When you are selling your house, home, property or business, chances are good nowadays that you will end up on the internet. Your property will be listed on the several websites as part of your marketing, or your agents, marketing strategy. Each of these lists will most likely cost you some of your marketing/advertising budget except one and that one is the agent’s own website.
Having your listing on the agent’s website is a good way to achieve exposure without it costing too much. Recent reports show that almost 60% of an agents business comes from their own website.
This is all very good news, however you must take into account the agents website itself. The internet is now a integral part of the selling process and there is a lot of competition out there and if your agent’s website is not up there with the rest of the field, it may get left behind and therefore your property with it.
When evaluating your agents website, in order to decide if you wish to sell your property through them, there are a few tests you could use to benchmark the website.
Is the site user friendly? – Can you find what you are looking for, is it easy to navigate or are you spending too much time looking for where you want to go rather than being there.
Is the site fast? – Nowadays there is nothing worse than a slow site, so does the site respond well. Is it fast so your get to where you want to go without getting annoyed. Potential buyers may be put off by slow sites.
Is there content? – How much content does the site offer, are there photos, description, prices and details about the property. Can the potential buyers easily contact the agent about the property without jumping through too many hoops?
How quickly do agents respond to email? – This is one of the biggest sources for concern in the Real Estate business. Many agents just do not respond to email. This is rude and will without doubt lose the sale. Agents should be responding within 24 hours to all emails, it doesn’t matter how busy they are, if someone took the time to enquire about a property via email, the least they deserve is a response. Send emails to your agent, maybe posing as an interest buyer is another property, and see the response time. If it is more than 24 hours or they do not offer email as a contact then it might be wise to look elsewhere.
Websites which go the extra mile will offer lists of open homes in your area and it will be updated weekly. Outdated information tends to put off surfers and they may not visit the site a second time.
Remember internet purchasers are a savvy lot. If there are making enquires to a property chances are they are ready to buy as they will have spent some time before the enquiry doing research. An agent should be maximising on these clients because once they make contact there is a very good chance the sale will go through quite fast.
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