In 2007 we closed 114 homes because of our website. While the majority of real estate agents were seeing their businesses slow down significantly and the overall market lose energy, our business has stayed very consistent. You may, or may not, want to be a top-producing agent, but I’m sure you wouldn’t mind an extra sale or two each month. Technology does not take the place of personality and personal contact but, when utilized correctly, it can help us connect with our clients and also bring us business.
Understand, I am not a technology guy getting into real estate. I am a Realtor (over 14 years) who uses technology very well. As a real estate agent, if you want to get business from the internet and offer real value to your clients what are your current choices? You can use Point2, Advanced Access, Homes.com or myriad other template websites, you can (even worse) use a page on your broker’s website, or you can spend a lot of money building a custom website and hope the people building it know anything about real estate and design.
Now, finally, there will be another choice that brings the power and design of a custom website, innovative technology, simple and intuitive design and a price that makes sense.
Enter BlueRoof360
BlueRoof360 will cost $200/month and will be a complete online solution for real estate agents. Get business, offer better service for your clients, give value to the consumer, and grow your team and your bottom line.
I have been the managing broker for several large (100+ agent) real estate offices. I have become a student, learning what consumers like and want. By meeting them from my website and working with them I have been able to learn a lot about how to use the internet for real estate over the last five years. And because I am a real estate agent and I have managed, recruited, trained and hired hundreds of Realtors, I understand what real estate agents need and what they like and want.
It is fascinating to me how so many people think that spending nothing for nothing is a better bargain over investing something for an actual profit. If you spend $400/year and get one sale from it and $5000 commission (like most P2 or AA users do) that is good. But spending $60,000 and getting $800,000 in return (as I did last year) is better. One sale gets you some money and one person referring business to you. One hundred fourteen sales gets you much more money and 114 people referring business to you.
As Greg says, “If 10,000 people exhibit a casual interest in your product, you will have earned nothing, whereas if one person actually buys, you will have earned a huge pay-check.”
Consumers want a better overall experience including value, service, interaction and information. They want to feel as though they are being taken care of but that they have good information and still run the show. Agents want simple tools that enable them to focus on the relationship and they want business that comes to them without referral fees.
To offer real value to the consumer and get real business from the internet you need to have a few very important pieces that all work together. It all begins with a destination website. Not a form-filled, template website, but a website that is designed well, has cutting-edge technology, is fun and easy to use, and has great information for the consumer.
Next you need to know how to drive traffic to your website. How to make it seen and how to make it a place that people will want to come back to again and again, and tell other people about.
When someone asks for help or requests a showing on a property you need to respond very quickly- 15 minutes or less (under one minute is ideal). You need to have a near-immediate connection. People do not want to wait and they won’twait. They’ll usually work with the first agent to get back to them.
You need to be able to stay in touch with your leads, clients, past-clients, family, associates and friends. You need to give the consumer (your current and potential clients) excellent service. You need to WOW them.
And you need to continue to grow and learn from others who are doing it. But it has to be easy. It has to be simple to do. Real estate agents do not like complicated, difficult programs and hours of learning how to use stuff. We like fun, easy and simple.
BlueRoof360 will allow you to create your own custom website. Not a template website, but a custom website. A template gives you pre-defined spaces that you can change text and images in. We give you a very easy-to-use creation wizard to create your own layout, and then change it around to meet your personality. You’ll have some coaching on how to design it and what works well (colors, fonts, text, etc). You can use suggested themes or colors, or go off in your own direction.
We’ll show you how easy it is to use and what has worked well. And we’ll show you what people like. But you get to decide if your website has a bunch of text or if it has map-based search or games or an instant chat or video or your own blog or whatever you want.
You’ll also have a complete, but very simple to use, lead management and client management system. When someone requests to see a property you’ll be notified immediately by text message and email and that person’e information is instantly entered into your lead management system. To schedule the appointment, you simply drag and drop the person’s name on to your calendar. Assign an email keep-in-touch campaign with three clicks. You can use pre-designed campaigns or edit them or make your own. We have tried “Top Producer” client management system twice, but both times our team would not even use it because it was so complicated. We paid over $149/month and it just sat there. We’ve designed ours to be simple to use.
When you sell that person a home they are now a client. You click the button to move them to a client and their info is now entered as a client and you enter all the contract deadlines and information (as much or as little as you choose). If you only want to use three deadlines or you want to use twenty for each file- that’s up to you and very easy to do. You can choose to be alerted (via text message) before every appointment you have or not at all. Maybe you just want to be notified the day before the inspection deadline- no problem, it’s simple (two clicks and it’s done).
You can allow your clients to log in to their own account and see their file. A listing client can see everything you have done on their file and when. They can see when the magazine ad went out and when the sign was ordered and every showing. They can see all the feedback from their showings and your own personal notes. This doesn’t take the place of your personal communication, but it helps you to stay in touch with them even when you are busy and it helps them stay connected to the transaction in a new and interactive way.
When the file closes you can place that person as a past-client and set them up to receive monthly emails from you. Use pre-created ones, edit them, or make your own. Every time you take a new listing it’s sent to all of your past-clients, friends, family and associates. Or not- it’s up to you (one click makes it happen or not happen).
And you’ll have a community area where you can see everyone who is online and see their websites or send them a message. You can take part in the ongoing real-time chat discussion between everyone online. Throw out a question or just say hello. Read the internal blog, learn from the forums areas (and vote for the posts that helped you), read the community calendar or schedule an event in your area. It is important to have support from other agents who are succeeding and gain ideas from them and share your ideas. Networking can bring you referrals and can be a fun way to stay in touch with other agents around the country.
You’ll get coaching on how to convert leads, how to grow your team when you’re ready, how to drive traffic to your website, and how to create a great website. BlueRoof360 is a simple, powerful, well-designed online solution for real estate agents and brokers.
Keep doing what you are doing now and just use this to add some extra deals every month. Or go full-out and close hundreds of deals this year from your website. Either way, a long-term online presence will grow your business and give you tools to give better service and value to your clients.
As Jeff, TheXBroker, says…
“So where is the middle ground of killer technology and rePro listing penetration? I think BlueRoof is headed down the right path. Technology (Solvent) + rePro (Solute) = A Solution…one that both consumers and professionals can benefit from.”
The internet is a simple, powerful way to connect with people and grow your business and now BlueRoof360 will give you a simple and powerful way to do it.
