Real Estate Marketing Blog

How Do You Compete With HomeGain and Trulia?

I just announced this to my list. I welcome you to join us too:

Find out in Two Hours.

At 12 Noon Pacific today I share with you insider information that will shift your thinking forever on online marketing.

You must opt in to get into this exclusive call.
http://www.positiveonrealestate.com/member/join.html

I will show you how to:
1. Change your market-let me say what I mean. Dominate your local market.
2. Increase your reach online-exponentially.

http://www.positiveonrealestate.com/member/join.html

Be there or be square,

Tim O'Keefe
HouseBlogger.com
SpiderJuiceTechnologies.com

Links Matter

So I send out the final publicity letter for the contest, and I get a question.

"I do not know what 50 links Are"

Well, that not really a question, as it is an implied question. Nevertheless the message that I think she was asking was why do I care about links?

The short and simple answer is:  links from other sites to yours increases your sites value in the search engines.The more links to a page, the more value that the engine sees in your page.

Now I can give you a much more technical reason answer. But in the end the above is the reason links matter. The more links the more value. Better yet, the more valuable links to your page, the more value that your page will have.

You can build the most gorgeous, SEO'd website. Without links to the pages of that website, the site in affect will not exist in the engines eyes.

"Link Winners!"

And the winners are:
Adam Bailey -
Next Level Realty representing Cambridge MA Real Estate
Peg Archibald-
Representing Savannah Georgia Real Estate
Tony Marriott-
From Arizona Representing Scottsdale Phoenix Real Estate
and last but not least, this would not have been a contest without a Texan!
Brad Dixon-
Representing the Austin Real Estate market.
I know I said only three winners, but I am feeling pretty good this morning and I want to give :-)
(They gave some of their answers in the comment to the original post)

Don Pardo can you tell them what they have won?

Adam, Peg, Tony, and Brad are the winners of a lovely set of 50 inbound links thru a multitude of Real Estate Authority websites. Their lovely links will be from Publicity, Blogs, Directories and oh so much more!

Okay, I learned a lesson thru all this.

So I ran a Publicity campaign to get people to pay attention. Four luck winners are getting important links that will help their websites get traffic thru additional page rank and link popularity..

Then I found out not to Ass-Sume anything. I offered links as a persuader to get in on the contest, and got emails back asking why do links matter.

Oy Vey!

So my next post is why they matter.

But for now congratulations to the winners!

We will be reporting on some of the great links they are getting soon.

Get Free Links

A Retraction

Last Sunday I made a April Fools Joke.

But no one really got it... oh well.

So the video is my retraction that Spider Juice Technologies in fact had nothing to do with the sale of a home in Appalachia Lake front, which happened to be the most expensive sale of a home ever! So to make up for the blunder I am offering 3 lucky Realtors a chance at getting free publicity from our Real Estate Blog, and other websites. Hurry the contest ends Tueesday. Watch the video for details.

If this video does not work you can get the direct You Tube Link here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjTIlt5kBe8

Spider Juice Technologies gets Props for Heavy Load

Dateline: April 1, 2007

Appalachian Mansion Breaks Home Price Record.

In an event very uncharacteristic of this struggling marketplace, an Appalachian home just recently fetched an unprecedented $774,000,987. Making it the most expensive home to sell in the US ever.

The Estate was owned by Cletis Eustice De La Roose III and family. The home was represented by Hifee Tuscadera.

Sitting on 13 Acres of Prime Appalachia Lake front, the Palatial 2 bedroom 1 Bath (In door), just went thru a major renovation which included Cable TV install.

Ms. Tuscadera reluctantly answered questions about her very private home sellers. However, she did mention that it would have been impossible to sell the Del La Roose Estate, called "Boue Shack", if not for the "Superior Online Marketing and SEO by Spider Juice Technologies and its delightful founder, Tim O'Keefe.

Neither Public Records, or the Local Board could/or would not reveal the Buyers name or representation. The "Boue Shack" buyers are remaining hidden and private while even their publicists have turned down interviews.

However, HouseBloggers.com crack team of investigative reporters were able to track down the buyers by simply calling Mr. Del Roose III's previous number. The phone company was very willing to give our reporters full access to the phone records, and immediately we were given the Del La Roose forwarding number of his Lake Mudhut retreat home.

It was at this number that this reporter talked to Del LA Roose himself. He told this investigative reporter the new buyers whereabouts, name and number under strict confidentiality.

Strange that our investigative sleuthing took us straight to "Boue Shack" itself. We knocked on the door and there was the new proud homeowner. So we thought. But in fact it was his stunning cousin curator, April Tafools. She told me personally that the wealthy homeowner is LINK-ED from the town of BAIT Hook, Appalachia. And saw the property and land as a good investment.

The interview with Ms. Ta-Fools found that her cousin is private just like the previous Estate Owner and that he is really a man of the people. One thing to note is that Ta-Fools cousin loves cheap publicity and enjoys bringing attention onto his holdings. He has even searched for cheap citations from the Local Authorities. Just for the reputation it would give him.

Miss April Ta-Fools did say that they found their new home by searching thru Google and they fell upon a beautiful website with all kinds of pictures and information about "Boue Shack".

She asked that I do keep the address private as they wish to keep their privacy. Any inquiries into this story can be addressed to yours truly.

-------------------------------------------------------
Dexter Fullshein is a freelance writer for First of Fourth Month, Magazine and was on special assignment for HouseBlogger.com

How Blogs Can Get You Press

A consulting client of mine was recently mentioned in an article by the Herald Tribune in Sarasota.

Turns out John Allen "spilled the beans" on a local Realtor PR campaign called Time2Buy "CampaignTime2Buy". The effort touts the benefits of owning real estate in the Sarasota and Bradenton areas. The local Sarasota Realtor wrote that the campaign is about getting out the message that the media is not.

NAR Does Their Job

NAR has launched a huge campaign to the tune of $40  million dollars to help frame the  home buying /housing bubble "debate". The Media commentators are posting all over about this major spend.

I say debate because it seems that there are forces that would like to revel in the bad news of lower home prices. Lets face it, an expose on little Mary Jones getting kicked out of her home with her three kids sells papers! Yah sex sells but so does bad news. There is a reason the morning news is basically Tabloid on Video. Then to look just a tad journalistic they love to turn to the bad news. The victims. This is more compelling than saying that foreclosure rates have reached normalized levels over the past few months. That is such a yawner.

The traditional media is a just couple gasps away from death.

TV News ratings are dropping by the month and it seems big Media Outlets like the LA Times have layoffs on a weekly basis. Its becoming the Steel Industry of the early 80's. No Billy Joel songs singing about Allen Town though. Noone is shedding a tear.

So big media wants to point out how bad everyone has it to not only sell, but to get your prospects attention to prove their legitimacy.

So NAR finally has stepped out on the curb and is going to the ropes with this challenge to frame the minds of their buying public. This sounds like marketing or selling. What a concept an organization that supports marketers and salespeople to actually sell.

In a full-page newspaper advertisement running in six of the nation's leading newspapers beginning today, the leadership of the National Association of Realtors(R) is launching a national campaign to urge home buyers who have been waiting to buy the home of their dreams to act now before the market changes.

High Fives to the NAR for finally getting it.

On Zillow.com

Wow! I have started to comment on this great marketing campaign, but I actually deleted the post yesterday. I didn't want to beat a dead horse. But it is a story that won't die as they eclipse 63 stories on Google news.

I was going to go on a rant by asking the questions what is so new about this service? Other than its free (for awhile ;-) anyway). The public has always been able to get this data for nominal fees or like I have had access to it thru my many title friends. So is it the packaging that must be so appealing?

And as any Realtor, or Ex Realtor like myself knows, the data from the public record sucks.  So there, I went and said it! Man I feel better :-)

Well, I have seen the same conclusion on numerous real estate industry blogs and newslists.

Like myself, most of these writers and bloggers have plugged in their own address into Zillow and got the wrong information. Either too many bedrooms, too little or too much square feet because of remodels. Some commentators are reporting values up to a third too shallow.

Man, if everyone followed the public records, we would have a bubble burst! ;-) The Realtor data, ie the MLS is where the most accurate data is served and as of yet I have not seen that married. (Realtor.com/NAR there is your future business model hint for the week.)

Dustin took what I just rambled about and said it in a couple sentences.

Over at Venture Blog, they quote Zillow.com President Lloyd Frink on user feedback and poor results:

"As for improving the Zestimate accuracy, we have lots of good ideas there. Many of these relate to improvements in the core algorithm we use to calculate the Zestimate. Others have to do with getting more and better data on individual homes."

My math may be a bit rusty, but you can call it an algo adjustment or any fancy name. But a guess, is still a guess.

Maybe it would help if they had the real sale prices. They don't, and they probably won't, unless they do a deal with NAR.

Even, then it is a poor guess because only an expert like a Realtor can offer expert opinion, which a machine cannot give.

I believe the lesson here is that you can get terrific exposure and create positive public opinion with phenomenal marketing. Zillow is great at marketing so far. They have created a buzz. But they have not built a better mousetrap.

Real Estate SEO

When Mike Kehoe of Birdview Technologies reported to the Inman Conference that one of his clients received over an 11% conversion rate, I smiled with pride. For the site mentioned was designed and optimized for traffic and conversion by Spider Juice Technologies. Years of testing and bucking the "common" knowledge had paid off.

You see, we have discovered that the most optimal way for an online Real Estate agent to succeed is thru rapid lead generation and follow up. And in order to escalate your leads, you must start off with an acceptance of your current traffic and lead conversion ratio.

Ask yourself "How many visitors does it take to get to a lead?"

In fact, when we initially interview a potential client often times the conversion is close to 200:1. Depending on design features, you should really get at the most 50:1. And probably 30:1 is more like it.

Conversion comes from on page conversion optimization & Keyword representation.

On Page Factors

Most people have heard of Search Engine Optimization. Few talk about on page conversion optimization.

First of all, this whole concept pre-supposes that you are starting off with a most wanted action (MWA). Sometimes your MWA is Branding, sometimes it is Leads. And many times it is both lead capture and branding that you are asking your website to do.

If Leads are your goal then your call to action is critical. Other features on your page can distract the viewer from your objectives.

On Page factors that may increase or decrease conversion are:

• Asking them to sign up (making your call to action clear)
• A Johnson Box (these are those tabled boxes that break up your body copy)
• Color can attract or distract
• Too many buttons
• Animation
• Offer Placement. Where are you placing your call to action?
• Variety of Call to Action
• Frequency of your call to action

These are just a few of the attributes that may help your lead count to go way up.

HappyVille Real Estate

There is a reason that studies have found that Pay per Click search engine results often render poor conversion rates. Specificity.

The reason is that you can only use high volume keywords with pay per click (PPC). These high volume keywords are by their nature generalized. They are also the most profitable for the engine. But what may profit the engine does not always profit you.  (Thats not to say that PPC doesn't have its place in a search marketing campaign)

9 times out 10, I am asked to "make my site #1 for "My City real estate". While this is a worthy objective, it is at best very short sighted. Words like "City real estate", "city homes", city condos", are all high volume in just about any city you research.

However, a successful marketing campaign must employ search engine click thrus that are made up of general & specific "streams of traffic". This is because traffic is a comprehensive endeavor. You wouldn't just rent out 1 or 2 of your penthouse units and leave the rest your 150 unit apartment complex empty? You couldn't expect profitability would you?

However, this is exactly what most agents do when they go after a few high volume words.

Traffic is made up of the combined visits that come from various inquiries into a search engine.
Each inquiry represents a finite amount of possible traffic determined by the placement in the engine, for a particular keyword phrase.

So long story short, a few keywords aren't going to make your business. You need a Universe of words in order to get monster traffic and lead conversion.

Additionally, not all keywords or traffic are created equal. Step out of real estate monetarily and imagine yourself as Jeff Bezos at Amazon.com. What would delite you more?

500 visitors that typed in "Books"? Or 500 visitors that typed in "Harry Potter"? Or better yet, "Harry Potter, Sorcerors Stone"? The more specific you get, conversion goes up and the closer you can get to that elusive 1:1 conversion.

The challenge however, is that the more specific you get with our keywords, the less traffic you get. So you need to represent a large amount of these specific keywords that produce low traffic by themselves. But combined, create a large stream of very convertable traffic.

By optimizing your on page factors and your keywords that drive people to your site, you will take your visitor to conversion ratio down to a respectable number.

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Tim O'Keefe is President of Spider Juice Technologies. His firm specializes in Search Engine Traffic and Lead Optimization strategies. An ex-Realtor himself, TIm has always started a project with the fastest path to profitability as his objective for his clients. You can consult with Tim personally, at 310-533-9145.

From real estate lead to closed sale

A recently completed report on home sellers and home buyers(Hebert Research for HouseValues Inc.), shows that home sellers take on average 9.3 months from the time they begin researching until they sell.

It takes home buyers 16.7 months, on average, to research and buy their next home. 

The study aslo found that:

• First-time home buyers invest an average of 20.5 months in the entire home-buying process, the study also found.
• Before even thinking about selling, consumers can take up to four years subconsciously collecting experiences related to their home, including current and future desired requirements, features and amenities. These experiences compound to bring the home sale to the forefront of consciousness, triggering an active research phase.
• Once the research phase has been initiated, it takes sellers an average of 9.3 months to sell – 5.5 months in a pre-research phase, 1.4 months for the active research phase, and 2.4 months for the active selling phase.
• The majority of sellers – 52.1 percent – take one day to select an agent.
• Buyers, like sellers, often take up to four years collecting experiences related to their current home, and potential future needs.
• It takes buyers nearly a year and a half – 16.4 months on average – to buy from the time they begin thinking about a purchase.
• Once the research phase for buyers has been initiated, it takes an average of 16.7 months to buy – 7.1 months in the pre-research phase, 5.5 months in the active research phase, and 4.1 months in the active buying phase.
• Forty-four percent of buyers take more than six months thinking about desirable homes and neighborhoods before actually searching for listings. The average buyer then spends more than four months searching for homes.
• First-time buyers take an average of 20.5 months on the entire home-buying process.
• 61.8 percent of buyers select their real estate agent within just one to three days.

  The survey also explored the reasons why consumers choose their real estate agent:

• Consumers use agents for three main reasons: paperwork/legal work; negotiations; and access to listings.

• Buyers and sellers tend to choose an agent based on experience, honesty and past relationships.

These numbers vary greatly from other studies say such as in California which found that :

• Internet buyers spent an average of 5.8 weeks considering buying a home before contacting a Realtor®, nearly three times more than traditional buyers, who spent 2.1 weeks in this stage of the homebuying process.
• Internet buyers spend 4.7 weeks investigating homes, and neighborhoods, before contacting an agent, while traditional buyers spent 1.6 weeks.
• Internet buyers took only two weeks before selecting a home ,while traditional buyers took seven weeks.
• Because the Internet allows buyers to preview homes, a typical Internet buyer only viewed 6.2 homes with their agent, while traditional buyers visited 14.5 homes.
• Nine out of ten Internet buyers found their agents through an online real estate listing site; 60% found their agent through Internet search engines such as Yahoo! or Google. (note I am not sure that google is a real estate searchengine) 12% used agents they had worked with previously. (I would take this to mean that the online exposure buys you loyalty)
• Traditional buyers found their agents through for-sale signs (47 percent). Half (47 percent) found their agents through agent advertising. One quarter (26 percent) of agents were referred by friends and family, and 19 percent had a previous transaction with their agent.
• Internet buyers typically interviewed only one agent (71 percent) -- the first one who responded to them. Traditional buyers interviewed a median of three agents, and 37 percent interviewed four or more agents.
• A whopping 47 percent of Internet buyers said they selected their agent because of responsiveness, while only 42 percent of traditional buyers chose their agent for that reason. So half will pick you just for showing up.
• 22 percent of Internet buyers and 21 percent of traditional buyers choosing agents they felt would be the most aggressive on their behalf.
• Internet buyers are more likely to be first-time buyers, they are younger, wealthier, better educated and more likely married.
• All first-time buyers typically spent four weeks considering buying a home and four weeks investigating homes for sale before contacting a Realtor. They then spent three weeks previewing eight homes with their Realtor.
• All repeat buyers spent three weeks considering buying a home, and only two weeks investigating homes for sale on their own. They spent five weeks previewing ten homes with their Realtor.

"The Internet is enabling consumers to research and gather information well in advance of actually buying or selling," said Ian Morris, HouseValues CEO. "This research shows that real estate agents are critical to the transaction, but are chosen late in the decision-making process, and very quickly. The takeaway for real estate professionals is to be first, fast and frequent in their communication with consumers, and that often means delivering value and information many months in advance of an expected transaction."

Ian Morris says 74 percent of consumers now begin their home research online, yet only 10 percent of real estate marketing budgets have followed them there

Comments:

Being able to generate leads is not enough. Generating email campaigns that last overtime that shares your personality and stacks value on top of value will win over prospects and keep you top of mind when it comes time to choose. And according to the data they choose quick. Your job is to get out in front of the decision process early. You do this by capturing their name and courting and segmenting them until they are ready to move your relationship to the next level.