Agent Support Center

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Give Them Another Reason...To Call You

Give Them Another Reason...TO CALL YOU!

Nearby Home Sales – a recent new product release by GraphicalData.

One of the first things people do when thinking about selling their own home is to compare other, nearby recent home sales.

Access to a National Home Sales data base provides your visitor, from your website, recent home sales near their home or property. All visitors will be required to create an account which provides you an e-mail address associated to a street address.

On the subsequent report page that is generated, they receive the 10 closest, most recent sales surrounding the associated address they submitted. The properties are mapped and a brief thumbnail describing each property is provided.

Naturally, the 10 closest, most recent sales closings will be all over the board as far as price range, similarity, condition, etc….so this is what I refer to as a “precursor” to a full, personalized CMA.

Your visitor is encouraged to contact you by a form at the page bottom to then prepare a complete, detailed CMA for them...we all know there is more to pricing a home then simply recent sales.

NOTE: this product has been replaced by the new, more powerful product which can be reviewed here, and at a follow-up supplemental review.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Naming Your Buttons - Part 2

This is a follow-up article to my last post. Let’s look at a few of the other buttons that we can name other than the usual labels.

An example might be the “Mortgage Calculator.” We could call this tool “How Much Can You Afford,” or “Payment Calculator,” or “Estimate Payments” and the like.

Another example could be your “Sold Listings.” Also name this section “Sales History,” or “My Sold Listings,” or “Recent Sales,” or “Sales Track Record,” etc.

What else? Let’s look at “Home Search.” This could also be called “Property Search,” Search For Homes,” “Homes (Listings) For Sale,” (Your Town’s) Property Search,” and on…and on…

Even your “Home Page” could be referred to as your “Welcome” page or “Entry Page,” etc.

The possibilities are endless. One good thing to keep in mind, is that a button’s name should reflect what the content is going to be on the click-through page. Also, good search engine etiquette would also dictate that you should use a keyword (phrase) whenever possible in the name of a link…which would apply here, since these are actually html links.

Use your imagination. Button ordering sequence…and naming of them…is so easy to do.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Button Names That “POP”

What a button is named, or labeled, can help direct traffic to that page or section of your website. It can also help differentiate you from other sites that use the same boring names. When we design a site, we typically assign standard labels on the buttons. However, we would highly encourage you to name your nav buttons what you feel they should be called. It helps make your site part of you!

What do I mean when I suggest that you customize some or all of button names? Let’s use the CMA request as an example. Very often we will name them “What’s Your Home’s Value” or “Free Market Analysis”. These are great names and say exactly what it is…and if you like it then go with it.

But, there are other options available. For example, you might try “Free Home Evaluation,” or “What’s My Home Worth,” or “Request a Free CMA,” or “Request a CMA,” or “Right Price Analysis,” or “Comparable Market Analysis,” or whatever!

Another example might be for the page often labeled “Contact John.” It could be “Contact Me,” or “Get In Touch With John (Me),” or “Make Contact With John (Me),” or “Connect with John (Me),” and the like.

You’ve got the idea. The possibilities are endless…and the more provocative the name (which should still convey what is on the page they will be clicking through to) then the more likely they are to visit that page.

Another consideration is which page(s) should be towards the top and which towards the bottom of the nav bar. That is a personal call, but again, you have the ability to control their order…way cool!

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Adding a PDF Document to Your Web Site

Do you design your own newsletter and then publish it in PDF format? How about an article you have written? Or even a flyer that you have designed? Or new construction info flyers? Whatever the case, you can easily add them to your website.

First, of course, save your work into a PDF format. I would recommend at the lowest resolution that you can get away with to save download time.

Then upload the PDF document to your site.

Lastly, place it into your site. If only one or two documents of special interest, maybe a button in the left nav bar is appropriate. If many documents, you may be best served by creating a normal page, populate it with a narrative of what this section is about…maybe place an appropriate picture as well. Then, add subpages to this page in the PDF format and you have a cool section…

How do you upload and create a PDF page…view instructions here…in PDF format, of course!

Friday, February 03, 2006

Make Your Web Site the Hub of Your Business

Your web site is an additional lead generating tool…right??? Well, yes it is. But it’s actually much more. It can be the central or core piece to your business.

I was speaking to an agent the other day, and he was sharing with me how his web site continues to be more and more the hub of his business. It is found on the search engines and it does develop leads for him. In fact, he made some pretty good money this past year that he can directly attribute to his web site.

So, it is a lead generating system. But…he says, it is way more than that. It houses all the information that he wants to make available to folks. Some is geared for new people visiting his site, but other content is for customers and even past customers to benefit from. He is also very good at using the tools within his site to his advantage in understanding his customers and their needs and wants. And everything he mails out or promotes is geared to drive folks to his website…after all, everything they need to know is there…including why they need to contact this agent.

Often we wonder why our site doesn’t do much for us…maybe we don’t know how to harness the power. Sort of like stepping into a car and then just sitting there. We sort of need to start it, put it in gear…and go.

How do you find some of the answers??? Well I published an article a while back and after reviewing the book again, I just have to say again, YOU’VE GOT TO READ THIS BOOK IF YOU ARE IN REAL ESTATE AND HAVE A WEB SITE. And, I guess, if you really want to try to make it work at its fullest potential

What is the book? It is entitled Real Estate Rainmaker: Guide to Online Marketing by Dan Gooder Richard. And to make it easy to acquire, you can order it directly from my web site at AgentSupportCenter.com

If you can make a commitment to digest some of the content in Real Estate Rainmaker, I can’t imagine that your online business would do anything but increase.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Add Some Spice to Your Web Site…Add a Movie to Spotlight Your Community

What better way to introduce new clients to your services and the sights and sounds of your community…all from your own website. Community movies introduce your neighborhood and surrounding area, giving clients all the right reasons to move in and become part of the community…and they can be branded right to you!

Visit an example of what you can have created custom for your web site. Walkthrough Media’s copywriter creates a script, and a professional voiceover artist does the talking. Their production crew takes care of the filming, editing and web processing, and the latest server technology delivers your promotional movie 24 hours a day.





See a movie example here


The above movie was created for our Kitsap offices by Walkthrough Media. You can have yours branded with your name and contact information mentioned in the voice over…how cool!

A great way to separate yourself from the competition…with your own promotional movie!