- A weblog by InetSolution
just one visitor will pay for this real estate website
By Jason Sherrill
Posted on Jul 11, 2007
Yesterday I had lunch with one of my clients and his friend, John. John is a commercial real estate agent broker in Imlay City, Michigan. During lunch, my client asked John why he doesn't have a website. John replied, "What's a website going to do for me? Are people really going to go to my website to find property listings? It seems like a waste of money to me."
John is a smart businessman and has done remarkably well in the real estate industry in and around Imlay City - even without a website - and a website isn't going to suddenly double his business. But I do know that the percentage return on investment he'll earn from this website idea will be greater than any real estate investment that he'll ever make.
John told me that he often receives solicitations from companies that specialize in websites for real estate agents, and they range in price from a few hundred dollars per month to several thousand. All of these sites have fancy agent portals, IDX real estate listings, contact forms, customer registration systems, virtual tours and loads of other bells & whistles that he doesn't need. They're all nice to have features, but completely unnecessary for John.
John doesn't need virtual tours, contact forms or even listings on his website. John simply needs to be visible when someone is searching for property in Imlay City or surrounding areas. According to the National Association of Realtors, in 2005, 77% of real estate purchasers used the internet to search for their property. Based on those numbers, there is a good chance that at least one potential buyer will go to Google (or Yahoo, or MSN) to search for commercial real estate in Imlay City, MI. Here is what they'll see:
Google search results for commercial real estate imlay city, mi
John's company is New Century Property, the second item listed in the Google Local search results. Notice that other two listings, Red Carpet Keim and Lapeer County Bank & Trust, both have their URLs listed after their name, and their names are links directly to their websites. John's listing, on the other hand, just links to a Google Map showing only his location - because John doesn't have a website.
Here are two other important facts:
- The Red Carpet Keim link is actually a dead site (I need to call them)
- Lapeer County Bank and Trust only provides loans, not real estate services
John doesn't need a feature-packed website full of forms, listings and virtual tours. All John needs is a simple blog with a friendly, concise personal introduction to connect with and engage visitors. Add a photo of himself, a link to his listings on the commercial MLS and maybe a featured property that he could publish to the site himself each week or month.
Website = done
Total cost = less than $1,000 (or even free if he wanted to do all of the work himself) and $30/month for hosting
John's would be the only one of those three sites that potential customers would find useful...and who do you think the potential customer would be most likely to call?
How many customers does John need to pay for that website for the next five years?
Answer: One
You don't need to reach millions of people for your website to be successful. In John's case, he only needs to reach one.
So, John, let's do it. Someone is waiting to do business with you.
P.S. If you need to buy real estate in Imlay City or surrounding areas, call John at (810) 724-1011. I'll post a link to his website when he gets one.
