Monday Morning Mobile: Consumer Change Brings Beneficial Ad Opportunities for Agents

By Seth Kaplan

The glaring changes that have taken place over the past six years are becoming ever more apparent every day within real estate as the industry continues its path of recovery. One of the biggest changes that’s taken place is the shift from the desktop to mobile devices; no secret there of course, tablet sales are growing 52 percent faster than PC sales ever did. With that has come the giant mobile advertising opportunity, which continues to grow and which experts view as largely untapped. However, in real estate today, one firm is taking advantage of the mobile advertising opportunity like no other and it’s not a real estate agent or broker; rather a settlement service provider called Primary Capital Mortgage.

Industry experts estimate that the average American consumer spends anywhere from 20-30 percent of their media time on mobile devices. In contrast, at present, only 4 percent of ad spend flows to mobile advertising. This makes for a huge differential, one which Primary Capital Mortgage is working to close with their new innovative mobile advertising campaign which focuses on real estate agents and active homebuyers, all via mobile and all at the most opportune times during the transaction.

This innovative new mobile advertising campaign is ground breaking for a number of reasons. Most notably it signals a shift in how lenders (and all settlement service providers) must change the way they engage with real estate agents who refer them business in order to be complaint from a RESPA regulations and updated new rules by the CFPB standpoint.

Second, it capitalizes on the agent’s mobile strategy and the interactions they garner with consumers in their market when presenting their brand and their listings to engage with consumers. “Helping our agents with a mobile strategy and leveraging the best of breed mobile technology easily, opens up additional opportunity to create high quality relationships,” said Joe Dahleen, senior vice president of Marketing, Primary Capital Mortgage. “This advertising solution makes that possible.”

“As the market continues its recovery everyone is who works within it is forces to re-evaluate and adapt to the shifts that have occurred in both technology and consumer behavior due to the advances in technology,” said John Lim, CEO of Mobile Real Estate, a mobile marketing and technology company focused on serving the real estate industry. “Consumers have gone mobile, brokerages are changing how their offices are set up and designed, real estate agents operating in local markets not only need to be mobile, but need to engage consumers via mobile. If they can utilize a suite of products that gives them a complete mobile marketing strategy at a minimal cost because its ad supported, what’s wrong with that? Millions of people enjoy Pandora Radio with ads and they enjoy it for free, I think it’s great!” Lim went on to mention.

Mobile advertising and the gap between time and money spent on mobile will close over the coming years and the stats show will close quickly. Early adopters in the real estate industry such as Primary Capital Mortgage will simply have a head start when it comes to utilizing this medium to recruit and retain the best talent in their market, create and maintain new referral relationships and build brand affinity with consumers.

Seth Kaplan is the president of Mobile Real Estate.

Reprinted with permission from RISMedia. ©2014. All rights reserved.