Commentary: By Susan Barber

Making the Most of a Virtual Presence
According to a recent study by the National Association of Realtors, three out of four home buyers use the Internet when searching for their homes. As more and more home buyers make use of the Internet, the newest technologies and online capabilities become less of a luxury and more of a necessity. In this regard, lenders, real estate firms, moving companies?all businesses that touch the home buyer’stand to profit from freshening up their online faces.

After a year of focused improvements, Chase.com was recently rated the best retail banking Web site among 29 banking competitors by Keynote WebExcellence Scorecards, up from ninth last year. In the coming year, our home mortgage business should see the payback from this timely investment.

Moving beyond Chase.com, we also reap the benefits when our valued real estate partners improve their Web sites. One enhancement that seems likely to pay dividends is virtual tour technology. Of the NAR survey respondents who used the Internet in their home search, 47% said virtual tours were very important to a listing. In addition, statistics from Realtor.com show that listings with virtual tours get clicked on 40% more than listings without virtual tours.

Because virtual tours allow buyers to better evaluate homes before contacting a real estate agency, this online capability reduces the number of unproductive showings, which makes for happier clients and happier agents. Since lenders can add their links to these enhanced listings, buyers may be offered virtual one-stop shopping.

To encourage our real estate partners to make the most of their virtual presence, we are giving them the opportunity to create unlimited virtual tours for a minimum investment through a special arrangement with Realestateshows.com. This is a significant savings over some typical tour creation options, which can cost up to $100 per listing.

To be successful in today’s real estate market, businesses need to keep up with the latest online technologies. The easier we make it for our real estate partners to be successful, the more likely it is that we will achieve our goals.

Susan Barber is senior vice president, Home Mortgage, for Chase. For more information, please visit www.chase.com.

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