Ears to the market

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This article was published 26/07/2021 (1285 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A few months ago, Adrian Schulz did what thousands of people who can’t stop talking and thinking about something seem predestined to do: he started a podcast.

Schulz, a 37-year-old veteran of the Winnipeg real estate game, who’s been playing it since his early twenties, had never really listened to anything in the ever-popular, ever-saturated audio format; he’s the kind of person who still prefers to hold a newspaper, he says.

“I actually didn’t know about podcasts until a year ago,” says the president of Imperial Properties, also a mortgage agent with Centum Financial Services. “I mean, I’d heard of them, but I’d never listened to one.”

But after listening to a show centred on Toronto’s real estate market, Schulz’s gears started turning: maybe there was an audience interested in a similar show about Winnipeg’s real estate industry, which, as has been documented in these pages for the past 16 months, is firing on all cylinders. There are record home sales, a dynamic industrial sector, and despite rising costs, a level of residential affordability matched by few other major Canadian metropolises. He didn’t want to make any money off of it: it was just a way to “share what I’ve learned on my 15-year real estate journey.”

So Schulz bought a podcasting rig — a rite of passage for any audio entrepreneur — and set up shop at his office on Sherbrook Street, plunking his microphone down on his desk and sifting through his contacts to see who would be willing to come on his show called I Love Winnipeg Real Estate.

It turned out most people were just as eager as the host, who once dreamed of being a broadcaster or radio host before real estate came calling his name. After getting the outgoing Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board president Catherine Schellenberg on air for his première episode in January, Schulz wrangled a veritable who’s-who of local experts, tapping into their advice on everything from helping seniors downsize, home inspections, interior design, and the impact of divorce or separation on property.

A six-minute micro-episode focuses on the pros and cons of fixed- and variable-rate mortgages. One episode Schulz is particularly proud of is an interview with Treaty One Development Corporation CEO Whelan Sutherland, discussing at length the Kapyong Barracks redevelopment, a project Schulz effusively calls one of the most important in the city’s history.

“I live in Tuxedo, and I hear some people in the community who are concerned about having an urban reserve,” Schulz said, with most apprehension coming from people who didn’t understand the vast benefits and opportunities that would stem from Kapyong’s redevelopment.

So he wanted to talk to Sutherland to clear up misconceptions about “the most exciting project in town,” which when complete will feature a mix of low- to medium-density residential property (between 2,300 and 3,000 units), commercial space, sports and recreation facilities, and a cultural campus; it will be the largest urban Indigenous economic zone in Canada, with an estimated economic impact well exceeding $1 billion in investments.

There are exciting conversations to be had, Schulz said, and the podcast gives him an outlet to talk with, and listen to, people who know best.

Schulz isn’t the only one trying to take up real estate in Winnipeggers’ cochleas, or even the latest.

Since 2010, Re/Max Performance Realty’s Bo Kauffmann has been hosting and producing Bo Knows Real Estate — Winnipeg’s Real Estate Podcast, sharing advice for home buyers and sellers, along with general tips for home ownership; Kauffmann’s put out hundreds of episodes, the most recent of which explored Winnipeg’s luxury home market report.

Kauffmann started a YouTube channel in 2008, but realized audio was more easily consumable and forgiving: he can cut and move segments, and record while having a bad hair day, he said. He started the podcast because he usually gets many of the same questions, which he’s been answering on his blog since 2006.

And while the educational aspect is clear, Kauffmann, who believes he was the first agent to host a local real estate podcast, said it’s also a promotional arm for his business. “One listener called me and said, ‘Wow, I feel I know you already because I’ve been listening to your voice for a long time.’”

The big dogs are also entering the podcasting game in 2021, arriving later than Kauffmann and Schulz.

The Manitoba Real Estate Association launched its monthly podcast, #RealTalkMB, in May, and in July, the Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board launched The Voice, hosted by the board’s vice-president of external relations and market intelligence Peter Squire; its first two guests were city councillor Scott Gillingham, discussing property taxation, and City of Winnipeg deputy chief administrative officer Michael Jack, discussing the topic of large-scale medical grow-ops in the city. (The Canadian Real Estate Association launched its own podcast in 2020).

These are relatively tough gets, and it’s clear the podcast hosts leverage existing relationships and industry bonhomie to get them.

Each podcast respectively is pitched as an educational tool, and they certainly are. However, there are built in benefits to both hosts and guests alike, namely a shot at promoting their services and specialties to a new audience, one that statistically hews younger, more affluent and more educated than the general public — a demographic that likely is looking to invest in real estate for the first time.

According to the Podcast Exchange, which puts out annual surveys on podcast listenership, 30 per cent of English-speaking adults in Canada listened to podcasts at least once a month in 2020, with nearly half (47 per cent) of those listeners in the 18-34 demographic — a crucial target for real estate marketing. The majority of listeners were found to have had university education, and those listeners with household incomes surpassing $100,000 tended to listen more than those who earned less.

And as anyone who has listened to a podcast knows, advertisements play a key role in their construction, even those that are for the services of the hosts or publishers: Schulz and his guests both mention their affiliations, as do guests of the Winnipeg and Manitoba real estate association shows, similar to how a hockey broadcast on CBC features pop-up ads for Just For Laughs.

This seems a natural extension of the tradition of competitive advertisement in real estate, which historically has been in the form of bench ads, billboards, fridge magnets, brochures and the humble yard sign, each an indication of geographic focus, visual identity, and contact information. It is, by comparison, a lot cheaper for hosts to hit ‘record’ on rudimentary audio equipment or start an Instagram or LinkedIn account. And the cost of appearing as a guest is nonexistent.

While these podcasts put public education first on their lists of priorities, the question remains whether these shows will effectively reach their target audience or are just floating in the growing pool of audio entertainment.

Whatever the answer, we’re talking about it here, and podcasters like Schulz and Kauffmann, who say listenership is growing steadily, are more than happy to discuss further.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca