Texas Real Estate Blogs

I was at a real estate mixer recently and one of the questions I got repeatedly was “How to create a single property website” affordably. Well, this is an excellent question since over 80% of homebuyer’s begin looking for homes online, and 28% actually found the home they purchased online, it is important to make sure your listings are well represented on the Internet. But before we get to the answer of how, let’s look at the why a little closer so that when you do create a single property website, it will have maximum exposure.

So here is what we know about where a buyer found the home they purchased according to the most recent Texas Profile of Buyer’s and Sellers Survey conducted by NAR:

1. 36% from real estate agent
2. 28% from the Internet
3. 10% from Yard Sign
4. 2% from a print / newspaper ad
5. Less than 1% from a home book or magazine

Now, the 36% you have covered from just placing you home in MLS, but what about the resources homebuyer’s use. Are you still placing expensive ads in the newspaper or the local real estate magazine? Are you still doing direct mail postcards to the farm area? If you are, good luck, because consumers are telling us that they don’t look there. They look to the Internet, and plenty of them are still driving around where they want to live looking at curb appeal and getting info off your sign. So as consumer’s behavior’s change, an agent’s marketing needs to adjust. Old school techniques just don’t wok anymore.

Buyers today have more choices than ever before in doing online listing searches. There is of course the old standby, Realtor.com, but now there are many other choices, such as Trulia, Zillow, Roost, Craigslist, Rotten Neighbor, Oodle, Hotpads, your broker’s website, and the one I am most curious about, Google Base. With buyers having so many choices, trying to keep pace as a agent can be overwhelming and time consuming. I have many a agent tell me “its not worth my time, and besides my broker does it already.” Well, I must admit, I find this response distressing, because as a listing agent, you have a duty to your client to ensure that you maximize their home’s exposure in the the places most buyers are looking. Plus if many broker’s that place their listing on these sites, do not provide the agent contact information, they only have their Internet lead or relocation department, do think you will ever see that prospective home buyer?

Ok, now we have that question answered, but what about all those websites I mentioned above. Isn’t that going to cost me a lot of money and a lot of time to get on those websites? The answer. Not at all. As a matter of fact you can a create an online property listing and have it listed on all those websites in 10 minutes and a total cost of $0 dollars. How does that sound to you? So let’s learn about how to do that and then I am going to show you how to take that free online listing and convert it to a single property website for $3.19! Interested, then follow these simple instructions:

1. Go to Vflyer.com. (click here for video demo)
2. Create a free account that will allow you to post and syndicate your listing to all the real estate search websites consumers use for up to five listings. (if you have more they have a premium service for $12.95 that allows for up 10 listings, $19.95 for 25)
3. Choose the correct flyer type (house for sale, condo for sale, land for sale, etc.)
4. Fill in the info about your listing
5. Add pictures
6. Add contact info
7. Add links, such as a free virtual tour, your blogsite from Texas Real Estate Blogs maybe?
8. Hit publish at the bottom of the page
9. That’s it. Your Listing has now been sent to all the real estate search websites and for free.

Now, with the Vflyer, you actually have a online listing complete with features and a photo gallery, which is what buyer’s want to see. If you want to add a free Virtual Tour, you can do that at FlyInside.com, and add the link to your Vflyer. Now let’s convert this to a single property website like this one at www.22kappcanyon.info.

1. Copy the url address to the Vflyer of your listing. You can do this from the flyer directly or from the menu in Vflyer.
2. Go to GoDaddy.com
3. Type in the street address in for the listing
4. Choose the “.info” name for $2.99 or the “.com” name for $9.99. I use the”.info” all the time, and it works just as well a the”.com”
5. Go to checkout, create your account and pay for the domain address. One note, make sure you do not choose “auto renew” or you will be charged again in one year for a domain you no longer need. Choose manual.
6. Now, you are signed into your Godaddy account, go to manage domains
7. Choose Forward domains
8. Place your Vflyer url as the site to redirect your new domain to
9. Save
10. Wait 20 minutes and you now have a single property website you can market.

Easy huh? Now you have a domain name for your property, what do you do with it? Here are some tips…

1. Buy a sign rider with the new property domain
2. On all of your print flyers, make sure they have the domain name on them
3. Place a link on your website or blogsite if you do not already have it featured there
4. If you do decide to use direct mail or advertise it in a print publication, make sure the new domain is there, for buyers to get more information and let it stand out

That’s it. You now have a single property website in about 20 minutes and for less that $5. If you want a single property website like this, but you don’t have the time, just contact us with the MLS link and we will do it for you for $15, including the “.info” domain, or $20 for a “.com”.

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