But, let’s step back from the topic of single property web sites for a moment and talk about a much broader subject: Customer Service.

Here in Nashville, we have about 15,000 real estate agents. So if you’re an agent in Nashville, you’ve got roughly 14,999 people competing for customers: buyers and sellers alike. What’s going to make people choose you?

There is one thing that can always be counted on to help you stand out: Absolutely, irrefutably terrific customer service. You can’t miss with it. And I say this from experience.

Put yourself in a seller’s shoes, for example. If I’ve got a property on the market and my agent is doing nothing (or if I feel like my agent is doing nothing), I’m extremely unhappy with the agent. If you have to practically force an agent to hold an open house, you have a problem. If you have to post advertisements yourself, you have a problem. If you have to call them to get an update, you have a problem. If they won’t do these simple things, that are intrinsic to the job of being a real estate agent, then how do you know if they’re following up with prospects after a showing? How do you know that you can trust them with what is likely one of the largest transactions in your life?

Let’s go back to being an agent now. If you really want to show a customer your value, if you really want to earn your commission, you can do it very easily. Create and follow a basic marketing plan for every property. Create and follow a basic process for communicating with your clients. Create and follow a basic process for getting feedback from propects after showings. These are all simple things that consist of tasks that can be carried out in a few hours over the course of a month.

As we launched our slAgent Beta, I offered to a couple of clients to create accounts for them, set up the web sites and post craigslist ads to get the ball rolling. Twenty minutes after I posted the first few ads, one of the agents called me up and said, “I think you’re really on to something here. This is absolutely fantastic.” He had a client of his call him and tell him that he’d seen the craigslist ad and the web site and he loved it, he was excited about it.

Single property web sites fit into your marketing plan very well. But, they fit into your customer service plan equally so. Your clients will be ecstatic about it. They will send it to all their friends and family. They’ll tell everyone about it. They will do your marketing for you! That’s not to say that you can just create a site and sit back and wait. But, it will make your job easier. You might sell homes a bit faster because you involve your client in the process. You’ll get more exposure to your clients friends and family because when they send out an email and people look at the site, your name and phone number and picture and web address are all over it, on every page.

So, what are you waiting for? Make singleLister.com single property sites a part of your standard marketing plan today. They are FREE (or cheap, depending on the options you want) and they take a matter of MINUTES to create. You have absolutely NO REASON to say no.

Cheers,
Dave

But, I think I’m going to append a final rule to his set: BE DIFFERENT. The reason for this rule may be obvious. But look at this list of domain names in my area:

• NashvilleBuyers.com
• NashvilleHomeBuyers.com
• NashvilleHouseBuyers.com
• RealEstateNashville.com
• NashvillesRealEstate.com
• NashvilleRealEstate.com
• RealEstateInNashville.com

See a pattern here? There are TONS of web sites out there using combinations of “house”, “home”, “real estate” and “nashville”, in some form or another. How can you STAND OUT when your website is named so GENERICALLY?! In a difficult real estate market, you cannot blend in. That’s a recipe for FAILURE every time.

Here are a few real estate groups that are actually doing something to stand out from the crowd:

• HummerHomes.com – This is a real estate team that has done very well by distinguishing themselves both on the web and off. They drive Hummer H2′s with “HummerHomes.com” all over them. Plus, the name itself stands out enough and has enough ring to it that you remember it very easily.
• UniquelyNashville.com – TJ Anderson has created a terrific web site here and it’s name is unique, literally. It’s one that I personally don’t have trouble remembering for two reasons: It’s REALLY well done and the name is easy to remember.
• MusicCityHomeSearch.com – This one is really a bit too long for my tastes, but it is pretty easy to remember and it works nicely with all of Joseph’s rules.

So, before you start to buy up domain names, and LONG before you start to develop your web sites, get outside the box a little bit. One way to do this is to just get out and drive around or walk around and just look at your surroundings, look at the houses, think about what’s around you. Not in the context of business or real estate or sales. Just in the context of the world that surrounds you. Take a notepad with you and write down what comes to mind when you’re there in the space that makes up your market. You might be surprised at how easy it is to get creative when you’re not trying to be, when you’re just being.

You’ll probably find that if you can be truly creative in your business, it will reward you time and time again.

Cheers,
David

I’m Dave, founder of singleLister.com. We’ve been around for a while, actually. Since November 2007, actually. But, recently, we’ve been growing our services by LEAPS and BOUNDS. First, let me introduce you to singleLister:

• Three levels of service: singleLister Lite; singleLister Lite & Easy; singleLister Premium
• When you build a site you get a complete web site that features your specific property listing
• You can upload photos, which are automatically added to a photo slideshow on your site
• You can edit the property information, description, etc. to provide users with all the information they need about your property
• There’s a contact form on every page of the web site, so it’s easy for people to get in touch with you
• There’s a dedicated contact page, just in case they don’t see the form at the bottom of the page
• You can add embedded video (through sites like YouTube or WellcomeMat)
• You can add a link to a Virtual Tour
• Printable and Downloadable (PDF) flyers are available and include a photo of the property and a map.
• Link each singleLister site to your own web site for increased visibility
• If you’re an agent, it’s easy to upload your photo and broker logo to your singleLister site
• A Widget Generator gives you a quick, easy and attractive advertisement for use on sites like craigslist or BackPage.com
• Your admin control panel includes statistics to show you how many visits you’re getting on your site, where they’re coming from and, get this: it includes FULL LEAD TRACKING AND MANAGEMENT TOOLS. That’s right, you can see all the leads you’ve received with contact information, page views and more right from your control panel
• Add pages to your site to give users more information about the community, the neighborhood, create an FAQ page or anything else that helps you sell the property faster and for more money

Whew! I’m a bit tired after racing through that. But, really, for free? Seriously? Have we lost our minds? Well, maybe just a little bit. But that’s okay sometimes. Sometimes, you have to lose your mind just a little to break the mold and offer something innovative.

So, that’s a quick intro to singleLister. I’m going to go ahead and post our news updates and recent press release just for posterity’s sake.

Cheers,
Dave

With that in mind, singleLister.com has launched a new, free single property web site service. singleLister’s sites feature a photo slideshow, downloadable and printable flyers, easy access to contact information, map and directions pages and quick and easy contact forms. Users can also add pages to their web site to provide more information about their home’s features, their neighborhood or other information that may be of use to potential buyers.

singleLister also announced slAgent Beta, a tool to help real estate agents create free single property web sites from their MLS listings. The service is currently available to real estate agents who participate in Middle Tennessee’s RealTracs MLS service and is anticipated to expand to other MLS services after the beta trial.

Visit www.singleLister.com for more information about features, pricing and web site options.

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