I have been doing some new marketing work for a client of ours that has sites all over the U.S.  Currently he has us doing some tweaking and finishing out of his site on San Antonio Real Estate.  As I have been doing some basic research on the market (which you have to do to serve your client well), I have discovered that San Antonio is really a hidden gem in the market.

In Texas we are bless right now with a much more stable market then most other parts of the United States.  While we never had the huge appreciation that markets like the east and west coast have, the other side is that we have not had the 20% or greater drops in the past year some other markets have.  Texas real estate is a lot like "long term income stock", we don't have the huge returns of those mid cap growth stocks but we are steady and we seldom see a really big drop.

San Antonio though is continuing to not only improve while other sectors lag, it is actually thriving.  Like much of Texas it is being fueled by the over all growth of the state but other factors are making San Antonio excel as well.  Chief amoung them are factors such as...

• Low risk of weather damage, San Antonio doesn't have the tornado threat much of the rest of the state does and hurricanes have no real impact on the area.
• It is still pretty close to the coast, you can be in Corpus Christi on some great beaches in about a half a days drive.
• There is plenty of growth and opportunity in the San Antonio market.
•  There are great attractions like the River Walk, the Alamo and SeaWorld

I have really be impress with what I have learned about this market so far.  I would love to hear from agents and investors with more hands on insight into the San Antonio and surrounding markets.

Real estate is one of if not "the" most competitive businesses in the world.  When you then look at the prospect of competing with the hundreds of thousands of websites that are already fighting for search rankings it is easy for the individual agent or even small agency owners to feel intimidated and therefore ignore search marketing.  To me this is a big mistake and while as someone that owns a Dallas Search Engine Marketing Firm it may seem easy for me to make that statement I would like to explain how any really motivated individual or small firm can carve out their own niche in the online world.

My advice is actually pretty simple

 

1.  Think local only with the terms you try to rank for.

2.  Own several blogs and post a lot about issues in the real estate market and ALWAYS mention the areas you cover.

3.  Participate in socaial media and give yourself as many links as you can.  

 

There is of course more to it then that but those really are the basics.  I recommend blogging mostly because it frees you to be independent.  You don't have to run everything by your agency or parent company to get "approval", you just post and do as Joe Smith (who happens to be an agent) rather then Agent Joe Smith.

In you blogging talk about issues, mortgage problems and solutions.  Every time you sell a house blog about it, take a picture of the new owner and post it.  Email them and tell them to email around the post with their picture.  I mean you can beg for referrals or get them effortlessly.

If you follow this procedure and do so for 6-8 months in time you will start to see some search engine traffic. Probably not a ton of traffic but some and the visitors will be highly targeted to your area.  With all your advice pieces you look like and sound like an expert.  Now, think about this how many good leads does this need to produce to make it worth your effort?  What would even 1-2 extra deals a quarter mean to you?