REALTORS® have known for a long time that newspaper ads have been producing less response. Because real estate agents choose to spend their money where they get the best results, they have been placing less paper ads creating less revenue for the papers. Landlords have experienced the same thing as newspaper ads have generated less calls. Craig's List has become the new marketing venue for many buyers searching for homes or tenants looking for rental properties. Savvy real estate agents are aware of not only Craig's List but other venues as well including Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, Yahoo, and many others.
Convincing home sellers that newspaper ads have become passe΄ is not so easy. Just because one real estate agent has not experienced results from paper ads does not mean paper ads are useless. Afterall, the agent may submit a poorly written ad (We've never seen any of those!) or poor pictures or some other reason that is specific to that agent. Last week, however, the LA Times announced a cut back in their real estate ads as part of larger cuts in the paper. It seems that lack of results in paper ads is being recognized by the newspapers as well.
We are all hoping for some help although there are some things like the elimination of the non-profits that assisted with down payments (like the Nehemiah program) that will hurt a few new buyers.
Posted by: Bonnie Erickson | August 19, 2008 at 05:57 PM
I agree on most of what you had to say. If I may add that the new FHA bill passed by congress and signed by the president should help a lot of distressed homeowners
Posted by: Mortgage advice expert | August 19, 2008 at 04:56 PM