Over the past few weeks I have had to evaluate over 30 different real estate portals and websites for a market research company. Whilst I am not going to divulge what this is all about, I found something that truly inspired me, especially for the future.
I was assessing a variety of industries and the use of Internet technology and I realised something. Real Estate Agents/Portals were one of the first sectors to take the Internet to a business medium.
This was because of consumer demand, consumers wanted to be able to get the information they wanted on properties before they called an agent or viewed a property in person. It makes so much sense. On the one side consumers save so much time by short listing their preferred properties, they know what they want and in the past, newspaper ads would display only the best picture (of course) of a property. This is what agents need to do to attract interest. But lets face it, newspaper ads really do not give much information, they can’t because of their pricing structure, the more information you show the more it costs. On the other hand the Internet can do just so much more for consumers.
Secondly it has also been a godsend for Agents, think about this, how many of us have walked into a house and made our mind up in the first 30 seconds on whether we like the property. The price always comes second, because we usually know the price (or range) before entering. Now if you are an agents you will know how long it takes to prepare for a showing, you need to know all about the property before you display it. You also have to drive to the property and make sure you are a few minutes early, show the property and then drive back to the office or next meeting. At a minimum it would be an hour wasted for one showing.
So you can see why it is important for both consumers and agents to display as much information online as possible, this gives the consumer all they need to know and if interested makes them a hotter prospect and it also saves agents valuable time sourcing leads that have a better ability of closing.
This is why I always push my agents to:
1. Make sure their website represent their brand effectively.
2. Make sure information is easy to access.
3. Make sure information is consistent and accurate.
4. Make sure you display as much information as possible.
5. Make sure you promote your website in all forms of media effectively.
The best way to promote your website is online, because that is where your market is and it is much more powerful than any other medium.
