Zillow’s Most Viewed Home in 2014 was right here in St. Petersburg, Fl with Over 187,000 Views and Featured in HGTV Magazine!
Last year HGTV Magazine did a spread called “Real Estate Spy.” It was an impressive re-cap of 2013’s top numbers in real estate which included everything from the most expensive homes, how many homes were sold, surveys on how home buyers improved their homes, and even the
most viewed home on Zillow. Last year’s most viewed home came in at 85,000 views.
HGTV Magazine just published their annual real estate spy statistics for 2014. I’m excited to announce one of my listings was Zillow’s TOP VIEWED home for 2014 in the entire U.S. The St. Petersburg townhome had over 187,000 views. When I received the call from HGTV, the listing had barely been on the market for 90 days. This comes as no surprise as the St. Pete Real Estate Market is booming!
What caused this explosive trend of home buyers wanting to invest in the Tampa/St. Petersburg metro area?
1. CNN reported that the Tampa Bay area was one of the top 10 hottest real estate markets this year. We are one of the major metro areas are expected to see the biggest increase in home prices this year, according to CoreLogic Case-Shiller’s latest home price forecast.
2. Zillow’s traffic continues to soar over all other consumer real estate platforms with over 76 M unique visitors a month in March according to Geekwire
3. Zillow has recently announced and acquisition of the second most visited real estate site, Trulia. Zillow has agreed to purchase rival Trulia in a $3.5 billion stock deal that makes the combined entity the largest online real estate advertising company.
4. Zillow also changed the way Realtors can enhance their listings on the site, allowing maximum exposure by placing these “featured listings” at the top right when a buyer searches for a geographical area. This is one of the biggest changes that Zillow made this year and what increased traffic to my listing. We all know that the more people who see a home listing for sale, the more traffic a home will get. In my case, the property’s location was not well-known, even though it was located just minutes from desirable Downtown St. Petersburg, so I felt this was the best way to gain the additional exposure we needed.
5. Marketing my listing using social media and my blog. I decided to write a blog post about the up and coming St. Pete neighborhood which was posted on my blog, social networks, Facebook groups, twitter, and google plus. By utilizing these strategies the property was shared by many buyers and Realtors which created a viral effect, generating even MORE traffic. You can read the blog post here: Best Neighborhoods in St. Pete Everyone Should Know About-But Doesn’t
6. Global Press has created more desire to live in St. Petersburg, Fla. We made The New York Times list of top 52 destinations in the world to see in 2014, and TBO dot com reported that St. Pete is gaining global fame as a hip destination.
If you subscribe to HGTV magazine, it is in December’s issue (page 82) and in newsstands and grocery stores nationwide today!
