A Message from Kathleen:  This is the first guest post on the BRER Blog.  I’m lucky that Sam Chapman agreed to contribute this post, and I look forward to his future contributions, too.  The issue of requiring registration before a visitor can search the MLS on a real estate website is a hotly contested one.  It may not work in every market as it has for Sam, but it’s certainly worth considering!

A Couple Changes Have Made a Big Difference

I made a couple of fundamental changes to my highly ranked Austin real estate website at the very end of November.  As a result, the number of leads I have generated from the website has absolutely skyrocketed.  What did I do?

First, I put a large Search Austin Homes link at the top right of every page on my website.  Right below that, I put my contact information.  My thinking was that people would be drawn to the link as they see it on every page.  My statistics also show that around 95% of visitor time is looking at listings.  Having the contact information has resulted in an average of just under one email or phone call to me per day by potential buyers.  Prior to the change, I was getting around 6 per month.  That is an enormous change!

The other significant change I made was forcing visitors to register to view listings.  On my search by map page, people get detailed views of listings that they click on.  I give one free detailed view and then ask them to register.  Of the top sites that show up on Google when searching the term Austin real estate, half force registration. 

Of those, mine is the only one that offers at least one free detailed view, the rest force registration right away.

How Things Changed

Before forcing registrations, my stats show that people were seeing around 10,000 detailed views of listings per month.  Since the changes, people are seeing almost 40,000 detailed views.  This has resulted in around 150 registrations per month.  Before the changes, I was getting around 20 per month.  Again, a huge increase in leads!

When people register, they have to enter a name, a phone number and an email.  So far I am finding that around 70% of the information is real and will actually get me in touch with someone.  Of the people my team and I are able to reach by phone or email, we’re finding that around 11% are resulting in a relationship.  By this I mean ongoing phone calls, emails, appointments or custom searches being set up.

Tracking the Bottom Line

How many of these will actually close is something that I really want to see.  As most internet leads are around 6-9 months or more before they actually start seeing properties in Austin, that is a number I won’t have for a while.  However, I am extremely encouraged with what has happened since the beginning of December and feel that I am going to see very strong sales this year and in years to come.

This post was contributed by guest author and Austin REALTOR® Sam Chapman.  Sam has lived and worked in the Austin area for almost 20 years.  Sam primarily works in the south Lake Travis area and western parts of Austin, but can refer buyers to agents who specialize in parts of the greater Austin area.