Why Real Estate Consultants are Shooting Themselves in the Foot by Not Having Their *Own* Web Site and Domain Name

Recently, I was having a chat with a local real estate consultant who was really excited about the new web site she thinks the company made for her.

She just started working for another agency and showed me on her business card the URL of what she thinks is her web site.

Why promote somebody else's web site for years? (Or even the agency phone number for that matter.)

I took a look at the URL and discovered that her so called web site is nothing more than a personal home page profile setup on a sub domain.

What is a Sub Domain?

Firstly, it is not her web site. The company she works for owns the site. Every time she hands out a business card, she is really promoting the Agency web site.

Just because she has a web site setup on a sub-domain does not mean she will benefit in the long run because if and when she leaves the agency to go and work elsewhere, the agency will simply redirect her sub-domain back to the front page of the agency's main web site.

Do you think that after you have left the agency that they will keep your site active with your contact details intact? Do you think that they will redirect your web site to your new web site? The answer is probably not, therefore it is not your web site.

Tip: I think that a real estate agent should own a piece of Internet property they can call their own. It costs peatuts to own a domain name.

The Solution?

If I ever went back to real estate consulting, I would register my own domain name and get my own web site on my own web hosting account. Specifically, it must be a website where I can control all the content publishing myself.

The site would contain current property listings, real estate tips, and industry news which I control. I would then put that web site URL on my business card along with my phone numbers with no other phone numbers.

A Quick Word About Phone Numbers: I wander how many sales get stolen from consultants because the prospect calls the agency land-line before they call a cell phone number? I know this used to happen when I was in the industry, and I don't expect things have changed much since then.

I would also target search engine traffic for key phrases which contain the specific suburbs, towns, cities, states and countries where my listings are located. The search engines would then send fresh leads that I otherwise would never have had.

This way, if I ever changed agencies, or decided to open an agency myself, I would have an existing source of possible prospects and I would not be wandering about all those leads that *I* generated going elsewhere for free.

I know for sure that if a prospect calls the agency land-line, that there are consultants who will say stuff like: "He's not in the office at the moment, is there something I can help you with?"

So what chance have you got after you leave the agency? I think it would be a safe bet that you will lose many leads and thousands of dollars in lost commissions.

No More Stolen Commissions

Why promote somebody else's web site for years? (Or even the agency phone number for that matter.) If a real estate consultant has their own web site on their own domain, they can put the property listings they want, along with the contact phone numbers they want.

If they also add useful articles to the site which contain tips for purchasing and investing in real estate along with some local news, they will be creating a very useful resource with original content which can generate many new leads in the future.

It is now possible to have a search engine friendly real estate web site built that can manage listings quickly and easily with a point and click web based browser interface.

The consultant need not know anything about programming or HTML. All that is required is to learn how to use the program that runs the web site. The consultant, can upload pictures and write property descriptions just by logging in to their administration control panel.

If the consultant goes to work for another agency, they simply replace existing listings with new ones. Or, keep the old properties listed and do a split commission deal with the boss at the old agency.

If the consultant suspects that some sales are getting lost through poaching or other forms of "lead leakage", they will probably recoup the price of the web site with the commission that comes from the first sale that would have been otherwise stolen.

So in the long run, the real estate web site can not only pay for itself by closing the lid on Lead Leakage, it can generate new revenue streams from search engine traffic.