A recent survey of home buyers has rendered some very telling results, pointing at the fact that it pays to keep up with consumer-level technology. Here are some suggestions derived from that survey and their supporting statistics:
PDA Power! (Blackberry, iPhone, Palm, etc.) Instant gratification may sound like a tall order, but the survey shows that buyers want to hear back from agents right away, no matter if they leave a voicemail message, write an e-mail, or send a carrier pigeon! The results show that more than half of home buyers surveyed want a response within 30 minutes. With that information, it is important (and completely do-able) to become "virtually available" with today's consumer products by visiting your local wireless store and learning about the options that are available to you. If you have not already done so, taking this step will make you 100% connected, even if you think that out-of-office equals out-of-touch. It's just not the case anymore.
The Web is Your World! The time has come. You must have a website of your own. Yes, it is terrific that you are featured on your company's site, and your listings are on various other sites, but as the star of your own show, you must have your own website. The more "about you," the better. It is human nature to gravitate toward people we share common interests with, so weaving into your bio, for example, that you are active in ASPCA fundraising only adds value to you as a person...after all, this is a people business! A top-producing agent I know in Aspen, Colorado is also a high-level equestrian. On her marketing materials and website, she has included photographs of herself going over a jump on a beautiful horse. Just seeing that photo makes a browsing home buyer feel that they already know something about her outside of "strictly business." The survey has shown that 80% of homebuyers spend about two months browsing the internet before selecting an agent. Of that internet-savvy group, about 40% of them use Google as a resource for browsing agent websites. Once you are up and running and feeling the power of the internet beneath your wings, you may want to look into what is called an "SEO" option. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it is a means of assuring that your website keeps moving to the top of the Google (or other search engine) search, and not back on the 15th page, many O's back in Goooooooooooooogle. There are different options for this and at different levels of investment. An outside company is one option to consider, once you weigh the ROI (Return on Investment) potential. But that's down the road a bit. Once you commit to creating a website, your designer/developer may be able to assist you in optimization choices available to you, and at varying price levels. Sometimes the server that hosts your website will offer options of this kind as well, some of which are included in the hosting bundle.
Get Social! Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn...it may all sound like kids stuff, but more and more people are connecting professionally this way. Perhaps at first glance it all seems like terrain created by and for the whiz kids who speak "bits and bytes" with the fluency of some lost tribe from Atlantis, but after a short time, you will be able to navigate and discover the many easy-to-use ways people incorporate these sites into their self-promotion and get connected. Much like the "six degrees of separation" phenomenon, social networking allows people who would otherwise not meet, to become "friends" through their network of resources. If you were about to buy a home, who would you choose as your broker: someone you have never seen in your entire life, or your tenth-grade best friend who moved away and lost touch back then, but who you recently connected with on Facebook, only to find out that she has been selling real estate in your community for the past ten years without your even knowing it!? The kicker is that many of these sites have applications for PDA phones, and thus another communication avenue is accessed. The survey showed that the number of agents getting new business from Facebook is increasing, and linking your website to your Facebook page, is free marketing.
An additional buying trend the survey revealed is that after internet searching and networking, the home buyer still begins the "traditional" process. Statistics show that a buyer will still spend an average of two months with an agent and visit 12 houses before making a purchase. The best of all worlds will be to bring yourself up-to-speed with the technology designed to make your life and work "virtually" seamless, so that you can incorporate the new means of self-promotion into your already-existing traditional means. Don't worry: showings are showings and your presence at an open house will never be replaced by some robot like "Rosie" from the Jetsons! It's all about enhancing your professional life and maximizing your resources, not replacing them.