Too many Realtors - both newbies and even seasoned veterans - rely exclusively on their broker's resources and tools for Internet marketing. Primary among them is having a page or subdomain on their broker's Website. "What's wrong with that?" you ask. Nothing...unless that is your primary identity on the Internet.
Under these circumstances, every investment in time and money you make to drive traffic to your presence on your broker's site is building search engine popularity for your broker's organization, not you. So if your primary Internet presence is just a Webpage on your broker's site (e.g., www.xyzbroker.com/jones.html) or a subdomain (e.g., http://jones.xyzbroker.com), Google ascribes ranking credit to the main URL (www.xyzbroker.com). The broker wins big, especially if you are investing money to bring traffic to the site.
And what happens if you leave your broker for another office or decide to go independent? You basically start all over in terms of Internet visibility. You former broker continues to harvest the search engine brownie points and leads coming to his site, even though you are no longer there.
That is why it is so important for Realtors to launch their own Website as soon as possible. Building Internet visibility takes a long time, especially in a competitive field like real estate. But once you have your own domain name and site, your online presence is intact regardless of how much you may move around. Equally important, you are building your own brand and market following.
Today, cost and the lack of technical skills are no longer obstacles to Realtors having their own Websites. Domain names cost under $10 annually. Website hosting services can be obtained for under $5 monthly. And major hosting services offer a number of templates and easy-to-use customization tools to build simple sites. Plus, they include free email accounts that use your own URL (e.g., jane@janesfinehomes.com). If you need more than a basic site, hire an affordable consultant to add an MLS interface, flash banners, video, landing pages for promotions, email newsletters, etc.
Real estate is a business. Realtors should invest in their own - not the broker's - business from the start. Sure, use any productivity tools (like Top Producer) that your broker may provide free to you, but also take advantage of inexpensive third-party solutions and services to enhance your productivity, differentiate yourself, capture sales leads and build an online presence. Invest in yourself and your own business for ultimate success!
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