Going to the NAR Convention in San Diego last weekend was a true eye opener for this blogger. This was the first big convention that I have attended and I can now see what great opportunities are made available by just being present. I was disappointed that my team did not see Brad Anderson to make his list of the "Best of Nar 2009 Expo" but maybe next time we'll catch his eye and can have the opportunity to wow him with our real estate technology and get to know each other personally.
We had an overwhelming amount of visitors to the booth and it was exciting to meet with people face to face as I am usually planted in front of my computer or on the telephone with customers.
I had a chance to hear about the needs of real estate agents when it comes to social media integration and Internet visibility but also had opportunities to hobnob with some of the movers and shakers in the industry including representatives of NAR and am pleased to report that they are very generous with their time and knowledge of the industry.
One particular trend that I noticed was that many women Realtors are organizing their own associations to work for the betterment and education of their communities (you go girls!) .
There were a significant amount of emerging entrepreneurs that have assessed the needs of real estate agents and have developed products to meet these needs including one young lady whose booth was directly across from ours named Francesca from Dallas. She developed a product called Dashfly which allows real estate agents to track and route the most efficient course when showing homes. The software plays accountant for you and who doesn't need a little help saving gas and miles?
I was intrigued by many of the new technologies and can really appreciate the fact that people see a need and then develop a solution for that need which describes the story behind the development of our IDX technology.
Most people in real estate cannot win web traffic because there is simply too much competition for just a few keywords. I spent a good portion of my time explaining that the most competitive keywords like "real estate for sale in San Diego" are not necessarily the best keywords to win on. This concept requires a fundamental reprogramming of the traditional approach to marketing.
The longtail (non-competitive keywords) trump the traffic from the competitive keywords when there available on a site in numbers. The trick is optimizing for many, many longtail key phrases which our technology does automatically.
Larry Toppenberg, the owner and developer of Dynamic Page Solutions has been in real estate since 1978. He understood very early how the Internet would dominate and replace methods used to buy and sell products, ideas and services including real estate and began the entire development process of this visibility solution for real estate.
We left the convention with sore feet and high expectations and have a mountain of quality contacts to get in touch with. We we're so elated from the response and the open door mentality of many of the brokers we spoke too that we are already making plans for the midyear Trade Expo in Washington, D.C. This will be my first trip to the capital. I'll have to remember to pack my tennis shoes because we will hit the ground running.
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