What's the difference between one realtor and another? Well from a buyer's perspective, not much. That is until we make contact with you. On the Internet, real-estate lead generation is difficult and getting harder all the time. Let's face it, other than the corporate logo, most real-estate sites look the same. Each one shouts out, I'm a professional, here are my listings, here are my calculators and tools, and here is more information about me. More information than most prospects want. Most real-estate sites fall into this design category, it's called "Company Centric, and it does not work very well on the Internet.
You just need to understand some simple Web dynamic of the shopper and how your Website can lend value. Who uses the Internet for Real-estate shopping? The buyer in the same town or city, the buyer from out of the area, the investor looking for a deal or something unique ... Each prospect is different. However, we are also very similar. Many people are risk avoider's. We are also not comfortable with sales people because there is a risk. Also, on the Internet, we have less tolerance for many things Internet. Most people decide to exit a Website based on the first few seconds of display. We usually don't look beyond page one of Google too often. If the search results don't meet our expectation, we change the search terms and try again. The same is true when looking at your Real-estate Website. So when I come to your Website looking for information without risk, do you require a prospect to create an account to view your listings or to enter their name and phone number to get some information? A number of sites do and they lose most people because it's easier to just go somewhere else.
Web sites that work very well give your Web's prospect the information they seek and do so in an easy way. This type of Web design is called "User or Customer Centric". It's all about giving your prospect the information they want and reducing the likelihood that they will go elsewhere to find it. In real-estate the saying is "location". On the Web its "content and presentation". Merge these together and you can create a winning combination on your Website. I do this by presenting community and providing information about the community that you will not find in to many other sources. As a buyer, I want to know the neighborhood. If your marketplace is a geographic region, you can go beyond a collection of MLS listings and census data. Showcase the points of interest of that community or region on your Website that buyers want to know about along with your listings.
I have created three very successful community Websites. Another benefit of a community website is that when the people in the community learn of the Website, many share it with friends and family; they tend to email a friend and say, "Here is where I live. Take a look at our Website." You can magnify this extended sales effect by providing the homeowners of a Web real-estate community with additional features that they can use on the site such as a blog, a webcam, a forum. All of which add value and keep people coming back.
Here are three community Websites I have built. They all have achieved very nice results in real-estate marketing on the Web.
Huckins Farm was written up in AOL Finance and Money "Best Retirement Communities in the USA" and was voted #3 http://money.aol.com/retirement/best-retirement-communities?photo=4 Thank you AOL.
Mark Abrams
Advanced Media Webs, Website Desgn & SEO
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