Real estate is a transforming business. While many industries have been effected by the growth of the internet and web-based advertising, online marketing is uniquely powerful for the real estate industry. During the 2004-05 period, for instance, online real estate advertising grew at a level that that outstripped the growth of online advertising in general. Revenue from online real estate adverts grew about 42%, from $1.2 to $1.7 billion.
The volume of online marketing is even expected to soon outstrip the real estate industry's current favorite form of advertising, print media. There is no doubt among analysts, online real estate marketing is here to stay, and it won't be too long before it is assumed every one in the industry is on line in some facet or another.
Many of the industry's leaders are some of the most impressive, dynamic companies in the marketplace today. Craigslist is currently the leader in terms of total number of daily hits, but its services are relatively limited, and more specialized websites are currently growing at a breakneck pace.
These companies include backpage.com, trulia.com, zillow.com and citycribs.com. The latter offers what is generally considered to be the most advanced services, allowing buyers, sellers, and advertisers unparalleled ability to navigate efficiently through the often difficult real estate markets across the country.
At the company's website, CityCribs.com, potential buyers can search by any combination of criteria involving area, price, number of bedrooms, number of baths, what type of house or apartment they are looking for, whether the apartment is for sale or for rent, the era the apartment was built in, approximate square footage and numerous other specific features, like balconies, laundry, pets, gardens, fireplaces, gyms, whether the building is a walk up or has elevators, and whether or not there are communal or private outdoor areas.
Potential advertisers, on the other hand, can tailor their message and target their audience with a similar level of specificity.
This unique confluence of needs and technology has given the above companies a great deal of success. To use Citycribs as an example again, it was started just three years ago in New York, but has expanded to every major urban market in the country in just a few years.
Its success comes as no surprise: The internet, for all the reasons listed above, is a far superior format both for advertisers, who crave the targeting and individualization that the web offers, and for buyers, who like to see as much information about a home as possible before spending the better part of an afternoon or week going across town or country to see the actual building.
