UPDATE (Novemeber 23, 2009) - Open House Information Available On REALTOR.com
TREND has been working with REALTOR.com and Listhub to make your open house information, when entered into the MLS, available for display on those websites at no extra charge to you. TREND is happy to inform you that as of October 29th, REALTOR.com has been displaying all open house information entered into TREND.
Since our original communication to the TREND community, the number of open houses entered into the MLS has increased dramatically.
Sites displaying open house information entered into MLS Blue:
Open House Info on REALTOR.com!
By adding your open house information into TREND, your open house as well as your listing will gain exposure to the 6 million consumers who visit REALTOR.com each month - all with no additional cost to you.
A study conducted by the Audit Bureau of Circulations stated that the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper circulation has declined nearly 14% in a six month period ending in March of 2009.
1 This is in sharp contrast to on-line readership on Philly.com, which reported an increase of 71% between June 2008 and June 2009, according to recent Nielsen ratings.
2 With the circulation of newspapers declining across the country, it's becoming less likely that potential homebuyers are going to sit at their kitchen tables, open to the real estate section of the newspaper and find open houses they want to attend. A more likely scenario has those same potential homebuyers sitting at their kitchen tables, opening up their laptops, and searching for open houses using any number of real estate websites. This thought is supported in a recent study by Trulia, which reported that 62% of potential homebuyers use on-line sites to find open houses, opposed to 31% who use the newspaper or other printed sources.
3
Don't Wait! Prepare Now and Enter Your Open House Information into the MLS
With more and more consumers looking for their information on the Internet, spending marketing money on print media is a thing of the past. Armed with this knowledge, TREND wants to help you more easily reach your consumers where they are, at no additional cost. Currently, open house information within the MLS is distributed and displayed on Philly.com and is available for display on broker and agent IDX websites. This distribution allows you to create a searchable open house resource on your company or agent website, increasing traffic and making your personal website more desirable to potential clients. To further strengthen that broad distribution, TREND is making your open house information available for display on REATLOR.com and listing syndication
websites provided through Listhub. By adding your open house information into the MLS now, you will ensure maximum exposure when that information is made available to all of the
different on-line resources. The distribution and broad exposure of your open house information is part of the value you receive just by being a TREND member.
More Information Means a More Effective Search
When consumers want to find open house information, defining their search criteria in the newspaper is impossible- they just can't do it. On the other hand, searching for open house information on the Internet allows consumers to define a specific area, price, date and time, ultimately returning all relevant results. Combine that with the detailed information that is available related to your listings, and consumers will enjoy the added benefit of making informed decisions because they will have immediate access to all of the information they need.
Include Open House Information as Part of Your Regular Listing Routine
When sitting with your sellers gathering information about their listing, use the new
Broker Tour/ Open House form to plan and collect all the important information related to upcoming open houses. Including the open house form in your "listing packet" right along with the profile sheet will remind you to take a few minutes and enter that information at the same time you or your office administrator publish your listing to the MLS. Making this part of your regular routine will ensure you do everything you can to best market that listing and gain maximum exposure in the most cost-effective manner possible.
1 Jack Loechner. May 8, 2009. Newspaper Circulation Skids. Retrieved August 4, 2009 from
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=105276
2 Jennifer Saba. July 24, 2009. June a Sleepy Month for Many Top 30 Newspaper Web Sites. Retrieved August 4, 2009 from
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003997184
3 Trulia. Daily Real Estate News. June 3, 2009. Retrieved August 4, 2009 from
http://www.realtor.org/rmodaily.nsf/pages/News2009060306
4 NAR Website Traffic. August 13, 2009. Retrieved August 22, 2009 from
http://www.realtor.org/realtororg.nsf/pages/sitetraffic?OpenDocument