When Realty One established its toll-free customer hotline eight years ago, many of its competitors were left scratching their heads. Some doubted potential buyers would use the service to learn more about homes on the market, while others wondered why the industry powerhouse was investing in the new technology.
“When we came up with the hotline, our competitors said, ‘Who would use it?” explains Kathryn A. Falls, vice president of marketing for Realty One. “It took them five years to realize, ‘Hey, why don’t we give our customers this information?’ … We started that eight years ago, and it was a leading edge technology and really remained leading edge until the past two years, when the Internet came on strong.”
That’s when Realty One — the eighth largest realtor in the U.S. — jumped on the first wave. In 1997, the company launched a basic Web site that included home listings and, like many other first-generation Internet sites, trained potential clients on how to use the new technology. Last October, Realty One unveiled www.realtyone.com, a $3 million redesign, which effectively reshapes how the realty powerhouse does business.
Falls claims the investment was a good one, citing 60,000 hits each day and the fact that 35 percent of the referrals coming through its customer service center are from the Internet.
“The Internet is capturing customers we do not know whether we would have otherwise,” says Falls. “We’re using it as a direct marketing vehicle for all of Realty One, promoting our sales associates and promoting our inventory.”
All consumers are not created equal
One early challenge Realty One faced was making sure its Web site was friendly enough to convince a wide range of customers that using the Internet was a valid way to search for a new home. Early studies had shown that consumers would buy inexpensive products online, but no one knew whether they would abandon traditional forms of marketing to search for a $250,000 home on the Web.
Explains Holly Robinson, Realty One Web technology supervisor, “Selling homes online isn’t like selling books online. The real estate market is a very, very unique entity.”
The Web site needed to serve different types of Internet users quickly and efficiently, she says. It had to appeal to consumers who wanted to do a simple home search, and also to those who wanted detailed demographic information about the neighborhood where a home is located. To solve this problem, four types of Internet users were identified — doers, organizers, analyzers and socializers.
“We looked at all the different types of people in something called cognitive profiling — human nature and how different people approach searching for a home,” explains Falls. “What we wanted to do was have a tool or method for four different kinds of profiles.”
Specific traits were identified for each these general categories, and programmers built functions into the site that meet the basic consumer needs of each one. That translated into the inclusion of a quick search function and neighborhood demographics and access to a wealth of feature information to feed even the most voracious Web visitor.
Creating a competitive edge
Although other real estate brokers also jumped on board the Internet bandwagon, Realty One took steps to make sure its presence would be the most comprehensive. Where other firms may pick and choose the homes they advertise on the Web, Realty One made it a priority that every home would be listed. On an average day, that list tops 5,000 homes.
Robinson says they then decided to borrow a page from the company’s telephone hotline and provide Internet users short audio descriptions of each home, voiced by local television and radio talent. Homes that cost more than $400,000 are featured on Realty One’s weekly television program. Video footage is provided.
“You’re not just looking at a picture, you can click on an icon and you can hear a wonderful description of the home,” says Falls. “It engages the person differently than just looking at a photo. The ultimate goal is really for that to convince the customer to call the sales person and say, ‘Take me through this home.’”
Falls says the company expects the Internet will also recruit business from those wishing to sell their homes who turn to the Web to get an idea of what kind of price they could get before contacting a realtor.
“The experience for the seller is they can use the Internet as a tool to satisfy their curiosity about what is on the market,” says Falls. “They will evaluate brokers. Today’s sellers are very sophisticated and they ask, ‘How are you going to promote my house?’”
A different kind of marketing
The use of Internet technology has reshaped the company’s annual marketing budget, with a significant portion now earmarked for the Internet. As a result, money is being funneled away from newspaper advertisements — a traditional way to market homes, but one Realty One surveys revealed as the least effective.
And although the company currently hires outside vendors to supply video and audio servers for the Web site, Falls says it plans to bring the entire operation in-house by the end of 1999 or early 2000. Surveys show 62 percent of the homes in the Cleveland/Akron real estate market have Internet access — a figure which has nearly doubled in just a year — giving Falls confidence that investing in Web site infrastructure is a sound decision.
“The popularity of newspapers is diminishing and people are looking to the Internet,” she says. “We are taking marketing dollars and redefining their use. Four years ago, I didn’t have the choices I have today. A marketing and advertising budget is now very different in how you divide up that pool of money and where it goes. The Internet, in my mind, makes the most sense.” How to reach: www.realtyone.com
Jim Vickers ([email protected]) is associate editor for SBN Cleveland
