Is newspaper advertising worthwhile these days?

[wylie]

I'm keen to hear where SS folk advertise when they sell a house, and also where they look when they are either checking what is for sale, or actively looking for a house to buy.

I'm wondering whether newspaper advertising is something that is worthwhile paying for these days.

I look in the local "rag" but don't bother with the Brisbane Saturday paper.

For those who do look in the city newspaper, do you look only at the ⅛ page adverts with photo?

Do you bother look at the small print only adverts in the back section listed under the suburbs or general area you want to buy?

I use the internet only, but I'm curious how others search for property.

 

[Ed Barton]

Never sold anything so can only comment on where I look when buying.

Local rag goes straight in the bin.

Always look on re.com.au when I'm serious, or checking out a neighbours place up for sale etc.

I have the sat paper delivered so will skim through it only looking at the full page ads for luxury/dreaming stuff, but don't bother when I'm seriously looking. Never bother with the small ads.

I'd only bother advertising in the sat paper if my property would be likely to appeal to someone who's not actively looking and high end.

 

[bashworth]

Sold my last 2 houses through internet advertising only agents.

Only use internet for property searches.

IMHO newspaper adverts are really only marketing the agents not your property.

 

[willair]

It's interesting the way the music industry is going just one tweet on social media and they bypass all the people in-between,the same could happen in the Real Estate Marketing..

 

[INVSTOR]

When buying - 95% realestate.com
0.01% reiwa
4.96% driving around area looking for new signs
0.01% looking on agents window
0.01% looking at individual agents website
0.01% domain

 

[RyanMcHarg]

The main advantage of the paper is that it alerts buyer who may not have considered your area to consider your property, and takes price out of the equation, moving buyers from a price based decision making process to an emotional decision making process. Buyers who are on real estate.com are highly educated, and will know better than anyone else what a 4 bed, 2 bath, 2 car home in suburb XXX is worth, and work on a price based purchase. These buyers will search based on a set criteria, and will not consider a 3 bedroom house that is 100,000 cheaper, and consider spending the money to make the additions that they want. The process has changed from an agent showing a buyer 4-5 houses and then throwing in another house that doesn't fit the original criteria however can be bought and changed, or bought in an alternate suburb that is seen to be comparable.

The emotional purchaser is the buyer that you want to target. If when flicking through the paper they see a house that they fall in love with, they will often consider travelling an extra suburb or so that they may not have previously. Also it will often attract purchasers that will say have 1.2 million to spend in one suburb, and they will perceive values to be higher in the suburb where property values are lower, and that purchaser will have the budget to spend more than an educated online buyer who is just targeting a specific neighborhood for one property type.

Many buyers who are older aren't very good at searching for properties online. even buyers who are classed as computer literate struggle with searching online, and will look at the paper as a first call. These are also the buyers with a lifetime of money behind them, and aren't as analytical comparing your property to others.

Happy for you to pm me if you want to discuss any of the advantages or disadvantages, even if it may be seen to be a biased view coming from an agent!

 

[geoffw]

From the property I'm selling now. We've had 17 inspections. 13 came from internet and 4 from the signboard out front.

 

[RyanMcHarg]

IMHO newspaper adverts are really only marketing the agents not your property.

The order that buyers look at property when looking through the paper is, pictures, text and then agents details to call or enquire.

If an agent is getting profile from having their name on an advertisement, it is only as a result of local buyers and sellers using the paper to look for new homes\purchase yours....

 

[roypropertyinv]

I have looked in newspapers, but generally only if the newspaper is there and I happen to pick it up. I wouldn't go out of my way to get newspaper specifically to look for properties.

After setting the price and area criteria, the first thing I look at is the photo on the Ad, so if my property was advertised in a newspaper I would want a big photo to attract the eye....

 

[The Fence]

Havent read a newspaper in years.
Everything online.

It's 2013.

 

[jim1964]

It's 2013.

Print advertising serves one purpose and that is to promote the agency and agent at your cost,same as a for sale signboard,at your cost,if you sell using this process it would have to be the bonus.
Recently i put some property on the market,i was so surprised by the attitudes and costs of the local agent i decided to sell it myself,through FSBO(for sale by owner),cost me $99 to go online.
Print advertising would appeal to a very low % of people buying property,my advice,give it a miss and spend the money on yerself.

 

[wylie]

Thanks for the opinions. Jim's post has made me now wonder about the big photo signboard. I believe a sign outside the house is a good thing and know it works for renting and selling. I've found tenants, and also bought a house when I drove past one day. Without the "for sale" sign I would have missed out on what has turned out to be a cracker of a house.

So, I know I want a "for sale" board, but wonder if we need to pay several hundred for the large photo board?

This is a four bed, three bath, pretty nice house in a good street. Last valuation was around $1.1M+ but that was before the GFC. We want to aim for the higher end market, but there are plenty of houses in the suburb for considerably higher, so we don't want to pretend we are selling a $2M property either. But we are not talking low end IP. I don't want to skimp but I don't want to spend money that we will not recoup.

What are your thoughts on the large photo signboard?

 

[Ed Barton]

Thanks for the opinions. Jim's post has made me now wonder about the big photo signboard. I believe a sign outside the house is a good thing and know it works for renting and selling. I've found tenants, and also bought a house when I drove past one day. Without the "for sale" sign I would have missed out on what has turned out to be a cracker of a house.

So, I know I want a "for sale" board, but wonder if we need to pay several hundred for the large photo board?

This is a four bed, three bath, pretty nice house in a good street. Last valuation was around $1.1M+ but that was before the GFC. We want to aim for the higher end market, but there are plenty of houses in the suburb for considerably higher, so we don't want to pretend we are selling a $2M property either. But we are not talking low end IP. I don't want to skimp but I don't want to spend money that we will not recoup.

What are your thoughts on the large photo signboard?

I agree, for sale boards are essential. If for no other reason than to assist people who can't read a map, or operate a dashboard dolly to find the property. They also tell locals who may not be actively looking that the place is for sale, at minimal cost.

But do you go for a generic for sale board that is tatty at the edges and has been used on ten properties before yours, or a large photo board?

I'd go for the latter. $1m+ puts the property at the mid-high end in Brisbane and for a few hundred I don't think you want to look cheap, as long as the photos are good.

 

[Hypnotic Cat]

I think newspaper advertising is increasingly taking a back seat to online. Having said that, you are still going to reach some people that you wouldn't reach through online only.

It's also about who you are marketing to and whether your target audience are likely to be online or more oriented towards print media (e.g. older folk). The last property I sold was mainly online with a small spend ($400) on local papers. In future I wouldn't even bother with newspaper advertising.

A sign board is important because there's always people driving buy.
I almost bought a property a week ago just because I saw the sign out front.

95% of my property search is online.

Bang for your buck? Online is the way to go.

 

[Hoffy]

I wouldn't consider a newspaper as a buyer or seller. Ever.

 

[geoffw]

There's still a place for newspapers.

The place I'm selling is suitable for an investor. Investors are probably more likely to be computer literate than an older owner occupier.

A higher end or well established property, suitable for an older couple, may be worth advertising in the newspaper.

 

[Tillie]

How much do REAs charge for internet advertising only? Excluding professional photos. And does anyone know what are REAs costs of realestate.com or domain listings?

A friend sold their house and paid over $1000,- for internet advertising only. I felt that if was really expensive.

 

[sanj]

Re.com have recently increased the price of their packages pretty significantly which ia why your friend might have spent so much. From memory a highlight property is now around $800 or so and once you add in a few e brochures you would end up at $1k

 

[chindonly]

Internet only. Newspapers won't exist within about 5 years.

 

[Scott No Mates]

Both Domain & RE offer different packages to agents so their profile, products and price differs.

Agents may pay a monthly fee for these services and the fee depends upon the package that they offer to their clients eg: prestige listing which gets displayed at the top of each page.

I dispute invstrs comments on the effectiveness of domain it depends on the demographic of the audience both provide stats as to reach or effectiveness etc.

I wouldn't waste money on the paper as you can't search the adverts for your criteria. For the small% of buyers who don't have web Access they'll go broke or die off.