I do what you want me to do.

After all, that's what a custom site is all about!

However, since I DO have all this experience, and since I DO see what appears to work and what doesn't, I feel compelled to make suggestions on how to have a successful website. Of course, you may choose to ignore any and all of this advice, and that's fine! I'm here to do exactly what you want!

After much analysis of some wildly successful real estate websites, as well as some incredibly big failures, I have determined the following. [Warning: Much of this flies in the face of traditional real estate marketing from yesteryear and represent my opinion only].

3 out of 4 buyers begin their search online. 98% of those buyers are NOT looking for a "house salesman." They are looking for information, education and listings. They are NOT looking for a REALTOR®. They are NOT looking for you. Of course, most real estate websites have a photo of an agent on the front page (usually 20 years old!), with a laundry list of sales awards, hobbies, honors, accreditations and other miscellany that only YOU care about! If you believe that customers are NOT looking for a REALTOR®, why is your picture and hobbies on the front page? Of course, somewhere on your website should be your bio and a photo if you wish. The customer should be able to find out about you on their time frame.
In "pre-internet days", when a buyer made first contact with you (a phone call, or an office walk-in), on a scale of 1 to 10, they were a 9. They were serious. They were ready to hit the pavement. They also had no clue! YOU had to focus their search, educate them, and drive them around. A lot. Today, first contact is made with your website. On that scale of 1 to 10, they are a 2. In fact, I find that the average time span before they will contact you is 9-16 months after they make first contact with your website. 9-16 months. Your job, from point of first contact, is to create a 'virtual relationship' with your customer. This is done by providing the information and education your customer is seeking, combined with a non-intrusive, regular e-mail campaign keeping your name and branding out front, coupled with daily emails they will be receiving from the MLS service on your site.
Leave your customers alone. They are not ready. They are not ready to seriously look for housing, and they are not ready to talk to you. If you respect your customer's anonymity, and let them do "their thing" in their own time and space, you wil be rewarded in the end with a customer who is educated, and ready, loyal, and who wants to work with YOU. And most importantly, they've done all of YOUR work FOR you - if you just let them be! The minute you break that anonymity - the minute you make it 'personal' - you'll lose them. Guaranteed.

To be successful online, you must think "outside the box". You must market yourself and your website in ways that are different than was done in the past. I can help you with proven ideas on how to market yourself and your website online.