We tried to market the flat in three ways1) Self Promotion
Via e-mails to our network of friends. This e-mail contained the URL www.parkmansions.co.za and contained pictures and copy about the apartment (19 March –31 March)
2) Sole Mandate
Via an agent under a Sole Mandate
3) Open Mandate
Through five estate agencies on an Open Mandate who were supplied with the same web site URL
Google Analytics’s tracking time line turns the data into a mountains peak on either end of a flat plateau. I’ve divided this time line into the above-mentioned phases.
Phase 1 – Self Promotion (19- 31 March ) Price: R525 000
The most interest in the site was generated by our mass e-mails to friends on our address books. Unfortunately, I managed to mess things up, and tracked the site indirectly, from the 19-28 March. But a conservative reading of the stats would indicate that the site had more than 60 unique visitors, each spending over 3 minutes on the four pages. Out of this interest we had seven people contact us and four people look around the flat.
Phase 2 – Sole Agent (1 April – 14 May) Price R525 000
After failing to find a buyer, we handed the flat over to our agent, who in the four weeks of his mandate brought four or five prospective buyers around. Interest in the site waned dramatically; we only had 22 visitors over six weeks.
Phase 3 – Open Mandate 15 May - 23 May
The sale of the flat fell through, because the buyer did not qualify for a loan, and so we invited 5 estate agencies to put us on their books. I also invited the agencies to feature the web site in their promotions. In that week 14 unique visits and at the end of the process - a sale.
Although the web site received numerous compliments, it did not sell the flat. The site certainly got lots of attention, but an agent was required to turn the attention into sales. If we’d had someone pursuing the leads generated earlier on, the flat could have been sold far quicker. Cost of putting the web site together is simply the cost of registering a domain name with co.za (R50), and a days worth of development time. Was it worth it. Yes and No. We didn’t sell the flat, Robyn from Pam Golding did the deed but putting it together reminded Jean and I just why we love our little apartment.
