Before he obtained a broker’s license four years ago, Tom Kadar was a successful entrepreneur in the importing and exporting business. Now as a broker’s associate at Keller Williams Realty, Kadar has established himself in Southern California real estate where he has transitioned his passion for sales and analytics.
Q: Why is marketing important in the real estate market?
A: It’s important because it connects people to homes. And there are various ways to go about it. There is the tried and true of farming neighborhoods with postcards and flyers to establish a voice and business presence in the neighborhood. The most common types of marketing such as magazine and newspaper advertising give credibility to the business.
Q: Do you feel each method of marketing builds on each other?
A: Marketing is all about putting the property in front of more people so as to find more buyers that will pay the price you want. It all starts when an agent typically puts a lockbox on the house, takes some nice photos, bit of staging, the basics. If it is priced correctly, it will normally sell in the appropriate time frame for that city. But if an agent wants to garner more attention to the property, it needs to go above and beyond.
Q: Such as?
A: Most brokers do mailers that target other buyers from certain neighborhoods. Open houses and door knocking the area require a little more action and work well. You add professional photography, drone shots, Youtube videos, Facebook, Google, each one works to expose the property. And there is still a lot more that can be done to highlight it. But to actually bring buyers to a home you need a more direct approach.
Q: What approach?
A: I like to utilize a one on one approach by getting in touch with people over the phone. We connect the person who wants to buy a home with the person who wants to sell. In our group we have a number of callers working eight hours a day on the phone calling people in various neighborhoods we specifically target for listings.
Q: Do you actually have a buyer for the home when you call?
A: A lot of agents do say there is a buyer when leaving a message and is a very typical approach to use. We have over 200-300 agents that always have a stream of buyers and sellers. We use the mass phone calls to match up the buyers with the sellers, sellers with the buyers.
Q: Where do you get your phone information?
A: They are from public records. But we keep a running tab, a do-not-call list that we follow to the letter. So if we give someone a call and they want to be off our list, we respect that request. Our lists are constantly updated. Again, we want to connect people, build a bridge between buyer and seller. Someone might be thinking of selling, and when we connect through a phone call, it’s an opportunity to bring buyers to them.
Q: Has the internet made it more difficult for agents who are not as well established to get those buyers and sellers?
A: I don’t think it has come to that yet, where the internet replaces the agents. Right now the whole process to buy a home is so complex and requires a lot of paperwork making both buyer and seller feel more secure with an agent. But marketing platforms such as Zillow found on the internet are not always accurate for every area and that is where agents make the difference.
Q: What do you mean are not accurate?
A: Despite the complexity of these internet sites, they are not 100% accurate. Agents typically use it as a baseline for what a home is worth. On the selling side for instance, the Zillow estimate for a home’s worth is based on complex logarithms and for many home areas, these prices reflect a fairly accurate value. But for areas such as Newport and Laguna, the numbers are off about 30%.
Q: Why would there be such a discrepancy?
A: The main reason, if you look at these areas house to house, each one is typically unique. They’ll have a multitude of different views of the ocean, or various lot sizes, proximity to certain areas such as shopping malls and street noise. Many factors go into the price of a home and it is why a relationship with a real estate agent who knows the areas understands these intricacies. On the buying side, again, people can easily search for active listings. But it doesn’t provide the agent relationship that can help someone make an educated decision which to buy between two luxury homes located in two different areas.
Q: What do you think is in store for the housing market in 2017?
A: We are in a very different market here. But the interest rate is slowly increasing. And you’ll see that reflected in the people who make a lot of money. They see a chip in the market and hold of on investments. Homes above the $1 million mark in Orange County in the luxury end make up 37% of the inventory, but only 15% of the demand. So the absorption rate is increasing, meaning they stay longer on the market. Laguna Beach currently has 218 active listings and Newport Beach has 353 as of Nov. 3.
CONTACT INFO
Thomas Kadar
Tom Kadar Group
Keller Williams Newport Estate
800 Newport Center Drive, Ste 150
Newport Beach, CA 92660
949-933-0488
Tom@TomKadar.com
www.tomkadar.com
