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Single Property Wesbites Give Sellers an Edge if Presented Well
By Ryan Ward | August 16, 2008
Many of you know that I am a fan of using single property websites as part of my overall marketing plan for listings. But, many agents don’t believe there is any merit to them or even if they do, they don’t know how to implement them in a way that has will help sell houses. Well, they do help and in some cases they can be the determining factor in getting a house to sell, but, if you think any website will do, you are mistaken. It takes a well thought out and well designed website for it to work properly. It also takes an agent who has the skills and ability to get that website found by buyers. Websites don’t magically appear in the search engines for buyers to find them. You need an agent who not only can create one as part of your larger marketing plan, but, will know how to use it effectively to market your home.
Take a look at the search results for this single property website that just sold one of my listings:
- “homes in haynes landing“
- “homes for sale in haynes landing“
- “10605 timberstone road“
- “FMLS# 3738467“
- “haynes landing johns creek“
These are not all just related to the single home that we marketed, but, they are there as well. Since we know that buyers look for homes online, why would you list your home with someone who cannot market to the most targeted buyers? One more thing. This is the only home that sold in the entire neighborhood this year. The buyer only looked at this home after seeing the single property website because it was not - at least they thought - what they were looking for from an architectural perspective, but, after seeing everything on the single property website, they decided they would look at it anyway and now it is sold, to them.
Of course, nothing is magic and there is no one thing that can make a home sell with the exception of price, but, all things being equal, this is a difference maker. There is no reason to list your home with an agent who cannot demonstrate to you that they can out market other agents and if they can’t produce results on the internet that go above and beyond listing in the FMLS and GAMLS along with all of the waste of time websites known as aggregators like; trulia, realtor.com and the like, then they are offering you no real advantage and no added value to their proposition as your listing agent.
We all know how to spin real estate statistics to make us look like we shine, but if you have your house for sale, what you need is marketing. I can’t make it any more clear than that. We work hard for our sellers and it pays off. I apologize if this post sounds like I am tooting my own horn here, but, since I started writing about these single property websites, I have received quite a bit of email saying that it is a waste of time so if you are an agent that is looking for a competitive advantage, please look for results like this when considering amending your marketing and adding the latest and greatest that someone is trying to sell you. Utilize marketing tools that work and do some research before you pay someone big money for something. The single property websites that I use cost $8 dollars a year and they look like this one I use to market Sandy Springs homes for sale.
Category: Marketing |
Hello and welcome to my Atlanta real estate blog. My name is Ryan Ward and I run The Ryan Ward Group at Keller Williams Realty Consultants. Stay informed with information on neighborhoods, market statistics, homes and editorials on local, regional and national news that affects all of us here in Atlanta and elsewhere. I enjoy life and writing so don't be surprised if you read something thsat isn't directly related to real estate. We all need a break sometimes. If you have any questions about what you read or would like additional information, please fill in the form below or give me a call at 404.630.3187.
August 18th, 2008 at 3:44 am
I definitely agree with you about the single property sites - if marketed properly and professionally, they can be a huge advantage and a great addition to the marketing mix.
Agents that doubt this should just look at the big websites that you mentioned above and how easily they rank for long tail words involving streets, neighborhoods, addresses etc..
One thing I’ve always thought would help would be to develop a website of “mini” single listing property sites - just developing a section for each listing - this way, the single property mini site could get a jump start from the domain.
August 19th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Looks like a good idea – especially if you the knowledge on how to build the website your self. If having to pay somebody to set it all up for the costs could be a bit too high.
August 20th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
I also agree. We just started using them in our marketing campaign. It has increased calls, open house visitors, and website hits (on both the single propety site and our main site!)…
Good Post!
August 21st, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Very good Ryan, I have been doing lots of stuff with buyers as of late. We have lots and lots of sellers who think a friend or relative is good enough, which is why we have lots of listings which are listed with agents who don’t even have websites, let alone setup a single property site.
August 21st, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Your single property site does look nice. I also think it helps that you have many photos on there. Might be nice to link to google street view on a site like this as well. I also like how you have the featured listing at the top of your area page.
August 21st, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Thank you Carolyn,
I am actually working on some street views as we speak. Here is one I’m doing. I’m going to be adding them to all of the city pages on the site - somewhere and somehow! Just not sure when. I still have to sleep sometime…
http://www.ryanwardrealestate.com/WordPress/wp-content/themes/atlanta-real-estate/simple-streetview.php
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:29 am
This marketing is becoming ever more popular in the Uk aswell. This is the mearke tthat will continue to increase IMO.
August 25th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Ryan,
I first off have to say that I’m not a fan of single property websites. I’m not sold that they are worth it. I am however open to learning more about them. I noticed that you aren’t actually using the address as your domain, so you can continue to use the website for OTHER listings. That is part of my issue, I can’t see making a throw away site. Keep us up to date on how these are working out for you.
August 25th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Hi Scott,
I think, the trick to them is self hosting, buying appropriate domains, reusing them and making them more than photographs turned in to slideshows and calling them virtual tours. Utilized properly, they can realize substantial traffic. In a crowded market, you can in fact generate more potential buyers than any other method - this includes open houses, dispersing the listing to aggregators like trulia, zillow, et al… by placing them in places that will generate traffic.
I can walk into a listing presentation and PROVE more traffic via Google Analytics than they can get anywhere else.
The ones that I do are built on WordPress and plugins. They are one off designs that I created, constantly improving them like the one I have done here for a listing at 555 Stover Road. This is the newest one I’ve done and it has a completely redisgned property details page, ranks in the search engine and gets fantastic traffic from sources which I can control.
I advocate controlling our listings because we can (and should be able to) present them to consumers better than anyone else.
Like anything else, it takes creativity and hard work for them to be succesful, but if done right (and only if done right), nothing can beat them for providing a level of exposure that is unparralleled.
August 30th, 2008 at 1:32 am
I was skeptical of the single property websites, but I was surprised to see that the PR for your single property site is “3.” How do you do it.
September 8th, 2008 at 4:21 am
This may well work for the Uk Pubs for sale market too. The title is most important.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Hi Ryan,
I am a fan of using single property websites and did so, before they were commonly pushed, when I was working in the Portland Or area. I had trouble at that time getting them up off the ground but looking at your spin of recycling the domain names and using wordpress I think surpasses any other idea I have seen. What plug-ins do you use and how much of your time is spent preping a new website?