Online Marketing: Increase Income by Maximizing Business on Internet

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Commentary by Mike Parker

RISMEDIA, September 1, 2008-Priscilla Allen is a RE/MAX broker in San Antonio, Texas. In 2006, she and her husband, along with a long-time associate, were the 16th-ranked team in San Antonio; in 2007, they were the 10th. RE/MAX singled this team out as the number two commissioned team in San Antonio: see www.allenrealtygroup.com. That was 2007-a year when many good agents and brokers suffered huge losses in business and income. How did she manage to increase both when other good people were hurting?

Allen has considered herself Internet-oriented for quite some time now-starting in 1998, she sold eight homes from the Internet, and she has been emphasizing online marketing ever since. What’s more, she has had her own website since1999 and has embraced virtual tours from the start, being one of the first agents to successfully sell a home thanks to this technology. A Realtor® since1974, Allen entered the industry full-time in 1996. I wondered how it could be that this broker in San Antonio could be succeeding online when so many others still can’t seem to get going there. What did she know that everyone else might not know?

When we started to pick her brain about Internet marketing, Allen was quick to offer details on succeeding as an Internet Realtor® and was eager to help others succeed in this promising area of real estate.

“I do not do newspaper ads. I do not do open houses,” she says. “Referrals and the Internet provide almost all of my buyers.”

In the 29th largest market in the nation, that is an amazing statistic. Who would think that a successful agent or broker could make it in such a place without newspaper advertising?

“Our group sold $16 million worth of property in 2006,” Allen says. “And we sold $26 million in property in 2007-a bad year by most anyone’s measure. It is the Internet that has enabled us to do this, and it is our CompassSearch subscription that has brought us much of that $10 million increase.”

“We regularly field inquires from service people stationed in Iraq,” she says. “As their tour ends, or if they are to receive major medical attention, many of them are routed to San Antonio. Before they get here, they have shopped online and dreamed online of coming home. With the military facilities in and around Bexar (pronounced “Bear”) County, we are fortunate to do business with many service people. I have an appointment next week with the head of pediatrics for the U.S. Naval Hospital in Naples, Italy, who is transferring to University Hospital here starting July.”

According to Allen, after first speaking with this home buyer on February 2, she learned that she and her husband were concerned about the best schools for their children. Since they could not afford the $8,000 to fly the four of them home to look around for a home, Allen was able to provide a cost- and time-effective alternative.

“My local knowledge enabled me to set her fears at rest and to help her select a comfortable and safe neighborhood near the place she will be working-all online,” she says. “The doctor is flying here to meet with me and to buy a $300-400,000 home. We’ll be looking at the field of available properties we narrowed down to three and she will choose one of those. I have them pre-qualified and I am looking forward to meeting her after all this e-mailing and excitement!”

Priscilla Allen’s 8 Relocation Questions

Allen says that one of the things she does to make the people she meets online comfortable with her, is to ask them a series of questions about their needs.

“I’ve done this so often that I know people are very comfortable sharing this information and I believe it helps bond them with me as their real estate professional,” she says. “I explain some of the questions in advance, like why I ask about children, for example. I also explain to them-should they send me a house they found online-if I think they should not buy that house, and why.”

Here are Allen’s questions:

  • - Approximate time of relocation
    - One or two story preferred?
    - One or two living and dining areas?
    - Age preference in the home?
    - Job location?
    - School age children?
    - Square footage preference?
    - Price range?

I noticed that price came last, and asked why. “People aren’t offended if you spend time with them and seek to answer their questions, then try to narrow down their price range. I have found that opening with that line can offend people and send the wrong message that I am only interested in a sale. You see, I am really interested in my client, and I feel every one of them is a part of my extended family.”

From delivering some personal items to a spouse, or helping a friend get home from the airport, even while utilizing the power of the Internet, Allen makes her business with her clients more personal.

“I don’t want to sell them a home that I wouldn’t want back to sell again,” she says. “If I wouldn’t be proud to list the home, I surely don’t want one of my clients buying it. If you haven’t been able to tell yet, I am very motherly. I treat these kids as my own and anyone under 50 is a kid to me.”

How Priscilla Succeeds Online

In recent months, Allen attributes most of her leads coming from her website.

“We added two new associates at the end of 2007 to help handle the leads,” she says. “We’re up to five selling and one administrator, now. We are closing about 90% of these leads.

“We also use the WebReporterTool to show listing prospects our Internet savvy and success; they are extremely impressed when I show them how much we sell through the Internet, and what people online do to find their listing on my site.”

When she shows them the data, Allen says home buyers are often just floored by what a difference a strong Web presence makes.

“I also spent the money to have a professional virtual assistant work with my site and make it more consumer-friendly,” she says. “With the virtual assistant handling the consumer-friendly part, and CompassSearch handling the SEO-friendly part, I feel confident that my success will continue. My CompassSearch subscription put another $200,000 in my personal take home pay last year-a great return on the investment.”

Advice to Agents Wanting to Succeed Online

“Get yourself a good template website and hook up with CompassSearch. The website alone didn’t produce great results until I added the search subscription. That’s all it took me and I cannot tell you how happy I am with the results,” she says.

“I like learning something new every day, talking to people from all over the world, giving house tours online, understanding what makes my site work and being number one on the major search engines when people come looking in San Antonio. I have the confidence that we will do even better this year and so far, we already have. I can tell you that no kind of lead is as good as the ones I get from my own website except a personal referral. I strongly advise everyone to cut back on newspapers, spend a part of that money on your website, and be free from the doom and gloom that pervades the media about housing today. People are still buying and selling homes. It’s just that they are doing it online, now. You need to be found online by Internet buyers.”

I leave you with this e-mail excerpt from May 8 from Allen to an agent who wrote to ask about her online success:

“To answer your question, ‘does my website bring me new clients?’ Here’s what my team and I have written in contracts that were from the website just this week: $690,000 to close June 15th, $350,000 to close May 30th, $339,500 to close May 30th, working a $250,000, $130,000, $200,000 at this time. Closing a new home $300,000 May 15th, from a website client (sold in 2007) referred to me, in fact, we have several of those this year so far. So, I guess I could yes, my website brings me new clients daily.”

Thanks to Priscilla Allen for being so forthcoming. If you have a client relocating to San Antonio, you will find Allen a pleasure to work with and a real asset for your client.

© 2008 Mike Parker

parker_mike1.jpgMike Parker is a principal at the Blackwater Consulting Group, Inc., and specializes in online marketing for real estate professionals. You can reach him by e-mail at mparker@theblackwatercg.com. Ask for a free copy of his booklet “REAL SEO Explained” by writing to realseo@compassInternetsystems.com. It will be sent to you free and no one will call you. To request a free review of your website to determine if it can be found by Internet buyers and if it is search engine friendly, click here and it will be evaluated free. RIS subscribers can save $600 with a special promotion in August, if they subscribe!

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