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Meet Some REALTORs(R) with Hot Lead Generating Point2 Sites

All of you who are Point2 members are invited to join in on a coaching session this Thursday. We're doing something new for Point2, a roundtable style Q&A session that will include several of my clients who have great lead generating sites.

My guest speakers will include:

Barbara Reeves, BarbaraReevesRealtor.com, BarbaraSellsDaphne.com

Joe Janus, JoeJanus.com

Wayne Collens, who manages his and his wife Kim's brokerage site RockiesWest.ca

Linda Jefferson, GoArmyHomes.com

Diana Russell, RealEstateUtah.com

It's from 1 to 2 pm Eastern this Thursday, May 8. If you are interest in listening in, contact Tanya Spilchak at Point2: tspilchak@point2.com

This will be a great opportunity for you to interact with and learn from some REALTORs(R) who've done a great job using their Web sites to grow their businesses.

Posted by Suzanne Stephens ~ Point2Agent Approved Web Designer on 05/06/2008 09:22 PM

Comments (23)

point2 web sites, custom design for point2 web sites

Post is included in group: Point 2 Agent Sites

23 Comments on Meet Some REALTORs(R) with Hot Lead Generating Point2 Sites

MAY

2008

Hi Suzanne,

What template are these agents using to get the look of these? I have recently upgraded my website to the professional, but am having a hard time getting a custom look.

Hi Pam, I used the Stealth template as a starting point for all these sites, but I do such extensive custom design that the template is no longer recognizable.

wow! you're right, they look great!

Frank Bailey

Frank, thank you!

MAY

2008

They look terrific Suzanne!

Thank you, Pam!

JUN

2008

Hi Suzanne - I wasn't able to make this call and I think I might have missed any follow up post. If you wrote a re-cap, can you post the link? Thanks!

JUN

2008

Hi Debbie, I haven't written a follow-up though I should have... but you've reminded me that I need to email Tanya again to hassle her about posting the recording of the session.

Hassle away! I'd love to read or *hear* what this group had to say. Diana Russell still has one of my all time favorite sites!

Debbie, I heard back from Tanya this morning that she has encountered some technical difficulties and still does not have the recording up.

Our experiment with "open mic" Q&A format was partially successful; we had to get everyone to mute their phones to eliminate an echo. That situation cut into our time, which meant that each speaker only had a few minutes.

I need to get to work this morning, but here's a brief summary of what two speakers said:

I was wonderfully surprised that Wayne Collens, who was the most reluctant participant, turned out to be a very articulate and informative speaker. His story is a wonderful testament to the potential offered by a well-managed web site. His wife, Kim Collens, did over 70 sides from her site that he manages last year (KimCollens.com). Last fall, he and Kim bought her brokerage, then hired me to design the brokerage site (RockiesWest.com). They took the unusual step of requiring all their agents to have Point2 Professional sites using the custom design for their brokerage site.

Wayne is also unusually willing to commit financial resources to their sites; they regularly spend enough on AdWords and Yahoo to keep their sites on page 1 even though they are also on page 1 organically. He feels that relying on organic placement is risky because of unpredictable search algorithm changes, so he uses pay per click to ensure first page placement. His attitude towards investment in the web marketing seems to be, "sure, it's expensive, but it pays for itself with only one transaction so it would be foolish not to spend the money."

Linda Jefferson (GoArmyHomes.com) told us that many of her prospects think that her site is an official service offered by the Army at Fort Sill and think it's really cool that the Army offers that service. It's not an official site, of course, even though the base commandant has been very supportive of her efforts and appreciates her public service work in support of local soldiers. She talked about her experience selling several homes sight-unseen to military families overseas who were preparing to redeploy to Fort Sill. She closed these sales by sending the buyers very detailed videos of the houses they bought.

JUN

2008

Hi Suzanne,

Thanks for the invite over here in the P2 thread.

Agents....a site with good search optimization brings in raw visitors. A site with well-presented design makes that visitor more confident in YOU. They turn into leads.

Sites that look like they were built in 1996 tend to turn people off.

JUN

2008

These sites look great.....what does point 2 agent cost RE agents?

-Bryan Flynn

Thanks Bryan! Here's a link to Point2's pricing info. Customization is significantly extra, of course. Either the Professional or Premium package is required for customization. The Professional package is suitable for most individual agents or small teams. I also recommend that agents use one of the good IDX listings packages such as DiverseSolutions.com, MLSFinder.com, etc. and investing in SEO work.

Yes Suzanne makes some awesome sites!!! Suzanne, what do you think of the IDX offered by point2?

Thanks Frank! Point2 does not offer IDX. Point2 has it's own listing system --NLS -- which replaces MLS in some countries or areas of countries such as Canada and Mexico that don't have MLS. Point2's listing system is great for a nice featured homes presentation and handshake listings, and awesome for syndication, but it does not replace IDX.

I see, maybe I don't really know what IDX is then. I've found a way to have people look at our MLS through my site, but I'm taking it that's not the full IDX.

IDX means "internet data exchange" (or something like that). So the data feed from your MLS is an IDX feed. However, there are some companies that download data from a number of MLS boards, then do a better job presenting it than the average MLS board feed. Fees vary from upwards of $30-40 a month, and not all services are available in all areas. Examples of IDX services that can be iframed in Point2 sites include:

DiverseSolutions.com

IDXBroker.com

MLSFinder.com

1ParkPlace.com

IDXPro

Services such as this are usually much better for lead capture than the freebie services typically offered by MLS services.

JUN

2008

Hi Suz,

As you know, when it comes to the search engine optimization, it's important to have properly presented landing pages.

We've built a tool that makes it much easier afor agents, webmasters, and SEO advisors to put out a well-formatted landing page, with good, keyword-rich content. These can be easily incorporated into a P2 site, using the page editing tools.

Please see here:

http://www.domaindrivers.com/pagegumbo/pagegumbo-test.asp
http://www.domaindrivers.com/pagegumbo/pagegumbo.asp

The first link is an "example" page, and the second is a live tool that you can use at anytime. The tool forces agents to put more of the secondary real-estate related keywords on their pages.