Real Estate site comments:

Latah Realty:

  1. 60% of our inquiries now come from the Internet site
  2. Could you make a "SOLD" sign so our site doesn't look so empty?
  3. (Sue, former secretary) It only takes 2 minutes to add a property.  (She already had the photos in computer-readable form for the MLS book, and I'm pretty sure she wasn't counting proof-reading time.)
  4. Almost all of the agents add their own properties now.

The Harrison Co.

  1. "I found adding and deleting properties very self explanatory and I'm not a computer wiz." (William Harrison)
  2. "We appreciate that whenever we've had problems or questions, you respond quickly with answers. It's usually operator error. I think most of our agents are able to add and delete their own property information, which is great." (William Harrison)

Dubrovnik Real Estate

  1. "...few happy clients from America who buy the house last month from me.But I am trying to get more."

General

  1. We host on a dedicated server on a T-3 line - very fast.
  2. The site is search-engine friendly.  Tony designed it specifically to come up high in search engines.  Check out Latah Realty with your favorite search engines.  The best key words are probably "realty" or "real estate", Moscow, Idaho.  But lots of others will work.
  3. We are a domain registrar.  Domain registration (if it's through us) is free with the site.
  4. We can have the site up in about a day.  Maybe less.  But it takes a day before a newly registered domain name will work. 
  5. If they have an existing web site, they can work on this one in "secret", then change their existing domain name to point to the new web site.  That way there is never an "under construction" mess.
  6. Remember that when a new customer signs up and mentions their name, both the referrer and the referee get a free month of service.    Recommend us to your colleagues!
  7. You're allowed to give up to 3 months free to a new customer.  But don't do it unless it seems indicated.
  8. From experience, it takes an average of two days before a new site is pretty well populated, with most photos in place.  This assumes that somebody is working on it. 
  9. As you get more experience, you'll tend to take lots of photos of each property, and put them all in.  There's no limit to the number of photos per property.
  10. Yes, you can do HTML tags in the property descriptions, or the intro page.  If you want to insert a photo or a music clip or change some text to bold, etc. Monica can help. 

Procedure

  1. Ask to talk to the secretary.
  2. Make sure she has time right now.  If not, find a time and be sure to call back.  Then walk her through adding a property to the sample site.  Adding at least one photo is important, but it doesn't have to be a picture of a house. If necessary, she can copy a photo off of the Internet and save it on her desktop.  Then upload the photo from her desktop.
  3. Have her change the buttons and background.  Maybe even add an agent.  Be sure to have her refresh the screen after she makes a change so she can see it.
  4. If she wants to "showcase" the site to a difficult boss, offer to let her use http://site1.us-realty.com or site2.us-realty.com as her own.  She can upload their logo, enter the agents, add property categories, put in a few properties, and show off.  We can later rename the site to be www.herdomain.com when they're ready to buy.
  5. Be sure to ask for the sale.  "Should I sign you up?"  or "Should I start the paperwork?" or something.  Don't be pushy, but it's not pushy to ask if they want it

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The BLITZ Call is designed to kick off the relationship with a prospect, either on the phone or in person. When you find your prospect -- somebody in a company you know or who has been recommended to you -- say this:

Hi, my name is ________________.

My company is called US-Realty. We specialize in real estate web sites.

I know you weren't expecting my call today, so I won't take up any of your time. (Don't say "I won't take up much of your time." It has to be any.)

What I'd like to do is set up a time to stop back and visit with you to learn some of your goals for an on-line presence.

Who knows, maybe one of these days some of the products and services I offer may help you to achieve some of those goals. When would be a good time to come back, middle of the week, end of the week? Morning or afternoon? What's best for you?

Follow-up Questions:

How do you handle your web site now?

What do you like best about your current web site?

What do you like least about your current web site?

When would you like to have it set up?

When should we get together to talk about this again?

What has been your experience?

How can I help?

For even more advice, contact Bill Truax at: www.blitzcall.com