My Views and Opinions

By: Gen Wright

Numbers don’t lie. The real estate market is currently in the doldrums with leads and referrals are drying up. With high rates of foreclosure and other financial motivation to sell, there are houses on the market, but where are the buyers? It’s simple – they are online.

Real Estate - Online
A full eighty-four percent of prospective buyers and sellers in real estate shop for properties online. Granted, with a tough credit market, many would-be buyers are storing up dreams and hopes for the future, but among those are the individuals who have credit and more importantly, have money to buy. To reach this internet savvy clientele, you’ll need to head where the action is. If you’ve been slow to get started in online marketing, this is the time to move.

First Come, First Served
Over eighty percent of buyers and sellers search for local real estate properties and agents online before they look at any other source of information – including your mailer they just threw on the counter or in the trash. These internet-savvy individuals also show a significant tendency to work with the first agent they see online. This means that unless you are the first agent a prospective buyer finds you’ve lost a customer to the agent who took the initiative to become highly ranked in popular search engine results.

If you want to gain the kinds of numbers that will keep your business steady regardless of the overall economy, you need to be the highest ranking real estate professional in your area when a prospective buyer or seller searches for real estate keywords in your area. To do this, you’ll need to invest time and funds into building an online presence that ranks highly in the search engines as well as successfully marketing yourself through other online opportunities. (more…)