As a guy who does search engine marketing, I believe in testing. I test a lot.

During a typical week, I will visit quite a few real estate websites. This past week, I took the opportunity while visiting them to “Mystery Shop” 50 of them. I was not mystery shopping to see who had the prettiest website or the coolest interface, or the most search criteria.

I was simply registering with my name, phone number and email address to see who called me back first. This post is a BASIC report of what I found.

(Note: I am going to do a more detailed study on many more sites in about 2 months for publication – if you would like a copy of that study, shoot me an email! – it should be out in December / January and I would be happy to share it with you. It is going to not only include how quickly people responded, but HUNDREDS of examples of their responses as well).

Out of the 50 real estate websites that I registered for, I did not receive a callback or contact at all on 27 of them. (I was STUNNED at that one.) Nine of them called me back within two hours. By the end of 24 hours Continue reading this post

People love pictures.

Homebuyers REALLY love pictures of homes and buildings and parks and waterways and anything that will help them gain a better feel for the place they will be moving. (I’m assuming an out-of-town buyer who is unfamiliar with the area.)

If you have a website with a photo album function and the ability to write text below the pictures, I suggest you utilize it, and if you don’t, then I suggest you set something up you can link to.

Photos are a great way of making your site useful and worth coming back to. But photos are only one part of it, the power of the photo idea goes beyond just the picture, plus Google doesn’t do photos, so it won’t help with search engine placement just to have pictures.

Having the ability to place text below the image serves two purposes—

The most important is it allows you to tell the story of the city to the potential buyer and to inform them of important facts about the city (or neighborhood, or area, or particular house), and it helps with search engine placement so you can be found online.

I suggest having the albums categorized into different areas or neighborhoods or Continue reading this post

No matter what industry you’re in, success in the online marketplace is determined by conversion.

Sites like Amazon and Wal-Mart measure not only how many visitors view an item, but how many place the item in their shopping carts and then actually purchase it.

Even though you aren’t selling goods on your real estate site, you should always be concerned with how well your site is converting visitors into leads.

Many of the real estate sites that we see convert visitors somewhere in the range of 3%-5%.

That’s really low.

(We regularly take an interest in our customers’ lead capture web page because if they don’t do well, they certainly won’t continue as a HomeGain subscriber.)

Some of the other real estate agents’ sites convert higher, but most fail to convince its visitors that it is worth their time to leave their contact information in exchange for a glimpse at local listings, and, therefore, fail to produce a good ROI.

You really only have a few seconds before a reader moves on!

Due to the low conversion we know some real estate agents are experiencing, we always keep our eyes open for websites that convert at much higher rates to provide as examples to agents wanting to know how they can get better their ROI.

Guess what? We just figured out how to increase the conversion rate to an amazing 15%! Continue reading this post

A decade ago, technology had very little to do with a Realtor’s® business. Today, however, technology is essential to an agent or broker’s success.

How does one go about choosing the right technology tools?

Without over-paying for the latest trendy gadget, below is a list of 10 devices that all 21st century real estate professionals should use. Based on feedback from HomeGain agents, these devices will help increase your business’ effectiveness, efficiency and competitiveness.

Top 10 Technology Tools for REALTORS®

1. Website

Website is one of the most important marketing tools an agent can have. It’s not just a way to tell potential homebuyers and sellers who you are and what you offer, but it essential for lead generation. How so? If you set up a form on our site, most likely on your home page, the more motivated consumers will provide you with their contact information. And voila, you have a new lead. Set up auto-responder emails to thank a person for visiting your site, give your contact info, and tell them a realistic amount of time when they should expect a return call or email from you. Continue reading this post