Housing News
Using Tumblr.com as a Single Property Website
You may have been hearing for years that when you get a listing, you need to create a single property website, a URL devoted exclusively to the listing, typically in the fashion of 1234MainStreet.com, sometimes in the fashion of TheKettleHouse.com. The benefit is having a specific website to put on print marketing when you mail or flyer the neighborhood without clients having to dig through blog content or website buttons to get to the meat.
This article was originally published on July 28, 2009.
Some people use single property websites as a SEO move, but I think it’s best used as a fluff-less destination for buyers of a particular property.
The good stuff
Some GOOD things I can tell you about using tumblr.com as a single property website:
- It is ridiculously easy to sign up for an account.
- You have the option to point a URL you can purchase to your account (so it says 1234.com instead of 1234.tumblr.com).
- There are a number of themes to choose from and you have customization options with colors, sidebar content (you can put widgets on the sidebar).
- Tumblr is mobile phone friendly and can be used easily by passerbys.
- Tumblr has a community behind it; regardless of how robust, tumblr sites are designed for sharing and ease of posting.
- You don’t have to know any code to create a site.
- You can take pictures of a listing from your phone and upload it to tumblr without any formatting, so you can essentially mobile blog on the go.
The bad stuff:
I like Tumblr a lot, but it has its downsides:
- As opposed to paid sites like MyMarketWare.com, it is not designed specifically for real estate SEO, so you have to manually figure out what details to include and there are no “fill in the blanks” on tumblr.
- You don’t own your content, tumblr does. There’s always a downside to not owning your own content given that ownership implies complete control.
- Many of the themes don’t support sidebar information which I believe is critical to a single property website (should have basic contact info and be used as a place for compliance).
- While the skin of the site is flexible, the functionality doesn’t compare to say, WordPress as a content management system.
Here is what it looks like setting your blog up:
Seven themes to consider:
There are many themes/skins to choose from, below are seven that support having a sidebar (remember, you need this so your contact info is front and center) and are not overly whimsical or overly simple. Go play with the actual site at 1234MainStreet.com.
There are several ways to make a single property website- MyMarketWare, Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, Posterous, etc. so it is important to experiment with ways to gain exposure for your listings and do it without looking like your site is antique or too shamwowie.
AgentGenius.com is not affiliated with Tumblr.com or MyMarketWare.com.
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With aging housing in America, are first-time buyers better off buying new or existing homes? The average age of a home is rising, as is the price of new housing, so a shift could be upon us.
The average home age is higher than ever
(REALUOSO.COM) – In a survey from the Department of Housing and Urban Development American Housing Survey (AHS), the median age of homes in the United States was 35 years old. In Texas, homes are a bit younger with the median age between 19 – 29 years. The northeast has the oldest homes, with the median age between 50 – 61 years. In 1985, the median age of a home was only 23 years.
With more houses around 40 years old, the National Association of Realtors asserts that homeowners will have to undertake remodeling and renovation projects before selling unless the home is sold as-is, in which case the buyer will be responsible to update their new residence. Even homeowners who aren’t selling will need to consider remodeling for structural and aesthetic reasons.
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Click here to continue reading this story…
Housing News
Are Realtors the real loser in the fight between Zillow Group and Move, Inc.?
The last year has been one of dramatic and rapid change in the real estate tech sector, but Realtors are vulnerable, and we’re worried.
Why Realtors are vulnerable to these rapid changes
(REALUOSO.COM) – Corporate warfare demands headlines in every industry, but in the real estate tech sector, a storm has been brewing for years, which in the last year has come to a head. Zillow Group and Move, Inc. (which is owned by News Corp. and operates ListHub, Realtor.com, TopProducer, and other brands) have been competing for a decade now, and the race has appeared to be an aggressive yet polite boxing match. Last year, the gloves came off, and now, they’ve drawn swords and appear to want blood.
Note: We’ll let you decide which company plays which role in the image above.
So how then, does any of this make Realtors the victims of this sword fight? Let’s get everyone up to speed, and then we’ll discuss.
1. Zillow poaches top talent, Move/NAR sues
It all started last year when the gloves came off – Move’s Chief Strategy Officer (who was also Realtor.com’s President), Errol Samuelson jumped ship and joined Zillow on the same day he phoned in his resignation without notice. He left under questionable circumstances, which has led to a lengthy legal battle (wherein Move and NAR have sued Zillow and Samuelson over allegations of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and misappropriation of trade secrets), with the most recent motion being for contempt, which a judge granted to Move/NAR after the mysterious “Samuelson Memo” surfaced.
Salt was added to the wound when Move awarded Samuelson’s job to Move veteran, Curt Beardsley, who days after Samuelson left, also defected to Zillow. This too led to a lawsuit, with allegations including breach of contract, violation of corporations code, illegal dumping of stocks, and Move has sought restitution. These charges are extremely serious, but demanded slightly less attention than the ongoing lawsuit against Samuelson.
2. Two major media brands emerge
Last fall, the News Corp. acquisition of Move, Inc. was given the green light by the feds, and this month, Zillow finalized their acquisition of Trulia.
…Click here to continue reading this story…
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jennifer rathbun
July 28, 2009 at 5:46 pm
So how is this better/different than wordpress. Granted, I read thison my phone & I may have missed something.
Lani Rosales
July 28, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Jen, better: easier, less work; worse: you don’t own content, less customization, far inferior as a CMS.
Carrie Isaac
July 28, 2009 at 5:58 pm
The disadvantage that I’m seeing, at least initially, is that you’re putting these in as a blog post *with a date*, which means it’s going to immediately be obvious how long it’s been on the market. Is there an option to select a page (as opposed to a post) as the landing page?
We use WordPress for single listing sites and love its flexibility. Has a *little bit* of a learning curve, but well worth it.
Mark Jacobs
July 28, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Great Post, will give it a try.
Lani Rosales
July 28, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Carrie, it does not have an option to disable dates. There are many downsides to tumblr as there are to any service. This is a good option for those who don’t have time/care/ability to learn a new service as it’s a point&click freebie.
Mark Eckenrode
July 30, 2009 at 2:02 pm
nice and snazzy and perfect for those who aren’t interested in paying the bucks or designing their own. great tip
Michael @ My Single Property Websites
July 30, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Great post Lani. Another thing to keep in mind is automatic syndication to sites such as Zillow and Trulia. Most single property website providers offer this these days. Though a lot of brokerages already syndicate their agent’s listings, so maybe not that important to everyone.
Andrew Mooers
June 6, 2010 at 1:11 pm
“antique or too shamwowie” are both bad conditions whether it’s your blog, website, podcast, vebcast or social media “look”, “style”, “functionality”.
a tip
August 21, 2010 at 3:00 am
i get that this is an old article, so people have probably figured it out by now. don’t use this site for your home listing. it’s seriously for young hipsters, and buyers WILL NOT take you seriously no matter how much you customize the page, even if you do use a specific url without “tumblr.” in it.
if you want to remove the date look for the “permalink” coding in the “customize ccs” or “data” option in the themes section once you’re on the customize page.
i have never once looked at a tumblr user who is advertising something (alone) on their tumblr page (as in, a specific tumblr for “x” (real estate, apparel, automobiles, etc.) and thought they were good business.
Agent for Movoto
January 3, 2011 at 6:46 pm
For anything that’s Image-heavy, I think Tumblr is the way to go. Also, the way in which you can interact with other users is fresh and easy – they can re-post in a way that’s kind of like a re-Tweet, but the traditional “comment” box is still an option.
Amanda Cornelius
January 4, 2011 at 12:54 pm
LisitngDomains.com includes a sign rider, craigslist posting tool, video builder, PDF flyer builder, feedback system, widgets, blog flyer (I could go on here…. ). And is so quick and easy to setup. Shameless plug I know 😉