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Agent | Broker Reset Filters to Default Back to ListJust how important IS technology in Real Estate?
March 14 2012
Guest contributor Delta Media Group says:
Does spending more money on real estate technology help you make more?
The question might be the industry’s chicken-and-egg. It’s tough to tell which caused the other, and if you polled 10 different people, you might get five to answer each way.
Trying to assume conclusions out of the statistics might be irresponsible. But the stats show what the stats show, and the stats show real estate agents who invest more in marketing and technology make more money.
This, according to a new survey InmanNext conducted that compared top-earning real estate agents (those who take in $100,000 or more per year) to agents earning between $30,000 and $50,000.
Nearly 1,400 real estate agents responded—enough to reduce the study’s margin of error to a small percentage.
Here’s a few things the study showed:
- High-income earners “reported spending more on marketing and technology.”
- High-income agents “cited technology and support as the main reason they would leave” their brokerage within a year.
- Agents making $200,000 or more per year listed Web search as very important to their business, while others listed it as being of low importance.
The study showed high-income agents are also more active online.
“About 39 percent of respondents in the $30,000 to $50,000 income range reported updating their website or blog once a month,” it read. “Less than a third updated their site more than a few times a month compared to nearly half of respondents in the $100,000-or-more income range who updated their site at least a few times a week.”
The same applies for social networks.
“High-income agents tend to cultivate their social media channels more than middle-income agents. While 96 percent of respondents in both income ranges said they belonged to Facebook, just over two-thirds of middle-income respondents reported having between 500 or fewer friends on Facebook, compared with nearly half of high-income agents reporting 500 or more friends on Facebook.
“Among those making $200,000 or more, more than a third reported having more than 1,000 friends on Facebook.”
High-income agents are also more likely to have a Facebook account, Twitter account and YouTube page.
As noted, the cause and effect of this poll isn’t defined. But high-income agents appear to embrace technology, search engine optimization and social media more than others, and actually view it as a reason to consider staying or leaving their brokerage.