The future of real estate advertisement

Is the value of the newspaper and print media decreasing?

If you are a real estate agent or a home owner thinking of selling your home, you have a real interest in where you should be advertising the real estate you are trying to sell.

If the figures are accurate and more than 80% of consumers begin their home search online, then it would stand to reason that many of those consumers we real estate agents and sellers would like to attract are not picking up the local paper to find a home for sale. Print media, especially the newspaper industry, by it's own admission, is losing a considerable amount of revenue as they watch an ever increasing amount of their advertisement business move to online sources.

Jeff Jarvis wrote an essay on his blog, BuzzMachine, for the World Association of Newspapers. The title of this particular blog is "Newspapers in 2020" This quote from his blog article caught my attention:

So with all respect, I’d say the World Association of Newspapers is asking the wrong question here (and, by the way, may want to consider a new name): What will newspapers look like in 2020? Well, what’s a newspaper?
That’s what young people may well ask by then. Jeffrey Cole of the USC Annenberg School’s Center for the Digital Future concludes from his latest survey of internet use that people 12-to-25 years old today – who’ll be in the golden 25-to-38 demographic in 2020 – will “never read a newspaper.” Never is a strong word. Phil Meyer famously predicted in his book “The Vanishing Newspaper” that if current trend lines continue, the last American paper will be published in 2040. Let that word, too, sink in: Last. (italics and bold added)

Never read a newspaper? Unless they have just stopped reading or do not care about what is going on around them, it is a safe bet that those 25-38 year old are/will be reading something. Which takes us back to where is real estate advertisement heading?

If you are reading this blog, you already know the answer. Informed sellers, skillful agents and forward thinking real estate companies are taking advantage of the far reaching scope of the internet. Even the Newspaper industry understands and many are taking the steps to provide an online product that offers the same reliable news source and information that a newspaper has always provided in print.

The decision to advertise our homes and real estate online should continue and grow in the days, months and years ahead if we have any plans of being in the real estate business in the future.

Related Florida real estate views:

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MFRMLS vs Realtor.com?

Advertise your home where it will do the most good


- Greg Staker - Watson Realty Corp. - 407-304-0255

No word yet if Zillow will deliver the papers too.

From Zillow's media page:

Zillow.com® and 11 Newspaper Companies Form Online Real Estate
Partnership
Alliance will extend local listings of 282 newspapers to powerful
and growing national real estate site

Related Florida real estate views:

No word yet if Zillow will deliver the papers too.

Does the home seller agree?

ze zillow iz ze buzz word


- Greg Staker - Watson Realty Corp. - 407-304-0255

Is there a difference between buying an airline ticket and a home online?

The new Department of Justine website states on this page that :

"Just as the Internet has made it easier for consumers to save money by
directly purchasing plane tickets and stocks, it is now making it feasible for
home sellers and buyers to do more of the work themselves and pocket the
savings."

The Internet certainly has provide a way for the consumer to find out what is for sale and also allows for the consumer to search for the best services available for the money but I am not aware of a site that the consumer is using to directly purchase a home without having to contact a real estate associate.


Related Florida real estate views:

The future of real estate advertisement

Will you be able to sell your home in 2008?

5 things Sellers wish their Realtor® would have told them


- Greg Staker - Watson Realty Corp. - 407-304-0255