Thank you Margaret.  As the HomeGain consumer portal changed their offering and evolved online it became more attractive to the consumer with a warm and friendly design it also became more attractive to it's true consumer, real estate agents, by promoting its brand in the foreground and bringing the real estate agents to the forefront, hitting on the basic human drivers by satisfying the need for real estate agents to connect more directly to consumers, offering training, reducing referral fees to be more affordable in a market downturn, adding blogging offerings, etc.

You can view this by just visiting their new program offering which is very much behind the scenes.

Real estate professionals can use this model when considering retooling their website.  Becoming web 2.0 consumer compliant is an increasing necessity in today's internet marketplace.  How can you satisfy the basic human drivers AND knock the ball out of the park?  How can you be remarkable, not a dull drive by, but a purple cow online?

There are many ways.  I have written posts to trigger this thought process and they are referenced in a post I wrote about offering the consumer information that is worthy before requiring registration.  The local real estate agent can move faster than a national corporate machine and can dig deep and go local with your creativity where the national portals cannot.  Local real estate agents are the local beat reporters and innovators.

Therein lies a sea of opportunity.

Brian- Thank you.

Louis- Cold worthless prop, too true.  I am glad to be able to have an example to use to illustrate a crucial point about websites today.  They are more websites of the time machine travels to way back when, rather than the reality of the web now.  Hard to even consider being progressive when you are starting from behind.

Midori- Thank you.  Updating is important, consumers are looking for good advice, but ingenuity catches attention, attention creates sticky.  Stick to prospect to client and so it goes.

Bill- Absolutely, and you do it well.

Gary- I think it's 25%, I could be mistaken.  Corp. takes 40%....some brokers do as well.  Seems pretty reasonable to me, but I am not a HomeGain rep. so I can only tell you from my research.  Thing is, HomeGain used to have a really bad rep. with the real estate agents, u see denoted in my post:  Temptation to the agent.....as they went thru a metamorphosis, a reinvention, they actually started to give a true value proposition to their target market, real estate agents.

That is a huge reason why they proved to be the perfect example I could have for this post...over the years they have evolved their offering...you'll see they have more than one product because they are trying to walk on the same street as their customers.  Their website portal reflects this renewed appreciation for their customers.

This is where real estate professionals need to be.  A portal that reflects innovation and a true value to their customers.  The majority of real estate websites don't come close unfortunately.

Danny- Life's lessons come in many shapes and sizes don't they:-)...some of my biggest come in the forms of three young kids I call my children.

James- Exactly....look at the front door offering and then look at the back door offering.  That is their B2B offering- the real estate agent is truly their target market.

Terry- Up to date is important and be willing to shift and reinvent as needed.

Russel- It could be.  If you take the older examples of the site, they are very much crammed with information and displayed that way.  In the years after, the information is more easily digestable to a consumer because the information is organized well.

Brian,

I agree and I tell you three or four years ago, I wouldn't have written this post or felt the same.  Louis has really turned the organization around because he does care about his consumer, the real estate professional.

That is absolutely refreshing and should be commended.