How To Buy And Sell Houses Using The
Internet
24 / 7 / 365 Personal Assistant.
by Mike Jacka
The first time I used the Internet to
sell a house, it was a revelation.
Usually when I ran an ad to sell a house, I would typically
get anywhere from 20-30 calls a day.
I would plan which weekends I was going to be in town to
run an ad so I could field all the calls from buyers...
But this time I ran the ad and got only
5 calls the first day and 3 calls on the second day.
Then on the third day I got a call from a buyer, and the
first thing she said was, we want the house.
Now this came as a surprise to me because I had not talked
to her nor did I put the property address in the ad.
The lady said she had gotten the address
from my website... (Oh, ya that's right) I had posted the info for
the property on my website and included my website address in the
ad www.mhbuyers.com.
I met the lady and her husband at the
house, signed a purchase and sales agreement, and collected a
$5,000 earnest deposit.
After the sellers left, the next-door
neighbor came over and asked me what was going on.
Over the last few days, dozens of cars were pulling up to
the house. And this
was a dead end street.
I finally figured it out.
They saw the ad in the paper, went to my website, looked at
the property and all the info.
They then drove by the house and looked around the property
and in the windows.
I didn't have to field all those calls
and the buyers got the info they wanted. Now I never worry whether
I am going to be in town or not when I put a property up for sale.
I let my website do all the talking for me.
Sure I still get a few calls from every ad; some people
still don’t have access to the Internet.
However, these days most people do and would prefer to look
up the information on the website first.
I also put up at least one picture on the website so people
can see what the house looks like. I also include a map so they can find the house.
Today I use the website www.mhbuyers.com,
to prescreen both buyers and sellers.
The main page is the same as my business cards.
I use a Special Report for sellers.
They can submit their name and email address and they get
the special report with follow up emails set up sequentially.
Sellers can even fill out an online form
to submit all their property information.
Things such as: the property address, property description,
why they want to move and even how much they owe on their mortgage
and if they are current or behind on payments.
So how do you get a website and how do
you use it. Those are good
questions and very easy to answer.
First, there are a couple of different
ways to get a website.
1 - You can go through the whole process
of buying a domain name and getting a hosting company to host your
website. Then you
would have to either learn how to design a website, or hire a web
designer to do it for you.
I use www.GoDaddy.com
to buy my domain names:
www.mhbuyers.com
www.realestatepromo.com
These are both Domain names that I own.
Next you need to host your website, for that I
also use
www.GoDaddy.com
- That is were you put your website that you have created.
I use Microsoft FrontPage to create my websites.
You can get a copy of Microsoft FrontPage at: http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/.
You will have to have your hosting company install the
FrontPage extensions on your server. This enables Microsoft FrontPage to upload your website and
manage it on your server.
2 - The other way is to get a complete
package already set up.
http://we-sell-mjacka.successfast.net/freetrial/index.cfm has the templates all setup for you.
All you have to do is choose a layout and color theme you
like. That is it.
When you have a property for sale and put
in a description of
the property, it will automatically be included in a national
directory.
Here are a few samples using the above
Custom Websites:
http://we-sell-mjacka.successfast.net
- my website
http://www.resultsquick.com
http://www.foreclosurefreedom.com
The best part of this system is they
even give you a simple 10-Day step-by-step tutorial delivered to
your email; one step per day for ten days.
And when you list a property for sale, it is included in a
national directory. Go
to my website
http://we-sell-mjacka.successfast.net
- click on the link to your left “National Listings”
Then what do you do to get people to
your website, do you need to get placed in the search engines?
The answer is no... Not
for your real estate business.
But you do want to list your website on everything you do
in print.
-
Business cards
-
Signs
-
Flyers
-
Newspaper ads
-
Articles
-
Press releases
-
Billboards
-
Yellow Pages Ad
Put you website address ( URL –
Uniform Resource Locator ) on everything you do.
This is the best way to drive targeted traffic to your
website.
Don’t worry about the
search engines. Getting
your website listed in the search engines is very time consuming
and expensive. And
Most of the traffic you would get from the search engines will be
coming from people in other states and other countries.
This is not targeted traffic.
Search Engines like www.Yahoo.com
would be worth trying. At
Yahoo, it is more of a directory listing rather than a regular
search engine. You
can get your website listed demographically.
For example: I am in Minnesota.
I would list my website under: Business
and Economy > Shopping and Services > Real Estate > By
Region > U.S. States > Minnesota
. If you use a special report, people can request
to receive your special report from your website.
(If you use the Custom Websites
http://we-sell-mjacka.successfast.net/freetrial/index.cfm
- Setting up the forms is simple and the 10-Day step-by-step
tutorial will walk you through it.)
They would fill in their information in a form and that
form would be emailed to you.
You now have their contact information.
I send out the report immediately and then call them a few
days later to follow up with them.
To recap:
You get a website setup
using either the Custom Real Estate Websites at:
http://we-sell-mjacka.successfast.net/freetrial/index.cfm
and use the 10-Day step-by-step instructions to set-up your new
website.
Or
Buy a Domain name, get a
hosting company to host your new website, design your website and
get up uploaded to your server at the hosting company.
Start advertising your
website on everything you do, business cards, ads, flyers, signs,
etc…
List your properties for
sale so they get listed in the national directory (if you are
using the Custom Real Estate Websites).
Set up a Special Report
request form on your website to be emailed to you, then mail out
your special report.
Follow up on the leads.
Buy
some houses!!!
Happy Investing,
Mike Jacka
www.realestatepromo.com
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