Marketing Myths and Reality

Move over magazines!

A survey by the U.S. National Association of Realtors (NAR) confirms what most of us in the business already know.

More sales of mid to high end properties – far more sales - spring from the internet than the print media. In Bahamas real estate, internet sales outpace magazine or newspaper generated sales hands down.

While vendors like to see their homes featured in expensive glossy magazine ads, the truth is that it's who you know and network with and the internet that drive most real estate sales in the Bahamas and elsewhere.

NAR's 2012 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers is based on responses from 8,500 people who bought homes in the U.S. between July 2011 and June 2012.

It found that 90 percent of buyers in the U.S. use the Internet, 87 percent use real estate agents, 53 percent yard signs, 45 percent attend open houses and 27 percent review print or newspaper ads.

Buyers first learned about the home they purchased as follows: 42 percent - the Internet; 34 percent - a real estate agent; 10 percent - a yard sign or open house; 6 percent - from a friend, neighbour or relative; 5 percent – from home builders; 2 percent - directly from the seller; 1 percent - a print or newspaper ad and less than 1 percent from other sources.

Ninety-one percent of home buyers in the U.S. who used the Internet to search for a home purchased through a real estate agent as did 71 percent of non-Internet users, who were more likely to purchase directly from a builder or from an owner they already knew in a private transaction.

The percentage of internet driven Bahamas real estate sales may not be as high as in the U.S, where the multiple listing service websites are more established. However, the numbers here are strong and growing.

That's why local brokers heavily promote their websites and link their sites to other popular sites.

* Your Leading Bahamas Real Estate Source