Most Realtors these days have websites, and it always amazes us how many of them either send their clients to their broker’s property search, or don’t have a property search at all!
Think about this … why are home buyers online? Recent studies show that about 90% of them use the internet to search for homes. A property search is first and foremost a local thing. In other words, it’s hard for the big national sites like Realtor.com to provide the sorts of options folks want — like neighborhoods, school districts, etc.
That’s where you come in. You’re the expert! So most importantly, you must have a good property search on your website that allows you to capture those leads. If you have a website, but don’t have your own property search, you’re severely hurting your ability to get Internet leads. Buyers want to use the Internet to search for homes. Sure, maybe they are interested in your bio, or how many houses you sold last year, but primarily, they just want to search for homes.
The quicker you can get a buyer to a search, the better. And a well-placed “registration” screen allows you to capture their information, while giving them access to the data they want. Buyers searching online are going to be most willing to work with the realtor who:
- Has the best property search, with options like neighborhood and school district
- Responds quickly (i.e. within 1 hour) to any inquiry they make
The moral of the story : when you put together your business plan and goals for the year, take a hard look at IDX. Not all IDX’s are the same. Think local, local, local. Many IDX providers simply take a database of homes and provide basic search options, with no mapping, and no good local focus.
Remember : if buyers don’t get the information they want from your site, they’ll go elsewhere — especially in today’s climate, with so few qualified buyers out there.