Tuesday, May 13, 2008

UPDATE: What The Real Estate Consumer Wants From Your Blog

If you remember, I wrote a post and posed a question on BuzzDash a month ago to try to get a feeling for what the real estate consumer is looking for when they read a real estate blog. Well, the poll has expired and the results, meager though they are, are in. Keep in mind that the debate settled into roughly two camps: those for posting mainly real estate info, like listings and market updates, and those who maintain that the blog should be predominantly community information based.

From April 9th to May 9th, 36 intrepid souls cast their vote for what they want to see in a real estate blog, and it seems the proponents of real estate info have prevailed: 69%, or 25 out of 36 people, agreed that they look first and foremost for listings. Another 14% (5 people) were looking for real estate related news, while only 11% (4 people) look for community information first. Two people, perhaps frustrated Michigan or Florida primary voters looking for something to vote on that really counted, chose "Other" as the thing that drew their attention in real estate blogs. Poor Souls.

I was actually surprised by the low turnout for this hotly debated and thought-provoking question, especially since the real estate market (at least where I live) seems to be raising its rotting corpse from the dead. Maybe BuzzDash was the wrong place to ask the question, but they do get a lot of traffic to their Real Estate polls so I thought this issue might get some attention. I have placed a similar poll on PollDaddy to see if there is any interest generated there, but I'm not hopeful.

Speaking of Poll Daddy, there are a few polls there of minor interest. Some of the more popular ones are:

  1. Who is the most ubiquitous real estate blogger? (Jeff Turner leading with 37% of the 38 votes cast, Jay Thompson trailing with 21%)
  2. What is the most important service your real estate agent provides? (53% say "Listing my property in the MLS"), and my personal favorite submitted by the inimitable Broker Bryant,
  3. If I wrote a book about real estate, would you...(A. Want a hard copy, B. Want an e-book, C. Have no interest, D. Be very interested, or E. Throw it in the lake. The majority would want the hard copy, a testament to BB's stature in the RE.net.)
I got a kick out of those polls, but back to my own poll. An inquiring mind wants to know...as a real estate blog reader, what kind of info do you most want to see in a blog? Listings? Community info? A balanced mix of the two, or something else all together? Be you a realtor or a potential buyer/seller, feel free to post a comment here and let us know how you feel about this issue. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go make up a good excuse as to why I voted to throw BB's book in the lake...

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