Websites:

WEBSITES:   www.sandiebanni.com

Over the last few years the Real Estate Industry has experienced a huge upsurge in both technology and the use of the internet.

Website marketing has truly taken off and is most definitely here to stay.  It has become another of a Realtors 'Must Have's.'  But, not just any Website will do! Websites absolutely must contain all the information that a Buyer or Seller need in a one stop shopping event.  Critical decisions have to be made regarding just the right colour, design and content.  Competition is fierce.  Content must be interesting, interactive, imaginative and above all, continually tweaked to keep ahead of the pack.

The younger set of Internet savvy consumers expect a lot from Real Estate Websites.  Research statistics tell us that they tend to spend a lot of time surfing the Internet, moving back and forth to numerous sites until they find one or two that interest them and contain the information they are looking for.  Those are the lucky ones that get bookmarked.  Potential Buyers and Sellers like to be able to do their research and get the information that they require within 30 minutes but still keep their anonymity until they decide the time is right for them to act.  Most of the younger consumers prefer to communicate via e-mail rather than telephone in most cases.

If that wasn't enough to worry about, the era of "The Blog" surfaced.  You may well ask yourselves, just what is a Blog?  It is a question that I have asked myself frequently recently as I found myself surfing around trying to do some research on the subject.  Some Realtors appear to use 'Blogs' as a means to advertise 'Open House' information, while others have become very creative with weekly news articles, links to other websites and on and on.  It has become another way of directing more traffic to their websites and keeping them on top of the Google search ranks.  If anyone has time to write 'Blogs' for me that would be great but until then, I think I will concentrate on selling Real Estate.............. Sandie