How to make the web work in Real Estate Part I

First let’s go over what doesn’t work and why. Like most good stories or trouble shooting initiatives it starts in the beginning.

Step #1

A Realtor gets a website built with their logo and pictures of beautiful homes and they are told by their family and friends how professionals it looks.

Step #2

The Realtor gets an online advertising campaign launched and waits for the leads to come flooding in.

Step #3

The Realtor spends thousands of dollars before giving up on the dream and determines that the web just doesn’t work for real estate.

Step #4 (Optional)

Expanded version of this is that the Realtor is then told by some well-meaning person that they need to have a presence on Social Media, so they get their Facebook and Twitter accounts going (after all their free) and all their friends are receiving their well thought out tweets and updates. This requires more time and attention than their website that didn’t work (but it was free) so they continue for about as long as their pain threshold will allow before they once again throw their dreams of defeating the beast which is online business generation out the tower window.

This situation plays itself out in real estate offices across the country every day with broken hearts and empty wallets as the only lasting remnants of the humiliating experience.

The above is similar to stealing your parents Volvo SUV, putting big tires on it and entering the Indianapolis 500. Guess what? You are going to lose. A real estate website has got to be purpose-built to do what you want it to do. If the purpose is to generate business then it should be built for the purpose first. The design of the site should be to reach this end. Everything else needs to be a distant…last.