Archive for November, 2007
Do You Want Zillow on Your Website?
· CommentsThis post was inspired by an agent I spoke with the other day who was looking for a way to put Zillow-like information on her website. Her philosophy is that since the consumer is using sites like Zillow, she’d rather provide them with a way to get instant home values on her site. She has to deal with managing client expecations regardless of how they got their expectations set in the first place.
Zillow
When the Zillow site first hit the Internet, many people in the real estate industry were not happy. There was (and still is) controversy over the accuracy of the information provided on the site. Real estate professionals often felt they had to work even harder to manage the expectations of home buyers and sellers who took the home valuation information provided on the site as gospel, regardless of how factual it was.
But, Zillow caught the imagination of the online consumer community, and they’ve become mainstream, even in the real estate community. Zillow participates in industry gatherings. Many agents promote their homes on the Zillow website, and Zillow is making efforts to be agent-friendly.
Ever Wonder How the Site Got Its Name?
Here’s the explanation straight from the horse’s mouth (emphasis added).
“‘Zillow’ evolved from the desire to make zillions of data points for homes accessible to everyone. But a home is about more than data – it is where you lay your head to rest at night, like a pillow. Thus, ‘Zillow’ was born.”
Integrating Zillow on Your Website
You can offer Zillow searches on your website without becoming a coding expert. There are three ways to do that, by placing a snippet of code where you want the Zillow searches to appear:
- A ”Widget” – This code snippet is intended to be used in a side column to provide a quick search. In testing it out, however, I found that the image displayed is 250px wide and doesn’t work otherwise. Most side columns I see are not wide enough to accommodate the image, but it can be used in wider columns.
- A Framed Zestimate Search
- A Framed Comparable Search
Visit our website to see live samples of all three alternatives.
Getting the Code
There are a few hoops you need to jump through to get the code for your real estate website.
- Create an account on the Zillow site.
- Obtain a Zillow API Key. If you’re not familiar with API keys, don’t worry about it. It’s just a number that identifies you to their system.
- Copy the code from the Zillow website.
- Paste the code into the HTML portion of the editor on your website or provide it to your webmaster.
You can accomplish the first three steps by visiting the “ZillowLite” page on their website. There is a link that says: Get a Zillow Web Services ID on that page. Click that link to set up a Zillow Account, after which you will be directed to the place where you can obtain the ID number. Then, return to the page you were on originally to copy the code.
So, what do you think? Would you put access to Zillow on your website?
This is the fifth post in the series on website content mistakes you can avoid so that you don’t end up annoyed with your website like our friend here. Use this link to see all the posts in this series: Real Estate Website Content Mistakes.
The first four posts in this series covered issues related to how your website is set up, some related to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and some related to how your content is written.
10. Web Pages That Are Not Set Up to Support Scanning
Since we already know that your visitors aren’t going to actually read every word on your pages, it’s critical that you set up your pages so that they can be easily scanned.
What makes a page easy to scan?
1. A Clean Layout – If there are too many choices, too many things on a page vying for your visitors’ attention, your pages aren’t going to be easy to scan.
2. A Clear Purpose - Keep in mind what you want your visitors to do on every page. When a visitor lands on your home page, you want them to find that link that attracts their attention and takes them to a page on your site where they can get the information they want, and where you provide a good reason for them to contact you.
- Your home page is not the best place to put a long list of links to other websites.
- Make sure your home page introduces your visitors to your site. Visitors might not even look at your menu, so make sure you have prominent links to key pages on the site.
3. Effective Headlines and Bolding – Break up your pages with bolded headlines. Use bolding so that if a person simply scanned down the page reading the bolded text, they’d still get a good idea of what the page is about. If they’re interested, they’ll go back and read the content more carefully.
4. Links that Look Like Links – Don’t try to get creative with links. If you can click it, let people know.
- Use a link color that has a strong contrast to your site’s background color and the color of regular text.
- Use bolded and underlined text links. It may be boring because everyone does it. But, that’s also what your visitors are looking for.
- Don’t bold and underline text that is not a link. You’re just going to confuse your visitors
- Use graphic buttons that look like clickable buttons.
5. Short Line Lengths – There’s a reason why most websites use columns in the layout. It’s more difficult to read words on a monitor than in a book. If the line lengths on your site are very long, the reader will lose their place easily.
The next and last post in this series will talk about the crucial issue of how to tell your visitors why they should work with you as opposed to any other agent. Stay tuned…
Get Schooled to Hang with Gen Y
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In case you, like me, need a translation of the title of this post, another way to say it would be: “Learn how to work with individuals born between 1977 and the mid-1980’s.”
People who belong to Generation Y will soon represent a significant segment of home buyers in the U.S. So, it makes sense to learn how to work with this generation of home buyers. Their orientation is significantly different from many real estate professionals.
Think about it – Gen Y’ers:
- Never participated in Air Raid drills or feared nuclear war
- Never heard a needle skip across a record
- Never saw a kitchen without a microwave oven
- Never saw a computer that was too big to fit on a desk
These 20-Somethings are already starting to make an impact on home buying. Gen Y’ers tend to buy homes earlier than some other generations. And, their expectations are different.
What they really want is someone with experience who is also computer-savvy. So, if you’re not using the latest technology tools, now would be a good time to start!
And, if you want more information about the next generation, read this article that appeared recently in the REALTOR® Magazine online. It will give you a quick education on how you can tailor your services to attract and work comfortably with the next big wave of home buyers.
Whimsical Wednesday: Say What?
· CommentsI don’t know about you, but I’ve always been fascinated by the use and abuse of the English language. And, it comes in so many different forms.
Road Signs
Road signs are great places to find fascination. Some of my favorites:
In Michigan, I lived near a school that trained dogs to become the eyes for blind people. In Michigan, they’re called Leader Dogs. The yellow diamond warning sign on the road approaching the school announced:
- Watch for Blind Leader Dog School
Which, of course, set me to wondering: if the dogs are blind, what possible help can they be?
If you are driving between two towns in some places of the Northeast, like Boston, when you are nearing the next town, you’ll see road signs that say:
- Thickly Settled
So, what does that mean? I mean, you can somewhat assume they mean you’re entering the next town, but who came up with Thickly Settled? Does that mean Watch for Pedestrians, or Speed Trap Ahead, or are all the residents of the town a little overweight or perhaps not too bright?
Newspaper Ads
One of my recent favorites was the job posting I saw in a community newspaper. This company was recruiting:
- 3-Year Old Teaching Assistants
Yes, you got it. I started wondering what ever happened to the child labor laws?
Motel Signs
Ever notice the signs outside of motels that try to draw in weary travellers by touting the wonders awaiting the weary? Some places boast of their cable tv or in-room movies, free local calls, etc. Then, there was the rather well-used little motel I passed one day somewhere in the wilds of Michigan. The sign outside said:
- Furnished Rooms
And, I thought, gee, if having a bed and a chair in the room was my only claim to fame, I don’t think I’d put it on the sign out front.
Now, do you think they rented rooms by the week or month? Maybe. I have always had more fun assuming that the owners were just particularly unimaginative.
How to Get Effective Testimonials
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Testimonials are great tools to use almost everywhere – on your website, postcards, brochures, listing presentations, and on just about any other type of marketing material.
The Challenge
The challenge is really two-fold: getting around to asking for testimonials, and getting good feedback and sound bites that will be meaningful to your prospects.
Asking for Testimonials
If the world were perfect, clients would send you an e-mail after each transaction praising your outstanding efforts. Unfortunately, things don’t always go that way, and if you want testimonials you’ll need to ask for them.
Everyone has their own approach to asking for testimonials. Naturally, you won’t want to ask every client, but after a successful transaction, you might want to try this non-threatening approach:
“Joe, I’m going to be updating the Success Stories page on my website, and I’d sure like to include some feedback from you about our work together.”
Once you have agreement from your client to provide some feedback, you will need to decide how to get that information. Here’s an idea for how to do that:
“I’d like to ask a couple questions, and then I’ll take your answers and put together a paragraph I can use on the web page. We can either do that now if you have a few minutes, or I can send you an email with the questions, and you can just jot down some thoughts in reply.”
At this point, you’ve made it pretty easy for your client. They don’t have to worry about sweating over coming up with something to say, and you’ve even offered to turn some of their thoughts into formal English.
I think you’ll find that some people would prefer to talk to you, and others would prefer just to write something back in an email.
Preparing Testimonial Questions
Of course, before you have the conversation with your client, you would prepare a few questions. It’s always a good idea to have several questions ready. If your client can’t really think of a good answer to one, you’ll have another to replace it.
The questions you ask should be open-ended, meaning that they can’t be answered with Yes or No. And, it’s most effective if you ask for testimonials after a transaction where something about your involvement made a difference in the outcome. Tailor your questions to each transaction.
Here are some examples:
- If you had a serious problem during the transaction: How would you describe my role in handling [whatever the problem was].
- If you helped the client identify a neighborhood that they had not been aware of previously: How would you have felt if you’d found [that perfect neighborhood] after you’d just purchased somewhere else?
- If you think that the home staging you provided or arranged for resulted in a quicker or more profitable sale: What impact do you think the home staging we did had on [how long your home was on the market - or- the final sales price]?
Tailoring your questions to a specific transaction will make your clients much more comfortable having something concrete to comment on. And, if the issue you remember from the transaction is significant, the client will probably agree and easily come up with feedback that is meaningful to them and to you.
Obtaining effective testimonials will help make your marketing more effective, too. The other advantage is that you won’t be faced with a series of testimonials that say: Kathleen was great. I highly recommend her services!
