Real estate agents are busy, busy, busy. Often, it will feel like you’re ending your day with a bigger to-do list than when you started, and it’s all too easy to feel overwhelmed. Although no one wants to admit it, sometimes these busy days can lead to mistakes. While some of these mistakes are more forgivable, like simply forgetting to put up a sold sign, some can be extremely compromising to your business as a whole. Watching these mistakes occur time and time again inspired me to compile this list of the top mistakes I constantly see real estate agents making, and how these mistakes are hurting their business:
1) Trying to appeal to everyone.
Let’s face it-the real estate industry is a saturated market. For every house that needs to be sold, there are about half a dozen drooling agents who have their eyes on the commission. Put yourself in the shoes of a seller for a minute and imagine what kind of agent you would choose to list your suburban 4-bedroom house: an agent who specializes in suburban area listings, or an agent who has listings all across the county? Using this logic, hopefully you can see how an agent who targets a niche market may end up landing more listings, despite the smaller target market.
Honing in on niche markets also helps for SEO purposes. SEO stands for search engine optimization and, put simply, is the process of gaining website traffic organically, through unpaid search results. For real estate agents, trying to get search results with keywords like “location+ real estate" will simply not cut it. By targeting a niche market, you increase the likelihood of showing up in the first few results of a Google search that your specific niche is searching.
On the topic of Google...
2) Using a brokerage template iframe website.
As I’m sure you’re aware, most brokerages provide all their agents and teams with a template iframe-based IDX page for the team/agent’s personal use. While this strategy works well for the brokerage because it provides unified branding and backlinks to the main brokerage site, it is not a good solution for the realtor’s personal SEO. An iframe is basically outdated IDX technology and is useless for an agent’s SEO because of it’s embedded HTML format and because it doesn’t contain up-to-date listings.
Another option is an FTP (file transfer protocol) IDX, but once again this is not ideal because of the infrequent updates with the MLSs. Ideally, you are looking for a RETS (Real Estate Transaction Standard) IDX solution. RETS are easier to use than FTP and update more frequently. I would highly recommend searching outside of your brokerage’s iFrame IDX option for an integrated RETS IDX provider in order to land more buyers and sellers organically, through a Google search.
3) Not making it easy to contact you.
But what is the point of a Google search if no one can figure out how to contact you? I can’t tell you the number of team websites I've visited that force me to search all over the site to find someone’s contact information. And after all that searching, I am directed to an office line where I have to input someone’s extension number...an extension not listed on their website.
Always, always list your (or your team leader’s) office (direct) phone, cell phone, and email on the front page of your web page, preferably before the fold (before the viewer begins scrolling down your page). Make sure to have a “contact us” tab for all members of your team, with each person’s office, cell and email clearly listed next to their name. Bonus points if you put some “get to know me” information next to their name, like where they went to school, how long they've been in real estate, their dog’s name, etc!
4) Not being easy to contact.
Just having your information on your site isn't enough, though. What’s the point of having contact information if every time someone calls or emails you they never get a response? We know you’re busy, but if you’re too busy to deal with potential clients and buyers, then it’s time to consider expanding your team. If you feel you can’t handle a bigger team at the moment, then I would suggest considering some systems to aid in client or buyer communication.
Well, there you have it! 4 of some of the biggest mistakes I see today's real estate agents making all the time. Stay tuned for next week when I give you the final four!
Interested in a client communication system? Check out my company's product, Brivity. We automate client communication so you can get to work on fixing your IDX! Learn more.
Comments (2)Subscribe to CommentsComment