Web Sites 2.0

e-Trends

Agents are taking Web sites and customer contact to new frontiers

By Bridget McCrea

The buyer wanted a home in San Ramon, Calif., and James Frazier’s online system sat at attention, ready to serve without any immediate interaction from the REALTOR®. The system generated an instant e-mail reply introducing the agent and his services, thus cementing the first critical link in the REALTOR®-customer bonding process. Without wasting any time, the system generates an in-depth neighborhood report covering the buyer’s area of interest, and then sends that out as a follow-up.

All of this takes place while Frazier, principal broker at Ensign Realty, handles other deals, goes on listing appointments, and shows homes to other buyers. Using a social networking system set up and administered by Reply!, Frazier can basically go about his business until the buyer is ready to talk to him.

“I can conceivably convert a lead into a sale with very little involvement,” says Frazier, who admits that the process is typically more “hands on” than that, and requires that he reach out to the customer quickly to start creating the relationship. By that time, however, the buyer has already been showered with a wealth of information about Frazier himself, his services, the area he covers, the neighborhoods within that area, and the home prices and availability.

“When I call them, they already know who I am and why I’m calling,” says Frazier, who revels in being able to work such “warm” leads when many other agents in the current market are having a hard time filling their client pipelines. In the case of the San Ramon buyer, for example, Frazier says the deal basically closed itself.

“They were very excited to hear from me,” recalls Frazier, who has been using the online networking tool for about two years. “Turns out they were shopping for other REALTORS®, but hadn’t received any detailed information from anyone else.” After finding those buyers the right home, Frazier closed the deal a few weeks later.

Frazier, who allocates 50 percent of his marketing budget (which is 25 percent of his annual revenue) to purchasing leads online and using the automated networking system, says the return on investment is significant. “I’d say it basically costs me nothing to market myself this way,” says Frazier, who works with both buyers and sellers through the online system. “I would expect a 75 percent return on an $8,000 monthly investment, or $24,000 in commissions. It’s 3:1 in most cases, and definitely worth it.”

Online Networking

Web sites like MySpace and YouTube have brought a lot of attention to the idea of social networking—a concept that’s been around since J.A. Barnes first coined the term in a sociology report back in 1954. Put simply, a social network is a map of the relationships between individuals, indicating the ways in which they are connected through various social familiarities ranging from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds.

The Web has taken that concept to a new level by allowing individuals around the globe and from all walks of life to connect with one another online. And while MySpace wins as the biggest buzz generator right now, it was Classmates.com that started the movement back in 1995, follow-ed by sites like SixDegrees.com, Epinions, and Friendster.

In the real estate world, agents are using online tools from blogging to lead generators like Reply! as business tools. It makes perfect sense, when real estate is all about building and maintaining relationships and social networks. In fact, social networking tools stand as one of the most effective ways for agents to use the Web to connect with potential buyers and sellers. As Frazier already knows, when you receive a lead through an online social network, it comes your way with a certain level of trust and “warm” quality to it.

Converse Your Way to Conversions

REALTORS® are tapping into social networking as a way to communicate on the Internet medium, and are hoping to build organic loyalty for their Web sites and their services through tools like blogs,” says Mark Lesswing, CTO and senior vice president of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® Center for REALTOR® Technology (CRT). “If they can make their Web sites be more of a conversation than an electronic publication, it resonates better with consumers.”

Keith Garner, CRT’s managing director, says blogs are particularly beneficial for agents who want to position themselves as “the” expert in their local area, or in some specific aspect of real estate (such as condo sales). By posting their opinions and information online, those agents can create social networks that—when it comes time for readers to buy or sell property—generate business.

Mashing It Up

Another online concept that agents are delving into is known as “mashing,” or using the Web and their Web sites as a platform for merging multiple technologies and creating new ways to reach consumers and build their client bases. Many agents are using application programming interfaces (APIs) from Trulia, Google Maps, and Zillow to enhance their Web sites.

REALTORS® Jim Pasala and Amber Downey have found another way to revitalize their Web site and reach clients with a site (www.LagunaBeachRetreat.com) that they launched together in January 2006. On it is a live-action 3-D videocast that finds the two well-dressed and well-versed agents literally “stepping out” from the page to discuss their luxury listings’ features, attributes, neighborhood, and other pertinent information.

A REALTOR® with Coldwell Banker Preview International in Newport Beach, Calif., Pasala says he and Downey, a REALTOR® with Surterre Properties in Newport Beach, pooled their resources to pay for a makeup artist, a script, and a company to do the video production. Through a code that’s placed on the agents’ Web site, the technology “comes to life” when visitors access the site.

Call it a combination of social networking and mashing, since the agents are not only layering technology to create a more compelling customer experience, but they’re also walking off the page to meet their clients. “It adds that extra dimension of personalization before they even meet us,” says Pasala, who contends that the payoff has been well worth the time and money spent on the innovative system. “We track all Web site traffic, and we know that the numbers have gone up dramatically.”

Lesswing sees new online mapping technology as a particularly good mashing option for REALTORS®, who can also look to sites like Trulia, Yahoo!, Zillow, Cyberhomes™, REALTOR.com®, and Reply! for additional options. He singles out John L. Scott Real Estate and Prudential Preferred Properties of Chicago as being ahead of the curve on the mashing front, thanks to each brokerage’s Web site mapping interfaces.

Lesswing says the REALTOR® who takes the time to mash up technology in a way that most effectively reaches new consumers, retains existing customers and builds the client pipeline. “Rather than using what we call ‘mass innovation’—where everybody is exactly the same, all the time,” says Lesswing, “agents can use these innovations to differentiate themselves, and show that they really know what the customer wants.”

Get Onboard

Whether more brokerages, and individual agents, jump on the mashing bandwagon remains to be seen. “We see opportunity for real estate companies to put all types of information together and ‘mash it up,’” says Marty Frame, senior vice president and chief information officer, Fidelity National Real Estate Services in Santa Ana, Calif. Fidelity National Real Estate Services recently released Cyberhomes™, a API that includes more than 100 million property, ownership, sales, and mortgage records, covering more than 85 percent of the U.S. population. Using a home valuation process, the API gives consumers detailed, proprietary analysis of their homes and communities, and allows REALTORS® to “mash” this information into online reports, Web sites, and other tools that they can use to attract and retain buyers and sellers.

“We also see them using social networking to target customer segments,” says Frame, “and bring themselves into the conversation with homeowners before they’re even looking to list or sell.”

Lesswing says that while social networking and mashing are relatively inexpensive, both require a dose of technical know-how (or the services of a vendor or third party who has that know-how) to work effectively. Ask yourself questions like, “What do I want to show consumers online?” and “Where do I want to get this information from?” he suggests.

Frame says now is the time for REALTORS® to get on board with social networking, technology mashing, and other innovations that will give them an edge in the competitive real estate business. “Look at consumer Web usage as the demand side, and the fact that REALTORS® have housing inventory as the supply side,” Frame says, “and you’ll see that agents have a unique opportunity to bring both sides together online and display a composite view of the housing market, even for buyers or sellers who aren’t ready to do a transaction yet.”

Bridget McCrea is a Florida-based freelance real estate writer.

For current information on Web Sites 2.0, visit www.PasalaGroup.com or contact Jim direct at Coldwell Banker Previews International: 949-916-2399 or email info@ThePasalaGroup.com.