Real Estate Technology

The other day while surfing a local real estate investment forum I came across a seemingly innocent post from a member asking for a recommendation for a real estate agent. A reply to the requested mentioned a real estate agent and that this particular agent had one of the greatest real estate agent websites. I responded to the comment by saying that a very few real estate agents operating in the local market actually have useful websites, most are just offering canned content and add the "your house has it’s own website" fluff.

Another member took exception to me claiming that these "your house has it’s own website" offers were fluff. A little digging into this member’s history indicated that he was a real estate agent too and offered one of these sites as part of his highly successful Internet Marketing campaign that resulted in a lot more exposure to the properties that he lists.

I did a little checking into this real estate agents website and found that his site had been up and running since 2003 and had one link pointing to it. That too a no-follow from that same forum. When I called him out on this and stated that he was misleading his clients, he took offense to that. I asked him if anyone of his so called "websites" were ranking for the city + real estate related keyword, he simply stated that he did not care about Google and that on a good day he got 65 hits from that forum to his site and that was more than enough. When asked how potential buyers would find his so called websites, he replied there is a link to the site in the MLS listing. The best part was that these so called websites were simply pages that he created on his existing site.

I responded by saying that if he didn’t care about Google, he absolutely had no idea about Internet marketing and that he should stop misleading the public.

I come across such tactics on a daily basis. I have seen real estate agents who claim that craigslist postings are Internet marketing and that is more than enough. Not only are these real estate agents misleading their clients they are also providing a disservice to their clients. The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board does a good job of policing print advertising claims. I just wish that the people involved with enforcement paid just as much attention to Internet advertising claims.