It hasn’t taken long for Zillow to make its presence felt in the Canadian marketplace.
This week, the American company announced it has enlisted 250 brokerages and franchisors in Canada to display listings on its website, one of which, PSR Brokerage, says it’s a can’t-miss opportunity. According to Brett Starke, team lead of Starke Realty at PSR, the partnership will allow the downtown Toronto-based brokerage to leverage its unique marketing strategies and reach a wider audience.
“It’s going to bring a lot more eyes to the PSR brand,” he said. “A lot of other brokerages are fighting change but we’re getting behind digital marketing to make sure we get the most eyes on our clients’ properties, especially because Toronto is an international city now. It makes sense that we’d find the biggest online real estate network and utilize it.”
Not only is Zillow American consumers’ gateway into the Canadian real estate market, the exchange rate makes purchasing Canadian investment properties an enticing proposition.
“People coming from the States are looking at Toronto in particular. If they live in New York, they’re used to exorbitant prices and Toronto looks like a bargain to them. It’s up-and-coming and certainly more affordable than New York, San Francisco and L.A., especially based on the American dollar alone,” said Starke.
Unlike most of Toronto’s realty firms, PSR uniquely brands its listings, and given Zillow’s 195 million unique monthly users, Starke is confident the brokerage’s conversion rates will surge.
“We use all marketing tools, like video, Instagram, Google, and the review network on Zillow is huge, so it’s another way for people to get to know us,” he said. “People want to get to know an agent before talking to them. It’s almost similar to online dating and Zillow gives us the opportunity to build a trust factor with potential clients and let them know who we are, what we do and how we do it differently than everybody else.”
Added Zillow Group’s Chief Industry Development Officer Errol Samuelson, “Zillow has long been a go-to real estate resource in the U.S. for consumers and our partners in industry, and it’s exciting to see more than 250 Canadian partners using Zillow. Canadian listings on Zillow have the benefit of our audience of 195 million unique monthly users which includes a quickly growing Canadian audience.”
