According to a recent story in Realty Times (6/22/06), newspaper ads for Realtor* real estate brokers are a waste of resources & they are putting their money elsewhere.
“From personal experience, I never get phone calls from classified ads on real estate for sale. It is a waste of money so I quit it,” says Realtor Bill from Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
The article cites stats from NAR’s 2005 Profile of Home Buyers & Sellers to show the shift away from newspaper ads:
- only 50% of buyers used newspaper classified (down from 80% in 2002)
- 48% of sellers use newspaper ads (down from 59% in 2002)
- 90% of buyers use an agent
- 77% use the internet to search vs. 50% for newspaper ads
- 93% of internet users use an agent vs. 53% for newspaper ads
The most useful home buying information comes from:
- Agents: 72%
- Internet 69%
- Yard signs 49%
- Open Houses 42%
- Home Builders 37%
- Newspaper ads 29%
- Of non internet users, only 37% used the newspaper (a telling stat)
The article suggests that newspapers are responding like a politician down in the polls, by using negative ads and articles attacking the real estate industry and brokers, suggesting, among other things, that agents are overcompensated. The author also cites statistics that suggest the “bubble talk” stories increased newspaper revenue. Seems very conspiratorial to us.
There are those that challenge the NAR stats & we’d love to hear from you.
* not all real estate brokers are members of NAR
