However you host, update, and create your Web site, you need to make sure it is an effective Web site. Creating an effective site involves having a solid sense of design and identity as well as a clear understanding of what you want the site to accomplish. That's easy to say, but hard to accomplish. Design and identity require creative abilities that not all of us have, and if you don't, hire a professional designer. (That's what they're for!) An ugly, unfocused, or hard-to-navigate site will harm you, not help. If you design the site yourself, look at as many agent sites as you can to get a sense of what works visually and what doesn't. Also consider hiring a professional editor to edit your text, both for obviously unprofessional issues such as typos but also for the overall effectiveness of its presentation. And remember, you can still maintain and modify the site yourself even if you don't design it. Checklist Must-Have Page Elements All pages should include: Your key contact information: phone and e-mail. If you are a member of the National Association of Realtors, an indication that you are a Realtor (consider using the trademarked word "Realtor" or the Realtor logo). A legal disclaimer. Ask your brokerage what the disclaimer should include. Typically, it includes the copyright for the site, the state in which you are licensed to do business, how users can unsubscribe from any mailings, and a note limiting your liability for the information you provide. Keep the Goal in Mind Remember, the basic purpose of a Web site is to drive potential clients to do business with you. Everything you do on your site should reinforce that goal, so keep the following principles in mind: Make it easy to contact you. Contact information should be easily found and easily read, and it should exist on every page. Include your primary phone number and e-mail address. Be sure the e-mail address is a clickable link that automatically opens the user's e-mail client (something any Web creation program can do; it's called a mail to link). You also might include your cell phone number if it's not your primary number, but don't include your office's main number, your fax number, or your separate voicemail number (if you have one)too many numbers can confuse people.
When linking to outside content, such as these Google maps for recommended restaurants, be sure that a new window opens so it's clear what is your original content and what comes from some other source. Lead users to action. Include information about when you'll be hosting open houses or when your office or floor-duty hours are, so users can easily drop by to meet you in person. Offer forms they can fill out for a market analysis or listings within their criteria. Provide links to flyers of your listings. If you don't have listings consistently, consider providing links (if your broker gives permission, of course) to your brokerage's listings that include you as the contact for buyers seeking an agent. These flyers can be individual Web pages or PDF flyers that users can download and print, with your contact information prominently provided.
Below are two examples of good agent Web sites. Both sites make the contact information prominent and make it easy to see what the agent's site offers. Each page focuses on specific benefits for customers. Focus on the benefits of working with you. Your descriptive text, resources offered, and so forth should reinforce why you are the best listing or buyer's agent. That doesn't mean you should list all your wonderful traitsthat quickly becomes annoying braggadociobut it does mean you should emphasize your specific skills, background, and experience. For example, if you "farm" (focus your marketing on) a specific town or neighborhood, show your intimate knowledge of that area with local recommendations and resources. This information reinforces your expertise more than any mere claims can. And be sure to include customer testimonialsa few words each from several recent clients is all you need. Reinforce your professional network. Real estate agents are problem solvers, helping clients navigate not just the sale or purchase of a property but also the issues surrounding financing, escrow, and repairs. Provide referrals to mortgage brokers and others you trust who are likely to promote you to their clients as well, creating a network of self-reinforcing contacts that show you're well connected and that other good people trust you.
Many brokers provide their agents with a Web page within the brokerage site. Take advantage of it, but if possible, have the page redirect users to your site, either automatically or by including a prominent link to your site. Don't give away your core services. It's perfectly good to provide some basic services on your Web site, such as mortgage calculators and public MLS searches, to help prospective clients get a feel for your offerings and give them the ability to perform some of the basic research that you want them to do before they engage your time (such as knowing what they can really afford and what's really available). But remember that most Web users are accustomed to thinking of the Web as a place for free stuff, and you can't stay in business working for free. So don't try to serve the free loaders. Instead, focus on offering services that save you time, help customers become better educated, and demonstrate your professional approach. Don't include too much. Don't try to cram everything onto a Web page or Web siteyou'll confuse and overwhelm your audience, and they'll move on. Each page should have a specific focus, so stick to that focal point. The site also should be about your real estate services, not about other businesses or personal issues. If you run multiple businesses, maintain separate Web sites for each. If they're related, provide links among them. For example, perhaps you sell real estate as well as manage properties. In that case, have a real estate Web site and a property management Web site, and then be sure that each site links to the other. But if you sell real estate and also fix trucks or sell gift baskets, don't link these unrelated businesses. Sources for Content Most of what appears on your Web site will come from three sources: Your own original content, such as your listing information and your personal guide to neighborhoods Professional content such as MLS sales data, office listings, and loan calculators that come from real estate-oriented providers Public content such as school information from public sources such as the school district or a government agency In most cases, you need permission to use content other than what you personally create. Although it's usually legal to cite other sources for brief snippets of data, there's no hard-and-fast rule as to how much information you can use without permission before it becomes copyright infringement. So get in the habit of asking for permission or of using links to the material instead. Using Property Information A real estate agent's Web site should include information on propertiesafter all, that's what most buyers are looking for when they go to an agent's site. Most agents don't have listings available all the time, so you can't count on just showing your own listings to satisfy visitors' interest in current listings. I recommend that when you do have property listings that you showcase them on your home page. If you have lots of listings, maybe showcase one or two on the home page and then provide a link to a listings page that details all your listings. But you should also let visitors see other agents' listings. That gives them a reason to come to your site and see why you'd be a great buyer's agent for them. You have two good ways to offer such listings to your site's visitors: Checklist Web Page Sections A typical Web site has the following sections on each page: Header: A header typically includes your logo, photo, and contact information. This information is very much like the part of your stationery that includes the company name, logo, and address. Menu: A menu provides the connections to the other major pages in the site. Footer: A footer typically includes your legal disclaimer, copyright line, and other fine-print material. It's best to have a footer on every page so no matter how people get to your site, they have an opportunity to see it. Content section: Content is the main part of a Web page, and it's also the part that changes the most, because it holds the content unique to that page. There are many perfectly good ways to arrange these elements, so let the design, amount of content for each page, and your personal preferences dictate how the elements are arranged. Just make sure the elements are easy to follow and that you place those elements that appear on multiple pages consistently on each page. Presenting Office Listings To publish information about your office listings, you'll first need permission to publish the listings, either from your broker or from the individual agents, based on your broker's policy. Assuming you have permission, a great way to know what listings your office has is to set up an automatic search on your MLS so it sends you an e-mail every time a new listing from your office appears. (Many MLS systems let you set up such automatic notification for clients, as Chapter 9, "Communicating Better with Clients," explains, so you just add yourself as a client and set the search criteria to be all listings where the listing office is your brokerage.) Not all MLS systems let you send automatic notifications based on saved searches; if your MLS doesn't, you'll need to rely instead on internal documents such as sales sheets to get this information. With that information in hand, you can update a page on your Web site devoted to office listings. I arrange mine in a table by property types (single-family homes, condominiums, and multifamily dwellings). I then sort the listings within those property types by price. This arrangement is simple for me to maintain and provides an easy way for potential buyers to scan what's available. But you could arrange these listings as a list or use another layout of your choice. (Your knowledge of Web creation software, covered in Chapter 3, " Working with Electronic Media," might lead you to choose a certain presentation approach because you are comfortable using the software to accomplish that type of layout.)
Presenting office listings can be a good way to give potential buyers reason to return to your site often. When you show office listings, be sure to do two things: Make it clear you are not the listing agent. After all, you're not, and you don't want buyers with agents or other agents to call you about these listings. If you're not clear that you're seeking to represent buyers interested in these or other properties, you could be accused of interfering with the listing agent's efforts. Make it clear that you can help potential buyers who don't already have agents. Remember, a major reason to have a Web site is to get new clients, so make a brief sales pitch on your behalf on this page. (In fact, every page should have a brief sales pitch, even if it's just "Call me for more information.") Making the MLS Accessible to Visitors Another way to get potential buyers to your site is by offering MLS search capabilities. Make sure your local MLS allows such public searching. Two terms are used for this public search capability: Internet Data Exchange (IDX) and virtual office Web site(VOW). Whatever it's called, potential buyers, potential sellers who want to assess the market, and current clients who want to privately explore properties outside the criteria they've discussed with you all like being able to see what properties are available.
Offering public MLS search capabilities can also keep visitors coming back. I "framed" the public MLS inside my site, so visitors stay within my environment. Some agents are nervous about providing MLS search capabilities to the public, thinking that buyers will have no need to use them. I disagree: After all, getting lists of potential properties is just a small fraction of the service a real estate agent provides to buyers. But seeing what's available helps buyers become educated about the market, so they're more realistic when they do contact an agent. I also find that many buyer clients use the public search feature of the MLS to double-check me, especially in the early stages of our relationship. I welcome this, because they invariably find inappropriate properties I've screened out, giving me an opportunity to show them that I'm actively engaged and not wasting their time with properties that don't match their needs or goals. Those results help clients quickly see the value I bring. Don't Steal Content When putting together a real estate Web site, it's tempting to copy information from other sources to present a unified package of information in one place. But that can easily make you a thief of copyrighted material. Get permission to include material that you did not create, even if you give the source credit on your site. That means: Ask your broker if it's OK to include office listings (those listings where other agents in your office are representing the seller). The brokerage may give you blanket permission do so, or it may require you to get permission from each agent separately. Don't post listings, pictures, and so on from other brokerages without getting the individual agents' permission first, and understand they will likely need their brokers' permission as well. Never excerpt or republish content or tools from other Web sites, newsletters, or publications without first getting permission to do so. If you work for a large brokerage, it likely has free content for agents to use in their sites and newsletters. Still, unless the material is clearly labeled as something agents may use in their marketing, always check before using it. Find out what content your local MLS, Realtors association, and brokerage let you use as part of your membership in those organizationsmost give agents blanket permission to republish some data, such as recent sales data, as long as it is properly credited. Just don't assume what you can usealways verify. If you can't get permission, consider linking to the source material if it is available on the Web, but never use techniques such as framing to make that content appear within a window on your site. Instead, use hyperlinks to such content. I recommend that any links outside your site open a new window, so it's clear the content is not on your site. (When you're creating Web links, there's usually an option named Target; make sure it is set to_blank for a new window to open when the link is clicked. To have the link open in the existing window, such as a link to another page in your site, no Target option should be selected.) |
Many MLS systems have a public search function, so many people won't think of going to your site to look up properties. That's why you need other reasons for them to come to your site. But after they're at your site, having MLS search capability in addition to your other content is a convenience that provides incentive for them to want to come back: It's easier to go to one place than to hop around a bunch of different sites. Typically, one major advantage to you of including an IDX or VOW search is that the results all identify you as the contact for more information, not the listing agentthis lets your clients explore options without you having to worry about the other agents poaching them. (By contrast, when people use the search feature at a public MLS site or at a multi-MLS site like www.Realtor.com, they're given the listing agent's information.) To implement an IDX or VOW on your site, you typically have to use a special URL from the MLS that ensures that all listings found provide your contact information. You can use that URL on your site in one of two ways: Provide a link: You can just use the MLS link in your menus or elsewhere on your site. When visitors click it, they will be taken from your site to a page that looks nothing like your site (instead, it will be a variation of the public MLS site), which can confuse visitors to your site. Frame the search: You can "frame" the MLS search inside your site. This technique keeps your visitors in a familiar environment: yours. Framing is an HTML technique that's pretty easy to implement. All you need to do is add the following code where you want the MLS search "window" to appear in your Web page: <iframe width="xxx" height="yyy" src="url"></iframe>. Be sure to replace xxx with the desired window width (in pixels), yyy with the desired window depth, and url with the actual URL for the MLS search page. You'll probably need to experiment with different height and width values until it looks right. Remember that this is code, so you must enter it into the code view of your Web creation software, not in the design view. CD Resource: For the framing code, the snippet is included on the CD. The Dark Side Of Outreach While you're publicizing yourself on the Web and in other media to attract customers, these same out-reach efforts will draw sales people to you like flies to honey. Companies selling everything from training programs to Web-site creation services will start e-mailing and calling you, culling your information from Web-site searches and sometimes even by buying your contact information from government agencies and your brokerage. Even if you have registered your phone number on the national Do Not Call registry, that list is just for residential lines, so your publishing that number for business purposes gives phone-based salespeople the right to call you anyhow. Just ask them not to call you again. You'll also get a lot of e-mail solicitations from mortgage brokers, training companies, Web-service providers, and vendors of tschotchkes. I recommend that you "unsubscribe" to all unwanted e-mail pitches to help keep the volume down. (Also consider using some of the antispam tools mentioned in Chapter 1, " The Right Office Tools.") I recommend that you do not publish your fax number on your Web site or in public databases, since doing so increases the chances of getting spam faxes. While new laws prohibit unsolicited faxes, many unscrupulous companies send them out anyhow, even if you call to have your number removed. |
Providing Mortgage Tools One area that many buyers need help on is figuring out what they can afford. In many real estate markets, buyers need to be preapproved for their offers to be taken seriously. But even if that's not the case where you work, you want your buyer clients to really know their budget upfront, so you and they don't waste time on homes they can't actually afford. However, many people don't like to talk about money with strangers, and they fear being ripped off by mortgage salespeople. You can help them on both counts by providing some basic mortgage tools, so they can privately explore their financial options before they're ready to open up to a stranger.
Mortgage calculators give potential buyers a reason to visit your Web site: private exploration of financial options before they're ready to talk to a person.
Helping buyers keep current on mortgage interest rates is also a handy way to encourage repeat visits. Buyers can find mortgage calculators online in hundreds of places. All they have to do is search for mortgage calculator in a search tool like Google. But for agents looking for a mortgage calculator to include on their Web site, the choices are more limited. Zango Group offers a trio of mortgage calculatorsto calculate how much a buyer qualifies for, to calculate mortgage payments, and to compare loan optionsas well as a separate calculator to estimate the financials of rental property investments. Other Web site calculator providers include HSH Associates and TimeValue Software. You'll also want to give your visitors context about current mortgage rates, so they can budget accordingly. One good source for this information is HSH Associates, which offers several versions of its interest-rate charts that you can include on your site easily. Best of all, after you've added the code to your site, the rate information updates automatically, so you don't have to regularly update the page yourself. CD Resource: For mortgage calculators for use in agent sites, links to HSH Associates, TimeValue Software, and the Zango Group. Get Them to Sign Up Ideally, a Web site satisfies two goals: It helps attract new clients (as shown in this chapter) and serves your existing ones (see Chapter 9, "Communicating Better with Clients"). But attracting potential clients is not enoughyou want to convert them to actual clients. As I described earlier in this chapter, you want to make sure your contact information is easy to find on every page, increasing the chances that they'll actually e-mail or call you. Another way to encourage actual contacts is to provide a sign-up form for content such as newsletters or articles. For visitors to get this information, you require them to provide an e-mail address and perhaps a phone number, which gives you a way to follow up with them. You can even provide them the opportunity to fill out a survey about what they're looking for. That helps you tailor your next communication with them. To create sign-up forms on the Web requires more sophisticated Web skills than most agents have or want to develop. (The technologies you need to understand are HTML forms and your choice of PHP or CGI scripts.) But they're well known to Web site designers, so you can easily get this functionality in your site by hiring a pro. A cheap way to get the same result is to provide a link to your e-mail address and ask visitors to request the material by e-mail; just be sure to tell them what information they must provide. The responses will be less consistent than you'd get from a form, but that might be worth the lower cost. |
Providing Other Information You might provide lots of kinds of information on your Web site, but keep the following in mind: Limit free information: You're not in the business of providing free information. You should include information that shows off your abilities to potential clients, so stay focused on a few key areas and always be sure to (gracefully) tell your visitors why they should talk to you directly to get great service. Maintain the site: The more information you provide, the more you need to maintain. Nothing is worse for a Web site than being out of date: It shows laziness, sloppiness, or disengagement, none of which help sell you. Most often, a real estate Web site should include information about the local marketsuch as neighborhoods, schools, and activitiesas well as information about your services. Agents often provide this information through sign-up forms for newsletter subscriptions, how-to documents, or local general disclosures. This material typically comes from your broker, Realtors association, or government and community sources.
Provide some free local information to show that you know your stuff. But don't give away everything; you want to have some exclusives for your paying clients. In many cases, though, you can create the content. For example, you could provide a page on local resources, listing contact information for the gas company, water company, cable TV providers, phone companies, and so fortheverything someone who's moving will need to have handy. I provide links to my favorite neighborhood restaurants and to a few trusted sources for plumbing, hardware, and so forth. You might choose to keep those recommendations to yourself and instead provide information on local schools or parks. Pick what makes sense for your market and for your expertise, but pick just a few such areas for which to give away information on your Web site. For the other topics you know well, create checklists or other printed documents that you give your clients during a transaction as part of your enhanced service package. That'll help word spread about the extra mile you go for your clients. Remember, the goal of putting some of this content on your Web site is to show your knowledge of your area, so potential clients know that you know your stuff. In addition to this local market expertise, be sure to provide FAQsfrequently asked questionsfor sellers and buyers. Most people do not know how real estate works, and they have lots of misunderstandings about agency, commissions, and so on. One I hear all the time is a belief that an agent can sell only the properties listed in her officelike salespeople at the shoe store who can sell only that store's stock. By offering FAQs for sellers and buyers, you can answer the common questions and debunk the common myths. (I recommend offering separate FAQs for buyers and sellers, so each page focuses on its specific audience.) Having FAQs provides several benefits: It shows you know how the business works; it presents you as a client-oriented, helpful agent; and it helps your Web site (and thus you) look more impressive. Another advantage: It gives you a great follow-up for potential clients you meet at open houses or on floor duty. If they seem new to real estate, you can answer a few questions live, and then give them a card that has your Web site address on it and tell them there's a page on your site that'll answer a lot of their other questions at their convenience. (Of course, let them know that you're also happy to talk about any of those issues by phone or in person.) Now they have another reason to learn more about you.
FAQs are a great way to help new buyers and sellers understand how real estate really works, and also give them another reason to see your stuff. |