The New Real Estate

Posted on 09/08/09 No Comments

theRockStarAgent.com was born as a result of doing real estate differently. We found that the systems and processes that we used were not only unique to our marketplace, but to the industry at large. When the local real estate market declined, and many licensees decided to parachute out, we had our best years ever.

Don’t Get Caught Napping

One thing that we know about life in general and real estate specifically, is that change is constant. In real estate, change can be alarmingly fast. For agents not keeping pace with the drastic and swift changes to our industry, it almost appears as though the industry is lethargic. Slow to change. Yet, there are agents that are on the cutting edge of the change and using it to their advantage.

Developing an edge in today’s market requires REALTORS to have a user friendly website with IDX listings available. Practitioners need to be proficient in Blogging, social media, search engine marketing, and how to work with the e-consumer once they contact you. Using savvy marketing techniques may generate leads for agents, however with no skills in permission marketing and inbound marketing, you will be lost. Nearly 90% of the home buyers are searching homes on the Internet prior to ever contacting an agent. Are they finding you, when they go to Google, Yahoo or MSN?

Mike Bowler has a great post on the change that we are currently undergoing. And he’s right…

Those agents that see, educate themselves and take advantage of their new knowledge will be well set when the market turns. This business has always been about the buyer or the seller. Now, with information at their fingertips, consumers are in the drivers seat when it comes to choosing the agent to represent them.

Will they choose the agent that presents all of their listing information online, holds “office hours” when they can be reached via instant messaging or webinar and is easily accessible via the ‘net or phone? Or will they choose that agent that “forces” them to contact the agent for the address, number of bedrooms or square footage of a property?

The Light at the End of the Tunnel Does Not Need to be a Train

With information so easily found, and so free on the internet, here are a few simple steps to help you become the resource your future clients so desperately need:

Be sure that you are visible on the internet
- start a blog, get involved in social networks, fill out your own Google Profile, do something that the search engines will see when someone searches for you as an agent.
On your website, be sure to have a user friendly IDX search solution
- Consider creating web pages dedicated to your marketplace’s neighborhoods: photos, general description, a map, etc.
On your website, be sure to have information about your marketplace
- take your site to the next level by doing some business reviews or restaurant reviews
  - business owners will love the exposure, and your readers will begin to see you as an area resource

These are just a few ideas to implement, but there are many more you can put into place to be found on the internet and show yourself to be the real estate resource that your future clients should be contacting.

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