In a tough real estate market, agents and realtors need to have an edge when trying to market listings. It can be argued that this edge should be present in any type of market climate, and that is a very good argument indeed. But what better time to start?
While Classified Flyer Ads offers several tools to help real estate professionals obtain that marketing edge, one of the most innovative and sought after tool is the single property website. Put simply, a single property site uses a property's physical address as the website url. For example, if your client lives at 723 Mulberry Lane, the website address for their listing would be www.723MulberryLane.com.
There are three major advantages to having a single listing website:
1) It makes you look good. Your clients will be impressed that you provide a website that is dedicated exclusively to their property for sale. Impressed clients make for great word-of-mouth advertising. 2) It makes the property look good. With the listing placed on an exclusive website, homebuyers will notice the professionalism be encouraged to see the property as valuable. 3) It makes the property accessible. The single property website url can be posted on the sale yard signs and marketing materials for the listing. Any onlookers driving by or recipients of the listing flyers can easily browse the website for photos and info about the property.
At ClassifiedFlyerAds.com, single property websites range from $8.99 to $19.99 and come with your branding, local area information, maps, school data, and more. Members can simply choose the single property site add-on after creating their online flyer. No additional setup is needed!
I work in marketing and communications for ClassifiedFlyerAds.com, focusing on tools and internet technology for real estate professionals. Our most popular tools offer competitive search engine placement and online listing distribution to over 30 real estate directories. We also offer blog profile syndication, widgets, and virtual tours - free to all subscribed members.
Candis While I agree that this is good marketing, the same thing can be accomplished via your blog. If you have a highly indexed blog your posts will come up in the serps without any need to spend extra for it :)
Dave - That's great to hear. Hope you have continued success!
Peter - That's a great point. Many times, buyers of the higher end properties have an expectation that there will be a website available with the property details and photos.
Bill - I would bet you have no trouble at all search engine placement Bill ;) And you're right, a properly developed blog is a great way to rank better. I do however, like the image, simplicity, and exclusivity (outside of the SEO world) that single property sites offer.
Kathy & Terry - SEO is a great addition to my list! As Bill mentioned above, a great blog, among other things, is also a good way to get the "juice" for no cost. I like the single property websites for the other benefits they offer as well.
Lynsey - They are valuable indeed, and truly set agents apart and impress a potential client. And while I'm not an agent myself, I have worked with many who really love single property sites and have benefitted from them.
My goodness, just when I thought I was doing good--learning my way around this site something else comes up. what is "highly indexed blog your posts will come up in the serps..."
There is a lot of decent stuff out there that is "free". What you need to determine is what is included for "free", or yet a better question is, what is not included for "free"?
Aida - Thanks for stopping by! He hehe. Don't worry, just take it a day at a time. The phrase you are referencing is referring to how a blog comes up in search results from Google, Yahoo, etc. Just keep at it :)
Melissa - Thanks for commenting! Yes, all of our listing flyers have a FREE website as well, however, if you want the domain name customized with the property address, then there is a charge, which, I believe, is the case with Realbird as well. The term "single property website" is used very loosely around the web as any listing with a website, for instance, www.listings.realbird.com/Real_Estate/Luxury-Grover-Beach-CA-Home/Grover/CA/D29871/5280.aspx (sample url only), however, can you imagine trying to give someone that web address over the phone or in a conversation? When you have a "single property website" with the property address as the url, I believe it adds real value and a marketing advantage.
SingleLister.com now also offers free single property web sites. Free sites have web addresses on a subdomain (123yourstreet.singlelister.com) with an option to upgrade to a dedicated domain name. (Anytime you get a domain name from anyone, there will be a charge unless someone gets really charitable!)
Hi David, thanks for stopping by. I had not heard of SingleLister.com before, but did check out the service. While they do offer "free" single property websites, there are a few concerns I have with the service:
1. As you stated in your comment, the free version isn't a true single property website, since the domain isn't solely the property address, it has the ".singlelister" after it. One of the main advantages to a single property website is the ease and accessability it provides to buyers and agents, with the property address being the actual and entire url (ie. www.123StreetName.com).
2. There are advertisements not only on the "free" version, but also on the $19.95 version. This allows visitors to that property site to be lead away by other leads, other properties, other agents. That can do more harm than good.
3. The options are limited as to style, with only 4 options to choose from.
I wouldn't say that the service is bad, but as Misty stated above, people really need to consider what they are getting for "free", and more importantly, what they are not getting.
ClassifiedFlyerAds.com has no advertisements on their single property websites, more than 80 styles and colors to choose from, up to 25 photo uploads, included slideshow and virual tour, links to local area information, maps, school data, and perhaps the most valuable part, syndication. All single property website listings are automatically posted to several online real estate directories. $8.99 to $19.99, depending on membership level.
I'd be happy to go into the services in more detail if you wish, just contact me via the form on my profile page.
Candis - it was one of your posts that led me to sign up at Classified Flyer Ads. I agree that single property sites are a wonderful way to showcase properties and Classified Flyer Ads has a nice platform to accomplish that. so if I didn't thank you for the lead before - thanks! :)
I am so glad I ran across this post I was on your site 2 days ago and thought I bookmarked it to come back to later and realized I didn't. But I have now I look forward to working with you and your company and single site web pages. Did someone say SEO juice!! YEA!!
Marie - Glad you found us! I hope all works out great for you... I'd love to hear about your experiences. Let me know if you need help along the way ;)
How is the SEO juice working with these individual sites? Where are they coming up in the search engines? For example, when consumers are searching for: 'aiken sc property'
Hi Kara, thanks for stopping by. To answer your question, over 80% of our single property sites naturally rank on the first page of Google. You can also help your odds if you title the listing relevantly, i.e. "Aiken SC Property" or "Aiken SC Home for Sale" as opposed to something like "Great Deal on a Beautiful Home".
Hope that helped - let me know if you have any other questions!
will check out the site -- some title companies in Southern CA are promoting a couple of other sites that do the same thing -- it is important to get the most exposure possible for your seller.
The LA Times just shut down it's Real Estate section on Sundays -- just couldn't afford to keep it going with the decline in ad revenue --
Kara - Great! Best of luck and just let me know if you need any help.
Scott - Very true, and single property sites really do help with that effort. Let me know if I can help. On your other note, it's a sad picture when one of the largest circulating newspapers shut down their Real Estate section... best of luck to you.
I tried to talk an Agent I work for into this, but she was concerened that she'd need to buy sign riders for each of her listings with the single-property web address on it. Do you all do that? Or do passers-by go home and google the address and get to the single-property website that way?
Hi Elena - Some of the agents use sign riders, some don't :) From my point of view, having a sign rider is an added benefit and makes the listing that much more accessible to buyers. However, even without a sign rider, the single property address can be placed on postcards, flyers and other printed marketing material, as well as spoken and remembered easily. But to answer your question (finally), we don't sell sign riders at ClassifiedFlyerAds. Best of luck to you!
Hi Candis, great post! I do everything I can to mention this great medium of marketing an agent's listing and love the google "juice" it provides. Sellers really love this because it makes them feel the agent is truly highlighting and marketing their listing. Will have to chat with you more on how I can promote this more on my website - lets plan to do so soon - ok? By the way, love the new pic - you are too cool for words!! ~ Anne Marie
Hey Anne Marie! I'd love to "chat" with you anytime :) Thanks for the kudos on the new pic too... I was in a silly mood yesterday and made them for everyone in the office!
I think this is a waste of time and money. Each of my listings has its own page on my site. I can make the domain whatever I want and can put the link directly to the listing everywhere I want. What is the point of this service?
Hi Zane and Connie - In my opinion, a single property site that uses a url that is the same as the property address offers several advantages (as outlined above). For example, using one of the featured listings from your website, let's compare the existing web address that is used to feature it with what a single property web address would look like:
http://www.lascrucesnmproperties.com/Las_Cruces/New_Mexico/Homes/Dona_Ana_South/North_Valley/Agent/Listing_1869608.html (Existing web address)
or
www.134RoeDeer.com(Potential Single Property Address)
The second one is much cleaner to use for printed and online marketing material, and easier for potential buyers and other agents to remember (can you imagine trying to remember the first one ;)
Also, the single property sites at ClassifiedFlyerAds come with a free virtual tour, widgets, and a built-in link menu with all sorts of useful info for buyers, such as school and census data, maps, local area info, calculator and more.
They're not for everyone, and if you've found a system that works for you, then that's great! All the best!
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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Hi Candis, I couldn't agree with you more. I just started them and I am getting a lot of hits. My clients have been very impressed with how they look.
Dave