Old Things Pass Away
Sometimes you just have to say good-bye.
Sometimes it is just not working out the way you hope it would or the way it started out working.
I found myself in that position for the last three years and I finally just did it.
I got a new web-site. Now that you can relax and know I am still happily married after 31 years let me tell you about the journey.
We start out with a web-site, don’t know much about SEO, source code, writing, buyer’s behavior, sellers behavior, key words etc… But, as we grow we learn more and more and realize that the old is just not working as it did a few years ago.
In my situation I had been with Number1Expert since 1999. At first I was one of four other agents in Ann Arbor.I got a lot of leads and although the site was expensive it more than paid for itself. In fact I closed 10-12 transactions from it each year. Like most Realtors I don’t mind paying for marketing IF it is working and for years it was.
Make Way for New Things
But, times change, people change, companies are bought and sold, and we grow. I found myself frustrated having to wait for a web-master to change things that I had learned how to do.
So after debating with myself for three years, I made the change.
Loyalty can be good or bad, right?
I hung on…debated…gave them opportunity to grow and evolve with Social Media, blogging etc… it just wasn’t going to happen.
New Wine
In the Real Estate Industry things change too. We are dealing with banks, short sales, loan mod’s and foreclosures. Yea, I didn’t want to do that either and use to refer them out. But, found out in my area, if I was going to still be successful I had to embrace them.
Learning and growing requires change. You know the saying, “you can’t put new wine in an old wineskin, or it will break and crack the skin and the wine will spill out.”
New is exciting, fun and yes stretching. I can now inform the consumer about all the neighborhoods and subdivisions available in my area. If I was relocating, I would want to know what a neighborhood looked like, what price range of homes were there, what the style of homes were, and what the market trends were in an area.
Just like the photo, the old must move out of the way so new growth can come.
What new things are you currently adding or changing in your business?
