90% of all home buyers use the internet to find their next home, according to a survey by The National Association of Realtors®, yet many agents resist using technology to market their listings.
Despite that compelling fact, 35% of all Realtors® don’t even have a website!
With most buyers using the internet to find their next home, you’re missing out if you list your home with a Realtor® who’s afraid of technology!
How can you tell if a Realtor® is tech-savvy?
Here are some things to check on when selecting your listing agent:
Does The Agent Have Their Own Internet Domain?
If they do, their e-mail address will be something like Phil@PhilHoover.com, not susieq123@incrediblycheapemail.com.
Serious agents have their own domains, hosted by commercial hosting providers to ensure that they receive all of their e-mail.
And, they have ample e-mail inbox sizes to prevent people from receiving that dreaded “the recipient’s e-mail box is full” message when trying to send the agent an offer.
While free or low-cost e-mail providers like AOL, HotMail, Yahoo, MSN, and Google mail are okay for personal use, they are not generally adequate for business use due to file size limitations, shared servers, and possible downtime.
If the agent is using one of the free or low-cost e-mail providers, it may be an indicator that the agent is not tech-savvy or has a meager technology budget
Does The Agent Have Their Own Website Or Just A Web Page?
Here’s how you can tell ~ if the agent has a website, the domain name will be something like www.PhilHoover.com or www.BoiseBlog.com.
However, if the agent only has a web page, the address will look something like www.susieq.incrediblycheaprealestate.com ~ a web page buried deep in the bowels of their broker’s website where it will never be found by a search engine like Google, Yahoo, or Bing.
If the search engines can’t find it, no one will ever see your home on the internet!
Does The Agent’s Website Provide Useful Information?
It’s one thing for an agent to have a website, but it’s a whole different deal for an agent to have a useful, deep website with the kind of useful content that buyers crave.
For example, does the agent’s website have helpful articles about the home buying process, an online relocation package, photos, virtual tours, slideshows, and other features that buyers want?
Or, is it just another boring “me too” business card website with minimal information?
Can You Find The Agent’s Website On The Major Search Engines?
If the agent has any substantial internet presence, you will easily find numerous results for them when you search for them by their name.
No results = no internet presence!
Does the agent’s website come up when you search key phrases commonly used by buyers searching for homes in your area?
In the Boise area, try searching with the search phrases “Boise Real Estate” and “Boise ID Real Estate” to see if the agent’s website can be found easily.
Does The Agent Have A Blog?
Fewer than 2% of all agents know what a blog is!
A blog (acronym for “web log”) is like an online journal and it’s interactive.
You are on a blog right now!
Visitors can post comments to the articles (posts), thereby creating a sense of community.
Boring, static websites are being replaced by more interesting blogs because they are informative and include fresh, personally-written content that helps them rank high in the search engines.
Does The Agent Use Call Forwarding?
I run all of my calls through my home office and answer my own phone to avoid having a human being between me and my clients.
The last thing I want is to miss your call, make you wait, or have your voicemail placed in someone else’s voicemail box.
Then, if I am away from my office, my calls are forwarded to my cell phone and I personally answer all calls without the caller knowing I’m not in my office.
My business card has one voice phone number on it ~ (208)938-5533 ~ instead of several different numbers for office, cell, pager, home, etc.
You shouldn’t have to figure out where to call me!
Does The Agent Push Their e-mail To Their SmartPhone?
Does the agent have a SmartPhone, or just a cheap, ordinary cell phone?
A tech-savvy agent will have a SmartPhone with the capability to receive e-mail forwarded from their computer.
I push my e-mail from my office computer to my Blackberry World Phone so I can respond immediately to urgent e-mails from visitors to my blog.
I want to talk to those people before they contact another agent because most buyers end up buying from the first agent who helps them.
In Summary:
These are just a few suggestions about how to determine how tech-savvy a real estate agent is before you list your home with them.
Remember:
You will miss 90% of the buyers if your home can’t be easily found on the internet, so make sure you list with an agent who embraces technology vs. an agent who fears and avoids it!
November 11th, 2009 Posted in Seller Stuff | 
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