For real estate professionals interested in narrowing the focus of their prospecting efforts, investment analytics company SmartZip has rolled out an updated version of a platform that identifies homeowners most likely to sell their homes in the next six to 12 months.
SmartTargeting, which SmartZip calls a "predictive marketing platform," was first released in the summer of 2010. Since its launch, the platform has, on average, successfully predicted over 40 percent of the listings in any given territory, SmartZip said in an announcement.
In deciding how likely homeowners are to sell their home, SmartZip’s algorithm considers more than 250 factors in monthly rankings for nearly 80 million homes nationwide. Historical and current home sale trends, property characteristics, market value, ownership history, and loan data are some of the factors considered.
Such factors can help agents segment their prospects into categories such as move-up sellers, move-down sellers, distressed sellers or absentee owners, among others.
While the first version of the platform concentrated on the accuracy of the algorithm, the second-generation version adds a focus on marketing to prospective sellers once they are identified, the company said.
"Automated and highly targeted direct mail campaigns are … sent to the targeted homeowners, leading them to an online website where interest and future intent is qualified. These targets are then automatically nurtured through a combination of direct mail, email and online campaigns, while positioning the agent’s brand in front of the prospect," SmartZip said.
On an exclusive or nonexclusive basis, agents and brokers can customize the territory — down to the street level — they would like SmartTargeting to focus on. Typical monthly fees range from $500-$800 depending on territory size, market, exclusivity, and the marketing program, according to Avi Gupta, SmartZip’s vice president of marketing and operations.
