I has recently created a real estate website which allows free listing of properties. Through my personal efforts I have managed to list around 6 properties. There is lots of competition in property in India but still I am unable to get any listing from property agents / dealers . The strategy that I am trying is directly doing SMS to property agents / dealers. I have also created a page on facebook and started posting related content. Hope the experts could guide me something so that I could manage to get my website going.
getting listing from agents is a great idea. you should also have another strategy to attract people looking for real estate.
You have a "catch 22" situation going. The agents won't waste their time listing their properties unless you can show you have buyers using your site. Buyers won't waste their time looking at your site (and remembering to come back) unless you have listings. You need to show agents that you can import their listings from a feed from their internal systems or their corporate site etc. In New Zealand most agents belong to a "brand" and there are only about 10 brands. You need to find the head office of your Indian "brands" and get them to instruct their agents to list on your site. You will need to show those head office people how you plan to build awareness from buyers, what your marketing budget it etc. It will be hard work.
In my opinion you should try a variety of advertising methods, and track them to see what works. Since the site should be profitable, hopefully you have some leeway to try different methods. Things I would try: Facebook PPC (target your market well) Adwords (target your market well)