A Radical Approach to Building a Brokerage
I came across Pockettour this morning (source). It’s a travel agency built completely on top of Viber (a messaging app if you aren’t familiar with it).
A travel agency and a real estate brokerage aren’t that vastly different. Both involve a professional with deep knowledge helping a consumer (buyer/seller or traveler) through a complex transaction. Both are largely monetized by the accommodation that is found as part of that process.
What if you started a brokerage tomorrow and….
- You didn’t have a website (or, it was simply a landing page with directions how to reach you)
- You didn’t have IDX
- You didn’t do email
- Your whole business was built on top of an existing messaging platform everyone used (FB messenger, Whatsapp, or even Slack)
The consumer wins in that scenario…
- If you SPAM them or they deem they want to work with someone else, they can block you for eternity with no recourse for you to contact/bother them (remember, this is a massive, massive consumer win)
- No need to download a new app or learn a new tool
Maybe the day this strategy would succeed isn’t today. But, I’ll venture a guess, the day it would is coming — sooner than you think.
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Bryn Kaufman
Posted at 11:17h, 22 OctoberI have been thinking about something similar with Facebook. Facebook wants to keep everyone inside of Facebook, so I was thinking about how we could deliver targeted listings that meet people’s needs within Facebook, without leads having to visit our website.
If anyone knows how to do that please let me know.
Regarding Viber, we use it because it is very popular in the Philippines, and I have 3 Virtual Assistants there. They have it on their phone so they are always available. It is a great free chat app that works on all devices.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 11:21h, 22 October“I was thinking about how we could deliver targeted listings that meet people’s needs within Facebook, without leads having to visit our website.”
I believe the context of this is wrong. Listings are not what people are expecting when on Facebook.
Bryn Kaufman
Posted at 11:51h, 22 OctoberThe key point is “targeted”. Listing have not been popular on Facebook because there is no way I know of to target the listing to what the viewer wants. So if you show me 5 listings in areas that have no interest to me, I will probably just hide your posts.
However, precisely targeted listings is what interest buyers and sellers the most. I have found this to be true from click through rates in Emails.
So if you know the person is in the market to buy in area X, and the price range is Y, and you hear about a new listing coming out in that area or a great deal hits the market, I believe those specific people would be interested in seeing it, even if it is on Facebook.
Anyway, this is just a fantasy I guess, because right now that type of targeting can’t be done, as far as I know.
It would be nice if Facebook users could Like more than just your business page. For example, Like the areas that interest you the most on my Real Estate page. Then I have a group of people that like area X, now I bet you I could post listings from area X that would interest them.
One option I suppose is to target them by Email address. For example, I have 300 people I know that view building X multiple times on my website. I can create a Facebook ad for a new listing in this building, and create a segment on Facebook based on those 300 Email addresses. However, using that technique one would probably do better just sending them an Email directly, which works great. This way those that are not on Facebook get it too.
Another option is circle targeting on Facebook within a 1 mile radius, but there you don’t really know if the person is even in buyer or seller mode.
Perhaps create separate pages, if that is even possible. For example, create a page specifically for Real Estate in a very specific area, not a major city but a very specific neighborhood, anyone who likes that page would like listings.
Anyway, just thinking about ways to do it.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 12:35h, 22 October“It would be nice if Facebook users could Like more than just your business page. For example, Like the areas that interest you the most on my Real Estate page. Then I have a group of people that like area X, now I bet you I could post listings from area X that would interest them.”
Create a fb page for every area, and just stream new listings in that area to it. Then people could like the areas they are interested in.
Bryn Kaufman
Posted at 12:53h, 22 OctoberI will consider that option, thanks.
It is more complicated then having a form on one page where they can select their area and price range, but right not I suppose it is the only option.