subject: Are Property Portals A Godsend or a Curse? [print this page] Author: alunjohn Author: alunjohn
Introduction As agents began to feel the pinch of the recession, more and more agents started to look at the true benefits of the big portals like Rightmove, Findaproperty, Globrix and Fish 4 to name a few. Rightmove probably provides the most exposure through its television and newspaper advertising which inevitably brings a consistent source of leads. Dezrez estate agency software believes this success has been brought about by an effective marketing campaign to the general public. How many vendors have asked you do you list your properties on Rightmove? What is your technology? Over 85% of applicants are now looking online for their homes, and almost every estate agent uploads to one portal or another. Dezrez estate agency software provides a portal upload service that is incredibly powerful, yet extremely easy to use. The unique relationship between dezrez and the property portals means that agents can get leads straight to their desktop. Dezrez estate agency software already uploads to over 100 portals from around the world. No matter where or what you market, dezrez have a portal for you! Here's what one estate agent had to say: "We devote a high proportion of our advertising spend on the Internet for many reasons. Internet advertising is more cost effective, measurable, interactive and appeals to a larger audience. Our website gives buyers and tenants a window to the world that is open 24 hours a day, up to date and is free to access. In addition we use online software that provides us with the most up to the minute portal feeds providing our clients with the best opportunities for selling and buying properties from any location. The online software gives me confidence that my website is 100% accurate and my properties 100% live." Reuben Barrett, Managing Director Coalters Estate & Letting Agents York Who is it aimed at? Savvy agents always track the source of their leads and focus their marketing budget accordingly. Other agents try the scatter approach without tracking leads and are often aggrieved by the cost of some of the larger portals. Its not until we show them the volume of leads delivered by these portals that they can get an idea of the bang for their buck when compared to more traditional media such as newspapers. How does it help your business? With the emergence of free property portals, more and more agents are finding the larger portal subscription model difficult to justify. The business model of the free portals is unproven and only time will tell they can succeed. Statistics from within the dezrez package show there is a significant trend in the number of buyers coming through the portal channel. At the end of the day could we live with out property portals? We think not - 4 out of 5 first time buyers utilise the tools of the web to initiate their journeAbout the Author:
Dezrez is a major supplier of online estate agency software to the UK and European market. Dezrez have been at the forefront of estate agency software for 10 years and have won prestigious awards including the Deloitte Fast 50 and Orange National Business Awards.
