Greetings Real Estate Gurus

I've been approached by a company called Clicksmart. Yes, I've heard hundreds of these spiels before, and one thing I have learned is to never plunk down my money until I've asked the real estate communities for feedback - same-day signup discounts notwithstanding.

They have a better than average spiel and seem to offer a decent package. They buy a sponsored link in your market for the top search engines (top of the page in the yellow area on Google, for instance - check out Flagstaff real estate agent or Dallas real estate agent) and you buy a position on their page, which they limit to a certain number of total agents, say 20 or 10 depending on your market. The first top 5 positions are the premium positions and you pay on a graduated scale from #1 to #5. The other positions are more economical but rotate daily, so you would on any given day be from number 6-10, for instance.

They do the keyword research but will allow you input, and adjust it on a regular basis. You have an info page with links to your website, e-mail and a click-to-call service that will dial you and connect the customer to your phone. They offer full tracking for all contacts. They say it also improves SEO for your website due to traffic to your website link (they have a minimum monthly unique visitor guarantee).

They do ask for a one-year contract up front with monthly payments or a discount for prepaying six months up front, and the contract goes to month-to-month after the first year. They claim they have a high retention rate.

So....has anybody done business with these folks? Do they deliver what they promise?

Thumbs Up...or Thumbs Down?!?

Thanks in advance for any feedback you may have. 

Hello Gurus,

I am looking for real-life and SEO feedback on the implications of moving an established domain (3+ years) from one website to another where it would become the default domain(yes, my P2A site which is currently under another almost 1 yr old domain name, which would remain as an extra name).

Would I lose any PR or Search Engine rankings I have accrued? Any other impact I may not have thought of?

I'd love to hear your opinions and real-life experiences.

Thanks in advance!

Beth

Good Morning All,

In my market it is customary to include the MLS number in all property marketing and it is the rare agent here who does not, but in working handshakes I have noticed that there are quite a few agents in other parts of our state who choose to not display it on their handshake listings.

I am curious to hear what the reasoning is? Is there some kind of marketing purpose here?

Currently unless you are working from the daily new listings e-mail it isn't possible to tell if the MLS number is just missing or if they elected not to display it. Certainly it does not apply to some listings (in our area there are no rentals in our MLS for instance, and it may be true with some builders depending on what's happening in the market though now most are back in the MLS here with the strong seller's market over).

Where I hesitate to approve listings without MLS numbers is when I suspect they are FSBOs or possibly invalid or expired listings.

Help me out here. Are there good reasons to withhold the MLS number?

Interested to hear your replies, Thanks!

Hello all you SEO smarties. It seems to me I've read somewhere that the Search Engines do take into account the length of time you've owned your domain name. I also seem to remember that someone said that the length of time into the future that you have it reserved also counts.

Anyone know if this is true?

I've got 3 domains that are up for renewal in November, including those for my 2 P2A sites, and I'm trying to decide if it's OK to wait. Or if it's a benefit not to?

What do you think?  

Well, I suppose it was only a matter of time, but today I've had to delete about a half a dozen total spam comments posted to my P2A blog (auto ads, viagra, what-have-you). Fortunately, I had elected to monitor comments, so none of them are publicly visible.

Has this happened to anybody else here, and if so is there anything that can/should be done about it? So far, I've just deleted both what was sent to my inbox and my blog.

A couple of days ago I wrote a post intended to bring agents' attention to a widespread problem I've observed (a scarcity of agent contact information on websites) in "Why So Many Secret Agents?".

What ensued was a very lively - and interesting - debate on stealth marketing, which I enjoyed.

However, I wanted to make sure this point wasn't missed:

• by all means offer lots of great content
• certainly you don't need to get right in their faces
• do try to make sure your site complies with your state laws

But for gosh sakes post your contact information where your interested CONSUMERS CAN FIND IT!

What good is having all this great information if you don't make it easy for them to get to the source: YOU!

You might also consider that your value to the rest of us as a handshake partner is enhanced when the likelihood of buyers actually asking you about our listings is increased. C'mon, bring us an offer!

I realize I'm probably preaching to the choir, so choir members, how about spreading the word to those P2A members in your sphere?

OK, I'll get off the soapbox now.

Bruna Sapochetti started a discussion about call capture systems.

Several people wrote positively about Proquest. Two other systems were mentioned: AdTrakker (www.adtrakker.net, Lonn Dugan) and 877 Infoline (www.877infoline.com, Ron Tarvin). What I'd like to know is have any of you used more than one of these (or any other) call capture systems? 

One claim I've heard is that not all of them give the same level of detail on captured lead information (name, address in addition to phone number). Any comments on this?

Can those of you who have used more than one of these systems offer a direct comparison on quality of service? Any other considerations you would offer that would cause you to choose one over the others?

And...what ways of using them have you found, other than on a sign rider on a property?

Thanks in advance for sharing;^)

As I go through my daily handshake approvals, I am struck by how many agents DO NOT HAVE THEIR CONTACT INFORMATION - ANYWHERE on their Point 2 Agent website. No phone number, no address and sometimes, no brokerage name. I mean, folks: don't you WANT consumers to be able to find you??? And you're expecting to get leads from your website exactly how? Not to mention the fact that (in Arizona, at least) the Department of Real Estate requires that your dba/brokerage name be displayed "in a clear and prominent manner" on your site.

I've been mulling this over at the back of my mind for weeks. I mean, these are basically intelligent people I assume (and even know, in the case of my local handshake partners). After all, they did earn their licenses, and are in active practice. And they care enough to go through the work of setting up a website. So - what gives?

A few days ago, I got my answer. I brought the topic up with an agent in my office who is still new to Point 2, and he said: "...but I put all my contact information in when I signed up. Where did it go?"

What do you know. He's absolutely correct, when you enter your information into your Admin area, you might reasonably suppose you have the job done. HOWEVER, unless you then go add the Agency Contact Module to a page, or type the information in manually to the text in a content module, it does not appear.

Perhaps Point 2 could be persuaded to add an alert on the Edit User-Profile form, directing the user to a tutorial? In the meantime, it's up to each of us to put ourselves in our customer's shoes. 

I have to believe that when a consumer is on a website, decides they'd like to know more, and can find only an e-mail contact form with no additional information, they may lose confidence and look to find a website where it's more clear who they will be dealing with. And hey - they may be in a hurry and WANT to call you!

So, folks - check your websites. Are YOU a Secret Agent?