We all have some funny stories about the web.  One of my favorites is the call that I got from a lady who wanted to know why a listed house was only $79,000. 

The listing was out of our normal area so I had to pull it from MLS.  I had to chuckle when I saw the screen.  An agent had posted the picture of a clubhouse as the MLS picture for a lot.  While the listing was clear that it was a lot, the picture caused some confusion.  The caller had not taken the time to read the listing, they had only looked at the picture and the price.

The good news was that I had gotten a call, the bad news was that it was practically worthless.  The potential buyer was only interested in houses under $100,000.  Those are in short supply in our area.

A lot of marketing is all about touching a lot of people who are not interested in your product before you get to someone who is.  That holds the same for print based media and Internet based advertising.  The good news about Internet marketing is that there are some tools that can touch a lot of people without costing a lot as long as you do it yourself.

For a long time, I have used both Flickr and Picasa webalbums to attract people to my websites and to provide images which will attract people looking to live in our area of great scenic beauty.

As web streaming technology has improved along with camera technology, it has become relatively easy to use the web for stunning slide shows and very interesting virtual tours. I recently wrote a post on my Applepeels site about how Apple application intergration made it very easy for me to produce a slide show and add video to the slides to make it a good YouTube virtual tour.

With all of this I was able to enhance a pre-listing post that I had on the Crystal Coast's electronic village.  The electronic village site does an automatic feed to Twitter.

My job prior to real estate was all about measuring web traffic so I am not a stranger to the challenge of figuring out whether what you have done is working or not.  It is especially difficult when most standard methods are also having a hard time demonstrating value.

While higher viewing numbers are no guarantee of success, at least they help eliminate efforts which are producing little.  I am still a believer in casting a wide net on the web much like a spider.  The more entry points into my world of websites the better opportunity I have at least making contact with people who are interested in our area and potentially buying homes.

I still believe we are in the infancy of effective use of the web for reaching buyers and helping sellers make the best use of the web.

There are a lot of tools already available.  The mix that works in a self contained market area might be different than what works in an area like ours which often deals with retirees moving in from long distances.

There is no question in my mind that the next wave of buyers will turn more and more to the Internet.  I am pleased with the options available in our area for agents.

Two years ago, talk of a company real estate blog was just talk.  Today we have a blog in place where potential buyers can get a taste of the area from articles like this one. Peace on the beach.

Blogs, slideshows, maps, and video provide buyers with more information than ever.  You can find out more about an area today without leaving your kitchen than you might have found out in the first day visiting an area a few years ago.

If you combine the web with a visit, and a meeting with a local real estate agent, most buyers should have what they need to decide if an area meets their needs.