Over the last few weeks, however, the tangible benefit to the consumer became more and more apparent.

David Knox, one of the more entertaining real estate trainers around, likes to say that to succeed in real estate, you often don’t need to be the best. You simply need to be the one who is there. Leadrouter guarantees the listing agent will be there. Or, at worst, another agent should the listing agent be one of the hundreds of agents who choose not to answer their cell phones (another rant for another day.)

When someone asks for more information on a listing they see on Century 21.com, my company’s local site MovePhoenix.com or, by extension, on either Trulia or Google (both of which link back to the Century 21 listing page), the listing agent’s cell phone will ring. An automated service will provide them with the prospective buyers’ name, phone number and/or e-mail, depending on what they provided. In many cases, we’ll be able to reach the prospective buyer even before they shut down their web browser.

This should be powerful stuff to a seller, knowing questions about their property will be answered as they arise and that we’ll be in touch with those people most interested in their home. Rather than simply sending the marketing into the greater world of the Internet and waiting for e-mail questions, which rarely happen, we have a chance to be a little more proactive in selling our listings and qualifying prospective buyers.

At this stage, Century 21 Arizona Foothills is the only Century 21 franchise locally who will be using Leadrouter. The system went active yesterday and some calls already have come in (though not to me, oddly enough … with 19 listings, you’d think the odds would be more in my favor, but I digress.)

The added exposure of Leadrouter also places a premium on maximizing a listing’s potential on Century21.com … having as many photographs as possible handy, adding the virtual tours, creating slide shows. Anything and everything to attract a potential buyer.