Add Value with a Free Website for Every Listing

I have done this in the past. It makes the sellers really excited. But they havent drop anything in so far. I think eventually, a realtor will bring in the buyers (ie through MLS). Your thoughts?

Grant:  I am really intrigued with this.  Could you give more information on how you go about it?  I would love to learn. 

I would love to get the template as well Grant.  And thanks for sharing.

Steve Mun, e-PRO

After trying several apporaches, this is the method I am currently using for specific property websites:

Create a photo gallery page for my primary website, the same way I have done for each property we list for the last several years. 

Add some links and info. 

Keep everything, photos and html page, all in one folder.

Upload the folder to my web server. 

Register a domain name for the property. 

I started using http://www.dynonames.com/  1 year registration at dynonames is $8.10.  Set up domain fowarding AND masking - a two-click process at dynonames.  "Forwarding" redirects the new URL to the actual web location.  "Masking" forces the new URL to display in the user's browser address bar.

Here is a sample:  http://www.233terracestreet.com/

As some Rainers may remember, one of my previous experiments with this was to use a blog format for the property webpage.  I've canned that idea in favor of this......

Great Idea, I do a similar website as mentioned by Cheryl that's within my website but I add a
Virtual Tour by http://buildatour.com for $9.95 (up to 75 pictures)and the domain name is $8 from http://godaddy and you get a FREE WEBSITE if you want or Forward the name to the specific page on your website.

So, for $35 I get a Domain Name, Virtual Tour and Sign Rider, What a DEAL! And the Sellers LOVE IT!

Checkout http://79penny.com

Let me know what you think dan@RealtyByDan.com

Search CT Listings at http://realestatetorrington.com

Grant, how do you get the site for free?  Don't you have to pay someone to host it?

I have heard of this your site is the first I have review and I for one think it is great.

I would love to get the template as well Grant.  And thanks for sharing.

Any referrals down to the Fort Hood Texas Area would have to be REWARDED.

Grant,

Great Ideal, I will starting doing it for all my listing. It is a small cost, but do impress the seller.

I will appreciated if you can e-mail me your template to: StevenTeoh@remax.net.

Steven Teoh
RE/MAX Professional Group
Houston, TX
Tel: 832-478-1188
e-mail:  steventeoh@remax.net

Showing Homes 24 hours a day @ http://www.best-houston-homes.com/

Great post. For those of us that aren't this tech savvy (or lazy like me) you can use a site like www.listingproducer.com .   They will set up the whole thing for you.  Many of our title companies are starting to offer these services as well.

I would like to take a look at your template, but I am the hunt and peck type of typists - err, webmaster. If you get what I mean. I haven't changed the entry to my page for years. I could probably use some polishing.

An easy way to create a page for someone is to use a blog. You can upload pictures and even add links to send them back to your own website. You can include other important information links, a way to email, etc. So, for those who are not tech savvy when it comes to web sites (And I'm not! But I do use blogs for everything!), blogging is the answer!

Excellent idea Grant.  I have often thought about this for my listings.  I would appreciate some directions and the template for this webpage when you get a chance.

Thanks,  Bill Somerset

bill@billsomersethomes.com    www.billsomersethomes.com

Grant, I would also like to get the tamplets and learn how to do it myself!

Thank you for sharing with us!

 Sanela --

please send me the template also thanks for the post

Does this really work??  I am still trying to decide if I want to try this for my listings.  I am not sure if the sites will get enough traffic. 

This is a great idea - something similar was mentioned on e-PRO.  However, I couldn't wrap my brain around it - You made this easy - Thank you!  Active Rain is filled with so much!  

Grant--I picked up some good ideas --thxs for starting the sharing with  an excellent post.

Thanks Grant,

            I was doing something similar, but didn't know about the masking. That will help with a lot of other things I do on the net with other website names.

I use this idea. Like some else said the seller likes it. My favorite is using the hit counter.

Frank Rubi

Grant-You did a great job. I would love to check out your templete if you have time to send it over. Was it hard to do?

Grant it is a good looking site-- but how do you use it? Is it just on your sign, and do you capture theleadin anyway when they visit?  In other words, itis good information to get out, how does it convert to $ for you? Are you getting e-mailsout of it, requests for showings, etc ? 

Grant- I clicked on your webbed listing and it includes a lot of valuable info, and I like the slide show with a scrolling option if you want to look quickly at the photos.

BUT...this beautiful home would show better and photograph better if it was STAGED. Search thru the AR profiles, there are great stagers in TX!!! Best of luck.

another way to get a somewhat shortend url is www.cjb.net

You can forward a long url and it will be shortened to something like..

www.123main.cjb.net

 only it will have a small pop up ad window that you can easily click..

Eric D. Bolton
www.ericdbolton.com

I've done custom, single property web sites before for luxury homes. They are great for sellers and also let us track advertising. Take a look at two samples.

http://www.49candlewood.com/
http://www.28paineave.com/

I do individual websites for every listing I have...it is a great tool for marketing the home (the site address is on every advertisement, flyer, and online listing) and is very impressive at 'listing presentations'. (or whatever we are supposed to be calling them now) Being able to monitor which of my marketing efforts is driving traffic to the site also helps me hone in on what is working (and not working) as I market the home!

I'll have to look into getting the sign riders done with the web addresses, that would be the next logical step for me!

Heather

I have done individual property websites for all of my listings since 2001, believe it or not! (there was a time when the house was sold before the page was even done!

But I have never actually purchased an address domain name for a property.  I guess my thought is that I want to brand the sign and listing with MY name and MY website, and by giving a property it's own URL, you're diluting that message.  All of my listings are right on my home page, so once they get to my site it's just one click away.  But indirectly, I'm also advertising ME.

I do have a website designed JUST for sellers (my listing presentation).  Once a house IS sold, I change out the rider to my other website, "ISoldThisHouse.com". 

Yes!  I like!  would like the info, too!  Thank you! I especially like the idea of being able to keep track of customers hitting the site! I look forward to the info!

That is why I'm working on getting my e-Pro Certification!

Attention fellow Realtors (R) and Real Estate Professionals: You just received an excellent and profitable piece of advice (FOR FREE) from an e-Pro, take advantage of it!

Thanks Grant! hope to be a fellow e-Pro very soon!

Pedro Nunez

FP United Realty, Inc

Kissimmee, FL

www.PNunezRealtor.com

To Rudy Mayer,
I think switching out the sold sign for the ISoldThisHouse.com sign is a BRILLIANT idea.  It is absolutely ingenius.  Something so simple I don't know why I've never thought of it.  What a great way to get more listings!!!  The best I ever came up with was my "Debbie Did it Again" sign. Wow, amazing what we can pick up on in AR.

That is a great idea Rudy. I love it!

Rudy,

I post my listings on my own website as well. I do the address URL as an extra. Its a great way to get people to remember the home. After I sell the home, I give the URL to the new owner. Furthermore, I can track the number of views just for that home, not my whole website. When people go that URL, I know what is driving them there. Another advantage is search engine placement, search the homes address and I get top placement almost always. I set the the keywords and meta's for the subdivision and city, town, ect.  So far, address URL's have worked great for me and my listings and the sellers really like them. Anyway, thanks for your feedback.

Another way without having to buy the domain is 3rd level domains.  Usually 3rd level domains are FREE with your domain and can usually make as many as you want.  Example http://Tours.gotbob4homes.com  Where "Tours" is the 3rd level.  You can have it as 123Main.gotbob4homes.com etc and point it to a site for just the house information on your website or MLS.  This does a couple things... keeps your domain/website in front of everyone and lets you see the traffic.  If you decide to buy the domain, it's also a great gift to the buyers...  So when the buyer's agent forgets to keep in touch, you have an in to get future business.

That's a good point, Bob.  My company offers this service to agents that want to have domain names for their listings. A former techie, I would be very comfortable doing that myself.  Your description of 3rd level domains is what I (used to) call a subdomain, and with GoDaddy, you can do that easily.  One registration fee for one domain and many, many listing subdomains.  Simple one-page home 'advertisements' should be fairly quick and easy to do for most people.  Now for the other side of the coin.

I really want to drive the traffic to my main web site.  It has all of the features (articles, links, home search via IDX, and request forms to capture buyer/seller information, all of my listings, etc).  So I have resisted using this particular strategy.  While it will likely appeal to sellers with a large ego, I'm not sure that it will do much more than that unless you build in a lot of features. To me, just reporting x views per week to a seller is not enough. And I don't want to spend the time or energy to build more fully functional web sites.

I do believe most people are finding individual listings through the large home sites like Realtor.com, so to me it's more important to pay the extra money to them (for enhanced listings) to make sure that my name - not my firm's - shows up when somebody clicks on my listings.

I do think that this is concept a great agent marketing system and a way to differentiate yourself from the competition. Bravo on that!

It seems that after the initial flurry of agent orders at my company, use has dropped off. I know I'm not seeing many domain sign riders out there now, a year after implementation.  I'm going the 800 number call capture route (via a '24 Hour Listing Info Line') to enhance follow-up with potential buyers that would be otherwise anonymous.

I think that any strategy can be effective if you think it out and implement it properly.  I'll continue to watch this thread to see how it goes for you, Grant, and I'll report periodically on the 800 number strategy on my blog, too.  I hope we're both very successful!

I wanted to add that for all of you who are interested but would prefer to leave most of the work to someone else, my company, Realasites.com does single listing websites. I include the sign rider & domain registration and even pay for the S&H on the rider all for $45 per site. If you commit to purchasing a site every month, I also have a monthly subscription with automatic renewal for $39.99 a month, which includes your first Realasite and each additional Realasite  is $37.99. If you have someone else take your photos & create your VT's then you can have them submit the images to us via email. Realasites are fantastic listing tools. It impresses potential clients better than anything else I've seen for the money.  

We have some really great comments and discussion going on here. I wanted to thank everybody. One of the main points to this thread is that giving a website site for every listing is cheap and easy and really can be done in one's spare time. I will continue to do it because I have had great success with it. Everybody who committed has given me ideas I can use to support what I am already doing or make it  better with a little tweaking by adding this or that, and I thank you.

Grant, great idea and cool way to impress the customers!!  I like what you have done on your site and I would be interested in the link. Please forward when you get the chance. Thanks

Good Day!! have a cup of java and a smile on me :)

This is a great idea, and then when you have sold the house, you can give the website to the new owners for the rest of the year, that way they can send the link to their friends and family around the country. 

Grant, Thanks for a great idea.  I would love to get the template emailed to nicko@remaxlegends.net.  I am really interested in pursuing this type of service. 

 Grant,  great idea, we use this on our listings & in our presentations. We have been using www.floorplanonline.com  they have packages for $29 or $59. We also buy our domain names from www.godaddy.com  for $8.95.

 There was another post about www.realestateshows.com for $125 unlimited use. they you could give a great web site for pennies

Thats awesome I have been trying to think of the best way to do this. You sparked my memory that you get a free hosting account with every godaddy domain. You can also by one hosting account and get rid of the free ads at the top of the screen.

Jason R. Anderson

www.dfwelitehomes.com

Who do people use for quick, custom Sign Riders for something like this?

Grant,

I really like your idea. I want to do it, also. Will you forward me your template and everything else I need to know.

Thanks!

Nice idea.

Grant,

Absolutely fantastic idea.  I would love to learn more about this.

Can you send me information so that I can research it myself?  Send it to sshewell@primeres.com

Thanks for the help,

Steven

Thanks for the helpful information Grant.  Much appreciated.

Great idea.  I have been looking for more ideas for marketing my listings.

great way to go. I own a web hosting company myself, it makes sense to make a website for each listing, very cost effective. I'm just not sure it will make a whole lot off difference...if you have people browsing your listings, why would they want to leave your site, or any listing site to see the features of a home?

I mainly do it for the home owners, as they really like it. I give the domain to the new buyers. I used to do a sub domain, but the address was to long to fit on a rider. My main site is linked to the property domain and the property domain is linked to my main site. I also meta tag and keyword the property site to pull up in a search. If people like the house, they remember the URL because it is the property address. Overall, a separate property domain is less work work for those who want fast info and might not be that tech savvy. Thanks for your comment.

Makes sense. I guess a twist is always a good thing.

Check out two other single property sites that I have seen and used.  Listingproducer and TheListingWidget. 

Both not only publish the single property site but they have the ability to email out the flyer to the targeted agents you want to promote the listing to.