NAR 2011 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers

New Home Buyer and Seller profile study now released by National Association of Realtors.
"Of buyers who used the web as a starting point for their search (88%), 45 percent found the home they ultimately purchased online, up nine percent from 2009"

There was a dramatic sea change regarding the New Home buyer profile and the precipitous drop in Fist Time Buyers in the market this year... With tightening credit standards and so many buyers under water that is to be expected. But there are also a number of important clues for creative Real Estate Agents to use to stand out in a crowded market.

Research Overview:
http://www.realtor.org/press_room/news_releases/2011/11/home_buyer_and_seller

Relevant Internet Use Summary: "... buyers use a wide variety of resources in searching for a home: 88 percent use the Internet, 87 percent use real estate agents, 55 percent yard signs, 45 percent attend open houses and 30 percent review print or newspaper ads."

There are tons of other important issues that the NAR study brings out for Agents to pay attention to...
We particularly liked the AGBeat overview of the study http://tinyurl.com/7p7ewqh

What does this tell us?
The major shift is from first time buyers to older, more established families... those over 65 tended not to use the Internet as much... again this is "as much" but they "still used" the Internet so from a standpoint of you are doing everything else to make your local presence known... you still need to use the Internet.

PDF overview of NAR 2011 Home Buyers Report http://tinyurl.com/7ejdomd

So as markets become more competitive what are you doing to stand out?

We believe that all studies indicate that using video, specifically YouTube video, which is not only the easiest way to put your listings in front of real buyers but also the fastest way.

In other studies it has been borne out that of all realtors in a recent study conducted by realtor.org …. (only) 2 percent used YouTube or another video hosting site.

October 10, 2010 study http://www.realtor.org/topics/homebuyers_sellers_profile/techtrends_pres

...and that 85.8 percent of American web users (77.3% of the population) are viewing web video...in addition, the tipping point for the use of mobile devices while in the field to view properties has grown dramatically. Putting video on YouTube solves all of these problems.
http://torreyrussell.blogspot.com/2011/09/tipping-point-mobile-video-search.html

So by taking the advantage that Video brings - you can quickly and easily gain a dominant position on the Internet without a lot of cost associated with creating and hosting it.... YouTube is free or use a service like ours, (http://techmediamarketing.com) cost about $1.00 per listing per month for a typical office to automate that process.

What separates Rich Real Estate Agents from Poor Real Estate Agents

Video SEO - are you playing by the book? YouTube rule book

Its easy to think you know everything about how something works after using for years and years... but really take a minute to read this document
http://www.youtube.com/creators/playbook.html
This alone tells you exactly what is and is not going to work if you are trying to use YouTube to gain better SEO for your brand, your assets or services you market or the story you want to tell.
Also be reading this guy with his first post on Search Engine Watch
Terry Van Horne, November 4, 2011
Video SEO: Video Metadata Optimization