15,000 members at Real Estate Webmasters.
Our REW Forum has now reached just over 15,000 registered (And verified) members. Big news for us, as it is quite an achievement.
4000 members at REW forums!
On may 16th REW hit the 4000 members mark! - We are very excited and in less than 4 months.
New REW Clients site
In an effort to provide the best customer service to our clients, we have launched the REW Clients site.
Features include:
- Individual *Private Client Forums
- Instant Staff and client notification of all posts
- SEO Tutorials & how to’s
Taken from http://www.rewclients.com
The way it works is - when you make a post on your forum all dept heads (Graphics, copywriting, programming and SEO) recieve an instant email notification. They then login and see your post (A question, comment, concern whatever) They then can reply in real time, or pass the thread onto the appropriate dept head.
The reason for this forum is to increase efficiency and reduce the time taken between responses. Dept heads must also manually check all forums for new posts every 2 hours. Our goal is to have a maximum response time to ANY enquiry within 24 hours - although more realistically you will never go more than 2 hours without a response during office hours.
Response from our clients have been VERY positive. We look forward to improving this already great idea
Oak Lawn Real Estate comes home
Transcript from transaction for Judy’s domain.
First email sent:
Hello,
My name is Morgan Carey, AKA Webmaster of realestatewebmasters.com
and many other webmaster supporting sites. Recently you snapped a domain
from one of our favorite forum members Jody Orr. I would like to get it
back. I understand you are running a business, and likely a lucrative one at
that, but from my perspective I watched Judy work very hard on that domain
for over 2 years and to have it taken away from her is just not fair, she is
an amazing lady and we want to help.
I am willing to pay for the domain, as long as it isn’t priced absurdly.
Please understand, I am not making any $ off of this transaction, nor is
Judy a paying customer of ours in any way, she has just been a great
contributing member of our forums for a long time and to repay her, I
thought this would be a nice thing to do.
I can offer you a reasonable amount of $, or if you would like, I have an
amazing web dev team (24 programmers and designers) so perhaps we could hook
you up with some webwork (A new web design or something)
If you would be willing to work with me on this, I would really appreciate
it. I understand your business, and do not look down on it. It is
important that we get this domain returned and get some relevant topic
specific content back up so that it does not lose the positions Judy worked
so hard to earn.
Let me know what it is going to take to get it back, and the process.
Thank you
Morgan Carey
250-753-9893 Feel free to call my office if you want to discuss.
His reply
Morgan,
I must say–I definitely agree with you on the “not being fair” part. It truly is unfair for Judy to have had lost out on such a greatly optimized name due to the complete negligence of her hosting company. I truly hope they’re being held responsible in some form–and in my personal opinion–It would have to be them that would have to assume the cost of acquiring the name.
In regards to the cost of the name–At the time of the first price quote–It truly was worth all of $2488. At that point–3 days into it–It was the exact multiple that we typically receive on portfolios from much larger companies that buy domains ( i.e.–IREIT, Marchex, misc VC’s, etc.) (I’m sure your familiar with all of them). However, at the time of the new quote of $1288, the revenue average had dipped, and that was why I had reflected it in the new quote. It is quite standard for domain valuations to be derived strictly off of revenues in this business. Since then, the domain average has risen again (especially with the article that came out). At this point there would be no way to sell it at under $2488.
Since I have given a quote of $1288 in the past–I do however feel obliged to honor it. As a show of good faith I would be willing to honor it, however, this will not be available for more than 7 days from today, seeing that the domain will make that revenue anyways. If you decide to purchase it, or the hosting company decides to purchase it (to not sacrifice there name) we can move forward using Escrow.com.
As I stated earlier, this offer WILL NOT be available after 7 days. Personally, I’m tired of dealing with this situation, and would much rather just collect the revenues on the risk I had assumed when I purchased it.
Sincerely,
Anthos C
Lease Domains, Inc.
My Reply
$1288 – consider it done, do you have a # I can call? I will take care of it tonight if you like.
His reply
Before I initiate a transfer request through Escrow.com–I want Judy Orr to call me herself just to confirm that this name truly is for her.
My Reply
She actually doesn’t know that I am doing this for her, I wanted it to be a surprise I was going to post it at http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/thread6417.html - I own www.realestatewebmasters.com btw and Judy is a moderator for me. I would be willing to sign any docs stating that this purchase is solely for the express purpose of returning the domain to Judy Orr or something like that if you like. I am not sure if there are terms in escrow that can be dictated like that. I will call you and we can chat about it, if absolutely necessary, I will tell Judy to call you, it’s just she doesn’t know I am doing this, and it would be a really nice surprise.
Calling right now.
Morgan
His Reply after a 2 hour phone call
I must say–That is one hell of a good gesture by you for her…There are so many great stories of internet people and there companies that get lost, and this truly is another great story…It is individuals like you that help to create positive sentiment for our livelihoods…E-Commerce
On behalf of many friends and business associates in E-Commerce-Thank You for yet another great story!!
VKI Studios another unethical SEO company
Recently there has been a lot of discussion about unethical SEO’s and their salespeople at the REW forum. One company especially has been cited by multiple members as being unethical - VKI Studios. You can read the thread about VKI Studios and their tactics at this thread: http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/thread6652.html
3000 Real Estate Webmasters
The real estate webmasters forum is now at over 3000+ members. A testiment to the amazingly helpful members and moderators - on to 5000! 3000 members thread located at http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/thread5863.html
The REW Forum - the best place for realtors to succeed online
Ok so we are a little biased but hey it also happens to be true! Any realtor who is interested in generating business via their real estate website should be a member of the Real Estate Webmasters Forum
With thousands of realtors as members along with many of the industry leaders in real estate web development there really isn’t a better place to learn and develop your online web business. The following is a list of main forums available at REW Forums, each having their own subcategories covering a myriad of topics.
- Real Estate Main Forum
- Search Engine Forum
- Web Design Forum
- Real Estate Marketplace
- REW Template Support
So stop on by if you are a realtor who wants to run a successful web business.
Realtor Websites - A Basic Checklist
For a real estate website to succeed it needs to fulfill the basics requirements of the visitor. I have created this page to outline a basic checklist for realtors to follow if they would like to succeed online.
Lets start with some initial ideas.
Access to MLS Listings (Homes for sale)
A successful website needs to provide the visitor with access to the available real estate inventory within your area of service. The majority of web searchers (Search Engine and PPC) are buyers. A simple query of one of the many online keyword suggestion tools will generally reveal the following major terms:
- Area Real Estate (Agent)
- Area Homes (For sale)
- Area MLS (Listings)
- Area Realtor
A great tool for checking on these search terms any others is the Digitalpoint Keyword Suggestion Tool.
Other than “Area Realtor” and “Area Real Estate Agent” the rest of those common terms will generally be searching for a home to purchase, in other words they are buyers. So it just makes sense, if you want to stimulate the interest of a buyer, you have to be able to provide them with access to the available homes for sale. In addition to MLS listings you could also feature your own listings in a separate section for even better commissions.
Prominantly display your contact information.
How leads become leads. Your website needs to provide a method of contact (Easily accessible) for the visitor to interact with the agent. They want to ask questions, interview you as their listings or buyers agent, or enquire about a property listed on your site. I recommend the following as minimum requirements to have on your website:
- A contact us link or botton (Accessible and visible from every page)
- Telephone number (Accessible and visible from every page)
The contact us link or button should go to a page that offers multiple options for contact. You should have your full name, all phone numbers and even your office address listed. You should also provide your email address and a contact form. Your contact form should require at minimum a valid phone number or email address however you may want to provide them with extra fields to mine more information such as:
- Are you buying or selling?
- When are you looking to buy or sell?
- Comments
You can get creative and create sections for buyers and sellers with specific questions like “how much are you looking to spend” “what area are you selling in?” etc.
Unique Content is a Must!
Your website needs to represent “you” and your business. Real Estate transactions (Buying or selling) are generally the largest trasanctions that your website visitors will ever participate in. They need to feel confident in you as a professional if they are going to allow them to handle this all important task, so make it count!
Generally a website will have the following main pages:
- Homepage - Generally the first page a user views. Introduces the realtor, the areas in which the realtor services, the features and functionality of the website and offers personal assistance via telephone, email or contact form should the visitor require it.
- About - Introduces the realtor, their qualifications, and provides an opportunity for the realtor to make an impression and appeal on a more personal level to the prospect.
- Contact Page - See notes on contact pages above
- Home Search Page - Showcases Listings (MLS / VOW and or office listings)
- Buyers page - tell the visitor how you will find them their perfect home and what success and resources you posses to accomplish this
- Sellers page - showcase sold listings and testimonials. Focus on your strengths in terms of marketing and elaborate on the process as well as resources you have at your disposal for getting that listing noticed and more importantly, SOLD!
North County Luxury Homes
Our newest custom website design is North County Luxury Homes. This is one of our most robust customs ever! Features of this web design include:
- Customized IDX Solution (Spiderable by search engines)
- Interactive Map Search (Birdview integration)
- CMA Capture Forms
- 100% Unique visitor information guide
- Hotel & Accomodations guide (Broken down by area)
- REW Listings database
- Search Engine Friendly content managment system
- And much more!
An REW Semi-Custom
An REW Semi-Custom is our entry level real estate website. We begin with one of our search engine friendly web templates and then apply custom graphics and programming. The base cost of an REW semi-custom is $740 USD and includes:
- 5 hours of custom graphic design
- Installation and setup
- Listings Database
- SEO Friendly Content Managment system
Customization does not have to stop at 5 hours however - additional programming is billed at $50 USD per hour and additional graphic design is billed at $100 USD per hour.