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Stacey Moseley
More than half of agents are underutilising their listing website subscriptions, a senior realestate.com.au executive has said.
Speaking with Real Estate Business, Steve Carroll, head of residential sales - north at realestate.com.au, said the majority of agents did not fill in all of the available information fields when listing a property.
“People weren’t using all the fields, and some were left blank and it’s just not good use of the monthly fee they pay," Mr Carroll said in relation to feedback the company received from an agent roadshow it's conducting around the country.
“I've got a gut feel that 50-60 per cent of agents are underutilising what they’re paying for," he continued.
“A quick way for people to find out if they're missing out is to speak to their realestate.com.au representative and get them to do a health check on their [subscription] use,” he said.
Mr Carroll, who made the comments on the sidelines of the recent PPM National Property Management Conference on the Gold Coast, also said agents should try to use as many photos as they can, making sure they are all high-quality in order to get the best value from their subscription fee.
Mr Carroll's comments come at a time when some agents have complained about the cost of listing website subscriptions.
REA Group, which owns realestate.com.au and realcommercial.com.au, holds information sessions for agents to learn how to use the listings website more effectively.
“We hold a lot of functions and breakfasts seminars which are always free for people to come along and listen to guest speakers. We’re running a series in NSW at the moment with [real estate trainer] Daniel Spencer and Chris Helder.
“In NSW we’re hiring out hotels where we’ll invite all subscribers to realestate.com.au to come along, and we’ll have 250-350 people at the event.
“We work really hard to get people to attend, and when people do attend we get really good feedback.”
Mr Carroll hopes that agents who take these simple steps can maximise the use of their subscription, and also their sales numbers.
According to the Macquarie Relationship Banking 2012 Residential Real Estate Benchmarking Report, online advertising is the second biggest source of sales at 17 per cent. Repeat business took the top spot at 28 per cent.
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