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Internet Marketing: How Much Exposure Does it Take?

By
Real Estate Agent with Heritage Oak Properties 01367027

The greater Sacramento region real estate market remains soft, similar to many other regions around the country.  Inventory levels are up and the Days-On-Market statistics continue to grow.  Buyers are heavily influenced by the frequent doom and gloom pieces published in the Sacramento Bee and some of the other fish wrappers in the area.  The buyer's predominant plan seems to be to wait until the market bottoms out and then jump in.  The fact that interest rates remain historically low is having little effect.

Enter the Realtor with a new listing to market and sell.  What to do, what to do?  Print marketing is expensive, especially in the Sacramento Bee, and generally ineffective.  Direct mail is not too productive.  The remaining option is the Internet; less expensive and more effective.

I am aware of no other vehicle that provides equal exposure.  The question is how much exposure does it take? 

Let's look at one listing that I have had on the market for exactly one month, http://www.2072lamegoway.com/ .   I create a separate property web site for each of my listings and use the property address as the URL.  That way both the sellers and, even I, can remember that URL.  I use the AgencyLogic Power Sites which provide a lot of flexibility including an HTML flyer that can be used in many other web sites and excellent statistical data.

In addition to the individual property web site and my own personal web sites, I create postings or copy HTML flyers into numerous sites.

A list of some of these sites includes:  Postlets.com, ActiveRain.com, Point2.com, Trulia.com, Kijiji.com, Oodle.com, Roogala.com and CraigsList.com.   Postings on the local MLS and Realtor.com are a given.

Whenever and wherever possible I include a link to my personal web sites and the individual property web site.  If the goal was only to get exposure I would get an A.  To date, there have been 10,241 individual visits to the individual property site, not bad for thirty days.

However, the goal is to get an acceptable purchase offer.  To date, we have had five showings and no offers, more like an F.

I would be interested in hearing from other agents about marketing actions that they have taken that work well.  Low cost options are my priority, but if something works I'm all ears.

The answer to my original question," how much exposure does it take?"  Enough exposure to result in an accepted offer.

(For the cynics in the audience, we did have a $ 51,000 price reduction and are priced under $ 190.00 per square foot.)

 

Comments (7)

Gene Dexter
Asset Realty - Seattle, WA
Seattle Realtor

Thanks Mike.

I also like HouseJockey.com,  Backpage.com,  Zillow.com, Zadzoo.com.

Keep your head held high and happy selling!

Oct 17, 2007 12:04 PM
John Walters
Frank Rubi Real Estate - Slidell, LA
Licensed in Louisiana
Hey Mike if you ever figure it out I would love to know.
Oct 17, 2007 12:16 PM
Ken Jansen
Prime Development Land CO LLC - Overland Park, KS
REALTOR, CRS, 913.908.2215

Hi Mike,

I find some of my best results are from getting the photos and virtual tour up on MLS right away. I also use Realtor dot com enhanced listings with a lot of photos. I change each listing aggregator I can, you use all the same ones I do I appears. I think you even use a couple that I have not yet.

Thanks.

 

Ken

Jul 31, 2008 05:32 AM
Anonymous
Mike West

Thanks Ken,

There seem to be two or three new places to post free listings each week.  The question I have to ask is, how much traffic do they get.  As far as I know, NONE comes close to Craigslist.com except Realtor.com and Realtor.com charges a fortune for everything that they do.  I signed up for the enhanced listings package a couple of years ago but don't think I got my money's worth.  I also don't think that they have the market share that they once did, but I could be wrong.

 

Regards,

Mike

Jul 31, 2008 05:41 AM
#4
Gene Dexter
Asset Realty - Seattle, WA
Seattle Realtor

Certainly Realtor.com offers some of the most traffic I have ever seen. My last listing had over 10,000 views in the first 30 days. For Craigslist, I have not found click-throughs to be nearly as good.

I track data via Google web tools in order to determine where my viewers are coming from.

One way to make sure your listings are prominently displayed on Realtor.com is to keep adding photos of the property. More content will lift the listing into the top range. Enhancing the listing with a border, scrolling billboard, etc. is also eye catching.

Best of luck with your efforts.

Jul 31, 2008 06:28 AM
Anonymous
Mike West

That is great info Gene. 

Thanks,

Mike

Jul 31, 2008 06:34 AM
#6
Gene Dexter
Asset Realty - Seattle, WA
Seattle Realtor

Mike, one more update if I may. In the last several months the website Facebook.com has become a major force in targeted marketing. If you have time to review it, you may be pleasantly surprised. You will be hearing bigger things coming from Facebook, soon.

 I enjoy building up my profiles and networks about a year or two before sites I'm on hit their tipping points, including Active Rain. New ones to consider today include BizNik, Naymz and Facebook.

The world is changing rapidly!  :)

Jul 31, 2008 06:48 AM