FIND YOUR NICHE AND SCRATCH IT .   How the Internet changed my life.  Once I discovered that I could generate more business than I could handle from Internet advertising, it was a natural progression for me to open my own brokerage, hire agents and let the agents do the selling.  I sold a lot of real estate in my time, but times change and people change and I have discovered a niche. Sometime in late 1995, I discovered the Internet and haven't been the same since.  I remember predicting, in early 1996, that "the Internet will change the world".  No one believed me then.  They thought I was losing my mind. 

                                                  CAVE BEAST

I don't live in a cave.  Don't get me wrong.  I love selling homes.  I'm very good at it and my buyers love me.  I say "my" buyers because when working with a buyer, I am ALWAYS a Buyer's Agent.  I've never practiced dual agency, although back in the 1980s, before statutory agency in Maryland, I sold a LOT of real estate as a sub-agent.  I simply prefer the dynamics of helping a buyer find and buy a home to helping a seller sell one.  The cost to the agent is about the same, one in time helping buyers find the home to buy and the other the cost of promoting a listing can be costly.  Of course, an agent can make a MUCH higher income listing properties since you can really service a large number of listings with relatively little man hours invested.  The old saying that "you can sell a listing while sitting in the sun at the beach" is really true.  On the other hand, working with buyers is very much hands on from beginning to end and, of course, you can only handle so many buyers or showings on those very busy weekends. 

CALLING ALL BUYERS, OR AT LEAST A FEW.  But, where do the buyers come from??  When I was with the mega broker, I was one of their "relocation specialists" and got those wonderful relocating buyers handed to me by the relocation department.  The cost was high, 30% off the top and a 50/50 split for the rest.  I didn't make a lot of money with relocation buyers but it was fun, kept me busy and I developed a speciality, a niche.  I love niches.  But, working with the mega broker soon lost it's charm when buyer's agency came along and I was with a dedicated listing brokerage.  My broker was NOT interesting in representing home buyers. 

ALONG CAME THE INTERNET.  
So, I left the big brokerage to "strike out on my own" and limit my services to home buyers.  I worked hard with traditional advertising, magazine ads, mailers to apartment buildings, past clients moving up, etc.  I even took a few listings to help buyers move up when they had a contingency to sell.  It worked, but it was like I was spinning wheels.  Leaving the mega broker cost me my one resource for relocating home buyers.  I really missed the family with the new job, coming to town for 3-5 days and leaving with a contract on a home.  It was clear that the big companies had the relocation business sewed up. 

EUREKA!!, I THINK I FOUND IT.  One morning, I saw a TV interview with an attorney who was describing her success advertising legal services on the Internet.  The Internet???  What was that?  I'm fairly well informed, but dang if I could place it.  Wait a minute.  Didn't that subject come up in the  warnings from William Chee, President of the NAR back in 1993?  Remember that famous "Lions Over the Hill" speech?  To be honest, I didn't pay much attention until we got property listings on the PC in early 1994 and suddenly I realized that, HEY, this thing, my computer, can do a lot more for me than show pretty pictures.  So, I decided to get myself an Internet connection.

   A Home Buyer's Real Estate and Relocation Service

HOMEFINDERS.COM ORIGINAL 1995 LOGO. 

LENN HAD AN EPIPHANY!
No, it wasn't the first and, hopefully, it won't be the last.  But, in late 1994 when I got my first Internet connection (DOS), I was HOOKED, big time.  By February, 1995, I was out taking every Internet course around.  There were not that many.  Every Monday morning I would open my Washington Post  (print) Business Section, look up another Internet course and sign up.  Most didn't do anything but cover e-mail and most used MACs.  I wasted a lot of time but, by that time, I was like a person with a serious addiction.  I had to have an Internet fix daily.  If I was out with buyers during the day, I had to hit the computer immediately upon getting home and sometimes actually stayed connected for 5-6 hours, with that 300 BAUD connection.  Yes ! !   300 Baud connection, on a black DOS output.  But, I survived and after a couple of classes, I started shopping for a web site.  Keep in mind that, even at this time, I had only seen a black screen with white lettering.  I had NOT seen an Internet site.  No matter, I was in the zone and I was shopping for an Internet site.

HOW DID I SELECT THE COMPANY TO DESIGN MY FIRST WEB SITE?
Back to the Monday morning Washington Post (print) Business Section where several companies advertised web design services.  I simply called everyone advertising web site design and the one that talked with me for about 20 minutes listening to what I wanted and why, an interest site for real estate services appealing to relocating home buyers got the job.  I visited with them the next day, gave them $1,500 and signed a one year "maintenance" contract for $450 a month.  Yep, $450 a month for maintenance.  That meant that, once the site was live, I could use $300 in hours for upgrading, editing, etc.  The remaining $150 was hosting.  They had their own servers.  ONE STOP SHOP. Internet services were quite expensive in 1995. 

IF A DUMB PIG CAN FIND A TRUFFLE. . . .  A real stroke of luck was the purchase of the domain "HOMEFINDERS.COM".  Talk about dumb luck.  Needless to say, if I'd known then .. . . .  .   Oh well,  it's too late now and all of the good domains are gone.  I own about 424 of them, but I could have had some prizes back in 1995.

                         Studying the Internet in 1995.

SEO FROM THE GROUND UP
We got the site up and, unfortunately, no one came knocking.  What we, neither the web design company nor myself knew, was that designing a web site and putting it on line doesn't get you anywhere.  After about a month of no action, I was becoming concerned.  So, I took a week off and started studying the Internet.  Guess what I found?  Yahoo, Excite, AltaVista, InfoSeek, Lycos.  YES, this was "B.G.", Before Google.  So, once I discovered search engines, or in the case of Yahoo, a directory, it took me a while to figure out the registration process, meta tags, etc.  What an adventure and a LOT of late night hours.  By September, I was in the Yahoo directory and a civilian employee relocating to MD/VA from Germany found me and sent an e-mail.  She arrived a month later and I sold her a new Pulte town home in Alexandria, Virginia.  We settled in December 1995.  My first Internet sale. 

WHAT DID I LEARN ALONG THE WAY TO THE APPEARANCE OF GOOGLE IN 1998?
I learned that the Internet is a moving target.  It changes constantly.  What worked in 1995-1996 doesn't work today.  To remain productive with Internet advertising, you must watch, read, study, test and learn.  Don't believe that because you are well ranked on Google today that you will be tomorrow.  Back in 1995, a meta title could easily be 10-15 words or more.  A meta description was generally around 40-50 words or more.  Meta keywords were easily 200 words more or less.  Try that today and you run the risk of being dumped by Google for keyword spamming.  Times have changed.  Fortunately, real estate practice hasn't changed that much.  However, real estate advertising has come light years into the 21st Century and to succeed today, Internet advertising is almost a must. 

WHAT IS THE NEXT SURPRISE?  First the Internet changed the world.  Then Google changed the Internet.  What next??  Will Active Rain change real estate advertising??  We'll see.