Comments on: It’s Not About You

By: Jim Boyer of Summit

Jim Boyer of Summit — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 03:22:05 +0000

I totally agree Steve. My MLS pages are getting 96% of the traffic that the main pages are getting. The great thing is that people are registering so smiles from ear to ear.

By: Benjamin DeBell

Benjamin DeBell — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:38:11 +0000

I agree with you because if they found your website on Google they aren’t looking for you, they are looking for property. If they are looking to sell on the other hand they might want to know a little bit about your background. I just make the navigation to search property very visible on every page.

By: Bill Gassett

Bill Gassett — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:47:48 +0000

Agreed…that was how it was done in the 90’s. Everything was about me me me. How many sales, awards, ect. The consumer does not care about any of that. They want to be able to access information easily. Once they are ready to connect they will be looking for someone they can trust and relate to.

By: Greg Cremia

Greg Cremia — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:33:54 +0000

I’m glad they are not looking for me. Real estate is much more appealing than I could ever be.

By: jayson

jayson — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:28:52 +0000

Steve,

We’ve been offering a no registration website for a little over 6 months and have not been advertising the no registration feature. Thanks for the tip – I definitely don’t use websites that require registration as I know I’ll be getting some unwanted solicitation shortly after I do register.

By: Bob Crain

Bob Crain — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 04:47:28 +0000

No Registration Required and almost no contact from anyone unless it is totally on their terms… It would appear that this is what the consumers really want.

By: Ken from Chicago

Ken from Chicago — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:20:29 +0000

@Malok – Personally I think agents shouldn’t brand themselves, but something more generic. With the use of Suburban House Hunters Team I have an asset that is salable when I decide to leave the business. The business doesn’t need me, and in general most clients don’t even know that I am the main agent. I left my ego out of things and focused on building a real business.

@ Steve – Nice post, lots of useful information. There are a few things I might have to look at again on my site.

By: Lipply

Lipply — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 23:47:00 +0000

Thanks Steve – great article. I’m actually do some much needed housekeeping right now. Completely forgot to mention the “no registration” thing. Think I will stick it in the description as well!

By: Ryan Ward

Ryan Ward — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 23:28:45 +0000

I could not agree more. I am much more concerned with what the consumer wants and it really isn’t me:-) It’s about them and them finding what they want.

By: Malok

Malok — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 23:10:02 +0000

Great points, Steve. And its in fact why I don’t even have a photo of myself on any of my sites. And from a business perspective, I think its a good thing NOT to create branding around your photos. What you look like changes over time. (How many real estate agents can you name that have outdated photos from years ago that look NOTHING like them today?) Give the consumer what they want. And create branding around something other than yourself and you’ll end up with something thats marketable to others down the road.

By: Mike Brown

Mike Brown — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 23:08:26 +0000

If the world were fair we’d all be driving yugo’s and living in the projects. As Judge Elihu Smails from Caddy Shack says “The world needs ditch diggers too”

By: Steve Castaneda

Steve Castaneda — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 22:12:23 +0000

@Mike – We live in a world of abundance!

By: Mike Brown

Mike Brown — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 22:06:19 +0000

I could not have said it better, but I hate it when people share info like this with those not in the know. Let them continue to make their sites with giant pictures of themselves and all of their good deeds while we make a killing on keyword specific seo enhanced long tail grabbing
sites that bring us more leads than we can handle:-)

By: Jim Olenbush

Jim Olenbush — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:55:40 +0000

You are exactly right Steve – buyers only want to get to the listings. Selling them on our services comes later. The homepage should be clutter free and it should be very easy to find the property search and our phone numbers. It is amazing how many real estate sites break these rules.

By: David Mihm

David Mihm — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:53:10 +0000

Steve, you’re absolutely right about the clean homepage and no registration. Both of those are BIG hurdles for a lot of individual realtors’ websites.