There once was a time when the American Dream was to have a little house with a white picket fence, spacious back yard, and a street full of friendly neighbors. Times have certainly changed.

Maybe it's a product of the Wal Mart, one-stop-shopping, fast food world that we live in today. Or maybe it's all of those "flip this house" type programs that dominate cable television. But buying a house today has become more about flip it and get rich quick instead of what it should be - buying a <i>home</i> for you and your family.

And where has that mentality brought us? Today we're in an economic crisis where homeowners are defaulting on mortgages, foreclosures are running rampant, and many are obsessed with how much their home will be worth next year. But let's face the fact - for the past few years home prices have been artificially inflated.

How did it all happen? Lending institutions loosened both their standards and their purse strings, and that created a demand for more and more homes. Homebuilders immediately recognized this demand and in turn increased the prices of new homes. This also led to huge increases in the perceived value of existing homes.

Then the bubble burst.

Now the landscape is filled with empty homes and for sale signs. Presidential candidates are claiming they know how to fix the housing and mortgage crisis. Financial pundits pop up on the evening news predicting more doom and gloom. Will there ever be a good time to buy a home?

That all depends on why you want to buy a home in the first place. If you're looking to make a quick buck by flipping a house in a few months (or even a few years) you can forget about it. But is that even what home ownership is all about?. Think back to ten or twenty years ago, or when your parents purchased the house you grew up in. Why did people buy homes?

A home was a place where you settled down to raise a family, or maybe even retire. You chose that home because it had a great location close to your job or a good school system. You chose a location because it was a nice neighborhood, not because the home had granite countertops, a golf course in the back yard, or skyrocketing home values. You chose a home because it was an investment in you and your family, not a way to pad your bank account in a few years. And now that inventories are higher and prices are lower, it's a great time to begin shopping for a new <strong>home</strong>.

Choosing A Neighborhood

Even if the home and community that you are looking at has all of the bells and whistles that you are looking for, touring a home and then driving through the neighborhood is usually not the best way to find the best place for you and your family to live.

One of the best ways is for you and your family to take a walking tour of the neighborhood. Park the car, ditch your real estate agent, and start walking. Wave and say, Hi!" to the neighbors as you pass by. If you have kids, make sure to bring them along. Kids are great "icebreakers". It won't be long before someone invites you over for a cool drink and some conversation. Try and meet at least a few people on the street where you're looking to purchase. You will soon know if you have found a place where you want to settle down and live.

The "F" Word - Financing

Whether it is because you are unsure whether your own credit measures up to tougher standards or the horror stories you read in the newspaper, you shouldn't be afraid of financing. Cautious, yes. Afraid, no.

Buying a home is probably the largest purchase you will ever make in your lifetime. So before you sign or initial anything you need to make sure that you understand the best case and worst case scenarios of your mortgage. During the sub prime mortgage bonanza, too many people did not take this step and today find themselves wondering if they will be able to keep their homes. Here are some things to keep in mind when you begin your search for financing and a new home:

1. Get pre-qualified for a loan. This way you won't be disappointed if you find your dream home and then find out you can't afford it. You will save your self - and your real estate agent - a lot of time and aggravation.

2. Shop, shop, shop for financing. Spend a month or two or three researching.

3. Have potential lenders break down the details of the loan agreement. Go over "worst case scenarios", especially if you go with a variable rate. Get Amortization schedules that show your monthly payments, especially if your interest rate can increase. Spend hours with the lender and make sure you are clear on all points of the agreement. Ask questions (even if you think they are dumb questions). Some lenders are relieved when you don't ask questions or for clarification. Take notes.

4. Before you sign a lending agreement, take it to your attorney and have them explain it to you, including worst case scenarios. This will confirm that the lender explained everything to you thoroughly. If you don't have an attorney, get one now.

Yes, these things will cost you time and money. But it is time and money well spent. As Ben Franklin so rightly stated, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Mixed Messages

Many potential homebuyers are hesitant to buy now because they are inundated with mixed messages. Take the Orlando real estate market for example. In February, Forbes magazine published an article stating Orlando was one of the best cities for bargain house hunters. But a month later they published another article stating that Orlando was one of America's riskiest real estate markets.

The article that touts Orlando as a bargain notes that jobs are being added at a faster rate than most cities in the South and the market did not go through the speculative boom that was seen in other markets. But the negative article published a month later stated that job growth halted in 2006 and negative growth was expected in 2008.

So, which article in this prestigious publication is right and which is wrong? It's no wonder that buyers are gun shy.

A Great Time To Buy A HOME

There is no doubt that the real estate market has gone through some tough times recently. It is also true that there is no quick fix solution around the corner. But these challenging times also present us with opportunities for those that know the true value of a home - a place for you and your family to live, laugh, and play.

Although the power of the web continues to grow, print media will always be a staple of real estate marketing. Unfortunately, not many real estate agents understand how to get the most out of their print ads or track results. Instead, they run the same type of ad that 99% of the other agents in their market are running and pray that the reader notices the ad and takes action.

The two greatest challenges in print media advertising are:

• Ad Cost
• Ad Size and Content

Of course, both of these are related - the bigger your ad the more you will pay. And because of that cost/size constraint, agents tend to make two major mistakes. The first major mistake is trying to cram too much into any given ad. In fact action has led to the birth of a new language - Realtorese. You know exactly what I mean - all of those hard to decipher abbreviations that agents use in their ads and listings. Heck, it was probably the kid of some agent that saw this and developed the text messaging lingo and acronymns. This leads us to rule #1:

• Keep your ads clean and make use of whitespace to draw attention to your ad

The second major mistake that most agents make is that they design ads that focus on themselves instead of the buyer or seller. I call it the Toby Keith Syndrome (from his song "I Wanna Talk About Me"). My guess is that with so many other agents buying ads in the same publications, these types of ads are the equivalent of shouting out "Look at me! Look at me!" Unfortunately, that's not a great way to get the attention of the reader.

Take a look at a typical real estate print media ad:

By the way, do you see that line "A great address like yours..."? That is from an actual ad in my local market. Unbelievable! Talk about egocentric agents! Here are some of the other problems with this ad:

• White text on a black background. Occasionally I have seen print ads with this text/background work well. But more often than not they are hard to read and do not grab the eye of the reader.
• The featured homes do not state where they are located. The first thing any potential buyer wants to know is where a property is located.
• All of those silly real estate phrases like "Must See!" and "Won't Last!" In fact, some studies have shown that using phrases like this can actually lengthen the time a home is on the market. Here's one article on that topic.
• The ad copy is all about the agent. Effective advertising targets a specific buyer demographic and invites them to a call to action. There is no call to action in this ad.
• The web address is buried at the bottom of the ad in small print.

While all of these items are critical, I especially want to focus on the last one. At the beginning of this article I talked about the high cost and limited space in print advertising. But your web site is a different story. Unless you have a lame hosting company, you have almost unlimited server space for text, photos, and movies. So don't you thinks its time you started using all of that server space to your advantage?

Now take a look at this ad:

Let's take a look at some of the positive things accomplished with this print ad:

• It leads with the web site address AND provides a call to action letting the reader know they can search thousands of homes (i.e. the MLS listings). I'll talk about the /homes a bit later.
• The ad uses whitespace and color effectively to grab the attention of the reader.
• The ad copy targets a specific buyer type. In this case that type is an experienced, upscale buyer. It uses a catchy paragraph to draw them into the rest of the copy. That "What's YOUR dream?" tag is something one of my clients and I brainstormed a few years ago based upon her target demographic. Truthfully, that following paragraph is not something I would use or suggest. I just wanted to give readers of this article an idea of brief ad copy that targets a buyer.
• The featured homes not only list a location, but they also highlight features that would be of interest to particular buyers (i.e. private dock for boat owners and golf view for those that enjoy living in a golf community). Listing bedrooms and baths is optional. The goal is to highlight one major feature that appeals to a specific buyer type.

OK, so why did I show the web address and then the /homes at the end of the domain URL? The answer is easy - it's for tracking purposes and can also be used in marketing to a specific buyer demographic. For example, let's say I run print ads in the local newspaper and in a high end real estate magazine. I would then create two directories to track the ads. Let's say one is /homes for the newspaper ads and the other is /estates for the magazine ad.

Now let's say that my target demographic for my newspaper ads matches the ad copy on my web site. I would probably create an index.php page in my /homes directory that uses a redirect script to send people to my home page (for SEO purposes I would also utilize "noindex.nofollow" tags or edit my htaccess file). But by using this directory I can go look at my web site stats and see how many people entered that URL to go to my web site. If I just listed my domain without the directory I would have no way of knowing if my print ad was effective in generating visits to the web site.

Now for that magazine ad, let's say I'm targeting upscale clientel, but the ad copy on the home page of my site does not target that buyer demographic. In this case, instead of using a redirect in the /estates sub directory I would create a new page with ad copy that appeals to that buyer demographic and then link that page to my funnel areas of the site (funnel areas lead visitors to action points on the site).

There's actually a lot more involved in putting together a truly effective print ad, but this information should put you on the right track. Again, here are the key things to remember:

• You can put a lot more information on your web site than you can in a print ad. Lead your ad with your web site. Be sure to let the readers of your ad know what "bonus" info they can find on your site. Use ad tracking wherever possible.
• Focus you ad on your ideal buyer demographic. Appealing directly to their needs and emotions will get them to take action and visit your web site. THAT is where you begin the conversion process.
• Keep your ads clean and free of clutter.
• If you present listings on your print ad be sure to include the location of the property and one key item that appeals to a specific buyer. Targeting a specific buyer is the key to conversions!
• Every ad serves a specific purpose and targets a specific buyer/seller demographic. Anything else is stroking your own ego and wasting money.

So you go out and get yourself a great looking web site, and either by a PPC campaign or a good SEO program your site is developing a good deal of traffic. But even with those top rankings your gut tells you that your site is not reaching its full sales potential.

 The next step you take is analyzing your web site. You notice that the site is lacking "call to action" points like quick contact forms. You also improve navigation to better funnel visitors to these and other action points on the web site. You see little or no improvement.

The Number One Mistake Of Real Estate Web Sites

When web surfers visit a real estate web site the overwhelming majority could care less about who the agent or company is that owns the web site. To them, real estate agents are a dime a dozen. In fact, poll after poll shows that real estate agents are among the least trusted professionals. Maybe that's why agents overcompensate by trying to sell themselves on their web site instead of trying to sell homes to potential buyers.

You know what I mean. I call it the "warm fuzzies". Many agents like to put pictures of puppies, kittens, and kids or grandkids on their web site instead of focusing on the needs of the buyer. I know what some of you are thinking: "I need to do this to build a relationship with my web site visitor." That may have worked 10 or 15 years ago, but today we are in a fast food, 24 hour Wal Mart, quickie mart world where people want (and expect) their needs and demands to be met RIGHT NOW.

A Time And A Place For Everything

Relationship building IS an important part of converting prospects into buyer clients. But the primary focus of your web site should not be trying to entice someone to contact you by virtue of the "warm fuzzies" dripping throughout your pages. Go ahead and put a few of these photos and a paragraph or two on your bio page, but keep them off the rest of your site.

The time to build a relationship with a potential client is when you talk to them on the phone or meet them in person. Your tone of voice, appearance, and demeanor are your trusted tools to foster this relationship.

Taking Your Ego Out Of The Equation

So now that you have deleted the warm fuzzies from your home page and other content pages, what do you replace them with? You focus on your ideal buyer client demographic. Knowing your buyer client demographic is NOT just knowing their income range, education level, and price point for a new home. It's about knowing everything about the everyday lives of this potential buyer. What challenges do they face during the week (commuting, day care, home schooling, etc.)? Do they have any spare time? What do they like to do with that time? It's these any many more questions that help you develop the profile of your ideal client.

After gathering this information you then write ad copy that appeals to this buyer. Your goal is to come up with a tag line, heading phrases, and ad copy that speaks directly to this buyer demographic. By doing this you not only engage them on yor web site, but you also start to begin building the bonds of trust between you and this prospect.

Along with the ad copy your site needs to contain information that the buyer will find interesting. For example, if your ideal potential buyer lives an active outdoor lifestyle you might want to include articles, information, and links about local fishing, golf, running clubs, or other similar topics. If your selling to high end clients you may want to include articles and links about arts and entertainment as well as detailed local real estate market statistics.

It's all about appealing to that specific buyer demographic - not trying to be something for everyone. It's all about target marketing. One of my favorite examples of this was a Cadillac commercial that ran a few years ago. When you think of the Cadillac brand, more than likely you think about terms like "rich", "sophisticated", "expensive", and similar terms. But what first struck me as odd about this TV commercial later struck me as brilliance. The music playing in the background of the commercial was "Rock and Roll" by Led Zeppelin. Who the heck would ever put Led Zeppelin together with Cadillac? But it was sheer genius. They were trying to appeal to that 40-something buyer that grew up listening to Zeppelin. They were trying to change the perception of Cadillac from "stuffy" to "exciting". And it worked.

Quality, Not Quantity

One of the frequent compaints I hear from real estate agents is that they have a hard time converting web site visitors to buyer clients. They complain that most of the leads they get from their web site are junk (FWIW, I consider contacts made by web site visitors as "prospects" and not leads. To me it's only a lead if they agent makes contact and qualifies that prospect).

But if you focus on your ideal buyer client demographic, over time you will see the quality of your leads begin to improve. Sure, if someone outside your targeted demographic visits your site they may get turned off by what they read. But those aren't the buyers you are going after anyway. There are some things that you can try and do to funnel these people off to different sections of your web site (i.e. create sections for first time buyers, 1031 exchange candidates, etc. and tailor those pages to that buyer demographic). But again, you have to be careful about getting away from that ideal demographic that you know that you can convert into your buyer client.

Getting top search engine rankings or winning the PPC war are an important part of the success of your web site. But it's equally important to remember that your web site is a key marketing piece and not a billboard for a list of your accomplishments, designations, and family photos. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BUYER!