Todd Tarson goes flat fee for buyers. I’ll be interested to hear how this flies in the high desert. Inlookers, Mohave County, where Todd works, is boom country. The new bridge over the Colorado is expected to turn the SR-93 corridor from Kingman to the river into bedroom communities for Las Vegas — which is running out of land. You might consider giving Todd one day of your Vegas vacation to take a closer look.
Greg Tracy at BlueRoof.com asks: What if Zillow Got Serious? Indeed. This is what makes Fidelity’s half-baked AVM interesting, actually. They already have the title farm, and they already have the Realtor relationships. This could be fun…
Jay Reifert, a true buyers-only agent in Madison, Wisconsin, sent me a link to a form buyers can use to cling to their unrepresented status. Jay has a lot more at his real estate reform web site.
RSS Pieces advises us that it is a myth that stand-alone web sites for listings drive traffic. This is probably true in the large. It is certainly false from an incremental and long-term perspective. But the real point is: So what? The purpose of a discrete web site for a home is not to drive traffic but to sell that house. Do they work? Oh, good lord, yes! Lately, I’ve read a number of tone-deaf observations on this subject, and I don’t know if the writers just don’t get it or if they’re playing dumb to rationalize playing it cheap. Here’s how you do this: You have a summary listing on your main web site, just like everyone else, except that the summary links to the stand-alone site for that particular listing. Now you have searchability at your main site and a link back from the satellite site, marginally improving your Page rank. More importantly, you have knocked the socks off your seller, your prospective buyers and the entire neighborhood. We sell to people, not Google. Don’t forget.
The Phoenix Real Estate Guy has a new “Ask the Lenders” feature, which I think is a rockin’ idea.
And: Jim Cronin at The Real Estate Tomato asks: “Who Are You Blogging For?” I have news for you, you can tell me if it’s good news or bad news: If you’re writing a real estate weblog, you’re blogging for people who are fanatical about real estate. Who would that be? Realtors, lenders and the vendors who live off their business. Bubbleheads and people on the bubble about bubbleheadedness. Real estate investors. That’s it. There might be some peeking-in/checking-up traffic from past clients, and perhaps some dedicated fans. There will be drop-ins from people shopping for Realtors, but they will not become dedicated readers. How do I know this? Because they don’t care. You can tell who cares about your weblog by looking at your Technorati links. There are 55 million weblogs out there, but the only ones linking to you are produced by other real estate fanatics. That’s not a wave. That’s the water…
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate marketing
Jay Thompson says:
“More importantly, you have knocked the socks off your seller, your prospective buyers and the entire neighborhood. We sell to people, not Google. Don’t forget.”
Sage advice — that seems to get lost sometimes.
If you “win” a listing by providing a stand alone site, then isn’t it worth it even if NO ONE EVER VISITS THE SITE? Even marginally “tech savvy” sellers love the idea. Those that are even more astute will realize that the stand alone site alone won’t sell the house, just like a yard sign, being in the MLS, or “just listed” marketing alone won’t sell the house.
It’s another tool in the arsenal–and a tool that can separate you and the listing from 46,000 other ones. Separation is good. We had a stand alone site for a listing and the buyers actually insisted on paying for the hosting AFTER the sale closed. They kept it up for almost two years. Why? They were first time buyers and so proud of their new home. The site was a great way to share their joy with friends and family. They weren’t even our clients, but I strongly suspect that if/when they go to sell that home that we’ll get a call…
BTW, thanks for the nod. We’ll see how it works out. If nothing else, it’s another tool in the arsenal…
November 18, 2006 — 9:56 am
Greg Swann says:
> They weren’t even our clients, but I strongly suspect that if/when they go to sell that home that we’ll get a call…
Bingo! And then everything from the old site becomes the “before” pictures for the new revision.
We host our sites forever, no charge. Sellers and buyers go back again and again, and, as you note, we’re the obvious choice to list the home the next time. Plus which, every link into your main site helps. If you search “BloodhoundRealty.com” right now, two of our stand-alone sites come up in the top ten.
November 18, 2006 — 10:04 am
REBlogGirl says:
As always Greg, excellent list of resources. The BlueRoof Zillow and Jim Cronin’s articles came at a very timely moment for me. Thank you for sharing your finds.
November 18, 2006 — 3:59 pm
REBlogGirl says:
Also, I can certainly see the benefit to getting the listing of SPS sites- a lot of Realtors have told me how much they love them and if the cost is low enough I can see that that would make sense. My concern is simply that I have seen a number of companies promoting these sites at higher costs and promising thengs that just aren’t possible in terms of Internet visibility. I know you do SPS blogs and I love that idea. Others are using redirects to SPS pages on their own sites. Those ideas I also think have real merit. It’s the SPS companies I take issue with.
November 18, 2006 — 7:20 pm
Real Estate Blog Marketing says:
Greg-
On fanatics….
I believe that the vast majority of buyers and sellers do not hang out online. Most can’t tell you what a blog is or isn’t. Except it is a website.
They are transient by nature meaning that once their interest wanes they are off running their lives.
This part I think is glossed over by most.
As you say, the point in all this gyration of blogging, website launching etc is to sell a house.
Many have their own ideas on how to get to that point of sale. But I think most get lost in the tactics of the web, instead of exploring it from an overall vision and strategy for their business.
November 19, 2006 — 10:10 am
Todd Tarson says:
Thanks for the mention Greg, and of course taking one day out of a vaction to Vegas and visiting me is a much better gamble than the ones offered in those fancy buildings on the Strip.
I know you haven’t had all that much success with your buyer flat fee program as of yet (unbelievable apathy I guess).
I think that I won’t be giving my buyers the option, I will be forcing negotiation on them before we get started on the quest to buy property. I’ve talked to an investor through the emails and let him know that I would even lower my flat fee rate if he buys multiple properties. He is very excited about it and plans to be a client early next year.
November 19, 2006 — 10:12 am