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The Big Canoe Real Estate Market and Why You Need a Strong Web Presence
By djelliott999 | February 15, 2008
When IBA Mountain Homes first started as a company in the North Georgia community of Big Canoe, there were a couple of major differences between then and now. Then, the Big Canoe real estate market was booming. There were buyers for all types of homes - from rustic mountain cabins tucked away in the woods to very high end homes that graced the pages of Southern Living. The other big difference was there were very few people that advertised on the internet. IBA Mountain Homes was the first real estate company in the Big Canoe community to focus on web based marketing. Clients as well as other agents occasionally ask us why we focus so heavily on web based ads as well as how to make a real estate website more attractive to customers, so below are a few rules we go by:
1. Don’t Make Your Website a Hassle To Use.
Other than to say our marketing has proven to be very successful for our clients (and for us), the point of this article is not for me to ramble on about our hits and misses as a company, but rather to point out how effective web based marketing can be. It has become commonly accepted knowledge that most people beginning their search for a new home begin their search on the web. It only makes sense that an agent needs a great looking and functional web site to allow visitors to gather the information they need and to provide exposure for their listing clients’ homes. I spend a lot of time looking at competing real estate web sites, and it always baffles me why so many real estate websites make their visitors jump through hoops to get the information they came looking for. If McDonalds made everyone enter the drive-through lane in reverse, I bet people would stop using the drive through. Don’t make a website a hassle to use.
2. Put Your Website on the Map.
Of course if the site can not be found, what good is it? Simple answer - it’s of limited use. Being on the first page of Google is really the main factor. The amount of traffic that our IBA Mountain Homes site receives now on page one of Google is easily double of what we received using Google ads and being on page two or beyond of Google. Having a presence on other search engines like Yahoo is helpful, but Google accounts for more than 90% of the market share, so the benefits of these other search engines are somewhat limited. It takes work to attain good organic ranking on Google, and it is not for the faint of heart, but the results are worth the effort. A great example of some local agents working hard to get their site on the web are Margo and Peter Vallone. You can visit their site at http://mountainhomeresales.com/.
3. So Who Cares? My Real Estate Company Advertises the Old Fashioned Way..and Does Great!
Have you ever seen the New Yankee Workshop? If not, it’s a show on PBS featuring a carpenter named Norm Abrahms who builds a new piece of furniture every show. Other than sandpaper and a hammer, most of this master craftsman’s tools are modern power tools that make use of the latest technology. Some tools like the hammer and sandpaper are like conventional print advertising. There will likely always be a place for them. Using the latest technology to help you build a fine piece of furniture is like having a great looking website to help you sell your clients’ homes.
4. I Still Say Who Cares. I Remain Unconvinced of the Powers of Web Based Advertising!
Look at it this way. The real estate market here in North Georgia’s Big Canoe is slower than it was in 2005 - not as bad as many parts of the US, but still slower than it was a couple years ago. If you are putting your home up for sale in a slow market, wouldn’t you want your realtor to pull out all the stops? Consider this. Many agents use the same format to advertise. They place the home on FMLS. They make sure the other agents are aware of the new listing. They follow-up with past clients that may have an interest in the home. They run some print ads. And then what? What differentiates advertising strategies at this point? My opinion is that failing to have a web presence is a pretty substantial failing considering most people looking for a new home treat web sites like virtual storefronts. These people beginning to look for a new home want a quick and convenient way to get the information they need, and a clean, quick, and easy to use real estate web site is easily the best way to accomplish this. Give the people what they want, and the sales will follow.
Topics: All Posts, Real Estate Marketing |
February 16th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Dan,
Very interesting artiicle and thanks for plugging our website!
Peter
February 16th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Thanks Peter! You guys have a great looking website, and you’re working very hard to promote it. Keep up the good work!.
-Dan Elliott
Life in Big Canoe, Real Estate in North Georgia
February 20th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
[...] I have blogged about this before, but some recent events have swayed me to follow-up on the topic of web based marketing for North Georgia, specifically in the mountain community of Big Canoe. You can read the previous article regarding web based real estate marketing for Big Canoe here. My point tonight is about the size of the net that we cast to attract visitors to our web site. We write a lot of articles on our blog - some people find some of them of interest while others may wonder why we ever wrote an article about that particular subject. I fully realized when I wrote the article about cooking BBQ in the North Georgia mountains that it would not interest everyone. Not everyone is interested in a North Georgia cabin resale. We realize this, but we still write the stories. Let me explain why by way of example. [...]
March 29th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
[...] We had a listing meeting today with some clients in the Big Canoe Community. Our conversation for a listing meeting was fairly typical in that the sellers wanted to know about our marketing (particularly internet marketing in Big Canoe) as well as new suggestions on how to get their home sold. Something they were not aware of was IBA Mountain Home’s variable rate commission structure. To the best of my knowledge, this is something that nobody else in Big Canoe is doing. It works this way: [...]