Learn How Real Estate Data Comparison Tools Give Agents The Edge

How many times has a real estate agent faced this dilemma? One buyer wants to move here, the other wants to stay there (or vice versa).

Take a typical home buying couple. Sheila loves where they live now. She’s heard negative things about the new location from her tennis friends.

But Gary wants to move. He’s excited about relocating to this new town, and has only heard great things from his golfing buddies.

What to do? Fortunately there’s a tool for this type of situation.

In fact, there are a whole slew of real estate data tools that can brokers and agents can use to help buyers make these difficult home-buying decisions.

These are choices that are literally life-changing for consumers.

For example, think about the impact a broker or agent can have by offering real estate data that shows a comparative analysis of one area next to another.

Take Bellevue WA and Seattle WA for example.

Gary desperately wants to move there from Seattle. He’s tired of the big city. The couple have spent the past few weekends driving around the area checking it out. They’ve even gone so far as to sit down with a local real estate agent.

Sheila is warming up a bit, but says she still loves the city and has many pre-conceived notions about what’s it’s like to live further north.

Real estate data can enlighten buyers

A savvy agent can move the dialogue along by providing the couple with valuable information that addresses those concerns and compares one area to the other.

For example, Sheila heard it’s freezing in Belluvue. The town is so close to the Canadian border, which in her mind is just down the street from the Arctic Circle.

On the agent’s website, the real estate pro pulls up a comparative analysis of the weather (remember those words, “the agent’s website.”)

Here’s what the results show for Average Temperatures:

Seattle – High 60 F degrees – Low 44 F degrees.

Bellevue – High 60 F degrees – Low 43 degrees.

One degree difference in winter. None in the summer.

“Well,” Sheila might argue. “I prefer the college graduate crowd of Seattle.”

The agent pulls up the results under Education.

Turns out Bellevue has a higher share of people with bachelors’ and graduate degrees.

Gary is glowing. But then he does express one bothersome thought to the agent.

“I personally know Bellevue is a fantastic places to live. But, I am really concerned it’s so great that it’s become super-expensive.

The agent pulls up a Buying Power comparison, again on their website.

Turns out, yes, Bellevue is more expensive. Goods and services that cost $945 in Seattle would cost $1000 in Bellevue.

However, the agent reminds Gary that’s only a 5% difference.

The comparison could go on and on. Could be Anytown USA compared to any another town.

But the underlying message is, that when it comes to real estate data, there’s no comparison between an agent who can provide that valuable local information on their website, and an agent who cannot.

Think of the implications just one comparative data tool can provide.

For one, there’s a huge marketing opportunity. As we noted earlier, when an agent points out this tool in their email blasts or social media posts, they will be driving consumers back to their website. Not another site.

And certainly not sending them out into the world wide web where perhaps they can find this data from a competitor. That creates a lead generation opportunity.

Think about the benefits when approaching sellers. An agent can not only paint an appealing picture on how they are going to market a seller’s property with great photos, etc.

They are also going to create a positive illustration of key data points on how the location of this property compares to other locations nearby, in the next county or in the next state.

Finally, there’s that local knowledge thing. The attribute that all agents aspire to possess. This is the 21st century. Home buyers (and sellers) are continually surrounded by data every day. Think of all the data they can gather on mortgages for example – comparing rates, points, fees, etc.

Data is part of their lives. They expect to see data in every transaction they are involved in. It’s a must that today’s brokers and agents have this hyper-local data available for consumers to examine.

After all, prospects will also be comparing you to your peers. Be sure you win that argument with the right comparison real estate data.

For more information visit Home Junction’s real estate data section.