Seems like everyone is talking about 77 – 25 – 69 - the magic code. Combination for your padlock? OR… three of the most-quoted statistics about online real estate from the past 12 months:
- 77% of home buyers are searching on the Internet (NAR)
- 24% of home buyers located the home online that they ended up purchasing (NAR)
- 69% of Internet consumers interviewed only one agent in their home purchase process (CAR)
Pretty compelling data to support the case for beefing up your online presence. In fact, your office ending in the address “.com” has already become the most-visited of all your offices, open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, with tens of thousands—if not millions—of page views each month.
So are you staffing your biggest office with your very best people and ensuring it receives your full attention and resources?
Attracting customers to your online office is just the beginning. Considering that the average home sales cycle ranges from 6-18 months, you need to create an online community of visitors who return to you again and again for the latest home information, tips and market statistics.
Embrace technology as your partner. Make sure that you are effectively capturing leads on your landing pages. Think listings syndication to other sites. Think content syndication on your site. Get creative. Do your research. Test, measure and try out new tools.
Most importantly, read the new Trulia white paper - Strategies for Effectively Operating Your Largest Real Estate Office: Your Web Site. We’ve pulled out best practices and key strategies to effectively operate your largest real estate office–online.
As one of our most successful broker partners puts it: “Technology will never replace brokers and agents but – believe it – brokers and agents with technology will replace brokers and agents!”
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October 31st, 2006 at 3:01 pm
The Trulia white paper “Strategies for Effectively Operating Your Largest Real Estate Office: Your Web Site” is right on the money. Recently at Keller Williams we had a “Technology Camp” held in Austin Texas and KW has boiled down what an agent needs to do to have a website that produces business - right down to benchmarks and budget estimates.
In my market, Detoit Michigan more specifically Ann Arbor Michigan, many agents are very slow with few buyers and sellers that aren’t motivated to lower prices on their properties. Now is a great time to review your online marketing and take steps to leap forward. so that when the market thaws out, buyers will be finding you first in their web search.
December 12th, 2006 at 11:48 am
I agree- I teach internet lead generation classes, and I try to get the point across — technology IS a threat to “stodgy codger agents that still embrace antiquated old-school business practices.”
However - agents who EMBRACE this new technology - in this wonderful Information age will SKYROCKET to success. It is all how you look at it.
January 17th, 2008 at 7:16 am
I agree that the old guard will fade if they do not embrace technology. Sadly, many of the Realtors I encounter live in denial of current trends. Most are satisfied with having a poorly constructed website that leaves the user feeling disappointed. If was a potential home seller, the very first thing I would do is visit a Realtor’s website to see if they know anything about internet marketing, SEO, etc.