’t surely see them becoming big ‘sales-making machines.’ Running a real property portal is costly, and portals might want a solid revenue move to offset that value.
Property portals see this as a constant, sustainable sales circulation. This is wherein Real Estate Agents step in: Agents are willing to spend correct cash to marketplace their properties on a platform that could deliver them proper leads. 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 than he did in 2011. Agents are starting to recognize a paradigm shift, and it’s time to mend their ways before the game is taken out in their arms. There needs to be a shift in their mentality, and it wishes to manifest NOW.
