Picture this: You arrive at the listing appointment looking sharp and ready to impress the seller. During the meeting, they throw you some curveballs and see how you handle objections. You’re no rookie, nothing they ask surprises you. You’re able to eloquently articulate your value proposition and at the end they award you the listing and sign with you — woo-hoo!
The sellers believe that since you were good enough to convince them to list their largest asset with you, that you’ll be good enough to convince buyers to write high-dollar offers. What happens next is where the disconnect begins.
Listing agents trade buyer inquiries for publicity for their sellers.
It’s called IDX and syndication. Brokerages, portals, and agents build websites that display all of the listings in an area to draw leads to them. The cost to the listing agent community for this publicity has been an overwhelming decline in leads to the actual listing agent, specifically sign calls. Buyers don’t want to call the listing agent when they can just look up the property online. Once they are on a website, they push the super sexy and simple button “Contact Agent,” even though they might not be aware the agent they are contacting knows nothing about the house.
We’re not the only ones who have noticed the high cost of listing publicity. Did you read the recent article on Inman about Realogy asking for changes to be made to the IDX rules? ”Many listing search websites misdirect consumers by obfuscating the display of a property’s listing firm.” They went on to stress, “that the listing agent is the authority on a property and that consumers should be able to easily identify and contact them if they want to.” They want to see the Listing Agent’s contact information be prominently displayed and we totally support this!
Did you read the recent article about LEOPARD? It’s a league of producers working on changes they’d like to see in the industry. Providing listing agents with marketing options for their listings without the high cost of reduced leads is one of their projects. Insert rDigz, a free app to get the word out about homes for sale. The best part is that anyone that inquires about a property on rDigz gets connected directly to the agent or team hired to sell the house.
rDigz was launched in Phoenix, AZ , where agents use sign riders with QR codes to promote the property and the app, when buyers scan the QR code rDigz automatically displays the listing details of the property closest to their location. They can search other properties as well, all while seeing the listing agent for each listing.
Ginny Solis Wright runs the Wright Team out of Goodyear, AZ. She uses rDigz on all her listings. “It’s so easy,” she says, “I add the listing to the website and then property inquiries are texted directly to me.” An added benefit of the listing agent talking to the buyers is now the lister has fewer agents to chase down for feedback about the property.
Sellers are happy because the listing agent has real feedback from talking directly to buyers. Listing agents are happy because they have more conversations with potential buyers in their marketplace. Because it was developed by LEOPARD, it’s a cross-brokerage app that allows agents from all brokerages to take part.
Check out rDigz today. And next time you’re at a listing appointment talking about how you market your listings, it may be the innovative tool that sets you apart.