Yesterday I spent an hour-plus talking to two agents in my office about what they could do to try and attract business. Our broker (rightly) persists that listings are the key – you need the listings to generate buyers. Having had a couple of dozen listings this year and listened to my phone not ringing off the hook with ready, willing and able buyers, I’m not as convinced.
The old notion of cornering the market, except in the most hyper-local of circumstances, is fading away. There are exceptions … Russell Shaw remains the Valley’s two-ton gorilla, augmented by a consistent television ad campaign few of us can afford to watch much less initiate. But the Internet as a whole, and IDX in particular, allows enterprising agents to capitalize on anyone’s listings in an effort to attract buyers.
IDX isn’t sufficient, of course. These two agents have a really pretty website designed by Superlative. Superlative sites are terrible from an SEO standpoint and so their website sits virtually untouched. (That they’ve added no content of their own doesn’t help.)
Merely being on the web isn’t enough if no one knows you’re on the web. Yet many agents don’t take the extra step of making sure their presence is known. Further, they spend a lot of time, energy and most of all money on quaint marketing ideas that have virtually no real sticking power.
(Quick intermission … I’m meandering. I know it. I also drank a bottle of Merlot last night and am enjoying the morning-after-glass-of-water redux.)
Much is made of the need for a Web 2.0-type site versus a basic real estate sales site but that’s not necessarily true. My site for Westbrook Village, an active adult community in Peoria, Arizona, has been a gold mine the last few months. And why? Because it has the area’s only IDX listings feed for the Village with no registration required.
Very basic, very effective.
This isn’t to say life on the web is perfect. I’m only now recovering from a year-long beat down from Yahoo! for daring to have reciprocal links on my site. Three months ago I took off the links and Yahoo! loves me again (page one for Phoenix Arizona Real Estate.) You have to be able to adapt.
Much of that adaptation, in my humble opinion, comes online. It’s simply the most cost-efficient form of marketing available to those willing to invest the time. And time is almost more important than technical knowledge.
Tech expertise isn’t necessary. Blogging isn’t necessary.
Desire to succeed is, as is a rudimentary understanding of what works and what doesn’t.
It’s far better to spend little and fail online than spend thousands failing on magnets and fliers and open houses and newspaper ads and magazine ads …
(Okay, the merlot is wearing off.)
