26 comments » MYTH: single property websites drive trafficRealtors
I’m going to review a current trend in real estate technology that I strongly feel is a scam. First, I will say that RSS Pieces does not offer anything that is remotely competitive with the product that I am about to review so there is no benefit to us in saying what I am about to say. This post is simply meant as a public service and a notice to nefarious web companies everywhere that real estate professionals are way too smart to fall for your scams!
What are single property websites?There is a growing trend where web companies and registrars are suggesting that Realtors build property specific websites. Typically these sites use the exact address of the listing as the URL and feature the property images, information and a link back to the actual Realtor website. So, if you had a listng at 232 River Road in Andover, MA, you would purchase the domain like www.232riverroadandover.com, a web company would post a single page or series of 3-4 pages about this particular property. The claim is that this kind of highly focused site will generate greater search engine and visitor interest and will drive traffic back to your main website. If this were true, I’d be retired by now. Why? A simple site like that takes a matter of minutes to throw up on the web and I could sell thousands of them each week to our existing network of Realtors.For an example of a company offering this service: Single Property Sites Example of a single property website: 1122 Main Street So, what makes this kind of product a scam?Not valuable from an SEO standpoint:
Who does a listing/property specific site benefit?1. Web company that built it2. Registrar that sold you the domain 3. Hosting company Conclusion:Don’t be swindled. This is simply a waste of money that alone will not drive traffic, leads or Internet visibility. You are much better served to stick with the site or blog you already have and post a listing specific page on that. You won't be penalized by the Google Sandbox and your main site will benefit from any traffic driven to the property specific site.If any of you have used a single property site, I’d love to hear about your experiences. Related PostsIS YOUR SITE living in a bad neighborhood?Ultimate guide to domain names Do you know the 6 signs of blog death? PODCAST: Damion Flynn, MS Realtor ActiveRain Talks Social Networking http://www.rsspieces.com/0001B7 
Posted on November 16, 2006 11:17:05
Comment from: Joel Burslem [Visitor]  · http://www.futureofrealestatemarketing.comMary, I tend to agree with your assessment. You're bang on with your criticisms of why single sites don't benefit buyers. But, a couple things to consider.... MediaTemple's new GridServer hosting package allows you to host over 100 websites on your account. Cost of hosting a site = negligible. Turn it off when it sells. Cost to register the domain for a year = a couple of bucks with GoDaddy, not a huge investment. I certainly wouldn't pay to have someone develop a single property site for me, but a tech savvy realtor could use a free open-source platform like Wordpress to build a templated site pretty quickly. Greg Swann is already doing this. I see single property sites much like any other form of advertising. Rarely does it find the buyer but it might help you get that seller. It's really about massaging the seller's ego ("My house has it's own web site") and getting the listing.  Permalink November 16, 2006 13:44:03Comment from: Guest [Visitor] · http://www.rsspieces.com Joel,Interesting to hear about GridServer. I can always count on you to know which services to check out in the industry and your assessment makes perfect sense. I completely agree that a free blog would be far more valuable than a single property site as well. Thanks for dropping by. Permalink November 16, 2006 13:52:05Comment from: Christian Real Estate Network [Visitor] · http://www.hismove.com/blogI agree with both of you... from an SEO standpoint, a site like this will do little to drive traffic. But as Joel stated, if the price is right, it still might be worth considering. Have you seen the sites that Greg Swann creates for his listings? They look pretty darn cool. And they are usually set up in a blog type format so that he can post open house dates, renovations, community news, etc. Used in conjunction with other web marketing to drive traffic to the site, I think these types of sites could have value. It could also be used as a selling point for a potential listing client... or could be useful for very high end properties. But in general, a generic cookie cutter site like this is really a waste of time for the average agent. Great article Mary! Permalink November 16, 2006 18:26:22Comment from: David Smith [Visitor] · http://www.barbaralasky.com/tucson-real-estate-blog/Mary, Thanks for the article. I've been thinking a lot about this very thing for months, I have followed what Greg did as mentioned above and also recently Jonathan Dalton on the Phoenix Real Estate Blog. Then Pittsburgh Home Daily came up with the SEO contest. I've had a few ideas about this topic so decided to have a small experiment of my own. On Nov. 1 I purchased the domain name golbetatselaercontest.com. On Nov 2 I installed Wordpress in a subfolder on my GoDaddy hosting which allows for multiple domains. I set up a theme an about page and just the sample post with some editing of those posts to fit the theme of the contest "dlrow olleh" On Nov. 9 my site was indexed in Google and continues to be. I'm working on a post on our site on how to set all this up on a shoestring budget. As mentioned in Joel's comment it is a listing tool and people like knowing they have their own web site for the address. There might be another advantage as well. Tonight I typed in one of our listing addresses in Google. It came up with the first organic result on Trulia. When anyone clicks on the information for the listing on Trulia the contact information goes to the Broker's Relocation dept. The relocation dept. then assigns an agent to that prospect. The relocation dept gets a 30% referral for every transaction that buyer, anyone in their family, or co-workers ever does with the agent. No where is the listing agent mentioned or contact information to the listing agent made available. This is another reason we want to have those domain names as web sites using wordpress templates for the site. We would like leads to come directly to us. I know I have more research to do on this and will have a post up on the process hopefully next week. Right now my theory is: if the domain name is associated with a wordpress blog it is picked up and indexed much quicker than if it is a typical web site. I think it has to do with google blog search tied to google searches. I very much agree with you and what you say about this being a scam. But for the reasons Joel and I have mentioned I think there is value in pursueing the idea further. It would be unfortunate to simply dismiss the idea all together because some companies are taking advantage of real estate agents that don't know any better. All you have to do is look at 99% of agent web sites to draw the same conclusion. From an SEO standpoint they are worthless. I'm thankful the real estate community of agents have resources like you and RSS Pieces where we can learn to implament technology practices that will grow our business and better serve our clients. Thank you Mary. Permalink November 17, 2006 00:41:07Comment from: Jonathan Dalton [Visitor] · http://jdalton.realtownblogs.comI've started putting these together, primarily as links off my main web page. The one tangible benefit is it makes the property owners happy. Since I'm setting them up under subdomains, there's no added cost to set up the site. And with the template I have set up, it takes about 20-25 minutes to complete a site. Whether it's of any tangible benefit I can't say as this is a new phenomenon. But the pages are getting hits off my main site ... call it the shotgun theory. Only one pellet has to hit to make it all worth it given the time and financial strictures I've placed on the venture. Permalink November 17, 2006 02:39:34Comment from: Guest [Visitor] · http://www.rsspieces.comJonathan, I think your method of implementing the idea is spot on. I would much rather see Realtors head in that direction with a subdomain off their main site for SPS. It makes more SEO and ROI sense than what these companies are selling. I hate to see Realtors throwing money away on third party companies when they can do it themselves on the site they have already built credibility with. Permalink November 17, 2006 07:43:54Comment from: mortgagemonkey [Visitor] · http://www.iprocessing.bizWhen I read the article, my first impressions was "how is this going to help a realtor, they have the listing on their main site". I thought; read the other comments; and thought some more. WHY NOT! We're in sales. We strive to be different, unique, at the forefront. And if it makes the seller happy, then WHY NOT! Also, how about the referral factor. If we can play off ego for a moment. If the seller is so happy with his/her "very own website", maybe they may be more inclined to mention it to friends, neighbors, coworkers. Hey, who doesn't want their own vanity plate? I think everyone hit it on the head with the wordpress blog. Putting together a simple wordpress site is something I think every Realtor can do. This is something that I am going to share with some of the Loan Officers I work with to take to their realtors that they work with. Hitting on another topic from above, I recently just switched to a blog format for our site and have seen listings in Google that we never had with our static site. No Sandboxing. Just a thought Mister Fox. mm Permalink November 21, 2006 20:56:02Comment from: jon maren [Visitor] · http://www.themarengroup.comI am considering setting up single listing sites - and found this blog googling around. My main reasons are 1) something to impress sellers and 2) cut back on the cost of print ads - put just a list of open houses in the paper with the URL instead of standard verbage. The best looking product seems to be powersites by agencylogic - but quite $$$$. After reading more about this though - it does occur to me that investing the money into driving traffic to my main website might be better - and/or improving my website. BTW - interesting that the sample blog site on RSS Pieces has one of my listings on it!!! Is someone connected to Andover, MA here, or is it a coincidence? Permalink December 03, 2006 20:49:31Comment from: admin [Member] Not a coincidence. I wasraised in Andover, MA. We were in Mass. when we were developing the test site so decided to use my home town. Permalink December 03, 2006 21:01:39Comment from: Jim Kimmons [Visitor] · http://realestate.about.comThere are still print ads being run that many know will benefit the real estate agent more than the seller client, so there will be plenty of single site listing domains because the sellers like them. However, third level, as in 123Main.YourSite.com are an excellent compromise and help with the SEO as well. I've toyed with single address blogs for listings also. But the static content destroys most of the value that might be there. Permalink December 18, 2006 16:20:33Comment from: Paul Eastwood [Visitor] · http://www.SinglePropertySites.comI think your post here shows a considerable lack of knowledge for the needs of the real estate professional and the business process of winning and selling listings. Your remarks focus heavily on the topics of SEO and web site traffic - all very well, but the whole purpose of a single property site is to meet the marketing and business needs of the real estate professional, which is to win more listings and to make the selling of that listing as efficient as possible. Your discussion is interesting and informative as a theoretical analysis of the finer points of SEO - but just makes the wrong points I'm afraid, which misleads your audience. Your comments would be better placed in a technical discussion forum about web site SEO. You are barking up the wrong tree. You are discussing SEO and driving traffic to your main site, and these really have nothing to do with the main benefits of single property sites. The main purpose of the Single Property Site is as a business and marketing tool, to allow the agent to create the perception of high-marketing value in the mind of the seller so that the seller signs a contract with them. This is the listings agents primary objective. If you are technically capable, then sure, build your own, but most agents I know are not that technical nor do they have the time. So, the purpose of our service is to allow the production of a very beautiful, high quality web site by anyone. Simple to use, quick to create and free for pre-listings and just a few dollars per month thereafter, so highly affordable. There are considerable business and marketing benefits - here's some... - Win the listing (ok - enough said) - Referrals - who will be nosing round the site? all the neighbors, will they be impressed - of course! Will they be interested in who did this - sure. Also, what does the home seller do with this site - proudly pass it round friends, colleagues, family etc - viral marketing at its best, all possibly generating referrals. - the best exposure to drive-by traffic in the neighborhood - NAR says the #2 most quoted source of information for sellers was the For Sale sign - so stick a sign-rider outside and say "more info at www.1122MainStreet.com' - direct marketing at its best. - the street address domain name means its memorable and the fastest way for a buyer to find property details for buyers (faster then searching on any website) Your suggestion that these should be a sub-domain from an existing site again totally misses the point. Doing that would only reinforce the sellers belief that the marketing is as much about the agent as it is about anything. A single property site is about the sellers home.. not necessarily about the agent. Its actually all about marketing (you know, providing value to your clients...) Thank you for allowing me to respond. Paul Eastwood Founder Single Property Sites Inc. Permalink February 01, 2007 02:12:11Comment from: Adam Adkins [Visitor] · http://www.adamadkins.comAs a realtor, and a very tech savy one at that...I agree with both sides of this arguement to an extent. As I see it, from a realtor perspective, the primary reasons for single property sites are: 1: Stroke the owner's ego... this in turn will win over alot of sellers, bring in the listings and make the neighbors jealous. 2. Lead Capture... if the single property site has the intelligence built into to it to request more info, request an appointment, and announce open houses you are potentially generating far more buyer leads than a magazine or newspaper ad. I never cared about the search engine traffic from a single property site... I used it in all my email marketing and via a rider. This was the best way to get traffic from it. There was nothing more targetted than these visitors. The only thing that I truly believe is the downfall to the single property sites is the price. Many of them price themselves right out of the market. If you are a true listing agent and carrying 20 -30 listings at 75 bucks a pop... this isnt cost effective. I have always been more prone to do it myself at a substantial cheaper and better way... then pass it off to someone to do it for me. Once templated, the time, effort and money is no longer a factor and you cover all positve aspects and benefits of the tool in itself. Permalink June 01, 2007 23:46:38Comment from: Oliver Muoto [Visitor] · http://www.vflyerblog.com/blog/2007/08/23/single_property_website/I have a slightly different perspective on single property sites and belive they have more benefit than fault: http://www.vflyerblog.com/blog/2007/08/23/single_property_website/ omuoto Permalink August 24, 2007 11:42:50Comment from: David Medlock [Visitor] · http://www.mynre.com/"No one on earth will be searching for a property by its exact address except for the current owner or their neighbors and family. It just doesn’t make sense." I have to very strongly disagree with you. I have clients whose sites are optimized and have thousands of MLS listings indexed in search engines and you would be VERY surprised at how many people search the web for specific addresses. (I was surprised, myself.) Web searches for specific addresses and specific MLS numbers are very common and drive a significant amount of traffic to my clients' sites. I know that some have received several leads from these sorts of searches. I think single property sites, if for the right price, serve some useful purposes. 1. Easy for advertising: Craigslist, local newspapers and real estate magazines, flyers, etc. You can direct people straight to the site for that property quickly and easily. 2. Getting more listings. If you spend the very small sum for a good site, it can impress sellers. Yes, it massages their ego, but that's a VERY large part of the sales process anyway, and a dedicated web site can be a good way to hook them in. 3. When the listing is sold, redirect it to your web site. Any residual traffic will come your way. In areas where you're selling a unit in a condo development, purchase a more generic domain (i.e. www.333mainstreet.com instead of www.333mainstreetUnit100.com) and then market to other homeowners in the building that you have an established and effective marketing plan for their building. You might pick up a couple more listings. Most single property sites that I've seen can cost anywhere from $10/month to a $50 flat fee. That can easily be less than the cost of a 5-7 line ad in a major local newspaper. (We're working a single property site solution and are thinking this through thoroughly, so we're interested in all sides of the story, but I definitely feel like it's a valuable tool.) Also, I wouldn't spend the money on a single property site for a $100k property or even a $150k property. But higher end properties with target audiences who are tech-savvy and have higher incomes will likely benefit from a single property site. (BTW, I currently have a property with a dedicated site and in the past two days since we listed the place, we've had over 100 people look at the site. On average we have about 5 page views per visitor.) Permalink October 15, 2007 18:59:56Comment from: Eric Badgley [Visitor] · http://www.bellingham-realestate.netI disagree, I feel that this would not be a scam because you use this service for a listing tool not for seo. Permalink November 09, 2007 00:07:05Comment from: Mark Walser [Visitor] · http://www.z57.comI agree with the comments of Eric B. above and my industry peers... We provide Single Property Websites as a convenient "add-on" tool to our agents when they are utilizing our Agent websites. We optimize both the Agent Websites as well as the Single Property Sites by submitting them to search engines etc. and making them indexable... But we do not offer targeted SEO programs on the SPW (because it is not an efficient use of dollars for the most part) - we only do it on the actual Agent Website. The general consensus is that it is a great tool to make the seller feel special, and win the listing, and there is a certain amount of value in being able to "showcase" the listing and advertise in essence a "24/7" Open House for the listing on a sign rider for drivebys. Like all marketing tools - effectiveness will be varied, but the overwhelming feedback we get from agents is that there are very few things you can do for under $100 that extract and display the listing's value as well as a showcase property website. Regards Mark
Permalink November 29, 2007 12:22:28Comment from: Nathan Bednarik [Visitor] · http://www.iPropertyWebsites.comThis is a very interesting discussion. I wanted to chime in and give some additional thoughts... Single property websites are indeed a growing trend…one that appears to have some staying power. My company offers a single property website service and I’d like to share with you the reason I began developing the product in the first place and why it’s not all that bad of an idea: A couple years ago I was just a guy trying to sell my home with the intension of relocating my family from California to Colorado. The combination of selling and trying to find a new home was stressful and frustrating to say the least. Anyone that has done it can relate. It was stressful on one hand because I felt like my agent wasn’t doing everything he could to advertise the property I was selling; particularly on the internet. You expect a lot when paying someone $15-20k in commission; particularly first time sellers. Everything hinged on us selling our house. It was frustrating on the other hand because the limited resources (photos, information) I had to rely on from the internet to locate my new home. It’s mind-boggling how little information some Realtors use in the MLS and on their own web pages when listing a property. All ends well with single property websites... I ended up designing a simple website for our house and crammed as much information and photos on it as possible. We put our property address url (i.e. - www.555MainSt.com) in all our flyers, print ads and we even had a sign rider made with the website url to attract drive-by traffic. It took me a countless hours to put together. Ironically enough, we ended up selling our home to a family that was also relocating from another state. Our property was one of the first they considered because we had the most accessible and detailed information available about it on the internet. It turned out to be the only offer we got - Maybe we got lucky? Maybe it was a combination of marketing techniques? Who knows but it definitely helped. If all the properties I looked at online in Colorado had this level of information it sure would have made the transition and move out here that much easier. SEO and link popularity for your regular website are all perks but the most important reason to use a tool like this is to easily make information about the property widely available and, more importantly, to impress your sellers. After all, they are going to be responsible for a good majority or your future business. Now that they’ve been around for a while and competition amongst providers of single property websites is increasing, they are much more affordable, easier to use and have some invaluable tools (such as automatic syndication) that make them worth every penny. They should be considered a vital tool to market any property online…even if it only gives that one family relocating across the country a little more information Permalink November 30, 2007 19:31:59Comment from: Nathan Bednarik [Visitor] · http://www.iPropertyWebsites.comThis is a very interesting discussion. I wanted to chime in and give some additional thoughts... Single property websites are indeed a growing trend…one that appears to have some staying power. My company offers a single property website service and I’d like to share with you the reason I began developing the product in the first place and why it’s not all that bad of an idea: A couple years ago I was just a guy trying to sell my home with the intension of relocating my family from California to Colorado. The combination of selling and trying to find a new home was stressful and frustrating to say the least. Anyone that has done it can relate. It was stressful on one hand because I felt like my agent wasn’t doing everything he could to advertise the property I was selling; particularly on the internet. You expect a lot when paying someone $15-20k in commission; particularly first time sellers. Everything hinged on us selling our house. It was frustrating on the other hand because the limited resources (photos, information) I had to rely on from the internet to locate my new home. It’s mind-boggling how little information some Realtors use in the MLS and on their own web pages when listing a property. All ends well with single property websites... I ended up designing a simple website for our house and crammed as much information and photos on it as possible. We put our property address url (i.e. - www.555MainSt.com) in all our flyers, print ads and we even had a sign rider made with the website url to attract drive-by traffic. It took me a countless hours to put together. Ironically enough, we ended up selling our home to a family that was also relocating from another state. Our property was one of the first they considered because we had the most accessible and detailed information available about it on the internet. It turned out to be the only offer we got - Maybe we got lucky? Maybe it was a combination of marketing techniques? Who knows but it definitely helped. If all the properties I looked at online in Colorado had this level of information it sure would have made the transition and move out here that much easier. SEO and link popularity for your regular website are all perks but the most important reason to use a tool like this is to easily make information about the property widely available and, more importantly, to impress your sellers. After all, they are going to be responsible for a good majority or your future business. Now that they’ve been around for a while and competition amongst providers of single property websites is increasing, they are much more affordable, easier to use and have some invaluable tools (such as automatic syndication) that make them worth every penny. They should be considered a vital tool to market any property online…even if it only gives that one family relocating across the country a little more information Permalink November 30, 2007 19:32:13Comment from: Mark S [Visitor] · http://www.tminus6.comYou are making some absolute statements that are not absolutely true. Just because you have a fresh domain doesn't mean that Google is supressing you or holding off on indexing you for pertinent keywords. We have developed sites like this for our real estate clients (and for ourselves) that have received immediate first page results for highly targeted keywords. Of course, if your content or keywords are in very competitive niches you would and should expect more work to be the most relevant (first page) result. Your other statements regarding the value to the site visitor and the value to the firm that owns the site are based on your particular understanding of internet marketing. A focused landing page that highlights a particular property can be very effective when used in conjuction with a expertly run PPC campaign and clear paths for visitors to interact with you once they arrive at the page. If you are just throwing up pages willy-nilly with no focused direct marketing initiative you will experience less than stellar results.
Permalink December 08, 2007 01:32:30Comment from: Floyd Magee [Visitor] · http://www.coloradosplendor.comThe main thing that I see the single property site being beneficial for is a one stop site for ALL information on the home. www.634riverparkdrive.com has everything that prospects need to know about the property. It goes above and beyond the limits of the MLS. So now I can have the site in all of my print marketing. When Realtors need to learn about the property I can direct them there. Also, the seller does think it totally rocks and that does bring good referral value. It's rather inexpensive and brings a lot of organization to my marketing of the property. I can also track the analytics to see how things are going. Just some thoughts and I agree that they probably aren't great in terms of SEO. Regards, Floyd Permalink February 21, 2008 21:45:03Comment from: Judy Orr [Visitor] · http://www.cook-county-real-estate.net  After about a year after learning about single property websites and seeing no value in them because of your seo reasons, I have recently changed my mind. These property websites are not for seo purposes and if they caused any kind of blip for your main website that's just frosting on the cake. However, they will most likely rank on the first page, if not top position, on Google for the address depending on what other kind of promotion you do for the property. So why is this a good thing? It pleases sellers and is a great listing tool. In the beginning, this is all I could see as a benefit to a single property website - just an otherwise useless listing tool. Less expensive single property sites are coming up all the time so it is less expensive than the Talking House transmittors I bought about 10 years or so ago. Or, do them yourself with Wordpress as has been mentioned. The way to use them effectively are as follows: 1. As a listing tool 2. With a sign rider with the www.propertyaddress.com on it - this is where you'll get your visitors - plus any print advertising (I purposely would not link to the SPW from my main site) 3. A link on the site goes back to your MLS search with an explanation such as "if this isn't the right home for you feel free to search www.your-mls-search-page.com 4. Possibly a link back to your home page but I think the MLS search is good enough 5. This is a way to get your foot in the door of a fsbo. Offer them free single property sites - no strings attached. There is a fsbo single property website provider that charges flat fees for different monthly time periods and offers unlimited sites that you and your fsbo can access - you can get the information on their leads. 6. When the listing is sold you can keep the domain up as long as you want and offer it to the buyers as a memento, whether they're your buyers or not. You don't have to do this in front of the listing agent - drop them a note after the closing. Keep it up for a year or at least a year after the closing or longer if you feel it's worthwhile (the buyer might not ever look at it much years down the road). The choice is yours. I am presently searching around to see which provider I'm going to use but for my purposes the fsbo SPW seems to kill two birds with one stone (giving the fsbo's control over their own site and being able to use them for my listings). I still have to get further details.
Permalink April 05, 2008 01:23:24Comment from: Pam Graham [Visitor] · http://www.pamgraham.comMy question is…why spend money on something that is just for massaging the seller’s ego? Is that really good business practice? If you’re advertising their listing on websites (free sites) when someone types in that address, it will come up! Stop wasting money! Permalink April 17, 2008 11:21:00Comment from: Bo Buchanan [Visitor] · http://www.blue60.comThis is by far the most honest, worthwhile, singularly valuable discussion about a Real Estate tool I have seen on the internet. Insight from technical people (Mary), providers of the service (single site folks) and users of the services (Realtors). I got sucked in to the story at the beginning because it was so harsh - and so rare to see such an outright dismissal of a pretty popular product. However, to be fair - Mary’s blog title seems to be true. The Myth that Single Property Websites drive traffic. What exactly drives traffic and how google uses the information is a hotly debated topic all over the net. As far as Internet issues are concerned - this topic will probably remain the #1 hotbutton topic of discussion over time much like politics and religion are in the real world! As much of the discussion points out - I’m not sure Realtors are using the single site services to drive traffic. As a Realtor, I am using Postlets.com to post classified ads and it seems like a very small price point to upgrade to a single property website. A service like classified posting is a must in todays real estate market - when it is combined with a real estate single property site at a reasonable cost it’s a no brainer. Another draw is something like vFlyer offers by making these sites available to mobile phone users. However - now I am wondering how I balance the use of domain names at a property. My company provides signs that have the company domain name on the sign. For 1 or 2 neighborhoods I farm - I use a domain name rider with the name of community. I don’t want to give this up because people seeing one house in the subdivison will most likely visit the site for pertinent information about the subdivision if they really like the area. So if I add a single property sign rider - what do I do with the neighborhood sign rider? Maybe an answer to this solution is a re-vamping of how we use signs as Realtors. Perhaps the days of our photos and huge company logos on our signs are dead. And these signs in themselves need to become more of resource for buyers. One of the biggest benefits I see for single property websites is what Floyd mentioned above. They are not distracted from everything else related to real estate at our site. It is a quick and easy way to see information specifically related to that property. And most of them offer tools within 1 click to things like aerial views, school info, request more info, etc. When this information might be 2, 3 or 4 clicks away at our own sites. One of the improvements I would like to see is maybe a development of this kind of service into a plugin for my site - Like Nathan at Z57 says they offer. I don’t know how it is implemented. I use Birdview for hosting. It would be great if I could add a single property site to my birdview site. Birdview already gives each of my properties a unique web address but the landing page is nothing more than a small photo inside a page on my site. And the detail property page has some great info - but not as much as these single property sites offer. Another suggestion would be the ability to choose this service when I list my property in the MLS. In chicago - the new MREDLLC MLS of Northern Illinois, already lets me pick a virtual tour company wen I input my listing. Wouldn’t it be cool if I could choose a single property site provider as well? And order a custom rider? And a domdain name? This way I wouldn’t have to re-enter all the info into a propety site a second time. Or, couldn’t the single property site providers pull this information off the MLS? Maybe that would make it cost-prohibitive. Thank you Mary for continuing this conversation on your website - even though many of the posters don’t agree with your opinion. This kind of honest interchange is what we need! And thanks to Nathan, Mark, David, Oliver & Paul - it’s nice to see service providers joining the conversation and exchange. Permalink April 17, 2008 18:05:43Comment from: Darryl ODonnell [Visitor] · http://darrylo.comOK I see what's going on here. It's a contaversial post - Bravo Mary! I've been perusing your site in order to help my real estate clients improve their boring blogs and happened accross this post which at first infuriated me because there are many benefits to idividual property sites that you overlooked: Realtor promotion through non web venues such as sign riders and print ads A place to put additional images, floor plans etc. Can be used as a virtual tour Listing clients love them and often insist/expect the service Luxury properties often have a longer market time so the site does get picked up and ranked well by search engines The cost is minimal and the domains can be recycled or given as gifts to the new owner Buyers love them and it helps them fall in love with the home they are negotiating to purchase I could go on but I won't because I know you are a savvy marketer and already know the benefits. You did an awesome job teaching me the value of a contraversial post. Thank you! I'm glad I stumbled upon your site today and I definately learned something of value. Permalink July 17, 2008 15:47:27Comment from: Laura Duggan [Visitor] · http://www.WestAustin.comSingle property websites are a huge part of my business, but the vendor is key. I have used the Homesites from Platinum Sales Systems for about 3 years and have increased my business substantially. By driving consumers directly to the listing where they can get all of the information that they need to make a buying decision, I have found time on the market is reduced and so are my marketing costs. In fact, I sell many of my own listings without having to pay a buyer's agent. Friday, I am closing a ($790K+) listing that the buyer saw at the Homesite (www.1802VanceCircle.com). They raved about the amount of information that they could get there. They submitted an offer without using a buyer's agent, used the Homesite to get the home appraised, asked for no repairs, and are closing it Friday. Last month, I had a buyer who was relocating to Austin, saw the Homesite, purchased the house sight unseen and moved into it 30 days later. He was so impressed that he could get that much information about the house, that he felt comfortable making the purchase of a house that he had never even seen. That one was $300K+. Last summer, I posted a Homesite for a $2M house, that listed with me because of the Homesite marketing. I disseminated the Homesite electronically to all of the top agents in my Board of REALTORS and sold the property for full price 8 days later. I have many of those same kind of stories. This marketing really works. In addition to displaying all of the pertinent information about the house, Platinum Homesites have a place for buyers to sign up for home searches, connect directly to the agent, visit the agent's website, order relocation materials, see the property on Google Maps, convert currency and convert square footage to square meters for international visitors. So, the agent not only has a superb marketing tool, but also has the use of some prospecting components. The Platinum System also has a fabulous listing presentation that you can post on your agent website. That exact presentation got me a $13.5M listing as well as many others. The seller found my personal website, clicked on the presentation that says, "Platinum Program for Sellers, click here" and called me to come list his home. Look at that one at www.12021SelmaHughesPark.net Over 75,000 visitors have looked at this listing on-line at the Homesite because I have a marketing plan in place that drives traffic to my Homesite. For more information and to see samples of the offerings at Platinum, agents can go to www.PlatinumSalesSystems.com and get the details. Like most things, there are some major differences in the products and services that the various vendors offer. Platinum is a good investment. Permalink July 23, 2008 12:26:18Comment from: Jeffrey Nelson [Visitor] · http://socialnetworking-sites.comThis is a great post with excellent contributions from visitors. It's great to see each side of the argument. As a marketing firm, we find SPW's as a selling tool for agents, but they must speak clearly with their sellers. On the other hand, if an agent can prove how the SPW will enhance the listing, bring qualified buyers and possibly sell the home quicker, they will win more listings. The biggest problem I see is the cost of SPW's. I've been shopping around searching for a firm to add as a referral partner to our neighborhood networking sites and find the costs too high, even for affiliates. Considering we help real estate agents digitally farm neighborhoods for $0.10 per home, SPW's are overpriced. The point of technology is to become more efficient and reduce costs so profit margins increase.
Permalink November 15, 2008 12:29:17Comment on this article This post has 11 feedbacks awaiting moderation... |
Like what you have been reading on this site?
Subscribe to our feed below.
Menu