Realty Check
Blog #2- OLR
2/4/10
While the answer may not be as significant as buyers generally believe, as reasons for length of time on market can be quite site-specific, average time on market for the industry in a given quarter is a key indicator of general market health.
In 4th quarter, 2009, average days on market increased 28.3% from 4th quarter, 2008. From September-December, 2009 the time from “last list date” (which can be a misleading indicator) to sale was 204 days. During the same period in 2008, average time on market was 159 days.
Although it may appear to reflect upon a property’s undesirability that it remained on the market for approximately 7 months, there can be many reasons why it lingers, such as slow mortgage approvals or rejection by banks despite a desire to purchase, or other non-property related factors.
Paradoxically, a lengthy average time on market, when extrapolated to macro market data, may assist in the marketing of a specific property, as such numbers offer a context, if not an excuse, for why a property has not sold.
On Line Residential services (OLR) presents residential listing data with real-time updates, making it possible to realistically monitor the length of time on market of a specific property.
Target Market
OlR.com, founded in 1995, is differentiated from Property Shark by its greater synchronicity with real time NYC market activity. Where Property Shark offers in-depth data relating to individual residential and commercial properties, OLR is less informative about property ownership and history and more instructive about answering the immediate question, “What is available now, where and for how much?”
Buyers, seller and brokers might source OLR as their initial foray into “what’s available” and attorneys, architects and investors might source Property Shark as their more relevant reference.
Property Shark data is drawn from numerous public, governmental, and proprietary sources. OLR relies upon brokers to list its exclusive properties voluntarily. This accounts for the greater sales and marketing orientation of OLR and its need for greater broker incentivization.
OLR presents the gloss and glimmer of the salesman’s supermarket seduction to its public surfers, broker –searchers and broker–listers; A palatable tool for all three categories of users, but prior to the buyer placing an offer, he would be well advised to also consult Property Shark, which looks into the darker, dustier, more unflattering corners of physical building conditions and financial ownership.
Functionality
OLR’s home page presents public, digital marketing and broker screens, addressing two distinct audiences: buyers and brokers.
The public listing screen offers free registration and access to
(only those) listings entered by “250+” brokerage firms (thousands of brokers). Brokers who have subscribed to OLR are enabled to have their listings viewed by potential buyers at no charge to the buyers. But searching the public screen will reveal only those broker-paid listings, handicapping the comprehensiveness of the potential buyer’s search. The public is walled off from accessing the listings of non-subscribing brokers. FSBO listings are also excluded from the site.
The digital marketing screen requires neither log–in nor sign-up, offers a helpful real estate glossary directed at buyers and an array of marketing services for brokers, including photography, floor plans, virtual tours, listing data management, RLS listing distribution, graphic design, web development, software development and agent blogs.
The broker screen is accessible via broker log-in for both paid and non-paid brokers. From this screen, brokers list, update and communicate with the public and the site administrators.
Monetization
As noted above, brokers who have not paid the OLR subscription fee do not have their listings viewed by the public. This presents an incomplete picture of the available market and comparable values to the public screen viewer.
OLR presents an inducement for broker non-subscribers to acclimate their marketing radar to the OLR listing and marketing services by offering them free listings on the site . . .but only viewable by other brokers. This can be an attractive option, as all brokers (subscriber and non-subscriber alike) are able to view such non-paid listings. However, it is also a bit of a tease, as brokers generally earn double the revenue when a buyer calls direct; and those individuals buyers are not accessible to the non-subscribed broker.
OLR usage is popular, if not ubiquitous with brokers, so the OLR free service can be profitable for the broker, whose listings can be viewed by an extensive brokerage community.
Nonetheless, the broker cannot help but wonder if he could have earned twice the income from a buyer-direct call, as opposed to a buyer’s broker’s call.
This marketing strategy can be effective for OLR, seductive for potential broker subscribers and misleading for buyers, who might believe they are getting a comprehensive view of properties on the market, when they are actually only able to view the listings of paid brokers.
OLR earns additional income streams from its broker marketing services (see functionality, above) and paid ads from industry related properties.
Summation
For this reason, it is inadvisable to rely upon OLR for a full understanding of comparable values, although the service is useful as a timely partial register of on-market properties.
What OLR lacks in customer-centic comprehensiveness, it compensates for in its numerous broker-directed profit centers. A very different marketing model from Property Shark and the other listing services to be discussed in upcoming Realty Checks.
B8699-025
Marketing & The Internet
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