Qualification for Living Accommodations Before
15 years ago and to a lesser degree 5 years ago home buyers and rental hunters chose their living accommodations by a process of qualification. They had a wish list of features that they sorted out based on realtor description, newspaper advertisements and some magazine publications. They started with a short list of choices and filtered those choices through description, a few available images and visual appraisal. The choices were frequently dictated by filtered delivery through a property manager or realtor. While the process in theory could go on forever, in practice the efficiency of looking at a significant number of properties was outweighed by the urgency to find your next living accommodations.
Qualification for Living Accommodations Today
Fast forward to current home buying and rental hunting processes. Today people looking for accommodations have the choice of previewing virtually any property available for lease or purchase from their home computer through the wonder of the internet. They also have detailed neighborhood metrics and statistics available at the touch of their computer pointing device. This incredible amount of information provides buyers and renters with an astonishing amount of choices they can filter through without the help of a realtor or property manager. Consequently the roles for realtors and property managers have changed quite a bit from a position of market knowledge to position of product knowledge. It also means that realtors and property managers engage with their clients at a stage later in the living accommodation selection process. Usually a result of this is that the client already has a clear idea of the objectives they want to accomplish and the features that they want included in their living accommodations. Frequently they also have narrowed the selection process down to a few options.
A Shift in the Marketing Process
Often what goes unnoticed though, is how this shift affects the marketing process. Most realtors and property managers have come to the realization that images readily available on the internet help buyers and renters with this early on evaluation process but many times they fail to realize that a fundamental change has taken place that significantly affects the qualification process.
Because there are so many choices available to buyers and renters today these consumers no longer use the “old” qualification process for selecting living accommodations. Time and decision resources require them to be more efficient in their selection process. This means that while they may start with a qualification list, if they still have to many options to chose from after applying their qualifications they employ a process of disqualification. Disqualification is the process of eliminating selection choices based on speculation drawn from the available data and the images available. While not scientific, it represents a method of logic for narrowing the list of appraisal worthy properties to a manageable task that can be completed in a timely manner.
Disqualification based on available data is more often than not objective and if the realtor or property manager finds that it is subjective but not to the point it can be easily changed without much impact.
How you can take advantage of this change
Realtors and property managers can use disqualification to their advantage though by understanding the competitive nature of the early search process and taking advantage of their slower to adapt to competition. By consciously recognizing that you want your photography to be of the top two to three choices among similar properties and including high quality, feature laden virtual tours (high definition full screen viewing, floor plans, professional staging, etc) your property or listing will stand out in the disqualification process resulting in more interest, more demand and less disqualification.
Discover the Property Marketing Experts that can help you leverage this change.
Exposure Elements, a San Francisco Bay Area virtual tour provider, understands property marketing and the buyer or renters typical decision process. Our photography is distanced by image quality that incorporates sound photography technique and uncommon digital editing experience. Our virtual tours, developed by our partner Real Tour Vision, are the most comprehensive tours available today with support for floor plans, full motion video, high definition imaging and full screen viewing.
Real Tour Vision is the largest network of independent virtual tour providers in the world providing them the leverage to deliver the finest real estate virtual tour software available. Email Exposure Elements for more information or visit our website to see our virtual tour gallery for real estate. If you are a property manager or business, visit or image gallery of San Jose and the Greater Silicon Valley area business tours and apartments at http://www.siliconvalleyvirtualtourblog.com.
Best Regards,
Stan Davis
Exposure Elements
408-431-0461 (m)
408-440-2278 (d)
text Stan to 43766 for contact info and text business card