We no longer live in a world where property buyers need to contact property agents in advertisements to find out the selling price and conditions of the properties; official property transaction data released by the authority is easily obtained. The internet increased price transparency and put downward pressure on prices. When you know how to exponentially expose your property listing on the internet, you can counter the downward pressure on prices.
Kelvin Neo LS
Hey! Kelvin Neo here. Welcome to my website. I have been a property agent since 1995. 28 years ago, marketing real estate was old-school, with no mobile phone, no email, no websites, no social media, no digital marketing, and viewing appointments were made by a piece of small equipment called "Pager".
In recent years, technological advancement has brought about huge shifts in marketing real estate.
Factors driving these shifts are:
• Have substantially more customer power.
• Consumers can conduct their unbiased research, comparing and contrasting properties before they buy or rent.
Today, businesses need to have an online presence, and Integrating Marketing has become more important for businesses to integrate marketing mix strategies with personalized marketing. Likewise, property agents need to have an online presence and knowledge of Sales strategies (Product strategies), Pricing strategies, and Channel strategies when undertaking to sell or rent a property.
To use online strategies like social media to build awareness and interact with clients personally, a property agent needs to manage a social media page to run social media marketing campaigns.
In the emergence of digital marketing, property agents need to have digital marketing knowledge, digital marketing actions, digital channel selection, KPI setting, measuring the effectiveness of the digital marketing campaigns, and return on investment (ROI) to derive proper advertising cost management, hence passing the savings on to consumers.
The other expectation of digital marketing campaigns is that property agents need to be equipped with IT knowledge. Digital marketing campaigns have multiple creatives and media, for example, images, banners, videos, infographics, story maps, etc.
In any marketing campaign, you need to understand the impact of advertising wear-out.
The ability to analyse resale transaction prices, policy changes affecting the property market, and problem-solving skills are skill sets that property agents need to acquire.
More than 25 years in selling HDB resale flats can't be wrong
I was in the era when you didn't need a licence to become a property agent in Singapore; there was no HDB standard Option to Purchase (OTP), and submission of HDB resale cases was done manually by filling out a "TOTO form" and dropping it in the box at the HDB resale office or HDB branch office.
This HDB flat was sold by me in 1995, and the same flat was sold again by me in 2010.
Ride with the Technology
Besides being a property agent, I have been actively involved in information technology. In 1996, I developed financial calculator software called “INNOREAL”, which allows property agents to calculate the HDB financial plan for their clients when purchasing an HDB flat. The software was available to members of the Association of Singapore Realtors (ASR) at a discounted price.
Not Get Swept Away
In the year 2021, I invested my time and effort to complete the Digital Marketing and Branding course conducted by Republic Polytechnic, another asset under my belt to deliver value to my customers.
Deliver Customer Value with Technology
Selling real estate is all about exposure. There are enough tools that help property agents gain exposure for their property listings. The key is that search engines and social media algorithms need to locate your property listings before property buyers can find them.
