Property Websites -- Effective?

[Dan Bohannon]

I am curious if any of you use property websites and if you find them to be effective? Does it really make you stand out as an agent? Do you find them to help or create more of a burden?

I am asking because I am involved in such a project that sells these sites and the customers seem to do quite well. (I will leave out the shameless plug) I love working on this project and love to hear feedback in this regard.

What do you like about them, what do you not like about them. What do you think these types of sites need to make you more successful?

[Account Closed]

You might want to ask your question in the Real Estate Agent forum, and see if they answer. Good luck, Mike

[Minna Reid]

I love them. The one that i use is so cheap (like $12/month) and its pretty easy to set up. It looks great ( www.885swamp.com ), gets the viewer a ton of info, I can track hits and it gets a ton of traffic...my rider and all my advertising steers traffic towards the site. Plus most agents dont do this. They'll have a website promoting themself, but not specifically the property. Sellers love it and it sets you past a good chunk of the competition.

[Michael Rogers]

I use a pretty simple website I designed on my Mac to provide info on my properties. I don't ever get any leads off of it, but it does provide a great place for me to refer people to learn more about my properties. Alot of times when people call and want to know the rent, lease terms, sq footage, etc, I'll give them my web site at the end of the call so they can further review the property and show it to friends and family. I also keep a copy of my application on my website for prospective tenants to print out on their computer. That saves me from having to keep copies of the application on hand.

[Michelle Stein]

I think you would be waaaay better off to have a website keyword targeted for your area and then feature the homes on subpages. That's just me though. What do you do with the domain after the home sells? If you built a keyword rich site with a domain like floridahomes.com you could probably at least sell it for a good bit after you retire :)

[Celine Fang]

I work with a full service internet solution company and I set up my own website. I like the fact that I am in control of how many pages and what, when I want to post and make changes to my site. Websites are so economical when you compare to any other form of advertising to provide the same amount of information. I set up forms for my prospects to fill in their info, maps to my properties, tips on buying and selling, FAQ pages..... and I even invite any real estate related businesses to advertise on my site (so sometimes I get their referrals).

There are so much leverage when I can let my prospects come to my site any time of the day and that they find most of the info they needed to learn about my company.

I also have free technical support, e-mail account, and even a way to check statistic of visits... so I know how each page is performing and if I need to promote certain pages more.

The system is very affortable. If you are interested, I can help you get a no-obligation demo.