By ELSA BRENNER
Published: May 15, 2009
SEVERAL months ago, Munyaradzi and Jacquie Chenje fell in love on the Web — not with each other, but with a house.
The place lived up to the photos, they say.
When Mr. Chenje, a senior United Nations staff member in Nairobi, Kenya, learned last winter that he was being transferred to New York City, he and his wife powered up their computer and began the search for a new home in the suburbs of Manhattan.
Their list of must-haves included a commute no longer than 30 minutes for Mr. Chenje; a school within walking distance for their son, Nicholas, 17; and a backyard with enough space and sunshine so that Mrs. Chenje could grow a vegetable garden.
Months of e-mail messages flew back and forth between the Chenjes and the global relocation department of Houlihan Lawrence, as the couple sifted through myriad online listings, checked out comparable values on Web sites like Zillow.com and surveyed neighborhoods on Google’s map site.
Last fall, they found exactly what they were looking for: a four-bedroom Dutch colonial in New Rochelle. It was less than two blocks from the public high school, seven minutes from the train station and about a half hour from Grand Central Terminal.
They were particularly taken with an online photograph of the trees and bushes on the front lawn in full spring bloom. “It reminded us so much of Nairobi, which is very verdant, that we just fell in love with the place,” Mrs. Chenje said.
Before they signed a contract, Mr. and Mrs. Chenje traveled to New Rochelle to inspect the house.
“In the end, the final decision was an in-person one,” she said. “But it was what we expected it would be. We were not disappointed.”
Increasingly, virtual shopping, especially during the early stages of looking for a home, is a major component in the real estate business. Buyers, sellers and agents are using social networking sites like YouTube and Facebook, online classifieds like Craigslist and enhanced real estate sites like Listingbook.
A Web tool that enables agents to include up to 30 photos along with each listing, Listingbook offers virtual tours and 360-degree views. Agents issue the client a password allowing access to the site; they can then provide him or her with an update via e-mail on price reductions and new listings, explained Caryn Balamaci, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Scarsdale.
In general, she added, the younger the clients, the more Web-savvy they are.
As an example of typical clients, she cited John Hayes, an investment banker, and his wife, Michelle, a special education teacher, who live in a one-bedroom rental apartment in the Riverdale section of the Bronx with their 8-month-old daughter, Madison. Crowded in their current quarters, they are looking for a three- or four-bedroom house in either Westchester or Connecticut.
Each morning at 6, Mr. Hayes tends to the baby and searches the Web for a house, reading Ms. Balamaci’s morning e-mail alerts on Listingbook. He also checks out sites like PropertyShark.com for the most recent sales price and ownership information on specific listings. He continues online shopping throughout the day and stays in constant touch with his agent by e-mail and by phone.
“My BlackBerry,” Mr. Hayes said, “is never far from my side.”
The Web’s ease of access to international clients has only enhanced its use as a marketing tool. Houlihan Lawrence, for example, advertises online with telegraph.co.uk in Britain and the global edition of nytimes.com, among others.
In the words of P. Gilbert Mercurio, the chief executive of the 900-member Westchester County Board of Realtors in White Plains, “we’ve seen several big changes in this business in recent years.”
Less than a decade ago, for instance, real estate firms were still advertising only their own listings online. “Today, it’s the rare Web site where a consumer can’t see all the M.L.S. listings,” Mr. Mercurio said.
The Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service has also entered into a syndication agreement with ListHub, a Web site that reposts local listings on Trulia, aol.com and other sites. And as of last month, individual agents have been able to communicate with their customers through Listingbook.
As a further example of how the Web has oiled the wheels of communication, Houlihan Lawrence is now in partnership with Westchester magazine, a monthly, to share content online, said Chris Meyers, the brokerage’s chief operating officer. Houlihan is providing the magazine’s Web site with a real estate search engine; the magazine is providing Houlihan with restaurant reviews and other community information.
In addition, agents and agencies are increasingly using blogs to answer questions and opine on various subjects.
“For the real estate business, blogs have become an online version of Ann Landers,” said Claire Civetta, an agent for Coldwell Banker.
As for Facebook and Twitter, which help agents make new contacts, Mr. Meyers at Houlihan Lawrence likened those tools to “attending an online cocktail party.”
At the Sotheby’s office in Larchmont, Jim Whittemore, the manager, who became an agent in the 1970s, says he is now forever tethered to his BlackBerry. But, he said: “Technology can only go so far. You still have to get the customers in the car and take them there. Some people think you can even kick the tires online, but you can’t.”
Originally published at nytimes.com
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Monday, May 18, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
For sale by tweet: Social networking to sell homes
By ALEX VEIGA – 2 days ago
LOS ANGELES (AP) — When you sign up for Facebook or Twitter, you expect to get a stream of random messages from the people that make up your virtual social network — but pitches on homes for sale?
Real estate agents and others are trolling for clients on these and other popular online social networking sites, mixing home huckstering with their online networking. But is this a good way to sell a home or are agents' sales pitches getting lost in the post?
Agents who use the social networking sites to market properties say they hope to generate referrals — just as you might tip off a friend about a new for-sale sign on a lawn.
"Tweeting is the same way," says Duane Hopper, an owner and broker at Century 21 Real Estate Center in Seattle, referring to the term for posting messages on the microblogging Web site Twitter.com.
"There is a multiplier effect that can take place, particularly on very hot information," adds Hopper, who posts information about homes he's trying to sell and promotes himself on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and ActiveRain.
Twitter lets users create profiles where they can post messages of up to 140 characters that can be viewed by anyone with Internet access on a PC or mobile phone.
Hopper started using the site last fall. Since then, he's racked up more than 600 people who have elected to "follow" his tweets. (By comparison, celebrities such as Britney Spears have hundreds of thousands of dedicated tweet recipients.)
A recent look at Hopper's Twitter page revealed more than 20 tweets, although not all the posts were real estate-related.
Hopper liberally mixes tweets about the Mariners baseball team — "Getting excited for Home Opening Day for the 5-2 Mariners" — with posts on his daily real estate rounds: "On my way to paint For Sale Post at our hot new Kirkland listing. Can't anyone get the color right?"
But often, Hopper's tweets are listings of homes for sale that read like word-stingy newspaper classified ads: "At Juanita Multi-level photo shoot," started a recent post. "Listing coming. Hurry if you have buyers. Under $500K, 2,190 feet. 3Bed 2.5Bth."
Hopper also sometimes includes Web links to a virtual tour of the home.
Jo-Ann Cervin, a buyer's agent with ZipRealty in Las Vegas, began using the site just last week under the handle "LV_Cheap_Houses," but she's wasted little time posting a barrage of bulletins urging readers to buy now.
So far, she's got 44 users subscribing to her tweets, which mostly consist of homes for sale or calls to action like this one: "Las Vegas bank owned properties are seeing multiple offers! The great deals are going QUICK!"
Cervin isn't worried that the barrage of home listings via tweets will scare off those who subscribe to her missives.
"They're choosing to connect with me," Cervin says. "I'm not spamming."
On Facebook, which boasts more than 200 million active users, many real estate firms have profile pages that sometimes feature home listings and discussions about real estate. Some agents set up commercial Facebook pages, which are open to all users.
Many agents use one of several Facebook applications designed to highlight home listings on their profile page, such as eListIt's My Listings widget. Others let users pipe in video tours.
John Ammirati, an associate broker with Century 21 Prevete in Long Insland, N.Y., created a Facebook page for his company so his agents log in and post listings and information about open houses.
"We're just starting to get into video," he says.
Hopper takes a more subtle approach on Facebook, however.
He tries to keep it personal, posting photos of a recent vacation, for example, while only sprinkling in real estate listings and links to virtual home tours.
"I don't want to overwhelm people," Hopper says. "It's like getting unsolicited advertising if you overdo it."
Cervin also only recently began playing up her real estate business on Facebook. She hopes her friends will refer her to would-be homebuyers. She's also on ActiveRain, where she blogs about real estate and, ultimately, hopes to nab some client referrals from other agents on the site.
Still, Cervin says she hasn't received any business directly from her social networking activities — yet.
"At this point it's free advertising," she says.
Hopper concedes he also has yet to find a buyer directly through social networking. But he's confident it is helping, even if only to broaden the chance that another real estate agent in his network will see his home sale tweets and recommend a listing to a client.
"I'm getting good activity on my properties," Hopper says. "I feel that some of it is coming from that."
For anyone considering selling their home on their own, the sites may help get the word out. The trick is getting connected to as many real estate professionals as possible.
A search for the term "real estate" in Twitter turns up hundreds of people or businesses tweeting on the subject. So one way is to sign up to receive real estate agents' tweets and then engage them with details of your home.
(Full disclosure: the Associated Press sends news headlines on Twitter, and searches tweets for breaking news and photos.)
Ammirati, who began using Twitter in December and now fires off tweets six days a week to nearly 600 people on the site, suggests finding real estate-oriented groups with more than 100 tweet trackers and join the pack.
Another option is to use applications like twitpick, which allows users to share photos through Twitter.
Ammirati, who also uses Facebook, ActiveRain and LinkedIn, now takes photos of homes being listed for sale with his firm and posts them on Twitter via twitpick.
Social network has begun to pay off for Ammirati.
Since he and his agents began using Facebook and other sites about a year ago, the efforts have brought in at least four clients.
"Part of it is the agents themselves reconnecting with some people in the past," Ammirati says. "Sometimes it's hard to quantify how this networking leads exactly to (new clients)."
You can write to Alex Veiga at aveiga@ap.org.
Originally posted by AP here.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — When you sign up for Facebook or Twitter, you expect to get a stream of random messages from the people that make up your virtual social network — but pitches on homes for sale?
Real estate agents and others are trolling for clients on these and other popular online social networking sites, mixing home huckstering with their online networking. But is this a good way to sell a home or are agents' sales pitches getting lost in the post?
Agents who use the social networking sites to market properties say they hope to generate referrals — just as you might tip off a friend about a new for-sale sign on a lawn.
"Tweeting is the same way," says Duane Hopper, an owner and broker at Century 21 Real Estate Center in Seattle, referring to the term for posting messages on the microblogging Web site Twitter.com.
"There is a multiplier effect that can take place, particularly on very hot information," adds Hopper, who posts information about homes he's trying to sell and promotes himself on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and ActiveRain.
Twitter lets users create profiles where they can post messages of up to 140 characters that can be viewed by anyone with Internet access on a PC or mobile phone.
Hopper started using the site last fall. Since then, he's racked up more than 600 people who have elected to "follow" his tweets. (By comparison, celebrities such as Britney Spears have hundreds of thousands of dedicated tweet recipients.)
A recent look at Hopper's Twitter page revealed more than 20 tweets, although not all the posts were real estate-related.
Hopper liberally mixes tweets about the Mariners baseball team — "Getting excited for Home Opening Day for the 5-2 Mariners" — with posts on his daily real estate rounds: "On my way to paint For Sale Post at our hot new Kirkland listing. Can't anyone get the color right?"
But often, Hopper's tweets are listings of homes for sale that read like word-stingy newspaper classified ads: "At Juanita Multi-level photo shoot," started a recent post. "Listing coming. Hurry if you have buyers. Under $500K, 2,190 feet. 3Bed 2.5Bth."
Hopper also sometimes includes Web links to a virtual tour of the home.
Jo-Ann Cervin, a buyer's agent with ZipRealty in Las Vegas, began using the site just last week under the handle "LV_Cheap_Houses," but she's wasted little time posting a barrage of bulletins urging readers to buy now.
So far, she's got 44 users subscribing to her tweets, which mostly consist of homes for sale or calls to action like this one: "Las Vegas bank owned properties are seeing multiple offers! The great deals are going QUICK!"
Cervin isn't worried that the barrage of home listings via tweets will scare off those who subscribe to her missives.
"They're choosing to connect with me," Cervin says. "I'm not spamming."
On Facebook, which boasts more than 200 million active users, many real estate firms have profile pages that sometimes feature home listings and discussions about real estate. Some agents set up commercial Facebook pages, which are open to all users.
Many agents use one of several Facebook applications designed to highlight home listings on their profile page, such as eListIt's My Listings widget. Others let users pipe in video tours.
John Ammirati, an associate broker with Century 21 Prevete in Long Insland, N.Y., created a Facebook page for his company so his agents log in and post listings and information about open houses.
"We're just starting to get into video," he says.
Hopper takes a more subtle approach on Facebook, however.
He tries to keep it personal, posting photos of a recent vacation, for example, while only sprinkling in real estate listings and links to virtual home tours.
"I don't want to overwhelm people," Hopper says. "It's like getting unsolicited advertising if you overdo it."
Cervin also only recently began playing up her real estate business on Facebook. She hopes her friends will refer her to would-be homebuyers. She's also on ActiveRain, where she blogs about real estate and, ultimately, hopes to nab some client referrals from other agents on the site.
Still, Cervin says she hasn't received any business directly from her social networking activities — yet.
"At this point it's free advertising," she says.
Hopper concedes he also has yet to find a buyer directly through social networking. But he's confident it is helping, even if only to broaden the chance that another real estate agent in his network will see his home sale tweets and recommend a listing to a client.
"I'm getting good activity on my properties," Hopper says. "I feel that some of it is coming from that."
For anyone considering selling their home on their own, the sites may help get the word out. The trick is getting connected to as many real estate professionals as possible.
A search for the term "real estate" in Twitter turns up hundreds of people or businesses tweeting on the subject. So one way is to sign up to receive real estate agents' tweets and then engage them with details of your home.
(Full disclosure: the Associated Press sends news headlines on Twitter, and searches tweets for breaking news and photos.)
Ammirati, who began using Twitter in December and now fires off tweets six days a week to nearly 600 people on the site, suggests finding real estate-oriented groups with more than 100 tweet trackers and join the pack.
Another option is to use applications like twitpick, which allows users to share photos through Twitter.
Ammirati, who also uses Facebook, ActiveRain and LinkedIn, now takes photos of homes being listed for sale with his firm and posts them on Twitter via twitpick.
Social network has begun to pay off for Ammirati.
Since he and his agents began using Facebook and other sites about a year ago, the efforts have brought in at least four clients.
"Part of it is the agents themselves reconnecting with some people in the past," Ammirati says. "Sometimes it's hard to quantify how this networking leads exactly to (new clients)."
You can write to Alex Veiga at aveiga@ap.org.
Originally posted by AP here.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Seven Tips to Drive Traffic to your Site
1. Keep Content Current
Make sure to update your listings regularly. Changing the content will alert the search engines that your site is a living document, so to speak, and it will help your Webpage rank higher in search listings.
2. Get Linked
The more Web sites that link to your Web site, the better your search ranking will be. Trade links with local, complimentary vendors in tour area or agents in other cities.
3. Send emails
When you capture leads, send them intermittent emails to alert them when there's something new on your site so they will visit again. Be sure to follow SPAM laws.
4. Write some articles
Writing articles and posting them to free ezine Web sites will position you as an expert in your field and also offer a link back to your site.
5. Get free ads
There are a number of sites, newsgroups and directories, such as MerchantCircle, that offer free listings for businesses. Be sure your information is listed.
6. Use your URL
Be sure to list your URL on everything - business cards, advertisements, pens, etc. Everything you send out should have your URL on it.
7. Join community conversations
Comment on posts related to real estate news articles and blogs, and put your name, affiliation and URL after your response.
(Published in Outfront Magazine, March/April 2009)
Make sure to update your listings regularly. Changing the content will alert the search engines that your site is a living document, so to speak, and it will help your Webpage rank higher in search listings.
2. Get Linked
The more Web sites that link to your Web site, the better your search ranking will be. Trade links with local, complimentary vendors in tour area or agents in other cities.
3. Send emails
When you capture leads, send them intermittent emails to alert them when there's something new on your site so they will visit again. Be sure to follow SPAM laws.
4. Write some articles
Writing articles and posting them to free ezine Web sites will position you as an expert in your field and also offer a link back to your site.
5. Get free ads
There are a number of sites, newsgroups and directories, such as MerchantCircle, that offer free listings for businesses. Be sure your information is listed.
6. Use your URL
Be sure to list your URL on everything - business cards, advertisements, pens, etc. Everything you send out should have your URL on it.
7. Join community conversations
Comment on posts related to real estate news articles and blogs, and put your name, affiliation and URL after your response.
(Published in Outfront Magazine, March/April 2009)
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