RISMEDIA, December 3, 2010—Are there neighborhoods that are considered “hot” places to settle down or perhaps that are on the right cycle to experience significant turnaround? Adding neighborhoods to your site can be a powerful way to show that you are an expert in this market to buyers and sellers. From a listing strategy perspective, featuring neighborhoods can help you gain credibility with your sellers and help you gain market share. Imagine going on a listing presentation and showing sellers that you have featured their neighborhood specifically on your website.
To maximize your results, follow these specific strategies:
1. Make sure each neighborhood on your website has its own page of information like http://bradkorb.com/magnolia_park.
2. Share with your sellers that featuring their neighborhood draws buyers instantly to their community, and in “one click,” buyers will find their home quickly without having to do a tedious search. When coding the MLS search, it will only show properties in the specific neighborhood, regardless of who has the listing. This gives the seller the assurance that you would position their home well in a featured list of properties.
3. Buy a domain name for each of your core farming areas that can show that you are the hub for information about that area. For example, get a specific neighborhood domain name, such as www.NameOfNeighborhoodListings.com, and then point that domain to pages on your website or stealth pages.
4. Buy a domain name specifically for market updates or “Hot Properties” new to the market in that specific neighborhood. For example, www.Your-AreaMarketUpdates.com or www.NeighborhoodNameListingAlerts.com could provide information on what is active on the market as well as offer the ability to sign up for free listing alerts.
5. Buy a domain that leads a visitor to information about home values in your farming area. For example, buying the domain www.YourAreaHomeValues.com will give the site visitor access to a CMA request form to find out what’s selling in his/her neighborhood.
6. On any farming piece to the neighborhood, don’t forget to include the “call to action.” For example, on your just-listed postcard, include verbiage like “Thinking of Selling? Check out the competition at www.NameOfNeighborhoodListings.com.” Then, on that page, they can see what’s for sale in the MLS.
Remember to think about the homeowner who lives in the area and give them information that shows you are the expert. Give them what they want. At the same time, prove to buyers that they have come to the right place to find their special home in their favorite community.
Tricia Andreassen is CEO/founder of Pro Step Marketing. She is a leading industry Web strategy expert, a nationally recognized speaker with Broker Agent Speakers Bureau, and one of RISMedia’s Real Estate magazine’s monthly columnists. For two decades she has trained and coached real estate professionals on how to bridge technology, web strategy and traditional marketing into a cohesive marketing strategy. For more information, please visit www.ProStepMarketing.com or call 1-866-799-9888. Her company has created turnkey Web marketing systems and a short sale marketing system that pulls all these elements together so you can focus on real estate.
