Where Are Real Estate Agents Focusing Their Technology Investments?

Among real estate professionals, IDX websites are garnering the greatest share of technology investment dollars, but there are a number of other technology tools that REALTORS® are finding helpful enough to warrant a sizeable investment.

At the top of the real estate tech heap, Internet Data Exchange (IDX) services, like IDX Mashup, provide a useful service for property buyers and sellers that draws real estate site traffic and can be instrumental in turning site visitors into clients. According to a recent ActiveRain survey of 2,000 U.S. real estate professionals, 63% of real estate agents and brokers invest in IDX services, making it a top-selling real estate technology tool.

Other tech tools that today's real estate professionals consider worthy of investment include marketing applications, comparative market analysis tools, customer relationship management software, search engine optimization services, and social media.

• 62% of real estate agents employ marketing applications that include comparative market analysis tools.
• 51% make use of customer relationship management software with the focus on lead-management software.

• 47% employ extensive email marketing.
• 45% are embracing social media, with Facebook and Twitter the clear favorites.
• 41% are investing in listing syndication tools.
• 37% are using virtual tour software.
• 29% use listing domains to market their listings.

Most real estate agents are spending slightly more per month for IDX services ($75/month) than they are on lead management tools ($73/month), but both garner nearly double the typical monthly investment in comparative market analysis programs ($46/month).

SEO, blogging and social media (which the survey lumped together) led technology tools as the top marketing/advertising real estate platform used, accounting for an average $78/month of agent marketing budgets. High-income agents spent twice as much on SEO/blogging/social media ($106) than their lower-earning peers ($47).

In another example of "you get what you pay for," successful real estate professionals invested twice as much (or more) in marketing and business-growing technology tools as low-income agents.

To view the original article, visit the Properties Online blog.