Market Trends Are Now Available in NeighborhoodIntel Reports
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| 26 Sep 2024
According to WAV Group’s Customer Experience Index, nearly 75% of agents and brokers would like to see MLSs invest in their consumer search websites to increase traffic and leads. Real estate professionals want their MLSs to lean into online efforts to provide better ways to support customers and members within the MLS organization.
When the economy is tough, most people retreat. However, if you lean in by doubling down on your site efforts while everyone else cuts back, you’ll come out on top much stronger. Enriching your MLS website with different types of data allows brokers to better serve clients, become local experts, help homebuyers make more informed decisions — and ultimately close more deals.
In this article, we’ll explore different ways to prioritize the business generation potential of your MLS website using location insights by:
MLSs are always striving to improve the value of their services for their members. One way to do so is through location insights. The latter is critical to the real estate industry because it gives a much more comprehensive understanding of a property, beyond its four walls, and what the experience of living in a neighborhood is like. Location data can also help MLSs differentiate themselves from the competition by providing unique and actionable content on their website.
Location insights are just one of the core components that can really help you make your website much more powerful.
Founding Partner at WAV Group
When helping people find the perfect home, real estate professionals consider factors such as:
No insight is useless. People value things differently, and hence, they will seek out unique combinations of neighborhood characteristics that best suit their lifestyles. MLS websites should provide brokers with all the information they need to help their clients find a property based on factors that matter specifically to them.
An important part of content is its depth. The more valuable information you can provide that allows consumers to make a quick decision or find information quickly, the better.
Director of Broker Sales at Constellation1
MLSs are data companies — they need to harness data and make it simple for consumers to get actionable insights. With location insights added directly to listing detail pages, brokers can get a better understanding of different properties and areas as they browse through listings.
Location insights help brokers become local experts as they are able to provide precise neighborhood information to their clients, making them an invaluable asset. The more data and insights brokers can share with consumers through MLS websites, the better their ability to build lasting relationships and generate business will be.
Over the past few years, two things have changed:
To adapt to these new trends, brokers need to be able to expand their search. With location insights, they can cast a wider net by showing home seekers viable options they might not have otherwise considered. Brokers can then help identify similar neighborhoods based on factors like quietness, transit accessibility, and amenities, among others. For example, they might struggle to find a property downtown, but with location insights, they could locate one in another neighborhood that also meets their client’s original search criteria, such as vibrancy and convenience.
Even within neighborhoods, there are different areas. Location insights will allow you to discover opportunities you didn’t even realize existed. This will aid consumers and realtors in locating homes that meet their needs.
President at Centris
With data-driven location insights on your website, you can enhance the entry pages that visitors go through and make them stickier. In turn, this leads to an increased level of traffic and engagement.
Increasing the number of entry pages for potential buyers and sellers will attract more viewers. As a result, there will be more opportunities to generate leads for your members. Traffic to MLS websites is very loyal and rich. Generally, people on these sites are much more active and further along in the search process than others.
By enhancing your website with unique content, you can create a more engaged consumer experience as people spend more time on your site reading the information displayed.
There has been a shortage of for-sale inventory for the past four to five years, and that won’t go away anytime soon. Approximately four million homes are missing in the U.S. as homebuilders are disincentivized to build new ones. The demand is huge. People want to own a house. However, because of the lack of supply, the average home price has kept on rising. Now, as interest rates rise, it becomes more difficult to afford a house. But people need a place to live. And when they can’t buy, they rent.
Rentals are an excellent opportunity for MLS to capture market share. Many people who enter the funnel as “potential renters” are actually active buyers. Their value goes far beyond potential lease commissions, which is why it’s important to build relationships with them during their home search.
The smarter, more successful agents and brokers understand they’re in a relationship business.
CEO at Rental Beast
Consumers are frustrated by most existing portals because they never get a consistent set of results. There are a lot of inaccuracies and outdated properties. MLSs can benefit from this if they include more rental inventory in their system. By providing accurate rental data, MLSs are enabling their members to serve a growing segment of the real estate market.
Renters search very differently. Lifestyle and location criteria, like commute time and neighborhood characteristics, play a major part in their decision. They’re not as locked in as buyers, and will be more open to considering several neighborhoods in their search.
MLSs play a crucial role in the real estate industry, and location insights can help them provide even more value to their members. Using location data, real estate professionals can improve their understanding of the properties and the neighborhoods where they are situated, and make well-informed decisions that benefit their clients.
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