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”.

ShareThis

But it you can’t think of any ideas, no worries, we have a list for Beginners. 104 Blog Topics, which is enough for 2 a week if you don’t repeat a topic, for an entire year. But really there are some than can be weekly and monthly features so that your readers can return to and get updates, such as Bad MLS photo of the week, or monthly Housing stats, or average home prices in your neighborhood. Pick out 4 topics that you can blog about monthly. That = 4 posts. Then pick out 1 that you can do weekly. Now you are up to 8 per month. Then add one unique post per week, and now you have 12 post per month. If you spend 30 minutes per post, that equals only 1.5 hours per week on prospecting via the Internet. So here is your list…good blogging.

1. Average and Median Home Prices In Market

2. Monthly MLS Stats

3. Your New Listings

4. Mortgage Rates

5. Home Builder Reviews - talk about the builder’s you like and why

6. Home Staging - Why is it important? What has been your experience?

7. Subdivision report cards

8. Top 10 Reasons to move to your Market

9. Million Dollar Home of the Week

10. Cost of Living Comparison

11. What is a Home Inspection? Do you need one?

12. Appraisals Explained.

13. Buying Investment Properties

14. Pricing your home right? What does that mean? How does pricing help or hurt?

15. Review of real estate websites (Realtor.com, Zillow.com, Trulia.com, etc..)

16. How we market your home on the Internet

17. How to buy a home with Down Payment Assistance

18. How to interview a agent to meet your needs

19. Your negotiation strategy

20. Local restaurants around your farming area

21. New subdivisions

22. Recap of builder’s buyer incentives

23. Review of local job market

24. What is a home warranty? Should you offer one if your selling? Should you request one if your buying?

25. Local weather and how its affects lifestyle.

26. What is Curb appeal? How do your create it.

27. Selling tips for FSBO’s

28. Full Service Broker or discount broker? What is the difference? How will it affect the buyer or seller?

29. Why now is the best time to buy

30. Why now is the best time to sell

31. Local shopping. What are the big stores. What are the local stores you must visit.

32. What is a CMA?

33. Local resources list…CPA, childcare, medical facilities, etc…

34. Comparison of property tax rates of neighborhoods in your market

35. Do I need flood insurance?

36. How to read a Good Faith Estimate?

37. Explain the time line and step by step process of buying or selling your home

38. Bad MLS photos of the week

39. Local charities

40. Traffic

41. Testimonials

42. How to sabotage your closing in 5 easy steps

43. Simple home repairs to make before listing your home

44. What are the best school districts and which neighborhoods are in them?

45. How to shop for homeowner’s insurance? What is a CLUE report?

46. What are the best places to get your hair and nails done?

47. Fishing Spots

48. Best Sunday Drives

49. Local Legends

50. Local slang. How to speak Texan.

51. Local parks…dog parks…

52. Unique property of the week

53. Native plants for your landscaping

54. Best private schools and neighborhoods near them

55. Local zoning laws

56. Checklist for buying or selling

57. Best Local Fitness Centers

58. Best location / builder / neighborhood for empty nesters

59. 10 things you must now as a first time homebuyer

60. Local business review

61. Interview with local experts

62. Local Church guide and best neighborhoods in vicinty

63. Architure or housing style in local market

64. Pet friendly housing and neighborhoods

65. A lender that did a great job

66. Decorating Ideas

67. Best furniture stores and they type of furniture they sell

68. Credit scores and credit reoprts explained

69. Second Homes

70. Real Estate Laws

71. Environtmental Issues

72. Energy Issues

73. Green Building

74. How not to sell a house

75. Local arts and links

76. Single women homebuyers

77. Fair Housing Issues

78. Best Coffee Shops

79. Free Internet Hotspots

80. Why you are a Realtor

81. Your produst moment as a Realtor

82. Commentary about local news and events

83. Local annual Events and their schedules

84. What is title insuance?

85. The closing process explained

86. How to successfully find the home you really want and need

87. Over-priced homes

88. Write about a client that was fun to work with

89. Historic Buildings

90. Golf courses and reviews

91. Free things to do in your market

92. Condos

93. What use a buyer’s agent

94. How much home can someone afford

95. You have been approved for more than you thought, but should you spend that much

96. Water conservation tips

97. Professional Designations explained - What do all those letter mean after you name?

98. Current Events

99. Selling you home and capital gain taxes

100. Why appriased home value and tax values are always different

101. Strange real estate search term of the wake

102. Shopping for Forelclosures

103. Avoiding Foreclosure

104. Bad MLS Description of the week

ShareThis

ShareThis

ShareThis

ShareThis

Marc Davison, a partner with 1000Watt and Inman News columnist, has addressed the topic of lead generation in past columns. (See “Lead generation is dead.”) Davison’s tongue-in-cheek satire of the death of lead generation appears to be a cry for a return to conversation and value, rather than numbers, clicks and drip e-mail.

ShareThis

Forget most everything you have learned in sales when it comes to the Internet, because when you apply these techniques online, you push customers away. While 60% of agents have an online presence, 93% of their business is generated from other activities. How can this be when over 80% of home buyers are looking online for houses?

It’s simple really, in sales we are taught to take control, but on the Internet the home buyers are in control and they like it that way. Most agent websites offer home search tools, but in order for a home buyer to use that tool they must provide their information, and since they don’t know you, they don’t want to give it to you. Have you noticed that if you require registration to use your home search tools, you have dead celebrities looking to relocate?

With the proliferation of real estate search options, from Realtor.com, to Trulia, Zillow, Google, MSN, Yahoo!Real Estate, and the thousand’s of broker sites, home buyers have too many choices to give you information to simply search for homes. Buyer’s don’t need your website to search for homes, so why do so many agents make that the focus of their website?

It’s because they were told by technology people that that was that they needed to to. But how many of these real estate website providers have ever prospected for home buyers or sold a home? Most of them are great web site graphic artists, and can create what we think are awesome tools, but are they necessary?

So the challenge for an agent is how to reach out to home buyers where they are - the Internet. To reach them we need to break those buyers into the same groups as we do for any of our prospecting activities.

1. People we know - Most real estate agent websites have turned their focus to this group. You meet people, ask them to look at your website because they will find tools they will find useful, and let your website act as an online brochure. It is on all of your marketing material. There is nothing wrong with this way of thinking. A good website can enhance your credibility, to show your an expert. But when they get to your site, is there anything there to keep them there, or does it look and feel like every other real estate agent website? Does the website really present you as the professional you proclaim to be, or does it say, all I really want is your contact information?
2. People we don’t know - This is why most agents got a website in the first place. They wanted to reach out to people out of their sphere of influence to generate leads. So agents have spent thousands of dollars to have these websites with flash intros, gimmicky pictures, IDX search, pay per click advertising, and still only 7% of buyers and sellers use these sites to choose an agent. So we know buyers are out there, but how do you reach them, and more importantly how to you turn them into clients?

The solution - A real estate blogsite. A blog provides you a way to reach out to both of these groups. Here’s how:

1. People you know - You can still brand yourself with a vanity domain (www.yourname.com). Put it on everything, your business cards, your flyers, your signs, your emails, postcards, everything. But when they go your real estate blogsite, they don’t just see your name with a bunch of letters after it, they can get real information. Here on your real estate blogsite they can find your take on the current housing market, strategies that you used to sell a listing, an example of how you worked with a family to find them a their dream house, what the schools are really like, not just statisctics. They will get to know you, to read about how you work for your clients, and that you are a professional. It goes beyond a good picture and a claim of being “million-dollar” producer to giving them real insight into you - it lets them know why their friend said, “hey, if you need a good real estate agent, check these agents out.” It reassures them that if they choose you to represent them, that they are making a great choice.
2. People you don’t know - Here is the tricky part. Home buyers and sellers have to search for something that is on your website. Most real estate agent websites try to go for the most common search terms, such as “my town” real estate. The problem is that there are literally millions of websites that are competing for those search terms. So with only 10 spots on the first search results page, the odds are against you getting a top spot with a traditional website.

Here is the good news. According to Google, 50% of all web search terms use unique search terms, such as “my town subdivision and school district name.” With a traditional website, good luck showing up, but with a real estate blogsite you can write a post about “your town’s subdivision and schools” and be found. They read your post, and there on your real estate blogsite, they see other articles that interest them, They read them. They get to know you. Your blogsite provides them with professionals insight, something they can’t get on a traditional website or through looking at listings, and if they have a question, they can add a comment to that page. At that point they go from “suspect” to “prospect”.

Isn’t that what you really want?

To learn more, click on the links below.

ShareThis

Traditional websites have what are known as static pages, or pages that simply have content that never changes. The problem with that is that there is never anything new for the major search engines to find. In order to have a traditional real estate website found, you have to have the website optimized. SEO (search engine optimization) has been a buzz term for awhile, and what it means is that you, or more likely a company that you have paid a large sum of money to, has worked to make sure those pages are full of keywords that you believe someone will be searching for, and they probably have created hundreds of backlinks (other sites that link back to yours) to the website, usually again paying a backlink directory hundreds of dollars. So you have hundreds, or thousands, of dollars invested for a great looking website that nobody can find. And then when they do find it, does that traditional website do a good job of converting browsers to prospective clients?

So back to the question, “Why should I have a real estate blogsite?”. To answer that question you must understand the difference between a website and a blogsite. A traditional website is really an online brochure. A real estate blogsite is that, but it is more importantly a marketing platform. Blogging is a marketing and prospecting effort.

Texas Real Estate Voices blogging platform allows you to create a website that has static pages, but because of your ability to update the content with up-to-date information about you are automatically optimizing your site for the search engines to find. With each article you post, you are optimizing your website. Our platform allows you to submit each article, complete with title and keywords, at the push of the button. If you can send an email, you can post a blog and optimize your site.

Now, I want to be careful here. SEO takes time. It may take 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, or 18 months to do so, but aren’t you in this for the long haul? So if you want to have a website that people can find, the key is simple. Blog about what you know, about your area, about questions past clients have had, new listings, area builders, etc…and your site will begin to show up in the search engines, and do it frequently.

Your blogsite with Texas Real Estate Voices is a way to market yourself and to prospect for new buyers. So if your traditional website or prospecting activities are not giving you a high return on your investment, you might consider blogging, because if you write it they will come.

To find out more about Texas Real Estate Voices’ affordable blogging solutions (only$25 monthly!), simply click here.

ShareThis

Well-run Real Estate blogs usually focus tightly on one niche area of real estate and/or specific geographic area. The aim is to provide the Real Estate blog’s readers with a constantly renewing source of news and insight about that topic and / or area. (more…)

ShareThis

Real estate is a “people business”. People chose a real estate agent based on their experience, qualifications and knowledge, and a real estate blog is the perfect medium for displaying all three of those qualities. (more…)

ShareThis