Peers: Web Enhancements: Buyer's Guide: REALTOR® Magazine

Web Site Enhancement Guide

Web Enhancements: What Others are Using

Want to know about how your peers are utilizing these solutions? Here's what other real estate pros are using and why.

By Michael Antoniak July 2009

"Paint a Picture of the Furniture in the House"

Name: William Wade

Company: F.C. Tucker, Avon, Ind.

Products: Diakrit’s interactive floor plans

“I put myself in their shoes, and make my Web site something that’s going to help them find everything they need when they are buying or selling a home,” says Wade, sales associate with F.C. Tucker in Avon, Ind. He recently added Diakrit’s interactive floor plans to help buyers decide if a house is a good match. “It’s hard to picture how your furniture will fit into someone else’s house from pictures,” he says.

With this service, site visitors can measure their furniture, resize furniture icons to scale, and then arrange them on the floor plan to preview the possibilities. “People love using it, it’s gotten rave reviews,” Wade says.

"Keep Visitors Interacting"

Name: Sallie McBrien

Company: Your At Home Team at Exit Metro Realty, Alexandria, Va.

Products: Diverse Solutions and ZaZaChat

McBrien has helped guide her brokerage's Web presence through several revisions of the Web site. “You’ve got to keep the visitor interacting with the site for it to work,” she says. “With our last update, we’ve seen our bounce rate fall from 80 percent to 10 percent.”

She credits two prominently featured additions for the marked improvement: map-based IDX searching provided by Diverse Solutions, and Live Chat capabilities via ZaZaChat.

“Mapping is where we get the most complements, it’s so easy to use,” she says. “With the live chat window, they can contact me from the site and I can see what they’re looking at and answer any questions. And I can tag each visitor so if they come back again, I can recall the previous session, and see what we talked about, and what they’ve looked at on our site.”

"Bringing the Right Information in One Click"

Name: Lew Kingdom

Company: Wright Kingdom Real Estate, Boulder, Colo.

Product: Active Website

“Our goal is for our Web site to be the go-to place for information about real state in our area,” says Kingdom, broker owner. In its most recent revision, 18 months ago, the Web site was updated with a fresh look, new content and interactive features.

“We’ve tried to make it easy for people to get right to the information they want in one click,” he says.

Quick searches, neighborhood and community information, featured listings, and individual property Web sites are all highlighted. Visitors also are invited to use a custom-built interactive solution to search for home or area information by drawing on a map. “Everything works together,” Kingdom says.

"I Wanted My Personality to Come Through"

Name: Deb Agliano, GRI

Company: ERA Andrew Realty, Medford, Mass.

Products: WordPress, Viddler, CostOfCommuting.com

When Agliano redid her Web site early last year, others took notice. In fact, her Web site was judged the best agent Web site for 2008 by the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS®. “I wanted my personality to come through, and provide some tools people weren’t going to find on the average Web site,” she says.

Agliano built the site around her Wordpress blog, with an embedded video. She also makes use of several widgets, including Viddler for brief surveys and CostOfCommuting.com, which helps buyers calculate commute times from her listings.

“With the blog my home page always features fresh content. That helps with the search engines,” Agliano says. “Widgets are great tools for improving a Web site without a lot of work or expense.”

Learn More: Features Every Site Needs ׀ Add-ons Your Site Should Have ׀ What's a Widget?

Michael Antoniak is a journalist and technology expert with a focus on real estate applications. Antoniak also writes about real estate technology at his blog, RealTechTools. He can be contacted at antoniak@dtccom.net.