Orlando Real Estate : What is better than the internet?

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What is better than the internet?

By: Chantal Gakwaya
Thursday, February 07, 2008 12:11 PM

I hear so many real estate agents telling me that internet leads suck. In the first few months of my career I heard the song so many times that I almost gave up on the idea of having a website. I started calling FSBO's, expireds and licking envelopes every day. These strategies worked and got me listings, but were extremely time consuming and I was finding that my prospecting efforts were eating up all of my time and not giving me much time to properly service my existing listings.

Nonetheless, against all the wisdom of the naysayers, I found P2 and decided to go ahead and set myself up with a website of my own. I got involved here on Relib and also on the P2 message boards and listened to the many experts that so freely and altruistically offer their advice. I can honestly say the education from reading all of your posts has been nothing short of astounding and has become a daily part of my self-education process.

Anyway, I hope you don't see this as me bragging (more me being grateful for all the wonderful advice), but this month so far I have signed 14 listings from leads that came from my website and have three more in the pipeline. I also have 3 signed and accepted contracts ready to close this month with many more leads that are being incubated for the months to come. The closings are little ones, but for a new agent like me it's a big deal. Without all of the knowledge from the people on these message boards and blogs, I'd still be licking envelopes.

I can't think of anything better than the internet for a real estate agent, can you?

Comments

Member Since '07	Candice A Donofrio said: No. :) There is nothing better than the Internet for real estate. For both consumers and service providers. February 7, 2008 2:11 PM
Member Since '06	Patrick Milligan said: I have to agree. take a look at the stats, it's where people start looking. The trick is to catch them early and keep their interest until that time 6-9 months down the road when they are ready to buy. I find that leller leads i get however, are very quick to action. February 7, 2008 3:18 PM
Member Since '06	Norm Fisher said: 14 listings in a month! Wow!! Good for you. Before the internet, I was a pretty average producer. Never cared much for cold-calling, door-knocking, working fsbos or expireds. Having a strong online presence has changed everything for me as well. It doesn't bother me much that most agents won't make time to compete online. Wishing you many more internet successes. February 7, 2008 7:06 PM
Member Since '07	Nate Covington said: Chantal, congratulations on your website. I never could lick stamps or envelopes. My website works great as well. People in my office are always wondering where I get the buyers from and I have a fair amount of listings as well. I was at an association meeting and people were upset about their advertising. I just sat and smiled. I thank P2 for the job they have done. They made my job much easier. February 7, 2008 8:35 PM
Member Since '03	Gregory Bain said: Bragging! Jealous! February 7, 2008 9:49 PM
Member Since '07	Gary Morris said: I am having good results from my P2 site finding buyers. What do you do to capture that many seller leads? Everyone visiting my site is (will be hopefully) a buyer. I always ask the question "Do you have a house to sell before you buy?" The answer 99.9% of the time is they are renting. February 7, 2008 10:54 PM
Member Since '06	Chantal Gakwaya said: Thank you for all of your kind comments. Wishing everyone here the best year ever. Gary - I put a lead capture form on almost every page of my website. I also stopped giving the MLS search for free - they now have to sign up for that. I was getting 2 leads a day before I did this. Also, I get quite a few people that qualify for a loan that didn't think they would before. I get those people through a Lease Option page and Rent to Own. You'd be surprised with the quality of people you can get through that search. I have many with just medical debts that qualify for a loan with a good rate. The competition is very small for rent to own and lease option so it is relatively easy to get good keyword positioning for it. February 8, 2008 8:43 AM
Member Since '03	Ginny Lee's Team said: Hi Chantal, That is a pretty name! I have been in the real estate business for almost 30 years and use to spend $100,000 a year in advertising and hardly got any response except everyone knew who I was. I get great qualified leads from my websites from all over the world...I think the Internet is the best bang for the buck. I sell close to $10 million a year from Internet leads! The National Association of Realtors just reported that 84% of home buyers and sellers go to the Internet before they ever call a Realtor and Bill Gates says..."if your not on the Internet you are not in business!" Good for you to work so hard with lease purchases and all that hard stuff...I hope it makes you lots of money!...Ginny Lee February 10, 2008 2:47 PM
Member Since '07	Jan Simony said: Hi Chantal, I agree with your post totally! I concentrated on my web site all of 2007 and during the 2nd half of the year I have to say that almost all of my customers came directly from finding me on my site. Our company site ranks near number one on area searches for Real Estate but no leads are coming in like they are on my Point2 site. It was the BEST thing thing that I ever did when I joined Point2. I have tried to get everyone at my office to get their site up and going so that they can get some great leads this year! February 11, 2008 5:17 AM
Member Since '06	Chantal Gakwaya said: Ginny - WOW 10 Million a year is tremendous from internet leads. Hopefully one day I can reach that level. Jan - Yes, I love P2. The lead capture and the synchro is second to none. I think the site can only get better. February 11, 2008 1:33 PM