Many real estate agent websites have an “About Me” page on them, but does anyone ever read it?  Most people go to real estate websites and don’t look at anything initially except the property search page.  That is why agent sites need to have a really good property search feature.  However, some recent experience taught me something about the About Me page and other pages on my own Austin real estate website.

I have worked with three sets of buyers within the last 6 months and all of them chose me to work with partially based on my About Me page.  The story  went something like this with all of the couples:  First, they were all 40+ years old.  These are people who have bought and sold homes before and who understand the value of a REALTOR®. 

They all found my website, registered to look at home listings and were on and off the site almost daily for about 2-3 months.  When they had narrowed down the area they wanted to look in, they started jumping to other pages on my site such as the ones about schools and recreation. 

One of the most interesting things these folks did was start learning about me.  One of the ladies told me that she liked the section on my Meet Sam Chapman page entitled “Some Things Most People Don’t Know About Me.”

I added this personal trivia because I didn’t want people just looking at education, affiliations and the like.  The first part of the page was a short bio, but the things most people don’t know about me made me more human to these people. 

One of the buyers told me that she read that I was an Eagle Scout and that gave her a trust factor.  Another family with kids read that I had been a substitute teacher and loved that.  Another thought it was very cool that I had jumped out of a hot air balloon from 10,200 feet outside of Fairbanks, Alaska.

When an initial likeability and trust level was reached, the buyers called or emailed me.  That started the relationship that they felt they already had even though we had never talked before.  From there, two of the couples purchased within 30 days.

My point is simply that although most people will just look at the property search page, others, especially the more mature ones, will want detailed information.  Some will even want to know who that agent is.  So if you are an agent with a real estate website, get a little background on yourself out there for the people who want to know you.

A Note from Kathleen:  Sam’s post reinforces a couple of my philosophies.  First, I’ve always said that the goal of a real estate website is to get visitors to adopt it as their real estate research headquarters.  That obviously happened with the visitors in Sam’s examples – they started with the home search, then came back for more over time.

I’ve also always encouraged agents to have an effective “about” page on their sites.  You’re not there when your visitors start to wonder who you are.  You need a marketing message that explains to visitors why they should work with you as opposed to another agent.  Sam’s idea of the “things people don’t know about me” could be a great addition to your marketing message to get more personal with those visitors who want to know!