We’ve written at length about the idea that not every real estate agent truly needs their own website.  In fact, having a real estate agent website before you’re ready can often be more of a problem than an asset.   But with that said, how do you actually know you’re ready to have your own 3rd-party website outside of whatever one your brokerage may offer?   As an agent, here are some considerations that may tell you your business is ready to take that digital leap.

1) You’ve picked a geographical area and have consistently marketed to the homeowners there (or plan to).

A lot of agents still prefer to market to their neighborhood the traditional way: with postcards, mailers, newspaper ads, flyers, and good ole fashioned billboards.  And hey – that’s awesome! We’re no way discouraging agents from ditching traditional forms of marketing.  And though we consider ourselves as an agency to be digitally-centric, we’ve actually helped a lot of agents pick up leads by designing creative yet informative mailers (feel free to contact us for quotes on real estate postcard mailings!).   But here’s the harsh reality: traditional advertising is expensive.  Take postcards for instance.  Even when you can get the cost of delivery + printing down to $0.30 / card (ask us how!)- reaching 1,000 homes still costs $300.00.  The same amount spent digitally yields a significant higher number of eyeballs.   Which leads us to…

2) You want to start spending money on real estate digital advertising.

We feel it’s best to invest in a website after you’ve committed yourself to marketing towards a particular neighborhood because when homeowners start to see your name and brand over multiple mediums, they TRULY start to remember you.  Sprinkling in a modest digital advertising budget – when done correctly – can supplement a traditional marketing campaign with profound results.   But here’s the thing: You need somewhere to send the people who are seeing your ads.  That’s when you need a website.  To try and rephrase:  If you are spending money on digital advertising and DON’T have your own website, we feel there’s a very strong chance you’re not fully actualizing that potential.

3) Your sales numbers have been the same for multiple years.

The hardest thing as an agent is taking your sales numbers to the next level.  Often times, agents – after pushing through the first few years – find themselves in a situation where they’re surviving, but not necessarily thriving.   A website can very well be the thing to take your numbers to the next level.  It’s no secret that having your own real estate agent website affords you the luxury of controlling your lead-generation efforts – and when you consider how modest of an investment a website can be versus the ROI it can yield (contact us for rates to build your site) – it’s a no brainer.  Digital campaigns backed with a great website can act as the spark to ignite your sales figures.

4) You want to start your own team.

If this is the case, you absolutely NEED a real estate website.  Contact us today and we’d love to assess your situation and give you more information to see if we’re a good fit!

5) You’re considering a change in brokerage (or have recently done so).

An unfortunate part of the business (and often a source of local gossip and drama!) is changing the brokerage where you hang your real estate license.  If you’ve ever experienced a brokerage-change, you know that it’s never a fun thing to do (even if it’s in your best interest).  Having a website can help mitigate that change because when you have your own website as a real estate agent, it becomes less about the brokerage and more about YOU – the agent.  Even something as simple as maintaining the same e-mail address will go a long way in brokerage-proofing your business.

6) You want to cement yourself as a local area expert.

Part of branding yourself as a local real estate expert is producing content and information for local homeowners and buyers.  This comes in many forms – from neighborhood guides and real estate market updates to video interviews with local business owners and community news/events – and can go a LONG way in helping separate you from the pack as a real estate broker.  Having a website provides you a platform to house all the content you create instead of having to rely on social media pages!  Why is this important?  Aside from the audience tracking digital marketing opportunities, a number of benefits come to mind, including: SEO (content on your website helps you show up higher on Google, Bing, etc.), credibility (first impressions matter),  and lead-generation (using the content to capture e-mails or contact information).