Marketing Strategy in a Downturn

With the combination of the uncertainty of today’s economy and the collapse of the real estate market, this in no way should be looked upon as an obstacle in the sector of real estate. Now is time to get creative and think of a marketing strategy in this downturn. Look at current trends in online real estate marketing and construct a successful marketing strategy to promote your business. Emphasize the upswing of the market rather than the downturn and all its negative impacts.

Search Engine Optimization

It is wise to educate yourself as to the trends your fellow realtors are pursuing, whether they are your competition in the workplace or competition within other real estate companies. In doing something different from your competition you have an edge. Keep a watchful eye out and see how other Realtors are marketing themselves. Many are successful with online marketing and are hiring savvy SEO companies. SEO companies assist you in taking your marketing strategy to the next level; they are knowledgeable and informed in every aspect of your trade, taking the pressure off of you, the Realtor so that you can focus your attention on the immediate needs at hand, whether it be listing real estate in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area or assisting buyers to find that perfect Phoenix piece of real estate. So what is SEO? SEO is search engine optimization, which is the process of improving the visibility of your website or webpages to those who are searching for your site or sites that are similar. SEO companies are highly skilled in this aspect of cyber technology with most employing creative teams to assist in the development of easily searchable websites.

Return on Investment

SEO companies offer many packages and services, which are customizable and tailored to your needs. Personalized SEO services are perfect in that they are designed to help you assist in your real estate goals to attract more clients and customers with their specialized SEO campaigns. In selecting the best SEO company to represent you for your web-based needs, be sure to select a company that generates an influx of traffic to your site, gives you a nice return on your investment (as SEO companies can be pricey-but don’t spend the extra dollars if there is no need) generating sales rather than a mediocre company that has an awesome visual portfolio but proves to be poor in performance. In short, do your homework; remember that it is imperative that you, the real estate agent knows what is beneficial to your business and that you know your customer as well.

Identify Your Target Market

A few really good questions to ask yourself in regards to what type of SEO package is beneficial to your business are: Who is my target market? What sites do they frequent? Are they into social networking? In doing so, you can pin point the techniques in which are essential to your success. By knowing your target market, you in turn can weed out the buyers who have no true interest in real estate at this time, enabling you, the Realtor to focus on your main objective-your target audience.

Seeing Results

Although SEO companies can be expensive, be frugal when selecting a customized campaign package. Be sure to ask if there are discounts, special offers, etc. and by all means don’t feel pressured in hiring an SEO. They work for YOU, providing YOU the tools that YOU are paying them for to boost YOUR business, resulting in an increase of YOUR sales.

To sum it all up, SEO services are truly your answer to exposing your real estate business through successful online marketing, have a range of packages to fit every budget and provide the best solution for marketing you the Realtor and your real estate business online.

Guest contributor: Tim Ryan is a blogger keeping readers updated on the Naples Real Estate market. Tim specializes in helping buyers and sellers in the neighborhoods of
Naples Park. To learn more about Naples Park Florida visit Tim’s website.

In discussing how your home for sale will be marketed, don’t be surprised if your real estate agent tells you there won’t be an open house. Once a tried and true method for showcasing a listing, fewer than 28 percent of homes for sale were opened to the public in 2000 according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

Why the Change?

The simple explanation for this change in marketing techniques is the dominance of the Internet. Prospective home buyers like looking at listings in private, viewing photos, comparing properties on their own, and taking virtual tours. They have neither the time nor the inclination to drive around to open houses, and in a world where gasoline prices are headed steadily north of $3 a gallon, that attitude will only become more entrenched. Modern home buyers tend to be highly focused animals.

There is also the sad truth that open houses are not always safe either for agents or homeowners. Thieves can use the event to “case” a house and agents place themselves in a vulnerable position sitting in an unlocked home by themselves for hours at a time. Most real estate offices will hold a “preview” of a new listing for their own agents to familiarize them with the property, which maximizes the home’s exposure with a group of professionals in a position to actually get the property sold.

Properties for sale are placed on the local Multiple Listing Service with a set of interior and exterior images. These will generally be augmented by a fuller collection of photos on the agent’s own website. Homeowners will want to discuss the option for a virtual tour and how the agent will use his or her own network of contacts to work the listing. Agents will also outline the process by which the homeowner will be contacted when a prospective buyer wants to see the property. In theory these appointments are scheduled well in advance, but last minute showings are common and an inconvenience the homeowner simply has to accommodate as part of the sale process.

For the Better

Thanks to the influence of the Internet, the marketing of any home today is a combination of old and new methods. In that shuffle, the open house has fallen by the wayside in favor of surfing properties online. Most agents agree this is actually a positive change, allowing buyers to use their time and that of the real estate professionals involved in looking at properties in which they are really interested. This is more effective and more efficient than an open house and much safer for all concerned.

Guest contributor: Are you relocating to Dallas, buying or leasing a home in Dallas | Fort Worth Texas (DFW)? Darrell Self can help you if you’re shopping for homes for sale in University Park. And you can find Darrell Self on the real estate website Trulia. Visit DMD Realty DFW.com and browse ALL the homes for sale (and ALL the lease homes) listed in the MLS on 1 website … no registration required.

I have been negligent in updating the AzSearchForHomes website as I have been extremely busy creating two real estate brands in 2009. The first is the real estate investment company Nuff Said Enterprises, LLC. This company specializes in flipping real estate in the Phoenix Metro Area. My business partner and I have flipped over 55 properties personally in 2009 and have consulted a lot of other investors on their real estate flip portfolios.

This business model of Nuff Said Enterprises has propelled the creation of a few other ‘micro’ businesses, including a staging company, remodeling business, and a real estate video production venture. Needless to say all of these micro business have been combined into the creation of an umbrella company, Show Appeal Realty.

I will have more updates on the latest news and information on Show Appeal Realty in the near future. This modern real estate brokerage will leverage technology with an agent-centric business model. Should you have any thoughts and suggestions on how you would start a real estate brokerage for the future, please leave a comment. I think Warren Buffet said it best; “be scared when others are greedy and be greedy when others are scared”… well it’s time to be greedy and start a modern, paperless and technology driven real estate brokerage for 2010.

I’ve been pondering the idea of adding a Zillow Home Valuation widget to the website for the various city pages, but there seems to be some kinks with the code. Before I bad-mouth the graph, I will admit that it’s nice to have data that is updated automatically. Also, the chart allows you to click on the 1, 5 and 10 year data…pretty cool!

A lot of real estate agents and homeowners don’t like Zillow because of the ambiguity in the home values it produces with its Z-estimates, however I see it as just another tool in the new real estate web 2.0 era. Indeed many of the estimates are wrong and not accurate, but that’s why you have several resources (ie realtors) to assist with determining your homes’ value.

Oh, back to the graph…for some reason the Phoenix dot in the key should be orange like the line on the graph, but it’s not. I guess I will have to be patient until Zillow get’s this bug fixed.

I worked really hard this evening on generating the little image at the top of the toolbar in the address field. You know, the little house before the http://www.azsearchforhomes.com

This little 3 hour project is called a favicon and it really serves no purpose besides…hmm, well I guess it’s just kinda cool looking. Maybe it will serve as a bit of brand recognition for the site.

Enjoy and thanks for visiting…

My whole website is centered around creating real estate RSS feeds for you. Not sure what a RSS feed is?..here is a short clip that explains RSS feeds in plain English.

I make signing up for RSS feeds on my real estate website as easy as possible. If you think I have something interesting to write, you can sign up for my blog RSS feed on the right hand column under ‘free rss updates’. If you are searching for homes and want to a save your search as an RSS feed, just look for the little RSS icon.

These RSS feeds are a web 2.0 feature that will become increasing beneficial over the coming years. The realty is that many people don’t have the time to search the internet for information they desire, so it’s about time the information comes to them! If you’re considering trying RSS feeds, why not?.. go ahead and give it a shot.

One of the marketing tools I use to promote my listings is a real estate video tour of the property. I believe a video tour showcases the home a lot more because it gives the home more character and personality. I also upload the video to sites such as, YouTube, Yahoo, MSN, Google, Revver and more. By doing so, my listings are getting a lot more exposure (50+ views a week!) and also statistics show that 90% of buyers begin there search on the internet.

In addition to distributing the videos online, I create DVD’s to display along with flyers at the property. I do this because a lot of vehicles have DVD players nowadays… plus potential buyers love them. Here you can watch the video tour of my Ahwatukee listing:

faster, more powerful, and easier to use!

Yes it’s true! I’m proud to note that the MLS search for my website has been completely re-engineered to give you a more user-friendly experience. Some of the updates include a new search screen, the option to segment foreclosures and pre-foreclosures, school district search, and the ability to search by percentage of price change…not to mention a lot of really cool back end tools that I can totally customize. Also probably one of the best enhancements is the load time between searches has been significantly reduced.

For all the realtors out there, I highly recommend using Diverse Solutions IDX technology. It is by far the best investment you can make for your business. If you have any questions about this technology, just drop me a note and I’ll be glad to give you the 411.