Marketing

http://www.realestatelubbock.com/            http://www.lubbockluxe.com/

http://www.lubbockluxuryestates.com/        http://www.lubbockluxuryrealestate.com/

http://www.lubbockmedicaldistrict.com/      http://www.lubbockre.com/

Effective Internet marketing programs start with good domain names, and those don't come "cheap".   We never wasted our time with catchy names like "bobshomes.com", "buyahomefrombob.com" or any of those other "ABC.com" names that mean nothing to anyone except the person who owns them.  How in the world is anyone ever going to find a home posted on a site with names like those?  

There is another powerful advantage we have over the competition by owning all of these dot com domain names.  Even the most novice Internet user probably know about Google, the world's most popular search engine.  Google keeps their secrets about the algorithms they use to rank companies on their site, but there is no question that the number of visitors is one of the main factors in determining placement.  The name of the game on the Internet always has been and always will be to get your website on the very first page.  Most people just don't look any further than that. 

Once people find our site, we want them to keep coming back.  We make sure our site is fresh, updated daily, and full of good information.  The only thing worse than not having a website is having a stale or inaccurate website!  We are continually updating and replacing older sales with new sales.  Hardly a day goes by when we are not adding a listing, announcing the sale of a listing, changing a price on a listing, or posting pertinent area information to our site. 

We turn over every stone to make sure we are continually capturing Internet traffic locally and from all over the world!  Once people find us, we keep them coming back.  Hopefully, they will buy a home from us some day!

You might notice we update our "homes on market" data weekly on our site.  Look at the other websites out there.  If the agents do provide some kind of market information, see if there is a date associated with it.  If not, the information could very well have been sitting there unchanged for months.  And in a fast moving market like we have, old information is of no use to anyone, buyers or sellers alike. 

Nothing happens on its own, whether it is selling a home or keeping a website current and accurate.  We have to make it happen.  We are continually updating information on our homes, on the cities in which we specialize, on the schools, the marketing statistics, etc.  I cannot remember the last day we did not make at least one addition to our site, and most days we are on 4-5 times keeping everything fresh and updated.  We never know how or when the next buyer or seller is going to find us, so we always want our site and our homes to be at their best.  I have often said, the only thing worse than not having a website at all is a stale website.

 You have probably seen hundreds of real estate websites by now.  With the exception of new listings, those websites might not have changed in a year.  The home presentations all look exactly the same ... maybe 9 or 10 tiny pictures, a virtual tour, a brief description of the home, and the room sizes.  That's it.  Sellers deserve more than that.

 On the other side of the spectrum, it takes us about 20 HOURS to put together one complete marketing presentation for a home on our website.  And keep this in mind ... regardless of the price, we market all of our homes with the same amount of pride and effort.  We don't have different levels of service based on the price of the home. 

 We are not just selling homes on our site, we are selling our areas.  This is a one-stop source for anyone wanting to learn about these subdivisions.  From the current number of homes on the market by price point, to taxes or water costs, and even schools, our site is always updated with the most current information.  We know without question that today's professionals are looking on their own for homes on the Internet.  They have high speed Internet access at their office, home, or both and when they get the urge, they can surf the entire web from the comfort of their home.  We want to be ready for them when they find us, and if the are looking in this area, they will!  Whether it's the MLS, Realtor.com, our many subdivision domain names, our multitude of signs on listed properties, or even Google ... if people can't find our website, they aren't looking.  And once people find our site, they continue to come back.  This is all what we mean by our website advantage!

Signage

Every sign we display in the city has our dot com name on it.  Usually REALTORS use complicated names that are hard to remember, but with us real estate lubbock is always easy and we have found it delivers many new clients to us every week!

Flyers

You will never see flyers in front of our listed homes.  We consider this "dinosaur marketing". But you will always see full color, detailed and professional flyers left inside the home.  Here's why ...

  First, we don't want a prospective buyer making a decision on a home from the curb.  No home can be accurately portrayed on an 8 ½" by 11" sheet of paper.  We want buyers to have to go to our website where they can see the home in great detail, see multiple interior and exterior pictures, and learn about the area.  At the same time, they are seeing all of our other listings which benefits all of our other sellers.  Again, we have found that once buyers discover our site, they tend to bookmark it and check back frequently. 

Unlike many real estate companies, we don't have different levels of service depending on how much money we are going to make when the home sells.  We treat all of our listings (and clients) with the exact same care and they all receive our full attention.  Every listing in our portfolio is a "premier property", regardless of price. When we take on a listing, we treat it as if it was our own.

We "Sweat" the Details

   We have a 50 point checklist of things to do when we obtain a new listing.  That checklist remains in front of us  every day until every single item is checked off.  First, we make sure that everything we are responsible for is done correctly.  We then verify that everything that is supposed to be done for us (by Realtor.com and the multiple listing service) is also done correctly.  One mistake by anyone along the way can be the kiss of death for that home, and sadly, the seller will never know it because they don't have access to the MLS.

Seller feedback

The #1 complaint we hear from sellers is "We never heard from our Realtor.  We never got any feedback.  They only called us when the listing was about to expire."  That is the infamous "List 'em and Leave 'em" syndrome.  Whether your home is being shown or not, you can be sure you will get detailed feedback every step of the way including ...

The total number of hits on your home (and all of our other homes) on our website over the past 30 days 

The number of hits on your home (and all of our other homes) on the Realtor.com website over the past 30 days

The number of showings on your homes (and all of our other homes) over the past 14 days

How many homes are currently on the market in each price point

Our clients will know as much about their market as we do if they choose to take the time to read these reports.  It takes about four hours every week for us to compile and distribute these reports, but our sellers genuinely appreciate it. 

When your home is not being shown, sellers need more information, not less.  Unfortunately, this is when the less committed agents tend to avoid their sellers.  Who wants to make a call to tell a seller "Well, no showings again this week?"  The seller knows that already, so they probably aren't happy.  The last thing the agent wants to do is call a seller and explain why the home wasn't shown.   Chances are, they don't know why.  So what happens?  The agents lose contact with the seller and the seller feels like a mushroom in a closet.

What We Don't Do

Sign-in Sheets

We don't put out "sign-in sheets" for a good reason.  We consider that dinosaur marketing (much like leaving flyers in front of a home).  If a buyer walks into a home and sees a sign-in sheet with the names of 50 people who have walked through it, what does that say to that buyer and the buyer's Realtor?  And what if the home has been on the market for 2-3 months and there are only 3 names on the sign-in sheet.  What does that tell the buyer or their agent?  We know who is going through our homes.  We are immediately notified by our showing service prior to  every showing so why tip our hand to the buyers? 

Open Houses

Open houses are dangerous to the agents, they are dangerous to the personal property in the homes, and in our opinion, they just don't work.  Who knows who is walking through that home?  We prefer to always have an agent with any prospective buyer so there is some accountability.

So why do some agents like open houses?  They are hoping they can meet a buyer.  They know the chances of any one buyer walking into a home off the street and purchasing it are slim, but if the agent can develop a relationship with that prospect, maybe they can sell them another home.  With the web traffic our site generates, we don't have to hold open houses to find buyers.

So Do You Really Need Us?

Of course, only you can answer that question.  If none of these things we talked about in this section are important to you, you certainly don't need us.  There are thousands and thousands of agents out there who will place your home on the MLS and Realtor.com for you and do it for almost nothing.

But if you believe, as we do, that the professional manner in which we introduce our listings to the world will give your home a distinct advantage over the competition, please give us a call.  We're the ones for you!

Sincerely, 

Mitch Wideman