Smash Your Doubts About Mobile Apps

If you have doubts about using a mobile app for your real estate business, consider the growth of Facebook. In 2012, Mark Zuckerberg revealed that their biggest mistake was underestimating mobile apps. Four years later, their profits have grown from $3.7 billion to $15 billion with 80 percent of their incoming revenue generated by their mobile app.

Trust the data

Now let's look to the most popular real estate app in the nation: Zillow. In 2015, they released a case study showing their website had the most traffic, but their mobile app held 95 percent of time spent on any of their platforms. This is consistent with the behaviors of all mobile users, who spend four to 18 times longer in apps than web or mobile web.

Mobile apps are part of real estate

These stats are indicators of a behavior – the behavior that consumers are loyal to the brand that is easily accessible when they need information. Google found that 66 percent of consumers, on their recent purchases, chose a brand that they had no loyalty to because that brand gave them the information they wanted faster and easier than the competition.

The real estate industry is not exempt from these behaviors. Smartphone ownership has gone from 35 percent to 72 percent over the last four years, creating a habit, a new appendage and one of the most dependent relationships that any of us have with a piece of technology

NAR found that 89 percent of real estate consumers used a mobile device in their last real estate search. Home buyers and sellers also read reviews on Amazon, ask for advice on Facebook and search for answers via Google. Why would they choose their agent differently than they choose the rest of their services?

Results speak for themselves

Mobile apps are an investment in your brand, in your agents and in your clients. They have a proven ROI and one of the lowest costs-per-lead of any source. It will give your brand an edge in your market and serve your clients' needs in a way that promotes genuine loyalty.

If someone tells you that mobile web is enough, they are living in the past.

You don't have to take my word for it, though; Mark Zuckerberg already told you back in 2012.

To view the original article, visit the Smarter Agent blog.