Recently the annual Inman Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco took place. If you’re not familiar with this conference, it focuses on real estate trends and news, and technology that can better assist you in your business. Here are some helpful tips from the conference:

• There are 5 million real estate listings in the US and Realtor.com claims to have 4.7 million of them, but people still visit 7 different websites on average when looking for real estate.
• The next wave of real estate consumers are those born between 1980-1995 (they are being called Millenials). They are the largest generation (79 million) and all grew up with computers. That is a good indication as to which direction real estate marketing is headed. This generation is focused on media to get their information, and you should use that to your advantage. Think videos, photos, blogs, etc.
• There is a decline in long form reading on the internet. Up to 50% of readers leave with each click to a new page. So even if you think it’s a clever idea to have “Read More” links and links to see more information about all your communities, you’re actually hurting yourself more than helping.
• Smart Phones are laptop replacements. Maybe now would be a good time to invest in a Blackberry or an iPhone.
• Print is not dead – 1/3 of the current generation (Millenials) still read newspapers and magazines.
• Find out where your buyers come from and market there (you may have to speak their language too).
• Listing sites may not be the best place to market property– behavior and geography targeting suggests otherwise. A Chicago developer went on an international road show to get customers. You may have to think outside the box to maintain a competitive edge.
  The lead generation companies are now in the blog and social media pools. Maybe you should be too.
• There are 11 months of unsold inventory nationwide, according to NAR’s June 2008 study.