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HomeTechnology dos & don'ts for your listings.

Technology dos & don'ts for your listings.

I just received my July/August issue of "The Real Estate Professional", a great magazine sent to all REBAC (Real Estate Buyers Agent Council) members.

A feature story is titled "Technology and Home Sales: How the Internet is Changing the Real Estate Industry". Boy, ain't that the truth. ;-)

I found some of the technology do and don'ts for using technology in your listings to be especially relevant.

  1. I think a lot of us don't quite realize yet is that most buyers (and sellers) are way more tech savvy than the average Realtor. Probably something to do with their average age being in the 30s and ours being in the 50s.
  2. The time to make a first impression is shorter than ever before. This is especially important on your websites. You have very, very little time to catch and hold someone's attention before they're bored and/or ready to move on to a site that gives them what they're looking for. In order for your website to be effective it must be:
    1. Easily findable by consumers.
    2. Deliver the content they're looking for
    3. Have compelling reasons to cause them to contact you to do business.
  3. Don't try to overwhelm consumers with lots of bells & whistles on your site, i.e. lots of flash or downloads, NO MUSIC, and make sure your website is compatible with current popular browsers such as Internet Explorer (still the most widely used), Firefox, & Mozilla.
  4. Photos. Some panoramic photos tend to distort a room, so stills only or stills plus a panorama are best to appeal to the lowest common denominator of viewers.
Posted Friday Aug 04
(08/04/06 01:31PM) — Judith Clausen

Jim, I've read all this before.  Number 2 has always puzzled me.  These are so general.  It kinda goes without saying that you have to do these things.  But I guess being "above average" (LOL) they just SEEM obvious, and newer, younger agents might skip over this part.

(08/04/06 02:17PM) — Western New York Home Sales | Colleen Kulikowski

Regarding photos - the more photos the better.  Even if you have 2 of each room instead of the panoramic photos.  I am getting a lot of people who do not like the virtual tours because they "pan" and you can't just see the entire photo...

Do a blog on the community after getting a listing and update it monthly regarding recent sales/active/pending in the community.  It is amazing how many people are impressed when they come by the open house and see all the places that we advertise the property...

Once a month send out an email message to your client list with a list of your new listings (with links to more information), what went pending and what closed along with closed prices.  

Anyone else have any ideas?

 

(08/04/06 05:22PM) — Glenn Ginsburg - Naples Florida Real Estate

Sometimes, I wonder if the Internet seller or buyer really reads the content of a site.  They seem to ask questions that have answers already posted on the site.

(08/04/06 05:41PM) — Teri Isner GRI, CRS, CIPS

We have added a blog and podcast to our flhousesales.com but I still have  a site with flash I need to clean up and currently revamping our fun orlando site too...You are right one of our customers is a techie and he made some useful comments about another one of our websites...

(08/04/06 11:08PM) — Sharon Simms St Pete Florida CRS CIPS CLHMS

To please a wider variety of customers, I have lots of still photos as well as a Visual Tour.  I prefer Visual Tour (a slide show of chosen stills and panoramas) rather than circular tours that annoy customers, distort images, show the bad as well as the good, and often mess up their computers (the worst).

(08/04/06 11:52PM) — Mark Lickteig

I know as not just a mortgage person, but someone who looks for homes to buy, I don't need all the bells and whistles right away.  I might use them once I find something I like, but if I can't get to that point I would just give up and go to the next site that will give me the search and quick info I want.

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