The LA Times wrote an interesting article talking about the success that Realtor Bloggers are having in this ever changing real estate market. Take a moment to check out the article.
Many agents think that locking down the MLS data, password protecting it and requiring visitors to login is a great way to gain leads. I don’t agree.
I agree with what Larry Cragun said in the above article:
“There is a new wave growing. Agents that blog. We believe you will eventually only use an agent that blogs. Why? Because . . . if they blog about a community they must know it. . . . You also learn more about them as they blog.”
Agents will get leads by putting their thoughts and opinions out there on the internet. If you write about the areas you work in, talk about the changes, your thoughts on the market, etc people will come to you for your opinion and in turn give you their contact information. That is a LEAD!
October 17th, 2007 at 9:18 am
I’m not a fan of any website that requires login. Just look at the newspapers. They are all stopping with their “login required” model of doing business online.
October 17th, 2007 at 9:18 am
I used to have a VOW website and I agree that most of the leads that came in were useless. The only ones that turned into anything I already had a relationship with them. The rest of the leads just took up lots of my time and had no result.
October 17th, 2007 at 9:18 am
@ Candace - thats excellent that you are pleased with the leads. What is your website address? It would be great to check it out.
October 17th, 2007 at 9:18 am
I think you may have misread our comments. We are actually quite pleased with the prospect to client ratio the Vow has given us. All that other stuff I mentioned is just gravy.
October 17th, 2007 at 9:18 am
To All - This blog is an example of what I’m talking about. Just look, by putting my opinion out there about the use of VOW’s in the real estate market, some people have felt the need to comment here about their thoughts. What great leads for Ubertor! And we did not require your email address to see the blog, did not require you to sign in before your commented. You choose to do so and chose to use your name and most times a link to your website.
Why not do the same within your website. Write what you feel, describe it and back it up. You will see, people will engage you as you have put yourself out there.
October 17th, 2007 at 9:18 am
@ Candace - my main point is that a VOW does not bring you good leads! Sure, it might generate the odd quality lead, my point is that there are way better ways to get leads than “giving access to the listings”.
I could take the course and become a Realtor. That would give me access to the listings, but does that make me as valuable as you and your colleague in your area just because I have access to the listings? I don’t think so.
I think a Realtors value is providing his/her expertise about the listings, market, etc. We push agents to be hyper local and build a website that is specific to a very specific area.
Take Ian Watt for example, he runs multiple websites. But look at this one as an example - http://www.vancouver-penthouse.com/
It has all of the downtown Vancouver penthouses automatically listed within it. People looking for Penthouses end up here and do not have to search, do not need more emails about listing, because all of the information that require is provided. Then Ian provides his value on top of the listings by talking about the different building, areas, etc. He gets leads/listings because people see him as an expert in this market.
October 17th, 2007 at 9:18 am
I am an assistant to an agent in the Greater Vancouver Real Estate board. I agree and disagree with what you are saying as you are only telling 1/2 the story. If you are going to try and get people to sign up just to look at regular old listings, your right, they can go to mls.ca and do that without imparting who they are.
The reason we love our VOW software is that it offers our buyers the opportunity to look at listings 2 days before they appear on other public sites, they can see way more listing info (over 3 times more than what you see usually), and they can email notify themselves of hot new listings up to 2 days before there on mls.ca This and the automatic listing loads sure make my job easier. This feature has been responsible for more than a few ends since we got it. Hope this helps.