Funds are under pressure, marketing has changed, and real estate sales rely on intermediaries to bring customers; identify customer identities, reduce commission costs, and face recognition has become "standard" in sales offices
The real estate market "channel war" behind the sales office cameras
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The overall housing market is sluggish and the funds of real estate companies are under pressure. Channels have become a magic weapon for real estate companies to accelerate their sales. Many sales offices have installed facial recognition systems to determine customer identities.
According to industry insiders, real estate companies' reliance on channels has increased, and the cost of buying a house may be increased as a result.
"In order to protect personal information, wear a helmet to see the house." A few days ago, a short video of a man wearing a helmet watching a real estate went viral on the Internet. The issue of installing a face recognition system to capture personal information at the sales office has attracted attention from all walks of life.
According to media reports, at present, the face recognition system has been widely used in sales offices, and has even become a "standard configuration."
Has the property market really entered the era of "look at the face"?
Why do developers keep an eye on the faces of buyers?
What impact will "showing your face" have on buying a house?
Recently, reporters visited major real estates in Beijing and found that behind the installation of retina recognition cameras in various sales offices, the marketing pattern of the real estate market is changing, and real estate companies’ reliance on channels is increasing, using face recognition and other technical means to develop "channels" The dark battles have intensified, and channel commission rebates have reached double digits.
Facial recognition becomes "standard" in sales offices
"I have never noticed it before. I didn't expect it to be so common." Chen Mingyu, who has been inspecting houses in recent months, told reporters that after seeing online reports of "wearing a helmet for inspections", he would pay attention to whether he went to a sales office. A camera is installed, and it turns out that the camera has become the "standard configuration" of the sales office.
“The installation of cameras is very common in the sales department, and more than 80% of the real estates are available.” Zhang Yong, a real estate agent in Beijing, told reporters that when a client walks into the sales office, the facial information has been recorded and uploaded to the developer’s system among.
"This is to distinguish between self-visited customers and channel-visited customers."
It is understood that the so-called self-visited customers refer to the customers who take the initiative to visit the sales office by the buyers themselves.
The channel-visited customer is the customer brought to the sales office by the intermediary. If such a customer makes a deal, the developer must pay the intermediary distribution commission.
Zhang Yong said: "Any customer brought by the channel, the developer will conduct a face comparison, if it is found that the customer has actively visited before, it will be judged that the intermediary watch is invalid, no commission is required, which can save costs."
"If you don't do this, disputes will arise." Wang Kun, a real estate consultant for a sales department in Tongzhou District, Beijing, told reporters that many people who came to the sales department to inspect a house would be asked if it was the first time. a method.
The commissions of the real estate consultants and intermediaries in the sales department are different. In general, the commissions of intermediaries are higher.
There are also some intermediaries who return part of their commissions to customers in order to increase the willingness of customers to make transactions, claiming that they are preferential purchases.
Real estate companies betting channels to accelerate sales collection
"Since the end of February, the Spring Real Estate Fair has been held, and housing purchase discounts, deed tax reduction and exemption policies have been introduced, and some effects have been achieved. However, the overall property market is still in a low ebb period, and neither price nor sales volume has been a big wave." Wang Jiancheng, head of the marketing department of small and medium-sized developers, told reporters that affected by the epidemic, most of the houses were sold in the second half of this year. The pressure on fund collection has increased sharply, and many real estate companies have to use channel power to step up sales.
It is understood that due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, in the first half of the year, real estate sales received a heavy blow, and the full-caliber sales performance of TOP100 real estate companies in the first quarter fell by nearly 20.8% year-on-year.
Sales recovered in the second quarter, but still did not reach the level of the same period last year.
During this year's "Silver Ten" period, real estate companies generally carried out more sincere promotional activities.
Despite this, there are still some real estate companies that failed to achieve the expected sales results.
"This year is different from previous years. The epidemic has affected the sales progress of the real estate market in the first half of the year. Coupled with the introduction of the "three red lines" for financing, it has brought unprecedented pressure to many real estate companies. External blood transfusions are tightened and real estate companies pay more attention to internal blood production. Ability." Guo Yi, chief analyst of Heshuo Institution, said.
The reporter learned from interviews that in this context, many real estate companies changed their sales business to planning companies. The planning companies used advertising, events and other marketing to attract customers to see the houses, instead betting on intermediaries and other channels. .
"Right now, few real estates have the confidence to use channels at all." Chen Ming, a salesperson from an intermediary company in Chaoyang District, Beijing, told reporters that this year, about 60% of new houses were sold through channels, and projects that used channels accounted for 90% or more.
"Intermediaries are like a barometer of the real estate industry. There is a huge flow of personnel. If you have money, you will recruit more people. If the market is not good, then the market will disappear." At the beginning of this year, Chen Ming almost switched careers due to the downturn in the industry, but he didn't expect that the peak circuit would turn like this. fast.
"In the second half of the year, I cooperated with several major channels and participated in several large-scale sales, and the income was quite substantial."
Will buying a house be affected after "showing his face"?
Real estate marketing has changed, and the role of channels has become increasingly prominent, and the identification of customers has become an important task.
In the past, the method of contracting clients based solely on verbal inquiries was obviously unable to meet the needs of real estate companies.
In this context, some developers set up facial recognition systems around the sales department to use high-tech methods to identify whether customers are visiting naturally or through channels.
Some cameras are also widely distributed. Anyone passing by near the real estate will be judged as a visitor once captured by the camera.
The large-scale application of face recognition technology in real estate marketing has thus begun.
Marketing costs are rising, and the role of channels in bringing customers has become more prominent. These signals all point to the problem encountered by the real estate industry as a whole-the change in supply and demand has made it more and more difficult to sell.
However, the reporter found that it may not be easy for buyers to buy a house.
Wei Wei, a sales manager of a real estate company, said that the channel as a third party has many uncontrollable factors.
"Some channels make random promises to customers, operate in the dark, and do things in the name of developers. Not only will consumers not be able to enjoy good discounts, but they will also harm the reputation of the real estate company."
Chen Hong, a real estate marketing planner, said that in the past, the industry average of real estate marketing expenses was about 2.5%, which also included advertising fees, agency fees, and material fees.
Today, channel expenses alone have surpassed the sum of previous marketing expenses.
"Currently, channel commissions are generally 3% to 8%, and some slow-moving properties even give double-digit commissions in order to make a surprise payment."
The wool is on the sheep, and some of the offers that should be enjoyed by buyers may be squeezed by channel commission costs.
Insiders reminded that when buying real estate, buyers should choose a strong and well-reputed distribution company to ensure that they purchase the real estate at the actual transaction price and avoid the transfer of distribution costs by the price strategy of the real estate.
Our reporter Zhao Jianying