Freebie of the week...

I have been kicking this around for a little while, and have even extended the offer to a few people... but no takers yet. 

Here is the skinny:

I am finishing up a major overhaul of GarageHomesUSA.com.  It is my real estate website that focuses on homes with really cool garages, garage toys and trends in auto enthusiast garages.  As I go through the site, the one thing it is missing is more garages.  So...

I am willing to FREELY PROMOTE your listing if it has a cool garage!

I would love to have more Atlanta area listings on the site... regardless of the listing agent (obviously, only with permission of the listing agent!), but I also want some cool listings from other parts of the country.  California, Ohio, Florida... wherever!

There are a few strings... like there needs to be some pictures of the garage.  Of course, buyers do still want to see the house, but many agents just forget that the garage is there.  So, provide lots of pictures... including the garage, basement and anything else that might be of interest. 

The next thing is that buyers want to read about the property... and not just a list of bullet points, but something more like ad copy.  Talk about lifestyle, the neighborhood and the amenities of the area... maybe even including proximity to racing venues and other things of interest to auto enthusiasts. 

I also want to include a Google Map of the area, so knowing the address would be good. 

Finally, a link back to the listing from your blog or website would be excellent. 

Please avoid:

• tabled html things like vFlyers.  They break the site styling and won't fit in the various shapes they need to fit in.  Basically, they have to be "disassembled" in order to fit in the site. 
  
• giant monster mega pictures.  Nothing will be displayed larger that 800px wide, so sending an image that is 4000px wide is only wasting bandwidth.  In the actual post, the pics will be smaller, but there will be a slimbox gallery that will open up upon clicking to view the picture larger. 
• gratuitous self promotion.  The post will say that the property is represented by you. In the case of local properties, I would really like to be the selling agent and cooperate on the sale.  In the case of non-local properties, I would love the opportunity to refer the sale.  I'm not going to block access to the listing information or even require registration, but at the same time, the kids need to eat...  If someone calls you directly, cool.  If they call me and want to buy the property, that should be cool too. 
  

Please don't avoid:

• video, panos and interactive virtual tours.  It would be really cool to embed videos and other cool stuff like interactive panoramas from MagToo and interactive floor plans from companies like Obeo.
• letting me know a property has sold.  We certainly don't want people getting frustrated that the properties they are interested in are gone...
• property websites.  Unlike the MLS, you can link to a branded property website... or an unbranded one. 
  

So, Lane... why are you willing to do it for free?

There are a few reasons.  And I am not going to even try to say that it is all altruistic...

• Google Juice.  Think about it.  If I have 50 or 75 real estate websites and blogs pointing to my real estate website, it will pick up page rank, page position and results. 
  
• Content.  Relevent and fresh content that is easy on me to produce. 
  
• Traffic increase.  I get a LOT of auto enthusiast traffic.  I love that.  I get less real estate search traffic... I want to change that.  More real estate content will accomplish that goal.

The bottom line is that there are very few of us (and I mean you and I) on the front edge of social networking and internet marketing promotion.  There is PLENTY of opportunity for all of us in the new paradigm of real estate.  Working together, we can be our market leaders. 

Hyper-local content that is focused on the desired consumer is the key.  Usually, hyper-local means geographic marketing messages.  In this case, hyper-local means lifestyle focused... just like a golf property or an equestrian property. 

What's in it for you?

• How about an additional channel to promote your clients' properties on a national scale?  Granted, I'm not Hemmings Motor News, but it is FREE... 
  
• How about an additional channel to promote yourself as a garage friendly agent on a national scale?  Again, the purpose is to promote the property, but when consumers are looking to list their home they have a tendency to look at other properties to see how they are marketed... and by whom.
• How about possible referral opportunites?  Some will be free, and some might be for a referral fee... but, having properties on the site could mean getting a referral for other properties.  Some of the buyers that may be searching the site might not be able to get the featured property, but they might fit with another property. 

Free Property Promotion