While online classified advertising has peaked out, industry experts state that real estate classified advertising has not yet met its full online potential.  Brokers, agents, and sellers have slowly started to embrace the new technologies and platforms being developed.  All are looking for strategies to get the maximum ROI for their advertising dollars.  Geodomains offering the right platforms can make for the smartest ROI for these individuals. 

Realestate search engines are on the rise where consumers are in full control and sign up to receive targeted information of the area they are interested in from start to finish.  After selecting a coverage area, users can sort listings by price, neighborhood, school district and number of bedrooms, among other criteria.  When a listing is selected, searchers are then directed to the local real estate broker’s Web site.   

Two new realestate search engines that just launched are Roost.com and DotHomes.com.  It will be interesting to see all these new realestate platforms currently under development that will deliver to meet this new trend on the horizon.  Once again, the recession is going to drive this technology as brokers, agents and sellers realize that the traditional ways are no longer as effective.  

I came acros this 9 part video set of realestate predictions from industry professionals.  They talk about how the realestate market is transforming their traditional practices to meet consumer needs online.  These were predictions in 2007, however, they still hold alot of truth for 2008.  Many of the big companies are starting to “Get It”.  It will be those who jump in with both feet who will be the market leaders in the future.  As I stated earlier, traditional realestate practices are coming to an end.  Listen to what these professionals invision for their industry.  There is alot of good stuff they present throughout the videos.  Many of these predictions have started to materialize. Geo domain owners that focus on this market have alot to gain in the coming years.
 

 

While the realestate market is in a state of crisis offline, the online realestate market is showing steady growth in revenue and traffic.  Just as we have predicted in the Geo domain niche, the realestate industry is finally starting to show statistics of success by moving advertising dollars online.  Advertising dollars are going to slam the internet during the recession as realestate brokers find it cheaper to move their complete inventory and sales staff online.  They started to do this a couple of years back, but they did not truly embrace it.  This time, they will have no choice but to embrace it because it is becoming to expensive to do things the traditional ways with sales slowing down.  

And after the dust has settled, they will say, “How did we ever do things without the internet and technology”.  The realestate industry will never be the same after this recession.  A large portion of the industry will remain online and mobile as the recession proves the internet is the only constant in business revenue in times of a recession.  The traditional ways of doing business will be as useful as a record player.  This recession is going to make tech companys innovate new realestate technology at warp speeds.  

The recession and housing bubble bursting is going to force realestate brokers and agents to realize the importance of targeted geo domains for their business.  I predict the lightbulb will turn on as consumers embrace the services and technology to get their realestate transactions completed online.  Alot will be learned by these professionals in the coming year.  In the next couple of weeks, I will be discussing the realesate market and targeted geo domains.  Collectively, I feel we can complete a whole chapter on this subject.  There is alot of interest from geo domainers on this subject.  I was waiting for news articles and stats to be published before discussing it, so we had a foundation to build upon.  The proof is always in the pudding. 

I may be wrong with my vision I made above.  Time is the only element that will confirm the future of the realestate industry online.   What are your thoughts?        

 (via NYTimes)

“In September, we thought it was maybe the beginning of a very long downturn,” said Glenn Kelman, Redfin’s chief executive. “But for whatever reason, the last few months have been very strong for us.”

Executives of Trulia, Zillow and Terabitz said they, too, were encouraged by recent results. Online real estate companies, they added, could be today’s version of the online travel agencies that flourished after the Sept. 11 attacks: a cheap alternative for suppliers looking to market a product that is suddenly in low demand.

In this case, brokers and agents have seen their marketing budgets shrink in lock step with their commissions as they struggle to sell homes.

“There’s no doubt that a lot of brokers are feeling some pain right now,” said Pete Flint, chief executive of Trulia, a real estate search service based in San Francisco. “They’re spending less on advertising than they were, but they’re spending a significantly larger portion online, because it’s cheaper, and it’s where the audience is.”

Mr. Flint would not disclose sales figures, but he said traffic was growing more than 10 percent monthly, “and revenues are growing much faster than that.”