An individualised approach to selling homes

WITH ALISON ANDERSON FROM KINDRED REAL ESTATE

The way we approach marketing, selling and designing a customer experience has evolved, as have clients’ wants, needs and expectations from a service.

New real estate agency Kindred Real Estate thinks it’s time the real estate industry evolves too, and this is why Kindred builds individual strategies for a client’s needs.

“The real estate industry really is stuck in the past in how they market houses, particularly in regional areas,” Kindred’s marketing director Alison Anderson says.
“It’s the same way they marketed houses 20 or 30 years ago, just with the addition of posting properties on their socials.

“I think we get frustrated because as consumers we are used to interacting every day with brands who know how to reach us personally.

“When it comes to buying and selling homes and the experience isn’t personal, it can be very jarring for the homeowner.”

Across corporate Australia marketing has long been seen as key to the success of sales through targeting buyers, promoting and positioning products and understanding what the market needs to see, think and feel to spend their hard-earned dollars on the product.
Without the help of marketing, we wouldn’t necessarily choose to try another brand of toothpaste, upgrade our cars or change supermarket.

Marketing as a profession is part science, part psychology, part business and a little bit of magic.

Our homes are our most precious and highest value asset.

And yet so often when deciding to sell our homes we follow a process more aligned to that of selling a second-hand car online than that of selling comparable high value products.

“The real estate industry made a significant change in the 80s to drive into a franchise model,” Kindred managing director of Rodric Anderson said.
“With this came what I like to call the ‘McAgency’, where everyone’s house goes through the same sale process and it’s more about volumes rather than what’s best for the client.

“No matter how much the individual agent wanted to break the mould for a client they couldn’t, because the agencies are created from the ground up to list, sell, move on.
“Given that these large agency franchises are generally the training ground for new agents, we now see an entire industry more focused on the process, the agent and the way things have always been done rather than building something that operates within the world today.

“That’s why we’ve built Kindred, to do just that – be a client-focused experience which uses marketing tactics so many big businesses use today.”

Named after the concept of kindred spirits, Kindred aims to bring back the heart and warmth of real estate, taking the emphasis out of negotiation and hard-nosed selling and investing in strategic marketing and technology.

“There is a reason we have just as many skilled marketers in the business as real estate agents,” Rodric said.

“Agencies often have a ‘marketing coordinator’ role whose job is really to book the photography, signage, online listings, etc.

“Our marketers come from outside the industry and are there to create individual strategies for each property, targeting the campaign to reach the most likely buyers for each property’s individual features.”

Alison sums up the ethos of Kindred in the following way, “At the end of the day, it’s about being a good human and respecting the privilege of being invited into the homes of our clients.

“We’re going into their private sanctuary and being trusted with their biggest asset – that deserves our biggest hearts, smartest strategies and highest consideration.”

Find out more about Kindred Real Estate at kindredrealestate.com.au or contacting Rodric Anderson on 0438 402 487.