MARKET OVERVIEW H OW TH E MOD ERN BUYER HAS CH A NGE D I remember the first home we purchased. The Realtor held all the keys, both literally and figuratively. The year was 1984, and the way you found a home was through your Realtor, who received a book once a week called the Multiple Listing Service. Realtors would go through the book and photocopy the pages of homes they thought you might like. They were the center of the buying process. I am certain a few of our readers might recall those days. TH E K E YS AR E IN TH E BU Y E R’S HAND Buyers now have access to much of the same information Realtors do through a multitude of online services such as Zillow. Many in our industry have viewed these companies as the enemy, but in truth, they give tremendous power to buyers and improve the information they have access to, allowing them to make better decisions. When we receive inquiries from clients interested in buying a home, they often
provide the starting point with the listings they have already identified as interesting. We can expand on this list once we understand what they are seeking, and they are great clients to work with because of their knowledge base. Z IL LOW CH A N GED T H E GA M E Over a year ago, we decided to take a different approach with the largest of the online real estate portals and partnered with Zillow through their Agent Direct program. We made a significant investment to ensure any home we list gets prominent placement on home searches in the key zip codes we service: 85255, 85262 and 85266. In addition to placement on Zillow, our marketing is retargeted on Facebook. If someone looks for a Scottsdale listing on Zillow, they will see the homes we list for our clients in their Facebook feed. Since we make extensive use of professionally produced videos, buyers who see our Zillow or Facebook placements are able to click directly onto the video to preview our clients’ homes.
THELIFESTYLECOLLECTION.COM
3
