Major Real Estate Players Meet to Discuss Current Housing Market Strategies
Unique times call for unique measure. As the Florida housing market tries to recover from its recent slowdown, an exclusive meeting of 100 of the nation’s top brokers and service providers gathered this week in Colorado for a ground-breaking two-day educational and networking exchange on success strategies for a changing industry.
The opening session, “Working Across the Generational Divide,” prompted lively discussion about how to best market Florida mortgage loans and other property resources to four distinctly different population segments in the marketplace:
- Civics (those born before 1946)
- Baby Boomers
- Gen Xers
- Gen Yers
RISMedia CEO and Publisher John Featherston opened the session, while RE/MAX Founder Dave Liniger offered his thoughts on how his massive organization has been affected by the topic of the day.
“The power has shifted from the sellers of things to the buyers of things, and this is significant because the sellers had the knowledge and therefore had the power,” said Jim Sherry. “In the last ten years because of connectivity and the Internet the buyers now have the power and the sellers are answering to them. So the question is, who are these buyers and how is the ‘Generational Divide’ manifesting itself in our business?”
John Ansbach, of RECON Intelligence Services, said the answer is not your father’s Florida mortgage marketing strategy.
“There are four generations of Americans in this country that comprise the marketplace and that is the first time that has ever happened in our country,” he said. “And every group has different values and preferences. The challenge for real estate professionals is to produce a high-power consumer experience for each group.”
Considering the needs of each buying sector
Ansbach says the key to successful sales now is to “treat everyone how they would like to be treated.” For example, he said, Baby Boomers employ a “live to work” approach and are driven by a winning approach to life. He pointed out how commercials targeting the Baby Boom generation today combine that theme with popular music from the 60s.
Conversely, Generation X’s marketing message promotes a “work to live attitude,” and promotes self-sufficient lifestyles. The idea is to appeal to this younger crowd, those unsure about applying for a Florida home mortgage loan, by emphasizing the independence of doing so.
Carat USA’s Randy Washburn then discussed the subject of where and how to communicate with the four marketing groups in the rapidly changing marketplace the industry now faces.
“The consumer can now generate its own media where they control the content and what they want to see. Today’s media landscape is changing and the lines are blurry with emerging media… you have to talk with consumers instead of talking at them. Today marketers are looking at more ways to engage the consumer …”
For example, Florida mortgage brokers have benefitted from this ad campaign, as they’ve seen lagging sales pick up through it. You must think outside the typical Florida mortgage box these days.
Marketing to your audience is important, agreed Dave Liniger (owner of where this meeting was held), but real estate brokers need to be careful about how they accomplish that. Namely, he says, by being more conservative in online Florida home loan advertising.
Liniger summarized his controversial view on the Internet for the brokers at Sanctuary.
“It is repeatedly reported that 70 percent of home buyers start their search online,” Liniger said. “Where does that statistic come from? It is a phony statistic. The tech companies are just trying to sell search.”
He supported his comments, quoting a recent survey by Prudential CA/NV/TX where only 31 percent of respondents reported finding their property online.
According to RE/MAX’s own annual survey of 4,500 home buyers, Liniger quoted 61 percent of responded said they had never been on a real estate website. “I may not know what I’m doing, but I have 120,000 agents,” he quipped.
It’s all interesting stuff. No matter where you consider finding property, however, the first step is to look into the Florida mortgage process. Bear in mind that all these experts agree the buyer has all the power under the current state of affairs. Take advantage of that!
