These days, you don't have to only give clients a business card with your name and a phone number. With a website, you can include many pictures of the listing as well. You're no longer limited to one image of the building, taken from the front. Feel free include photos of the listing from every angle: from the front, the back, the side, from halfway across the street... The list goes on. Photos can put the listing in context by showing off the whole street, so that potential clients have an idea of what the neighborhood looks like. You can display how beautiful the building looks in different seasons, whether it's wreathed by fresh greenery in spring, overflowing with sunshine in summer, surrounded by piles of colorful leaves in fall, or frosted with crystalline snow in winter. Plus, you can include images of every room inside the house, so that clients can get a feel for its layout.
On your website, you can also include videos of the listing. These can show potential clients what the listing entails—a house, a backyard, an acre of land. They can display parts of the house in more detail—for example, close-ups of the stucco walls, the locations of outdoor outlets, or the stained-glass designs on the backdoor. Videos can also portray the current residents having fun inside the building or on the grounds. Plus, they can show how it's well-suited to different weather patterns (for example, maybe it has an awning to shade you in summer, and its walkway is easy to shovel in winter). A video can even demonstrate how the alarm system or electric garage door works.
There are other things you can put on a listings website as well: an FAQ page, directions, nearby schools and places of interest, parking information, details on house taxes, and nearby subway and bus stops. Ultimately, having all this information on the website is convenient for potential customers, as they won't have to call or e-mail you to ask the most basic questions. Both of you will save time this way; it's a win-win situation.
It is an easy, accessible way for a customer to gain access to that listing. A business card is easy for a potential customer to lose. They only have to open their bag on a windy day, and poof! It's never to be seen again...that is, if they even accepted your business card in the first place. A website, however, is more convenient: potential customers can write down the site name, or even store it on their phones.
Opening a link online takes much less work than calling/e-mailing a realtor to for a quote. The information is already there, easily accessible at one’s fingertips.
Imagine that potential customer who goes out of their way to visit an open house or meet with a realtor...only to find that they hate the house’s architecture.
A website for your listings can clear this problem away easily: all they have to do is click the link to see the images. They don't even need to speak to you in person.
Also, websites work on many platforms: potential customers can access your website on their PCs, tablet computers, phones or music players. This makes websites an ideal advertising option in today’s high-technology world.
Our dozens of SEO optimized templates for each listing grant you more visibility as a real estate agent. Potential customers will be able to look you up and see all the listings you have on offer, all at once. Seeing all your listings in one place seems much more impressive than other, geographically dispersed scattered markers or advertisements realtors use: the signs in front of the houses they're selling, their logo branded onto park benches and buses…. With website listings, however, that same person can look up all your different listings. They'll see a listing they might not have seen otherwise and recommend it to a friend…the next thing you know, you've got another sale. Moreover, if you include a tool on your website to capture analytics, you can see which houses web visitors are more interested in—and modify your advertising accordingly.
With a website, it's easy for a potential customer to copy a link and send it off her great-aunt Gertrude. More importantly, with a website, you can easily add an SEO capability, so that your listings will pop up right away in Google searches.
In addition, you can include and "like" and "share" capabilities for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram on your websites. Through word of mouth, anything can go viral these days—a cute dog, a delicious-looking cake, and yes, even a beautiful home. By allowing users to interact with your listings in this way, they'll develop a connection to your brand. As such, they'll be more inclined to remember your name the next time they're looking to buy a house.
As a busy real estate agent, you might not have the time to design a plethora of websites. In that case, you might want to consider using our services.
We are well-equipped to help you with all your web design needs. We know exactly what to do (or what not to do) when designing a website, and we’re aware of all the latest trends.
