The internet is all the rage when it comes to real estate. According to the National Association of Realtors, when a buyer starts thinking of buying, the first place they turn is the internet. Just 10 years ago - it was getting in the car and driving around.
With gasoline prices approaching $3 a gallon, more and more people will search online first before they do any driving.
So - if you are an agent or a seller, how do you get your property noticed online?
Let's talk about being an agent first. If you are with a national franchise and/or your company is affiliated with the local board of Realtors, there is a good chance that your listings will get streamed to Realtor.com. Relator.com is the #1 property search engine in the world and just keeps getting bigger and better. The site is ranked by Alexa.com as the #8 site - in the WORLD. That's pretty big. Real estate agents already have this site in their favor.
As a home seller, you do not have such an advantage. You can either buy into one of the FSBO (For Sale By Owner) products out there that will put your home on the internet for you, or you can put up your own site and sales page for your home. Of course, if someone is searching for a home in your area, and your site doesn't come up on the first page or two of the major search engines, no one will ever see it.
With people shopping more online and doing less driving around, it puts todays home sellers (those selling without an agent) at a pretty big disadvantage. If they would list their home with an agent whose company has a popular internet presence, their home would sell a lot faster because of the increased exposure.
Our company site is such a site. If you go to Google and search on "Birmingham Alabama Homes for Sale", you will see that the Access Realty site comes in at #3 or #4 on the first page. That's a huge advantage for anyone who wants to sell a home in Birmingham.
One other way to sell a home is to generate a large roster of interested buyers. This can be accomplished online by setting up what are called mini-sites designed to capture llists of people who are currently in the market for a home. This works great for real estate agents but may not work so well with a seller of just one home. You can get more information on these mini-sites and how to accomplish this HERE. As I said before, this type of buyer generation works extremely well these days because almost everyone shops online before getting in the car and driving around looking for homes.
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