What Are the Best, Free Real Estate Tools Online?
At our company, we are on a very particular mission: to create, and make available, free online tools that actually help homesellers and homebuyers begin their important research. But, what makes a real estate website truly helpful?
For starters, a site is always more helpful when it’s community-oriented. And I mean genuine community; as in, the professionals who are writing articles and shooting videos, actually live or work in the area (as opposed to some national chain that’s attempting to write locally).
Remember “location, location, location?” Now, it’s “community, community, community!”
This is even more true for Los Angeles, which is really an insider’s town. With LA, you have to know about the best neighborhoods and businesses and schools — it isn’t always readily apparent. In more condensed, vertical, pedestrian-oriented cities (New York, San Francisco, etc.) it’s easier to see what’s-what, but in LA, it helps to have many good resources so that you can stay in the loop!
Additionally, a site has to have “stats.” Pie charts, graphs, spreadsheets — in whatever form they come, statistics have to be a part of a good real estate website. If for no other reason than to monitor their investment (their current home), people need to check-in from time-to-time with what the current average days on market are, what the average price per square foot is, and the overall size of the current inventory of available homes in their own area.
Speaking of statistics, perhaps the easiest way to talk about the how-and-why of creating great online tools for our neighbors, is to reveal some stats; so, consider this: after the online fake-junk registrations are filtered out (for example, when ‘Mickey Mouse’ registers for a weekly neighborhood housing statistics newsletter), then 75% of all remaining registrations and inquiries to a real estate website are from people who will buy a home in the next 22 months.
At Partners Trust, we understand this to the depth of our bones: people are online now. They are researching. And they need assistance.
We take this so seriously, that a significant portion of our business model is constructed specifically to provide free content and tools to our local buyers and sellers in order to help them make good decisions, sound investments, and have the smoothest transactions possible.
Is a there a particular tool that our site does not yet offer? Is there a community resource that you always thought would be great, but doesn’t yet exist? Let us know in the comments section below — maybe we’ll add it to our repertoire of growing services!
Am I missing anything? I welcome your feedback and insight in the comments section below.
Related posts:
1. Changing Times: The New Office Environment (Environment and Morale)
2. Housing Stats (How They Help You)
3. Dear Realtors: Your Clients Are Changing, You Can Too (Keeping Current With Clients)
Dane Findley is Marketing Director at Partners Trust and enjoys helping his colleagues share their community expertise; you can follow Dane on Twitter, via @danenow.
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By the way, what I like about many of our online tools, is that they are available without even having to register! How cool is that? Other tools require registration so that we can email you free info about a specific area (such as monthly stats about your own zipcode, etc.).
I love the images you find/use in all your blog posts!!
Another stat: as of early 2010, at least 46% of people over age 46 and — 36% of people over 63 — have social media accounts now. It’s not just the young’ins anymore! And by the time you read this, even more people have joined-in. This is what I mean when I say “people are online now.”
Dane, thank you for capturing the essence of what we have created for the benefit of those who come looking for help with their real estate needs. No strings attached has never been so true. And how about the Live Chat?
It’s good to see a new brand with a progressive marketing message on social media.
Social Media is just another example of the marketing fragmentation that exists for Realtors in this new age of moment-by-moment marketing.
Nick A: Thanks for stopping by; always good to hear from you! I like that expression “moment-by-moment” marketing. I hadn’t heard that before, and it really captures the essence of what we’re trying to do: provide in-the-moment value.