Getting Results with RealEstate.com

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RISMEDIA-NRRE VOL 16-4 April 2000

Getting Results with RealEstate.com

By Maria Dottori, NRRE Correspondent

Jerry Fowler, founder of Results Team Realtors in Columbia, S.C., is driving real estate onto a whole new speedway. Fowler and his staff of 10 believe Realtors? must keep information available to home- buyers and sellers, he says. “We are in an information world with the best informed consumers in history; maintaining our informational resources keeps us on the cutting edge.”

Fowler feels most comfortable on the cutting edge, he says, and it is here where he has found the key to keeping his team of professionals progressive. Fowler generates information from a number of sources, but this tech-savvy businessman utilizes and shares the infinite information of the World Wide Web with helpful solutions, such as RealEstate.com.

RealEstate.com assists his company and his clients with knowledge that ensures a successful business relationship. “The service RealEstate.com provides us with is an invaluable tool,” says Fowler, “and it’s the best information sourcing company for real estate,” he adds. Fowler utilizes RealEstate.com by placing a click button on his Web site, where the consumer can find information about the address of a home anywhere in the country. Property Analysis assesses property appreciation performance as has extensive neighborhood, school and area reports. RealEstate.com formats an easy-to-read list of all the demographics on the area. This is helpful to the buyer, seller and real estate broker because it provides them with unbiased information and aides in keeping a comfort level among the parties involved in the transaction. Sellers retain knowledge and are able to make informed decisions when listing a home. Buyers are able to assess the environment in which they may potentially live before making a decision. The Realtor not only has access to the information but also makes initial contacts from the service.

By linking RealEstate.com to Fowler?s Web site, he has access to his potential clients and is able to follow up with additional information.

Fowler believes that RealEstate.com has been an important part of his growth and says his company has grown 150% to 200% since he began using its reports.

Fowler has been in real estate for 11 years and began Results Team Realtors in 1994 from a vision. He says, “I believed that there was a better, smoother way to buy and sell homes.” Instead of one agent handling the entire transaction with the help, perhaps of an assistant, Fowler established a team approach to the process. The concept was that one person could not balance all the balls of a transaction, so Fowler hired specialists to carry out each step of the transaction. Listing agents measure and take digital pictures of the property, buyer representatives show the property and closing coordinators close the deal.

Fowler plays the role of coach and focuses on putting his team into play. “I orchestrate,” says Fowler, who writes and signs all contracts and has daily involvement with all operations. The former agent also is innovative in every aspect of his business plan. He promotes Results Team Realtors through newspaper and magazine ads, custom flyers, radio advertisements, the Internet and his weekly one-hour radio show called Real Estate Focus. The Web site is easily and quickly navigable, filled with information and remains in the top 20 search engine results. His decision to offer free re- ports from RealEtate.com has been a big help in capturing buyers? names and e-mail addresses.

Like most of the country, the Columbia, S.C. market is hot and selling homes is competitive. “We offer our clients Market Scan (an instant alert of homes with their specifications) and we give clients a message writer pager so that as soon as we get a listing we can immediately page the buyer with directions to the home.” This allows clients to see a home sometimes before the agent even gets the listing, says Fowler.

Though Fowler’s concept of real estate keeps him competitive, it is his ability to access and share information that keeps his business growing. RealEstate.com has provided an avenue that Fowler calls “the best information source in the country.” He says, “This is the information age and if agents do not have this tool they will be left behind.”

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Friday, March 19, 2010