Social Media Marketing For Real Estate

Like any other business, industry or domain, Real Estate can leverage Social Media as a very effective Marketing, Branding & Communication Tool. Social Media can also be a potential tool for inquiry generation.

Real Estate Social Media Objectives: The Main Concern  Areas

·         Win customers trust

·         Online Reputation

·         Create Differentiation

·         Build Brand

Social Media can help addressing these objectives very effectively.

Real Estate is all About "REF" attributes of the brand

·         Rational -  It has to make sense - the price, location, requirement, etc

·         Emotional - It has to connect - dream home, first home, my own space, etc

·         Functional - It has to be useful - Kitchen, Bedrooms, Living space, etc.

If you are building your product keeping this REF in mind, it would help tremendously to connect to the right audience / potential customers through social media.

Social Media Mix for Real Estate Organizations

·         Facebook

·         Google+

·         YouTube

·         Twitter

·         Blog

·         Pin-interest

Don't treat social media as a fancy fad to be in vogue. Use them judiciously and correctly for maximum benefits and ROI.

Is this the right time to invest in Indian Real Estate?

This issue, I am answering a question about real estate investment, which has been asked by Ms. Rajni from Jaipur. She wants to know is this the right time to invest in Real Estate? And if so, then where?

Dear Rajni,

Thanks for asking your question. I think quite a few people might be having this same question in mind, but are confused about the answer, more so after reading all kinds of reports in the newspaper. Let me try and help.

Based on my experience in Real Estate industry in India, almost all real estate developers were, so far, earning a ridiculous margin of ~30%. Nowhere in a developed nation, does a developer earn such a huge margin – typically there the margin varies anywhere between 8 – 12%.

Therefore, what the global recession & meltdown has caused is that it has actually brought the Real Estate pricing in India to a more realistic level. However, it is also to be understood here that the Indian developers, who are so used to taking the Indian customers for a ride, for so long, will still find out some very ingenious ways of fooling people.

Therefore, when you are looking at buying a real estate property, please ensure that:

1. You have done enough study about the financial condition of the developers in the market before you have zeroed on a couple of them
2. You need to read the brochure and all documents carefully, more so the fine prints, and show that to a lawyer who deals with real estate. More often than not, a developer only sells a bare shell apartment without even the door frames or switch boards, but the buyers don’t understand that as they are given a very different picture by the developer in the form of brochure and model apartments.
3. And most importantly, do proper due diligence of the project, ownership of land, viability of completion as mentioned, financing structure, etc.

Now, going back to the question - is this the right time to invest? Yes, it is. But not without a proper negotiation. All developers shall give you additional 10-15% discount on price quoted by them if you can negotiate well, without any changes in the payment terms.

But what are the markets that you can invest into? Based on the question I am assuming that you are looking at Real estate as an investment and not for residential purpose. In that case, Bangalore is looking quite good. Sobha developers, and I strongly recommend them, has come up with some new projects that fits perfectly into our bill. Chennai, particularly the OMR side, is again a good option – all major developers here have slashed prices like anything. Gurgaon is also a good option, so is NOIDA. I would suggest that you stay away from Delhi though, since the land price here would be quite high.
Another good option is Kolkata - this is one city which is not much affected by the recession in terms of its real estate, though some segments like Rajarhat, New Town, is quite badly hit. Areas to invest would be South 24 Parganas, or along the Hoogly river.

Among the 2nd tier cities, Bhubaneswar is a good option. Leave Cochin, but can bet on Trichy. Jaipur is avoidable, but Indore is a good option.

Real Estate Marketing - Are we becoming unimaginative?

Look at some of the latest ads – Jet Airways, Hind ware (Italian Inspiration!), Times Group, and particularly the Spice Telecom Ads.

However, nothing beats the Real Estate ads for that matter!

It makes me wonder – are we selling houses which a family / couple wants to turn into a home, a completely private space for themselves? Or, we are selling some kind of abstract idea like a piece of Spain, Portugal, and Italy with butterflies and rainbows, with no details to the practical aspect of life?

As a real estate marketing professional for the last 1 year, such a scenario makes me sad and happy at the same time. Sad to see how ‘ignorant’ consumers are being fooled by the developers by playing on their ‘dream’ of owning a home; and happy because I see there is so much opportunity for professionals like us to change the way Real Estate is being marketed and sold these days.

As a common home buyer my concerns are - how spacious is my bedroom, how well planned is my kitchen (does water sprinkle on me from the basin when my maid is cleaning and I am chopping vegetables next to her), do I have space to dry my clothes without showing them to the whole world outside, is there a provision to keep my suitcases and baggage somewhere instead of keeping them underneath my bed or on top of my almirah, can my children study in their rooms without getting disturbed by the TV sound when my mother-in-law is watching her favorite serials….

Unfortunately, I don’t get answers to these questions. And the developers very cleverly avoid answering them.

I think we are getting too much imaginative!

Any comments?




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