So you’ve had to have been sleeping under a rock for the past couple of years to not have heard the decline in the real estate market. Prices are plummeting. Volume is way down. Agents are getting out of the business. Brokerages are downsizing or closing.

But with any down economy or industry, there are opportunities abound if you just play your cards right. A lot of brokerages are taking a “wait and see” approach to the market and their business. Yes they have pulled back their newspaper and magazine spends, but not because they know they are ROI-lacking mediums but because they are trying to save dollars to keep employees paid and the lights on. The huge problem is they are doing the same thing with their online efforts.

We know the real estate deals have not gone away. They’ve obviously retracted but people are still buying and they are still using the Internet first and foremost to find those homes. With those facts said, it is unfortunate that brokerages are not embracing this movement and trying their hand at innovative ways to meet the customer online.

Some of the online strategies brokers should think about.

A lot of brokerages are syndicating their listings to the major aggregation sites and that is great. The only problem is the fact that “a lot of brokerages” are syndicating their listings to these sites. As they have grown more popular, the competition has grown with them. But this is not to say you should not continue to do it, it just should be coupled with other online strategies.

Another thing that is being embraced by some brokerages is a social media strategy. Not a lot of brokerages are doing this, so the competition is still very small. But just beware that it takes a pretty large commitment and some time to get fully up and running. This is a great way to meet people before they start looking for a home. It also gives you an opportunity to get your brand in front of them early in the process.

One of the other ways brokerages are trying to use the Internet to meet their customers is through “cost-per-click” (CPC) advertising. We’ve all seen the ads placed on Google, Yahoo! and MSN. These sites have pretty much perfected the online ad to drive traffic to your website. The problem is they are not always the customer you are looking for. Now I obviously work for Roost so I need to pitch our wares in here somewhere and this seems like the best place to do it.

Unlike the above mentioned “mega” search engines, Roost is a real estate specific search engine. So when brokerages sign up with us, they are receiving traffic that comes from a site dedicated to the real estate industry only. This approach provides our broker partners with a much more qualified user. Another huge advantage Roost has is the fact that we partner with the local MLS. This provides our broker partners with the ability to leverage the entire local MLS instead of just their listings on a syndication site. Overall we think it provides a huge differentiator for the brokerages in their local market.

So there are some ideas to think about as we continue to see what is going to happen to this interesting industry we call real estate. My only advice would be to try something because taking the “wait and see” approach might just leave you watching the industry pass you by.