Why cater to the online real estate market with a real estate website? 2009 surveys by the California Association of Realtors (CAR) turned up an interesting profile of the online home buyer versus a traditional buyer – and a good reason to target this growing market.

On the average, online home buyers visit real estate websites to research and educate themselves on the available homes almost twice as long as the traditional buyer – almost two months versus one month. Most of the survey respondents used real estate websites to find out as much information on properties through images, virtual tours and maps and used that information to narrow the field of homes they want an agent to show them. Though they spend almost the same amount of time with a real estate agent, because of their online research, they visit half as many homes before making their home buying decision.

Though Internet home buyers’ income averages about $40,000 less per year than the traditional buyer, they both purchase homes with a median price of $325,000. Similar commissions with half the legwork!

Real estate websites providing both home listings with maximum information – written and in images – as well as information on neighborhoods are the sites best serving up information the Internet market is researching. Blogs are proving to be one of the best way to maintaining up-to-date neighborhood news.

The other aspect of catering to the online real estate market is response time. Internet home buyers are used to finding information within seconds and 89% said that response time was either “very important” or “extremely important”. 73% gave the top reason that they were satisfied with their agent as quickness in responding. This translates into the online home buyer expecting a return call or email in less than half hour. Most agents are responding between one hour to one day later.

With the advent of the iPhone and similar devices, providing instant information to mobile devices is the future. Many real estate agents are responding to the market demand by staying current with the latest smart phones, not so much to “keep up with the Jones” as to keep up with what their customers are using.

IMCD Web Design has continually adapted their real estate websites to meet agents’ needs in providing the best online service. IMCD Realtor websites provide agents the ability to add maximum property description and images, neighborhood information as well as video or slide virtual tours. Contact IMCD about a real estate agent website that will connect you to the growing online market.

Improve your real estate website with case studies – reinforce your expert professional public image and increase the trustworthiness or your site. A well written case study defines who you are as a real estate agent by showing in story form your perceptiveness of your client’s problem, your ability to show your client the solution that is in their best interest and cap it off with a testimonial from that client.

As a start, outline all the categories of case studies you can create, defining them by each of your main real estate markets, such as the home seller, home buyer, investor, commercial real estate and renter markets. For each of these markets, list the problems you have helped your real estate clients overcome. Prioritize writing the case studies giving highest priority to the most popular stumbling blocks and those for which you have great testimonials.

The simple outline for your real estate case study is define the problem as stated by your clients, then go through your problem-solving process in general terms (not to give away your trade secrets). Finally, give a level of co-measurement to the results of using your real estate services by giving a benchmark to your successes. A benchmark may be simply showing your listings’ average days on the market versus the FSBO or your area’s real estate market’s average days on the market.

Case studies help bridge the gap between selling your real estate services on what your client thinks you do to sell their home or find their next home versus educating them to all the hard work and marketing services you do perform so they think they are getting a steal of a deal working with you.

Case studies are part of your online real estate marketing strategy that answers your website visitors’ primary question, “Can this Realtor help me?” Even though writing content for your real estate website lacks the immediacy and feedback of talking to a client, it draws on all your conversations to answer questions you know from experience home buyers and home sellers have. Realtors who successfully put the desired information into their case studies build an invaluable online resource for their clients – and a body of content that improves their standing in search engine rankings.

If your online marketing needs a real estate website that allows you the freedom to add case studies and real estate marketing information easily and quickly, contact the real estate website experts at IMCD Web Design. Our semi-custom template real estate websites are created to give online market advantage to Realtors pursuing the 80% of the real estate market that starts their shopping online.

Real estate websites can respond to home buyer demands and adapt to the changing needs of the market.

Most home buyers reported getting financing as the hardest part of buying their homes and offered real estate agents key ways to improve their marketing. In general, improved speed of communication was suggested.

For the real estate website improvement the top suggestions were:

1. References to lender who agents have found deliver results,
2. References to lenders who can explain and recommend the best home loan product for the buyer, and
3. Information on dealing with banks for REOs, short sales and distressed properties.

With areas like California, Las Vegas and Phoenix reporting over half of home sales are distressed property sales coupled with the tight credit markets, these website additions are timely niche areas to your target with your online real estate marketing.

There are several ways to adapt real estate websites to changing market conditions – the most user-friendly for real estate agents is an Article Manager or a blog. Both provide Microsoft Word-type interfaces for adding content. This means you do not need software for creating web pages or learning HTML commands.

An additional benefit to Article Managers and blogs are hosted on your real estate website’s server, any computer connected to the Internet can be used to upload your article or blog entries. You can add information from the road – which, if you are attending a seminar on mortgages or REO sales, allows you to add information when it is hot and fresh in your mind.

Just as in building in the social network arena, expanding your website to include a network of home loan specialists with track records of getting your home sales to close with a minimum of obstacles (there is always something) improves your clients’ home buying experience. This also follows the old marketing axiom “If you can take any steps your client has to take in order to purchase your product or benefit from using your services, take it. You’re most likely going into the area your competition does not think to go.”

Contact IMCD Web Design’s award-winning real estate web design experts to obtain your Realtor website with and integrated blog or Article Manager and improve your customer service as well as your sales lead generation.

Using mapping technology on real estate websites is increasing with the National Association of Realtors (NAR) finding that 42% of the agents use mapping more than 6 times per week. The most common usage is to provide directions to properties (71%) with aerial or satellite photos (53%) showing up as the second most popular feature.

87% of the agents using mapping features on their real estate websites find that the map-based searches provided “a more effective search utility”.

Google and MapQuest are two of the main sources of maps, however Microsoft’s Bing is still an active competitor. Bing recently announced the addition of the ability to embed a Bing Map on websites and they offer an aerial “bird’s eye” view of properties. This is currently limited to the major metropolitan areas, but it gives a more 3D view of a neighborhood over the straight-down images provided by satellites.

IMCD Web Design (IMCD) has many options in both the custom real estate websites and the semi-custom real estate web designs that allow real estate agents and brokers to integrate mapping features and IDX links into their personal sites. These allow website visitors to check listings and find them on a map without leaving the agent’s website. By providing information usually found on major listing or MLS websites in an agent real estate website, agents build their brand, keep their clientele and provide an appreciated service on their site.

The mapping feature enhances the resource information that 70% of the real estate websites offer, with schools topping the list of places searched for on the maps.

From the NAR’s research, of the 30% of agents or brokers who do not integrate mapping into their websites in any way, most of them want that feature and would add it if they had the technical know-how. IMCD realizes that agents are as pressed for time as are most small business entrepreneurs. We specialize in providing effective real estate websites with our experienced and technically savvy real estate web designers finding and providing the best solutions to your online real estate marketing needs – whether it is mapping integration, IDX solutions or improving the resources you offer your clients online.