How Homebuyers Find Homes (part 1)
If you are thinking about selling a home, knowing how home buyers find homes is important information. It should define your marketing plan.
All of the data from the discussions below comes from the 2008 study by the National Association of Realtors, Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. I will refer to this as the Study in the subsequent discussion.
Method of Home Purchase
The best way to explain "method" in this sense is to look at the Study results:
Purchased through an Agent/Broker 83%
Purchased from a builder 8%
Directly from an owner buyer did not know 3%
Directly from an owner buyer did know 2%
Foreclosure/Trustee sale 3%
Other 1%
For 2008, 83% of home buyers purchased their home with the help of a real estate agent or broker. For resales (i.e. not new construction and not a foreclosure sale), 93% of buyers used an agent/broker.
Smart marketers know that sometimes to you don't market to the user but to the decision maker. Baby food companies market baby food to parents, not babies. Similarly, pharmaceutical companies spend most of their ad budgets marketing to physicians who prescribe the medicine to the user. If you look at this first group of statistics on home buyers, you might think that real estate is one these exceptions. Why bother with marketing your home to buyers when so many use a gate keeper? Should all of the marketing be aimed at agents/brokers? Read my next post before you decide.