Our company website has been ignored for way too long. As our office has progressed we have explored various aspects of technology to include social media, Google Apps for Business, online press releases with PRweb, and multiple other technology initiatives. Our website has suffered, from a lack of focus, and recently we decided to spend some energy on a redesign.
We are currently in the discovery phase to figure out exactly how we want our website to look and perform. Below are a couple of requirements that are essential for our new site:
This last point has raised some eyebrows in discussions about our website upgrade. Traditionally speaking we have always been advised that sophisticated IDX solutions with high cost SEO was the way to go. Of course, these proponents tend to be sales persons from companies that provide these services. I tend to disagree with this approach for three reasons. First, local real estate franchises are under-capitalized compared to major national corporations (e.g. Zillow, national real estate companies). Trying to compete with one of these companies as an individual agent or franchise is a fruitless effort. Second, since all of the local MLS systems have been opened to the public, there has been no evidence that I have seen that home buyers or sellers use the IDX property search capabilities for anything other than research. Yes, potential home buyers may use your site to look for homes, but when they select an agent it is overwhelmingly done through referrals (www.realtor.com). Third, having the capability to search homes, while important, does not provide a unique experience for either the real estate agents or clients. We want our website to be something more than a resource that people find at the top of a Google search. We want this site to be a resource that provides value, a place that agents refer to customers and customers refer to their friends in the local community. We believe that with this value the site can create an online community in our target demographic that will ultimately provide us more business than anything an SEO campaign can accomplish.
This business is a face-to-face and social business. Online lead generation from IDX and SEO initiatives does not work as well as the old methods. Our most successful agents are successful because they have created deeply social connections to our local market. They have done this by sponsoring charity events, getting involved in local community organizations (e.g. Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, churches), and keeping in close contact with past clients. If our company is going to invest money into technology it will be through social media, not through the snake oil sales of online lead generation.
As we look to create a website that provides unique value we are constantly looking for new ways to interact with our community and agents. Some of our latest ideas include:
We are currently in the discovery phase to figure out exactly how we want our website to look and perform. Below are a couple of requirements that are essential for our new site:
- The site must provide value for our agents and clients
- Deep social networking integration – Our website should be the source of information for all of our social networks
- Less of an emphasis on IDX and home search capability – Basic is better
This last point has raised some eyebrows in discussions about our website upgrade. Traditionally speaking we have always been advised that sophisticated IDX solutions with high cost SEO was the way to go. Of course, these proponents tend to be sales persons from companies that provide these services. I tend to disagree with this approach for three reasons. First, local real estate franchises are under-capitalized compared to major national corporations (e.g. Zillow, national real estate companies). Trying to compete with one of these companies as an individual agent or franchise is a fruitless effort. Second, since all of the local MLS systems have been opened to the public, there has been no evidence that I have seen that home buyers or sellers use the IDX property search capabilities for anything other than research. Yes, potential home buyers may use your site to look for homes, but when they select an agent it is overwhelmingly done through referrals (www.realtor.com). Third, having the capability to search homes, while important, does not provide a unique experience for either the real estate agents or clients. We want our website to be something more than a resource that people find at the top of a Google search. We want this site to be a resource that provides value, a place that agents refer to customers and customers refer to their friends in the local community. We believe that with this value the site can create an online community in our target demographic that will ultimately provide us more business than anything an SEO campaign can accomplish.
This business is a face-to-face and social business. Online lead generation from IDX and SEO initiatives does not work as well as the old methods. Our most successful agents are successful because they have created deeply social connections to our local market. They have done this by sponsoring charity events, getting involved in local community organizations (e.g. Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, churches), and keeping in close contact with past clients. If our company is going to invest money into technology it will be through social media, not through the snake oil sales of online lead generation.
As we look to create a website that provides unique value we are constantly looking for new ways to interact with our community and agents. Some of our latest ideas include:
- Creating an open house tab that pulls directly from our MLS
- As agents put new houses on the market we can instantly update our open house tab. This information can then be printed on our local newspaper adds through the use of QR codes.
- Provide vendor lists from our agent recommendations
- These vendor lists are recommended from our agents for services from appraisals to local childcare. A sort of company vetted Craigslist® .
- Feedback mechanism for website improvements
- The website users are the best ones to tell us what they want. Following the lead from companies such as Google, we need to ask the end users what they want, instead of insisting we have the answers.
We are committed to creating a unique experience for our community instead of following the herd of typical real estate websites. Let us know your thoughts! From your experience what are the best capabilities you have seen on real estate websites that provide true value to their agents and clients? Please comment below.
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