The dirty secret that no one wants to tell real estate brokers
You know that 90% of home buyers start their search online.
And most buyers first ‘make contact’ while looking at real estate and related information at a website.
And they often find the website they make contact from by searching related keywords at websites like Google.
Now Google “Your market area Homes for Sale” like “Danville, CA Homes for Sale”. Do you notice that for the most part, it is aggregator sites like Realtor.com, Trulia.com, Homegain.com and then a few agents that are always coming up at the top of the page?
If you are not on the first page, prospects looking for real estate in your area are not going to find you by the most popular way that people find agents these days.
Do you notice that not a lot of broker offices come up at all?
The aggregator sites are using your information to attract website searchers to get prospect and lead information that they then sell back into your market!
They are using your information to help your competition, or anyone that will pay the going rate for real estate leads that day.
Internet lead’s come from 3 sources:
1.SEO is when people find you from Google, Yahoo, etc.
2. SEM is that plus all the other ways people find you on the Internet.
3. Referral Traffic is when people get to your website from another website that is linked to your website (your listings are probably being used by others here as well!)
Two equations will simplify closing business from Online Marketing:
1. More Content = More SEO/SEM/Referral Traffic = More Leads
2. More Leads + Good Business Practices = More Closings
Search Facts:
1. Content underlies SEO, SEM and referral website traffic (lead sources).
2. Rich listing data and local area and market information is the best and most searched for content on the Internet.
Rich Listing Data is the detailed information about your listings that only exist on the listing broker and agent website vs. the basic information sent out via IDX to the MLS and every other website on the Internet. You own the most seached for information already!
3. The local broker has access to biggest total combination of Rich Listing Data (detailed property information, pictures, virtual tours, documents, etc) and local information vs. either the corporate office or any agent in their office.
The broker can put ALL of the office listing’s Rich Listing Data on their website (potentially dozens and hundreds), vs. agents only have their own listings (most likely in the single digits.
Putting it all together:
SEO is one part content and one part code.
By properly integrating the marketing of your listing’s along with local and market information, a local broker can FAR surpass any corporate office or agent in SEO, SEM and website referral incoming traffic.
The good news is that local brokers are also in the best position to CONVERT those incoming leads.
The main websites that will link traffic/prospects to your website are Trulia, Craig’s List, Zillow, etc.
Why Brokers Trump Agents Everytime
A major part of SEO is the number of ‘quality’ links that point to your website. Quality in this case means other real estate related websites. Google figures that if other websites that it has already classified as being real estate websites are linking to your website, then it must mean that your website is really good. The better Google thinks your website is, the more likely it will be shown to its users when they are searching keyword terms that would lead them to your website.
This means simply, the more listings on all of these websites that are pointing back to your website, the more powerful you website becomes for generating traffic via SEO in addition to the Website Referral Traffic.
Agents at best have several listings that just simply do not compare in being able to attract SEO and Website Referral Traffic of the broker.
Most top offices now have their listings fed to Trulia via XML though there are many offices where it is left up to the agent to put their listings on, and then the listing points to an agent site or worse a single property website. NOTE: I do not think a single property website has ever come up on a Google search for ‘homes for sale’ or ‘real estate’ the two major keyword groupings along with the location name.
Or worse, the listing could be on Trulia but linking to the corporate website which then either takes hours or days to get lead information BACK to you or they send out a form email with the filled out data that really does not tell the agent much.
Imagine having every single listing going back to your broker website, where you have email/phone 800 prominently displayed going to a single point of contact to appropriately handle all inbound inquires.
At Craig’s List it takes Server and FTP access to create the level of traffic potentially available. Very few agents have Server and FTP access. Email me a request for a link to a current Craig’s List Ad. My Craig’s List Ad’s are better at generating web traffic and leads than Craig Procter’s and I’ll show you!
Broker website traffic from Craig’s List can be as high as Trulia and much higher than any other source on the Internet when done right. And the data from Google Analytics shows that Craig’s List traffic is very good traffic.
See a broker profile on Zillow here and a listing here. Notice the 800# in the listing information (yes, people call this!) with customer service personnel ready to answer, qualify and route any lead as necessary.
By having all the listings on all these sites means that potentially 1,000s of great SEO links are helping to increase your SEO standing! Vs. every agent having a dozen or so links going to their website which would obviously not compete with a broker.
Setting it up for Success
How you get your listing’s on these crucial sites is as critical as putting them on there in the first place. If you use an intermediary service that step’s in between you and the prospect, then it is probably hardly worth the money or time. The listings need to be branded by you, not a third party vendor linking back to them or one of their sites.
By creating an Office Profile you present a clear brand to the market and ensure every listing is posted which creates more Referral Traffic and SEO Traffic (surveys show less than 30% of office listings are on Zillow and of those 15% are posted by OTHER AGENTS!).
Also consider that it is a common advertising maxim that it takes many impressions of your message and brand on a person before it has an impact, let alone a desired result. Again, the broker has as many opportunities as the office has listings to achieve this goal vs. each agent’s 1-3 at best.
Now that you know how to leverage your listings and other information to maximize your website traffic via SEO, SEM and Website Referral Traffic, what you next is the key between a website visitor and a lead for your agents.
More than likely, your home page is not the most visited page of your website. If you are active in SEO, SEM and Referral Website Traffic almost any page on your website is likely to be ‘landed’ on by prospects.
Rotating call-to-action banners and Landing Pages
By analyzing Google Analytics, you will be able to make observations about your website visitors that will allow you to craft unique ‘call-to-actions’ that have a goal of getting them to either sign-up for a property search or to give you their contact information for some other information (open house info, school report, etc).
How your call-to-actions are written and presented are critical in making it easy for the prospect to do business with you.
Think like Amazon.com
People are at your website for only a few reasons. The quicker you make getting to the information they want with One Click and add value at the same time, the more likely you will achieve your website goals.
This is where looking at the Google Analytics data is key. You have to make sure that you are putting the right message in front of the right person as much as possible without leaving out any key markets.
Landing Pages: The Soldiers of Your Website
The best landing pages are about specific actions or promotions (Free Home Warranty, Seller’s Guarantee, etc) or specific sales markets / key words (Danville, CA Homes for Sale or a particular neighborhood or condominium complex perhaps).
A good landing page maximizes SEO and SEM on many levels as well as providing the prospect with One Click ability to find what they are looking for. Someone searching for San Ramon Real Estate, Homes for Sale etc could easily find this page here, which gives them numerous ways to One Click the information they expect to find and it includes other reasons to contact us.
It is important to create appropriate call-to-actions on every page of your website while also having specific Landing Pages supporting your SEO and conversion efforts while giving prospects Amazon.com like One Click ability to find what they are looking for.
Make is clear and easy for people to do business with you and more business will come to you.
You have a lead, now what? Or, "Not all leads are created equal."
Getting a lead to an agent is one of the most critical aspects of actually closing Online leads. Why? If you give a lead to the right agent in the right way (put the right person in the right place at the right time with the right information), your chances of closing it and getting the revenue are much higher.
But you cannot just GIVE an agent the lead, there has to be an exchange of information from the person giving the lead to the person getting the lead. And it has to be immediate.
If an agent is getting 'a notification' of a lead from an email system, all interviews I have done tell me it is about worthless. And that is true, most leads are worthless. And if they are not worthless, the time it takes until they close can be over a year!! Agents soon learn that they are just 'wasting' their time with tire kickers and quickly lose interest in even receiving new leads.
On the other hand, hot leads only last for minutes sometimes, and hours most of the time (I have had agents tell me this after they learn that another agent had been emailed first but never responded or responded late, etc).
If the lead is not to the agent within 15-20 minutes of the prospect clicking 'send', 'enter', etc. forget about it. A good way to think about it is, take 10% off the chance of closing it every hour an agent does not respond. So if you are getting leads hours or even the day after they made contact it is likely that they will not go with your agent.
Why? Internet browsers typically visit more than a few websites looking at more than a few properties that may catch their interest. So they very easily could email 2, 3 or more offices. Most of the time none of them will respond 'right away', but when an agent does, the close rate skyrockets.
Figuring out 'what is up with leads' is most definiatly not the strength of most sales people. Many companies have dedicated departments called Customer Service to deal with inbound leads and calls before ever 'turning them over' to sales people.
Lead Qualification
Before ever 'turning a lead over' to a sales person (Realtor), contact, and preferably voice, must be made between the prospect and the office. When an inbound lead is received, either by email, phone, etc. an office representative must immediately be able to respond appropriately providing whatever information is being sought along with 'upselling' the person on the agent's services.
"Yes, this is still for sale, I will have one or our agents that knows this home call you with the details. Are you currently working with an agent?....."
A professional that is available and able to respond 24/7 is obviously critical as well as being trained to 'handle' the lead in both questioning and distributing. That is not too much to ask for is it?
Lead Distribution
AND THEN......... a call must be made to the agent that is going to be able to respond to the lead either right away, the next day, etc as requested by the prospect.
Emailing a notification to an agent that is in a concert with their blackberry turned off is obviously not going to work when the prospect wants to talk now about another broker's listing!! And that happens.
The office representative can give the agent all the information they need including any 'sense' of the prospect that they gained during their conversation which will put the agent in a MUCH better position of then meeting that prospects needs and asking for the committment for business.
By setting the agent up for success out of the gate with the prospect, you give your agent a major advantage in getting the business of that person.
Keep in mind the power to generate traffic and leads that a broker website will achieve when it has every single listing pointing back to the broker site vs. each agent sending their 1-2 listings back to their sites. It is David vs. Golaith, but in this case, Golaith wins. And all it takes in one broker to get all the leads from SEO in any one market.
To ensure you receive these e-mails, please add email.zillow.com to your e-mail address book.
Improve your Google ranking with Zillow's help
Want to show up higher in results on search engines like Google? We can help. Zillow has a lot of "Google Juice" and we want to share it with you. By using Zillow and Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you, too, can boost your Google search results.
Don't be scared - it's pretty easy.
Here are 3 tips:
1. Post your listings on Zillow with good links to your site - Zillow is one of very few sites where your listings actually improve your Google ranking. To enjoy this, make sure your listings on Zillow link to your Web site - preferably with links to the exact listing pages on your site.
2. Join the Zillow Professional Directory - When you create an active profile on Zillow, it will automatically load into our "Find a Pro" directory. Make sure the link to your Web site from the Zillow Directory is accurate so your ranking on Google improves.
3. Update and optimize your Zillow Profile - Complete or update the "About Me" section of your Zillow Profile. In your description, use keywords that you want to be recognized for in Google and link those words to your Web site or blog. By using links to your Web site within Zillow, your profile gains authority in the search engines.
Bottom line: The more active you are on Zillow - through your listings, profile, directory, or discussions - the better your Web site or blog performs. Learn more about how to ensure that your listings are helping you to rank in Google.
Search Engine Marketing: Good writing leads to good SEO.
The importance of writing: Local content, call’s-to-action, blogs, etc.
Headlines are keywords strung together to increase SEO
(Since SEO is what people are searching, it makes sense, this is a good thing)
Anyone can post local information and links. It is important to do this correctly so that you maximize both SEO and SEM potential. There are not many agents that do this at all, let alone do it well.
Knowing how to create the right content, posting it properly both structurally and organizationally, is the difference between people finding you or your website living in obscurity.
Headlines sell, but they also have the power to attract when done right on the Internet.
There are probably hundreds of “city real estate” reports running around on the Internet. But you can greatly increase the chances that it is your “city real estate” report that is found.
During my time as the head of Internet Sales at PR Newswire for the West Coast I learned a lot about this.
Your Office is an Information Resource
A smart broker will co-opt their agent’s as the experts in their markets by creating a publisher/writer relationship with agreeable agents; publishing local reports on the broker website or blog with the agents contact information and link to their website given.
When done correctly, the agent’s information will be presented better and will be seen by many more people potentially than if it were on the agents’ own website. This makes the agent an ‘authority figure’ to everyone that comes to the office website, which is now a lot because all the SEO, SEM and referral traffic!
Good content (interesting topic, well written and laid-out nicely), written and posted properly, is an easy, but mostly untapped way to gain the best kind of SEO there is. Organic and unpaid from people searching for exactly what you are ‘writing’ about.
This is when success can start building on success as far as SEO and SEM and when the website can really attract leads which are then given back to the agents.
That leads to increased SEO and leads for both.
This is such a new area that is not being taken advantage of for many reasons.
But Broker’s could easily provide agents with editorial guideline and content requirements and then post to the main office
Another reason that an office blog in some form is critical is that when an agent leaves your office, the blogs and other content leave with them.
With over 50 million unique visitors a month, Craig’s List is the #10 website on the Internet and ‘housing’ is one of the main categories on the site.
Every broker and every agent is scrambling for buyers now.
Yet brokers rarely take advantage of Craig’s List traffic.
By making the right tools and the right information available the right way, you can unleash a lot of traffic that will put you in front of more buyer prospects than ever.
Please watch the Slideshow below and contact me at 415-595-3519 or scottg@sbcglobal.net.
Broker Level (real estate) Marketing is based on the fact that there are brokers all over the United States that have profitable Online Marketing programs. But that there are the other 99% that are struggling to even make a business case for it, though you know "You have to do it."
With over 90% of people starting their real estate search Online, tapping into this market for growth, or even survival, is crucial. If you do not do it, another smart broker will.
The first broker/agent/Realtor to make the relationship with the Online customer usually gets the business.
On the Internet, quality and quantity of search information, along with other factors, directly influences the traffic, number of potential clients, coming to your website.
If 90% of people start their real estate journey on the Internet, where do Internet leads come from?
Website SEO, SEM, Website Referral Traffic and other marketing. That is from every Internet person and Google Analytic statistic that I have ever spoken with or seen.
And for real estate, SEO, SEM and Website Referral Traffic all start from the Broker's Listing's and local market information.
Click the "Walkable" map below to find out all of the fantastic places around 333 1st Street. You will see that it is a walkers paradise with a "Walkable score" of 91 (out of 100) for this property because of all the great things around!
A dreary, outdated bathroom can be a home sale deal breaker.
Remodeling magazine says the average price of a mid-range bathroom remodel in 2007 was $14,445. But $500 worth of nips and tucks can upgrade the room, says Lytel Young, host of HGTV’s "Save My Bath."
"There are three important things in a bathroom," Young says. "Clean, simple, and orderly. That's the key for every budget, whether it's $500 or $40,000."
He recommends these inexpensive steps to sellers whose baths need a facelift:
Rip out the dated medicine cabinet and replace it with a big mirror.
Replace the lighting with new sconces on both sides of the mirror plus a new overhead fixture on a dimmer.
Re-caulk the tub and shower.
Repaint with a neutral color, but decorate with big, fluffy colorful towels.
Hang some framed art.
If you are interested in a 'bathroom makeover' call me. I have a person that does this type of light construction who is dependable and very resonable.
How is the market? That is what I get asked every single day from at least one person. My answer is always, depends on the property.
Forbes.com just released a Top 10 Best Cities for Home Sellers list by analyzing and comparing "job growth, amount of new construction, vacancy rates, and credit availability" in the top 40 metro areas in the United States.
And San Francisco ranks #2, just behind San Jose, CA and above Salt Lake City and Austin, TX!
There are buyers in San Francisco and when the conforming loan limit recently jumped from $417,000 to $729,750, it made it easier for them to get financing. In addition, our economy is still doing well, and perhaps more importantly, it is more diversified than in 2000 during the dot.com revolution.
It is definitely not a market where every property goes over asking with multiple offers, but there are certainly properties that are getting multiple offers and going 6-figures over asking. And more than just a few. At the same time, there are properties that are sitting, and not selling at all. For these properties, it seems like no matter how much the agents lower the price, they still sit.
The tale of two markets, which is quintessential San Francisco.
District 1—Northwest: Central Richmond, Inner Richmond, Jordan Park/Laurel Heights, Lake, Lone Mountain, Outer Richmond & Sea Cliff.
District 2—Central West: Central Sunset, Golden Gate Heights, Inner Parkside, Inner Sunset, Outer Parkside, Outer Sunset & Parkside.
District 3—Southwest: Ingleside, Ingleside Heights, Lake Shore, Lakeside, Merced Heights, Merced Manor, Oceanview, Pine Lake Park & Stonestown.
District 4—Twin Peaks West: Balboa Terrace, Diamond Heights, Forest Hill, Forest Hill Extension, Forest Knolls, Ingleside Terrace, Midtown Terrace, Miraloma Park, Monterey Heights, Mount Davidson Manor, Sherwood Forest, St. Francis Wood, Sunnyside, West Portal, Westwood Highlands & Westwood Park.
District 5—Central: Buena Vista Park, Clarendon Heights, Corona Heights, Duboce Triangle, Eureka Valley/Dolores Heights, Glen Park, Haight Ashbury, Mission Dolores, Noe Valley, Parnassus/Ashbury Heights & Twin Peaks.
District 6—Central North: Alamo Square, Anza Vista, Hayes Valley, Lower Pacific Heights, North Panhandle & Western Addition.
District 7—North: Cow Hollow, Marina, Pacific Heights & Presidio Heights.
District 8—Northeast: Downtown, Financial District, Nob Hill, North Beach, North Waterfront, Russian Hill, Telegraph Hill, Tenderloin & Van Ness/Civic Center.
District 9—Central East: Bernal Heights, Central Waterfront, Inner Mission, Mission Bay, Potrero Hill, South Beach & South of Market.
District 10—Southeast: Bayview, Bayview Heights, Crocker Amazon, Excelsior, Hunters Point, Mission Terrace, Outer Mission, Portola, Silver Terrace & Visitacion Valley.
If you are planning on selling your property to one of the largest buyer segments in the local San Francisco Bay Area real estate market, you can not do it in English-only anymore.
In a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle, it was reported that 20% of one new condo building's buyers were foreign, and that Chinese were in the top 5 of the list.
With San Francisco's close proximity to Asia, the large Asian population and the recent developments by the Chinese government to allow Chinese citizens to buy real estate overseas it is wise to make sure that your property is being marketed properly to this market.
Marketing vs. Translation
While there are translation widgets available that will translate your properties information into every language in the world, reviews by native speakers often reveal that they are less than perfect when conveying your properties unique characteristics. Translation like these do not pick-up on translating English nuances well into foreign languages at all.
At sfcondomap.com, a recent listing also prominently offers information in Chinese that captures the true meanings and essence of the English text. The differences can be as dramatic as reading bad writing vs. good writing to the reader! And this will effect their perception of your property.
The "Best Practices" in marketing to particular foreign buyers is to have a native speaker that is fluent in the target markets language and that is also fluent in real estate marketing to do the translation. You can see the example at sfcondomap.com here.
For more information on marketing your property to foreign buyers, please contact Scott Pierce at 415-595-3519 or email at scott@sfcondomap.com.
"The recorded history of Eureka and Noe Valleys began in 1845 when José de Jesús Noe, the last Mexican alcalde (mayor) of San Francisco, was granted Rancho San Miguel, four thousand acres which spread across Twin Peaks and down into the valleys lying to the east." - NoeHill
Click the "Walkable" map below to find out all of the fantastic places around 306 Eureka Street. You will see that there is a very high "Walkable score" of 86 (out of 100) for this property because of all the great things around!
Symphony Towers, a new condominium development in San Francisco, has now had buyers move into 51 of the 130 units for sale, with 36 more now in contract.
Having 87 of 130 units already sold or in contract is a great sales rate and is a testament to the design (LOVE the roof deck), quality, price and location.
We love Symphony Towers as it is one of the few new condominium buildings built within an already established neighborhood.
You can literally walk in any direction and find lots of great stuff to see and do. With more development going in up and down Van Ness Avenue, we expect great things for the buyers here at Symphony Towers.
Read "S.F. housing boom moves to Van Ness" by J.K. Dineen in the San Francisco Business Times for more information about the development of the Van Ness Avenue corridor.
A couple of items of interest to San Francisco real estate home owners, buyers and sellers from the March 5, 2008 Department of Planning Board of Appeal's meeting.
Sandeep Hingorani (Appellant) vs. DPW and Bureau of Street-Use & Mapping (Respondent).
In order to do work on a building on Montgomery Street, a crane was placed by Sheedy Crane across the street from 455 Vallejo Street. The owner, Hingorani's representative, argued that the Path of Travel requirements were not being observed, and wanted restrictions placed on the location and use of the crane.
After testimony from both sides, the Board agreed keep the crane in it's current proposed location, but to increase the Path of Travel requirements from 10'
to 11' for day use and from 12' to 18' at night.
The board also directed the DPW/BSM representative (who was present) to provide the Hingorani representative with a direct phone number to call for violation reports, and for an inspector to be available for any problems.
Sheedy agreed and the appellant voiced agreement.
If the goal of the appellant (the person with the complaint) is to just get equipment removed because they do not like it, you probably will not succeed. But the Board of Appeals will hear a complaint and judge it on its merits.
Here the Board would not remove the crane as Sheedy demonstrated that this was the best location out of all possible locations that were available. Sheedy suggested the increased distance for the Path of Travel, and it was agreeable to all sides.
Keith Foote (Appellant) vs. DPW and Bureau of Urban Forestry (respondent).
Foote argued that the decision of the respondent (DPW) to remove a 33 year old tree in front of his residence was wrong. That it was their lack of proper maintenance of the tree that caused the current problems, and that DPW should be directed to nurture the tree back into good health and condition.
DPW and the BUF argued that the tree needed to be removed and that it was the fact that the roots were very aggressively destroying the sidewalk and that this was causing a hazard that necessitated the decision. And that nurturing the tree back into health was not likely do to the species of tree.
President Garcia remarked that it was the first time he heard of a homeowner being the appellant with the DPW and BUF as respondent in a case like this. But it was
Commissioners Haaland, Knox and the new Peterson who overruled the DPW and directed the DPW to work to bring the tree into good health and conformity regarding safety issues.
NOTE FOR HOMEOWNERS: Homeowners are responsible for the condition of sidewalks in front of their property. The city can and does issue 30 day notice to repair notices to homeowners to correct deficiencies in the condition of sidewalks.
For more information, including list price, detailed property information, MLS listing information or anything else, email us here and send us the property name and unit number.
Of the 10 listed sales, only 3 of them were in the MLS.
1 South Park
#408 sold for $1,850,000
310 Townsend
#110 sold for $920,000
#312 sold for $764,000
733 Front
#209 sold for $720,000
#306 sold for $567,000
Park Terrace
#410 sold for $960,000
The Palms #525 sold for $579,000
The Potrero
#528 sold for $837,500
Symphony Towers
#V401 sold for $380,000
#V402 sold for $384,000
(Report includes map of
all district and sub-district
names and locations.)
Click on the image to the left for the report (pdf).
While many other real estate sites and news shows talk about how bad the real estate market is, January 2008 stats (published and released by the San Francisco Association of Realtors) show continued strength for San Francisco single-family home sales.
While four out of ten districts (4, 8, 9 & 10) had sales decreases in the number of transactions, only two districts had price decreases, Districts 9 and 10.
District 5 had 13 transactions in January 2007 at a median sales price of $1,180,000, while in January 2008 there were 17 transactions at a median selling price of $1,530,000. And Days on Market fell from 66 to 48 in the same time period.
Districts 1, 2 & 4 also saw median price increases of over $200,000 year over year as well.
Local buyers, relocation buyers and international buyers are all participating strongly in the San Francisco real estate market with most of the better properties selling faster than almost anytime in the last year.
If you are looking to buy or sell property in San Francisco, please contact me for a comparative market analysis and to review our sales & marketing plan for your property or to talk about buying a place.
Scott Pierce
local: 415-595-3519
toll free: 800-788-8508 SFCondoMap: Where people find properties
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