Attracting and Converting Sellers

[Gerry]

We're all getting proficient with using our real estate sites to appeal to buyers -- generally by providing inventory in quick, useful, tailor-able ways. Most real estate Googlers certainly seem to be looking for homes.

But agents must also find ways to get hired by sellers.

Attracting sellers

(For attracting sellers, I'm only going to talk about using SEO.)

1) Find out what sellers might search for when they're looking for a realtor to hire. Do they look for a "sellers agent in (area)"? Or maybe just "(area) realtor"?

2) I know there are also zany searches for adjectives, like "best (area) realtor" and "(area)'s top-producing realtor". And there are also people typing in "gay (area) realtor" and "christian (area) realtor". This is why it's a good idea to be unique and honest in your bio. Playing up your professionalism and experience is all well and good, but it's a good idea to give your readers a mnemonic, a hook, to remember you by. Do you like mustard on crackers? Maybe it's worth a mention. Bad example? Perhaps.

3) I usually use the bio page for targeting realtor-related keywords. This just makes sense, since this page is probably REALLY going to be about a realtor or a team of them. Find a way to have "(area) realtor" as part (or all) of your main heading on that page. Then make sure you mention the keyword again at least once in the body.

4) One thing we've done in the past, to try to target "(area) realtor" AND "(area) real estate agent" on the same bio page, is to do this:
h1 - Your Spuzzum Real Estate Agent
p - blah blah blah
h2 - Working with a Spuzzum REALTOR(r)
p - Blah blah

So it's a matter of justifying the second heading (if you're the type who requires justification - as I am). One way is to use the second paragraph to talk about what it means for the agent to be an (area) REALTOR(r) as opposed to just an agent. One idea.

Converting Sellers

So if a seller DOES land on your site, what should you do with them? They're not going to be as keen on your super-promoted, in-their-face idx listings. Is there a similarly appealing product for them?

The golden bait for buyers is a display case with product -- listings with photos. It's exciting and safe. Window shopping. But what is the equivalent for a seller?

1) Perhaps it's a list of homes you've sold. They'll be interested in comparing those homes to their own, and cross-referencing the sale price with their own home's potential. The user is invited to imagine their own home on this list. I think there is a real lack of this kind of thing.

2) What else? The CMA option is good. Tantalizing. Motivating.

3) I just realized (actually this is Matt's input): sellers are also interested in your listings, because they want to see how you're going to market THEIR home. This raises a more general idea: You must convince sellers that you can market their home. So, be sure to explain (on the sellers page if you have one, and perhaps elesewhere - maybe on the home page) that your site is a high-profile locale for listings. We often mention that a seller's home will be "listed on this professionally optimized site"...however, I think most users won't realize what that even means...

4) Something more obvious: Tell them about your experience and qualifications relevant to selling homes.

5) Market info, especially as it relates to sellers, will be useful. Sometimes you'll get to say things like "it's a sellers' market right now" - anything else?

6) A lot of agent sites have articles with ideas about how to prepare one's home for sale. I think the web is saturated with these, and they shouldn't be bothered with unless they're written uniquely for you, or unless they have truly useful ideas. Some of these articles state the most obvious drivel....


I'm hoping to get some other ideas and feedback here. This isn't an article, or I would have made it better and published it to the blogs or something. This is meant to be the beginning of a brainstorm. C'mon people...

[seo matt]

Great idea for the list of homes sold. I think this ties in with your overall notion of promoting the Realtor, and making the bio section more substantial. On the about us page there's an opportunity for a kind of personal portfolio, while the "homes I've sold" page can serve as a professional portfolio.

And thanks for making my idea sound intelligent!

[kyle422]

You've got some great ideas. I've always struggled with the sellers' pages for my sites.
You could also do a little statistics area for;
1) market conditions
2) how long a home takes to sell (averages)
3) comparisons for services offered
4) types of advertising (examples)
I'll have to come back to this post later when I have some time to think about it. Again this is a great topic. I desperately need to revamp my seller pages.

[webmaster]

One of the most effective things I have seen done is a realtor listing a sample of "Buyers" that they have - "right now!" -

Putting a lot of effort into these is essential. Last year, I was looking for a house, I wanted to spend between $300-$500k, I needed 3-4 beds, 2 baths and a yard. I wanted a quiet neighborhood but still in town.

You know what I was? The typical buyer in our city. So if you told your seller I was ready to purchase their home (There would be a contact me to put you in contact with these buyers) I would be impressed, especially if you had a nice sample of several buyers bio's ready to go

[Eric Blackwell]

Our best argument for sellers to use our brokerage is internet exposure...

we use a couple of flyers that are pretty effective to point out our dominance of Google....One is called "Exposure and Experience" the other is called "The Google Test--Does your REALTOR provide this?". Pretty ballsy, but they are providing our agents with extra listings... Kinda fun to tell them to go to G! for x,y,z keywords and see who they find (grin).

For onsite bait, we have put the regular "Find out what your home is worth", but we will shortly be adding an "Open Houses" section--since we have 25-35 open houses going on our site any given Sunday. (Not enough time to get to it yet...) Once again this is more tailored to a brokerage site than an individual agent.

Just my own experience here, but buyers will always seriously outnumber sellers on REALTOR websites--WHY? Because the BEST bait are the listings and that brings buyers...

Morgan-i like your idea A LOT as well...Maybe in my case (since it is a brokerage) I'd have to tweak it a bit...but your right. If I was selling, that would impress me...

Best;

Eric

[Ryan Ward]

I hooked two sellers this month with this:

Your home deserves the best exposure - blah blah.

Your home will have the cutting edge internet marketing you can only achieve with our powerful internet presence to market homes directly to buyers by showcasing your home for sale in a very targeted method - directly to people looking to find City real estate.

75% of buyers search for homes on the internet first. Your home will be marketed to buyers first! Before they even reach the MLS listings.

Then go on to say that how you provide all of the traditional marketing that sellers have come to expect from the very best REALTORS or real estate agents. Blah Blah

It has worked to get listings AND I have had people show up to open houses by chaging the headline of the featured listing during the week preceding the open house to read Open House Sunday 2 - 4. Call for details...and they called.

You can really only use this if you are on page 1 of Google or plan to run G ads for their specific house, which I do as well.

[RESteve]

The list of buyers, along with Jim's layout, would be excellent link bait for long tail don't you think? Especially if you start to mention the areas.

Would buyers need to sign something to allow this information to be on the web? Confidentiality is big now-a-days, and I'd hate to assume that something is OK that really isn't OK for my client.

My seller pages aren't great at all. No leads yet since I've had them. Actually, since the beginning of the year, only 1.75% of my visitors actually even visited that page.

[Morristown]

Steve, I think it is ok as long as you are not identifing the buyers specifically.

Anyone care to correct me on that, I am willing to listen, but I think the format that I just showed is ok. It passes muster in NJ anyway.

Jim

The list of buyers, along with Jim's layout, would be excellent link bait for long tail don't you think? Especially if you start to mention the areas.

Would buyers need to sign something to allow this information to be on the web? Confidentiality is big now-a-days, and I'd hate to assume that something is OK that really isn't OK for my client.

My seller pages aren't great at all. No leads yet since I've had them. Actually, since the beginning of the year, only 1.75% of my visitors actually even visited that page.

[brandonre]

I believe the best way to market to sellers is in explaining to the sellers how most buyers find their home nowadays via the internet. If your sight is optimzed and showing up consistenly in the top rankings organicly and ppc for most of your areas keywords, pointing out the added exposure your site provides compared to your competitors. Ask the question. How did you find my website? and point out that if you are finding my site so are hundreds of potential buyers.

[lady therese]

That is a very informative post. Combining SEO and advertising to the customers.