by Carolyn on June 28, 2009
Many real estate agents get into building a web presence by accident or without a real plan. That’s the way it was for me anyway. When I first wanted people to find me on the internet for real estate I spent a lot of time at sites like Active Rain and especially the forum on Real Estate Webmasters linking to pretty much every site that was mentioned, creating profiles many places and submitting my site and information to directories including local search on Yahoo and Google.
One thing I may have been tempted to do when I did not know any better might be to create multiple accounts to promote myself or my website. To do this is spammy and not something that search engines approve of or website users find useful. Sometimes when people aren’t really organized they end up creating multiple accounts on accident - sounds like that’s what happened recently to a Denver SEO firm. Over time it is easy to forget what directory you have already submitted to.
I do know that to build a strong web presence takes time and short cuts might work for a little while but may also lead eventually to a penalty. For instant results, there is always pay-per-click.
Guess it goes back to the idea that site owners who are doing a lot of work themselves on their own sites should think about a strategy as if they were paying someone else to do their SEO. I know I need to be more organized about how many posts I write a week and how many new pages I make for my websites. Creating good consistent content is good both for visitors to my site and is what search engines want to see as well.
by Carolyn on June 19, 2009
My site for Real Estate in Sacramento is finally live. It is pretty sparce right now - doesn’t have much for content except for a really great property search. I do have a lot of ideas, plans and expectations for the site so I hope the site will have a lot different feel six months or a year from now than what it does right now.
by Carolyn on May 25, 2009
As a real estate agent focused on getting business through the internet - I’ve had one eye on the real estate industry and another eye on SEO (search engine optimization) for quite a few months now. One thing both industries have in common are frequent conferences. One question that comes up is are conferences worthwhile?
I’ve wanted to go to a ReBar camp for a while - they are one-day conferences where conference “attendees” organize the topics - they call it an unconference. Of course like many real estate events - many of the people who volunteer and travel to the conferences have some sort of product or service that they are selling but in the real estate world outside of NAR and related association staff - it’s kind of expected. Outside of learning about technology and how to use the internet as a tool for the average agent’s business, one of the most valuable reasons to attend is to network with like minded agents.
Last week there was a ReBar Camp in Denver. A few of my friends were there. There is supposed to be one the day before the NAR convention in Novemeber - maybe I’ll get to that one.
One conference I know I’m not missing is the Real Estate Webmasters Summit. Yeah, I guess since REW is sponsoring the conference there will be information about their IDX and also how to best optimize their websites for search engines and more importantly web users - but after attending last year - the most valuable thing and I’ve talked about it before, was the friendships. I know I sound like a broken record - but there are relatively few real estate agents/brokerages who are building their real estate practice through primarily IDX lead generation.
Nanaimo harbour
If you are on the fence about the REW Summitt, it’s not super easy to get to Nanaimo, British Columbia,
takes a little planning - it’s on an island - but it’s beautiful - really the location was one of the reasons the conference worked so well. The size was also a factor. Last year was a fairly intimate event which made it a very cohesive group. There was also a sense that what happens in Nanaimo stays in Nanaimo - not that we were talking about how to game the search engines or our competitors directly, just a sense of sharing of what worked for different people and their business without wondering who was lurking in the background.
Yeah, if you are active on forums and pay a bit of attention to the SEO world, much of the actual conference material MAY NOT be new, but there is value in face to face interaction and that IS the reason to make the trip. I’m looking forward to meeting again the friends I made last year and hoping to meet new ones. This is different than a lot of conferences in that most all attending do have similar goals. Even if you don’t have a REW website - meeting the people who are attending would make the trip worthwhile.
by Carolyn on May 18, 2009
I need a small mental break from MIBOR NAR and even real estate in Sacramento. This is my personal blog after all so I’m throwing a shout out to surfdenver. He wrote a post a few weeks ago about ways a Ferrari is better than your girlfriend. I was kind of skeptical at the time but just found out a classic 1957 Ferrari Testa Rossa sold for a record $12 million dollars. My guess is that the car is noisy and may not even be all that fun to drive but it is a beautiful machine. Just watch the video - even if you don’t like sports cars - you will appreciate this one.
Now I must really figure out how to build my real estate empire so I can buy a similar car as well as afford my vacation house on the gulf.
by Carolyn on May 18, 2009
OK so I’m still trying to understand the implications of this but when Rob Hahn who can list a law degree among his credentials sounds concerned about the legal implications of something - I listen.
One change that was approved last week during the NAR midyear business meetings (unlike MIBOR) was an amendment to the Realtor Code of Ethics addressing issues around social media- the specific language isn’t yet available but here is some information posted from a newsletter:
Standard of Practice 15-2 was amended and a new Standard of Practice was approved to strengthen members’ obligations to refrain from making false or misleading statements about competitors, including in use of social media tools.
The new amendment includes the duty to publish a clarification about, or to remove statements made by, others on electronic media the REALTOR® controls once the REALTOR® knows the statement is false or misleading. For example, if you’re publishing a blog and someone posts a false or misleading comment about a fellow REALTOR® on it, it’s your duty to remove the post or publish a clarification when you become aware of it.
Go check out the original story on VARbuzz - the Virginia Association of Realtors blog on the Potential Catch 22: New NAR Code of Ethics Amendment and also read Rob Hahn’s response: Questions on the new NAR Code of Ethics Policy
Both posts go into greater depth than I feel comfortable commenting on right now but as Rob said on Twitter, this issue “makes the whole “indexible IDX” thing look like a mild breeze in a teapot. Holy crap!”
by Carolyn on May 12, 2009
A contrarian post popped up on Notorious Rob’s blog tonight. An agent who wanted to remain anonymous asked Rob to post his/her thoughts on the MIBOR issue for her/him. In a way, I understand the reasoning behind anonymity - the posts on Agent Genius and Active Rain have gotten a little tense at times. It also makes sense that the overwhelming number of comments on the internet would be in favor of agents marketing properties on the INTERNET. However, the agent is basically ignoring the role of buyers agents and is falling into a gate keeper mentality.
The agent’s main argument seems to be that the listing agent is the best person to represent the property-that agents with an indexable IDX have an unfair marketing advantage over the agent representing the seller. I have an indexable IDX feed on my Davis real estate site- individual listings show up in search engine results based on the overall strength of my site and not because I do anything specifically to get any single listing to appear. An agent who is even slightly net savvy could easily get the top result over an IDX listing from my local site or any of the national sites - so to argue this puts the listing agent at a disadvantage is not sound.
Let’s take this argument off-line for a minute - the number one way people still find a real estate agent is through some sort of referral. Yes, a growing number of people are finding agents on the internet, but in reality it is still a fairly small percentage. Couldn’t all the same arguments be made? The agent receiving the referral might be from the area but not located in the exact town- may not have as much specific knowledge about the property or neighborhood as the listing agent but they typically have one major advantage: They represent the BUYER.
Yes the internet makes the swimming pool larger - but so does reciprocal data sharing and cooperative agreements between local Realtor associations. The time when agents ONLY worked a single exclusive territory is as antiquated an idea as being a gate keeper of information - whether or not the internet exists these things are going to happen.
One thing that I think agents who are not actively involved online need to realize is no matter how a client comes to you - real estate is still is a people business. Whether you get an email address and phone number when someone registers to look at IDX listings or if they call you from a blog post or a sign post - it all comes down to how the agent interacts with the client.
I know things are done in different ways in various parts of the country, but here it is typically encouraged that the seller and buyer have their own representation - to make restrictions just so that non internet savvy agents have a better shot of selling their own listings is short sighted. As has been mentioned in many other posts - Trulia and Zillow are not subject to the same sort of requirements so the notion that the same non-tech agent site would somehow miraculously appear above these national sites is also not sound.
As as also been mentioned in a number of posts, consumers are searching for specific property information-if local sites are not allowed to have this information searchable in google, consumers will rely even more on national sites.
Remember, there are typically two agents involved in every transaction. Listing agents should welcome any opportunity that brings more buyers to their properties.
Related Reading
MIBOR resources
MIBOR and NAR hurting their membership
MIBOR not understanding Google Indexing
by Carolyn on May 6, 2009
Is MIBOR working against local brokers?
The local board of Realtors in Indianapolis MIBOR has decided that individual listings from an agent’s or broker’s IDX feed should not be allowed to be indexed in any search engine. They reason when a Google (or other search engine) result comes up for a specific address or MLS# this violates IDX regulations that specify how listings are supposed to be advertised as the full result is not shown in the SERP (search engine results). Often some of the required information is missing.
MIBOR has classified search engines, Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. as scraper sites. Scraper sites are typically viewed as 3rd party websites that without the express permission of the original website owner pulls the information (anything from a brief summary to a complete copy) and places it on their own website. The scraper site then tries to draw traffic for the terms of the information that they pulled - often these sites are full of google adwords or other forms of advertising hoping the visitor will click on an advertisement and make the site owner some money.
Is Google a scraper site?
Morgan Carey, CEO of Real Estate Webmasters and IDX vendor of the Indianapolis sites affected shared his communitcation with Cliff Niersbach of NAR that spanned a number of email exchanges. MIBOR passed the responsiblity of their ruling onto NAR for clarification. Mr. Niersbach states:
The CRT [Center for Real Estate Technology - a department of NAR] advises that “indexing” is a form of scraping.
Morgan, a world renowed SEO expert with an excellent understanding of how search engines operate states:
Google is NOT a scraper site, rather a technology (just like a browser) with a significant user base with which the public access websites. Google simply tells the user where to go - they are not creating web pages of their own out of the data they index.
Currently there are over 100 comments on Agent Genius over this issue. One of the main issues is that if agent and broker sites are not allowed to have IDX listings indexed then the only sites left will be truly scraper sites, national sites that do not get IDX feeds (like Trulia and Zillow) and Realtor.com which is not subject to local or even NAR regulations in how they display listings.
The MIBOR and NAR decision hurts local sites and as Joe Lane wrote: A Local Board of Realtors® Just Gave More Power To Zillow, Trulia, etc., Over It’s Own Members? This decision will benefit the national sites - real estate is local - local MLS boards and committees should be working to help their own membership and not help give national sites a competitive advantage.
I personally know the broker involved with this issue Mike Taylor, he runs an excellent Indianapolis Real Estate site. While this is still a local issue, it has the potential to spread to other MLS boards and committes across the country.
Hilary Marsh of NAR commented on the Agent genius post:
If you would like to propose a change to the policy, send your suggestion to the MLS Issues & Policies Committee in care of Cliff — cniersbach@realtors.org.
Thanks much,
Hilary Marsh
Managing Director, REALTOR.org
Anyone who has an IDX that indexes individual listings needs to get involved in this before other local boards follow in a similar direction.
Related reading:
MIBOR resources
MIBOR needs a clue
A connection between real estate and The Swine Flu? Perhaps you think that’s too much of a stretch (maybe it is). Perhaps, even though it feels like every media outlet is screaming SWINE FLU, you can’t quite figure out what in the world that has to do with real estate. But I’m already seeing a connection…
And It Happened Today…
Today I had an appointment to meet with some clients at a house that had just come on the market. We both pulled up to the house at the same time and, as we walked toward the house, I approached them to deliver some papers that I had promised to provide. I started to explain what I had brought, but was immediately interrupted.
“I’m sorry,” my client said. “But I have a very scratchy throat and perhaps you don’t want to be around me.” His wife also chimed in, explaining that they had just had a discussion in the car and wondered if I would fear contact with them. I made a joke about Swine Flu and assured them that I’d wash my hands as soon as we separated.
My client is a physician, who works in a world renowned medical facility in Bethesda, Maryland. His concern was real…as is the epidemic (pandemic?) that is sweeping the world. I know that people have already died, and predictions are that more will follow. So if the predictions and concerns that already feel a little overblown, continue to escalate…could we see the effect of the swine flu hit the world of real estate?
The Effects of Increasing Media Attention?
As the headlines increase, so will the paranoia (at least for some). Could it be possible that people will begin fearing contact with others in public places — including events like Sunday Open Houses? Potential buyers may even want to stay away from visiting other peoples’ homes until this medical emergency subsides?
Swine Flu + Uncertainty?
In a time of uncertainty, another unsettling, uncontrollable event just adds to our sense of vulnerability. And when people feel vulnerable, we already know they’re not as inclined to buy houses.
So What do you think? Will real estate feel the effects of The Swine Flu?
Contributor - Gretchen Koitz - Principal of The Koitz Group and mother of more frequent contributor Kevin Koitz! Gretchen specializes in Washington DC luxury real estate and surrounding close-in Montgomery County Maryland areas. Visit her Bethesda Maryland real estate guide or her Georgetown real estate page for a more information about the DC Metro Area.
