Text Message Real Estate Marketing

From Cnet:

Worldwide mobile messaging grew nearly 10 percent in the third quarter compared to the second quarter of the year, fueled by new trends in the messaging market, according to VeriSign, which provides Internet infrastructure services and delivers messages on behalf of carriers and content providers.

The company reported Tuesday that VeriSign enabled more than 58.3 billion messages per day during the third quarter of 2008. This was up from about 52 billion messages sent during the second quarter of 2008.

On average, this means that VeriSign facilitated the delivery of about 634 million messages per day during the third quarter, compared to 572 million messages a day in the second quarter. In the third quarter of 2007, the company helped move 280 million messages per day across its systems. VeriSign said it expects to enable nearly 200 billion messages during 2008.

The company attributed a lot of this growth in mobile messaging to new uses of the technology, which include messaging for social and political change and marketing. One of the most notable examples of this is how U.S. President-elect Barack Obama used SMS text messaging to send messages to supporters during the campaign, even using the medium to distribute some of the campaign’s biggest news like the selection of his vice presidential runningmate Joe Biden.

My Comment: Its pretty amazing how Obama has embraced technology. The web and sms are just a couple. The connection established between him and the american public is the same methods my friends and I use today.

Realtors… are you connecting with potential buyers? TEXT REAL 1 to 95495

1. Using a mobile sign like “TEXT REAL 1 to 95495″ in front of the property to provide information and pictures to prospective buyers. Agents are notified when a message is sent.

2. Use in Classified ads. “TEXT REAL 2 to 95495″ Using a different code with the same information can help you determine where to spend your advertising dollars. Textreal.com has a very detailed interface to allow tracking of requests.

3. On your Business Cards. “TEXT REAL 1 to 95495″ Have a seperate code for your business cards. Need a realtor? Text real 1 to 95495 and I’ll give you a call!

4. Aviod Foreclosure TEXT REAL 1 to 95495. These can be put at intersections and around town. Investment Property, Short Sales… you name the subject you could use text messaging to capture leads.

Textreal.com can be used for all of these options and more.

Text messaging has become a great marketing medium because of how personal the phone is. Unlike email or snail mail, each text message is considered important to the receiver. A “junk” filter hasn’t been built yet. And there is a cost associated to sending each message unlike email. This alone has a huge impact.

Textreal.com can help you use text messaging to generate leads and give buyers the information they need. Try our service out free @ http://textreal.com/free

Textreal.com has increased its services with the ability for Realtors to now provide pictures to prospective buyers. The sms sent to the prospect buyer includes a URL that can be accessed via mobile phone. The Realtor can add as many pictures as they like with captions for each one.

With this additional offering textreal.com continues to lead the way in Real Estate Marketing.

The sms real estate race is starting to heat up and so are the prices. Heres a look at a couple different services with prices. I’ve compiled a list of prices and I’m still coming up the most cost effective.

textreal.com
Offers 3 codes for $15/month, no setup fees, unlimited messages.
Offers 20 codes for $30/month, no setup fees, unlimited messages.

AGENT511.com
Offers 3 codes for $24.95/month, no setup fees.
Offers 6 codes for $42.95/month, no setup fees.
Other plans are avaiable

Knovolo.com
Offers 1 code for $149. I’m not exactly sure how there pricing works, and what is actually included.

drivebuytech.com
Offers 1 code for $8/month, no setup fees.

2sms.com
Not designed specifially for realtors, cheapest plan is $240 / 90 days expiration.

cellsigns.com
Offers 3 codes for $15/month. 1 time setup fee of $30 dollars, limited to 30 inquiries per month.
Offers 5 codes for $30/month. 1 time setup fee of $30 dollars, limited to 50 inquiries per month.
Other plans are available

house4cell.com
Offers 3 codes for 29.99/month
Offers 6 codes for 39.99/month

The Charlotte-based operator of eight Ashley Furniture HomeStores said a July “Secret Sale” announced only via e-mail and text messages generated $138,460 over four days.

“Using e-mail and SMS (text messages) as digital marketing channels has really impressed us out of the gate and shown us a clear path to offset declining response rates and poor ROI in some of our other forms of advertising,” said Charlie Malouf, co-owner of Ashley Furniture HomeStores of Charlotte, which operates stores across a region that includes Upstate South Carolina. “The success of the Secret Sales proves just how effective digital marketing can be, and we plan to expand such programs in the future.” To quickly build its database of e-mail addresses and text message numbers, the chain ran contests offering prizes that included a $500 shopping spree and free gas giveaways. For the sale, more than 34,737 messages were sent—including 6,000 texts—on the morning of the sale to announce the four-day event.

Exerpt from Real Estate goes Tech in Idaho

“Some people get into the business and don’t adapt to what’s needed,” she said. “Honestly, they’re not going to make it. … (Buyers) want to see homes for sale. When they’re searching for a home, they want to see them. They want answers to their questions, they want information freely given.”

And they want it fast. That’s why text messaging is becoming more and more a part of real estate. When a client wants quick information about a property or a meeting, the generation that grew up in front of a computer screen instinctively wants to skip the small talk and simply text their realtor. That agent can then immediately send out a quick reply without stopping what they’re doing, be it sitting in a meeting or shopping at the mall.

Text messaging is also starting to fill in where fliers and info lines left off. With smart phones and PDAs finding their way into more and more hands, realtors can set up a system where a potential homebuyer can stumble across a for-sale home and text a number on the sign for more information, including a link to a Web site with interior pictures. And the texted information method appeals to buyers for more reasons than one.

“The same generation that texts is the same generation that is really conservation minded,” Ethridge said. “It saves plastic flyer boxes, it saves paper for fliers and it saves gas from driving out to refill the box.”

It’s not just the younger realtors that are seizing the new methods. Agents with decades of experience have been known to give younger realtors a run for their money.

“They are texting maniacs,” said Sarah Kestler, communications director for the Ada County Association of Realtors. “They can text with the best of them from what I’ve seen. I’ll be online and look over and see (a more experienced realtor) texting and be like, ‘are you writing an essay? I’m not sure.’ You have to keep up with technology or you’ll stop”

Credit: Dani Grigg

(Copyright 2008 Dolan Media Newswires) (c) 2008 Idaho Business Review, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.Source: Idaho Business Review, The

Consumers are text messaging more than ever. In the United States alone, 12 million text messages were sent in June 2000, the first year that text messaging became generally available here. By June 2007, the number of text messages sent had jumped 2,000-fold, to 24 billion. Eight months later, communications giant Verizon reported handling a record 20 billion text messages in one month.

A large demographic portion of the real estate industry is becoming attracted to this form of communication. Although the shorthand language of instant messaging and texting - like LOL for “laugh out loud” and IDK for “I don’t know” - somewhat delayed its adoption by older generations, they’re beginning to make up for lost time. Text messaging by people age 45-54 grew 130 percent during the period between 2006 and 2007.

212,616,000 SMS text messages are being sent every day around the world, according to the Mobile Data Association in a study released last week.

The industry association said that the number of texts sent in the year to May saw an annual rise of 30%. “SMS has established itself as a true social connecting tool, and continues to have mass consumer appeal,” it said.

This is quick case study of a text message listing in uptown charlotte using textreal.com as the response system.

Listing: Uptown Charlotte, foot traffic during lunch hours, not much drive-by traffic

Number of Requests for Information: 12 (in 1 month)

Result: Each request for information created a positive response. All 12 responses were followed up with phone calls to ensure the potential buyer had all the information they needed.

• 9 leads just wanted to see what would come back / how much the place was listed for
• 5 leads thought the response was neat. They liked the fact they had the information.
• 1 lead was interested in a showing. 

Conculsion

Text Messaging works for some listings and not for others. Listings in rural areas, end of col de sacs and other places without high visability will not perform well. Charlotte is a great market because of the younger populations ability to work with technology. Providing the information is only a small part in making the system work. Its the follow up that closes the deal.